“An example would be if a man goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood and takes a stroke with the axe to fell a tree, but the head of the axe flies off the handle, hits his neighbor and kills him. Then he is to flee to one of these cities and live there. Otherwise the next-of-kin avenger, in the heat of his anger, may pursue the killer, overtake him because the distance [to the city of refuge] is long, and strike him dead — even though he didn’t deserve to die, inasmuch as he hadn’t hated him in the past. This is why I am ordering you to set aside for yourselves three cities.”-Deuteronomy 19:5-7
Today I wanna dig a little deeper into the example Scripture provides us about an unintentional killing and how this is a situation that would allow the one who killed to flee to one of the six cities of refuge.
This part of God’s Torah actually gives us an interesting peak into the traditional Middle Eastern culture of the day.
The example given us was of a man who accidentally kills someone while swinging an ax because the head of the ax suddenly became dislodged and struck a person (presumably in the head) standing nearby.
Here’s the thing.
The chances that the relatives of the mortally wounded innocent bystander would forgive the man who was swinging the ax are practically nil.
The customs of the day dictated that the person who killed someone EVEN if it was an accidental killing must be hunted down and killed by the deceased’s survivors.
Not to do so would have been to treat the life of the departed with the utmost disrespect.
Do you recall the special title reserved for the relative whose duty it was to find and kill the killer?
He was called the Blood Avenger.
In Hebrew, the term is GOEL HADAM.
This literally means the “Redeemer of the Blood”.
The custom of blood revenge was rampant throughout the whole ancient Middle East and still exists today.
Well, God’s response to this patently unfair and unreasonable custom were the six cities of refuge.
After accidentally killing someone, this would allow the unintentional killer a place to seek haven.
Once he made it to one of these sanctuary cities, he was safe.
However, if the blood avenger got a hold of the killer before he reached a city of refuge, it was perfectly within his legal rights to take the life of the killer.
This is an interesting balance and I see the Lord’s wisdom at work here.
While the law provides safe haven for the unintentional killer if he can get to one of the sanctuary cities, there is no law that would restrain the blood avenger from killing the man if he catches the unintentional killer before he is able to get to a city of refuge.
Let’s take a look at verses 8-10.
“If Adonai your God expands your territory, as he swore to your ancestors that he would, and gives you all the land he promised to give to your ancestors — provided you keep and observe all these mitzvot I am giving you today, loving Adonai your God and always following his ways — then you are to add three more cities for yourselves, besides these three; so that innocent blood will not be shed in the land Adonai your God is giving you as an inheritance, and thus blood guilt be on you.”
These verses are for the time when God would expand Israel’s territorial holdings.
When this happens, three additional sanctuary cities are to be established bringing the total number to nine.
Incidentally, we have no historical evidence that this actually took place.
I’m done.
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