“Then Moshe separated three cities on the east side of the Yarden, toward the sunrise, to which a killer might flee, that is, someone who kills by mistake a person whom he did not previously hate, and upon fleeing to one of these cities might live there. The cities were Betzer in the desert, in the flatland, for the Re’uveni; Ramot in Gil‘ad for the Gadi; and Golan in Bashan for the M’nashi.”-Deuteronomy 4:41-43
In verses 41-43, Moses officially calls out the Cities of Refuge that were to be set up on the east side of the Jordan River.
Recall this was territory outside the borders of the Promised Land that Reuben, Gad, and 1/2 of the tribe of Manessah decided to live in due to its fertile pasture.
Do you remember what these “sanctuary cities” were all about?
These cities, which were owned and administered by the Levites, were established as safe havens where a person could flee to if he had unintentionally killed another person.
Understand that one did NOT flee to a city of refuge to escape prosecution.
No, the fleeing person still had to stand trial and be judged to determine if the manslaughter he committed was really accidental or not.
If the judges determined the killing was NOT accidental, then he would receive the death penalty.
On the other hand, if it was determined that the killing was indeed accidental, he was shuffled off to live in one of the sanctuary cities.
Though it kind of seems like the inhabitants of a sanctuary city were in a prison of sorts, that wasn’t really the case.
They were being protected.
“Protected from whom?”…you ask?
They were being protected from the GO-EL HA’DAM or the Kinsman Redeemer.
It was the Kinsman Redeemer’s duty to avenge the death of any relative who was killed even if that killing was accidental.
Another reason it’s incorrect to view the inhabitants of the sanctuary cities as being in a prison is because they were free to leave the sanctuary cities anytime they pleased.
However, if they did leave, they risked being killed by Kinsman Redeemer.
See, here’s the thing.
If the Kinsman Redeemer killed the person who had accidentally killed one of his relatives while he was in residing in one of the sanctuary cities, he (the Kinsman Redeemer) would then in turn be guilty of intentional manslaughter and judged accordingly.
However, if an inhabitant of one of the cities of refuge strayed too far from his area of sanctuary and was caught and killed by the Kinsman Redeemer, the Kinsman Redeemer would NOT be guilty of murder in that case.
It all depends on which side of God’s Law the Kinsman Redeemer was on.
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