1 "When the Lord your God cuts off the nations, whose land the Lord your God gives you, and you dispossess them and settle in their cities and in their houses,
2 you shall set aside three cities for yourself in the midst of your land, which the Lord your God gives you to possess.
3 You shall prepare the roads for yourself, and divide into three parts the territory of your land which the Lord your God will give you as a possession, so that any manslayer may flee there.
4 "Now this is the case of the manslayer who may flee there and live: when he kills his friend unintentionally, not hating him previously-
5 as when a man goes into the forest with his friend to cut wood, and his hand swings the axe to cut down the tree, and the iron head slips off the handle and strikes his friend so that he dies-he may flee to one of these cities and live;
6 otherwise the avenger of blood might pursue the manslayer in the heat of his anger, and overtake him, because the way is long, and take his life, though he was not deserving of death, since he had not hated him previously.