Deuteronomy 19:4-6

Christian Standard Bible Anglicised

⁴ ‘Here is the law concerning a case of someone who kills a person and flees there to save his life, having killed his neighbour accidentally without previously hating him: ⁵ If, for example, he goes into the forest with his neighbour to cut timber, and his hand swings the axe to chop down a tree, but the blade flies off the handle and strikes his neighbour so that he dies, that person may flee to one of these cities and live. ⁶ Otherwise, the avenger of blood in the heat of his anger^[a] might pursue the one who committed manslaughter, overtake him because the distance is great, and strike him dead. Yet he did not deserve to die,^[b] since he did not previously hate his neighbour.