City of Refuge.

City of Refuge. By the Jewish law with regard to unintentional manslaughter, indicated in Exod. xxi. 13, and fully set forth in Num. xxxv., Deut. xix., and Josh. xx., the parts of Palestine to the west and east of the Jordan were each divided into three districts, and in each district was a city in which the manslayer should at once with all speed seek refuge. If the elders of the city of refuge recognised the manslayer's claim to the right of asylum, he was provisionally secure from the goël or avenger. He was then set before the community (represented by its elders) in the midst of which the deed was done, that they might decide judicially whether the right of asylum should be further extended to him. In that event he was free to return and sojourn in the city of refuge; and afterwards, if the goel found him outside it, he had a right (though not the duty) to kill him. Not till the death of the high-priest was he at liberty to return home. See BLOOD (AVENGER OF); and for the usage in other countries, see SANCTUARY.