Deuteronomy 19:6
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Otherwise, the avenger of blood might pursue the manslayer in a rage, overtake him if the distance is great, and strike him dead though he did not deserve to die, since he did not intend any harm.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
The laws which Moses had hitherto been repeating and urging mostly concerned the acts of religion and devotion towards God; but here he comes more fully to press the duties of righteousness between man and man. This chapter relates, I. To the sixth commandment, "Thou shalt not kill" (Deu 19:1-13). II. To the eighth commandment, "Thou shalt not steal" (Deu 19:14). III. To the ninth commandment, "Thou shalt not bear false witness," (Deu 19:15, etc.).
Open source ↗19:6 avenger (literally the redeemer of blood): The law allowed murder to be avenged by members of the victim’s family. When they found the killer, they could put him to death (Num 35:16-21). The idea was that blood shed by the victim must be paid for by the blood of the person responsible for the act (see Gen 4:15; 9:6). In this way, the land polluted by the shed blood could be purified (Num 35:33-34).
Open source ↗Cross-references
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You are to have these cities as a refuge from the avenger, so that the manslayer will not die until he stands trial before the assembly.
Now the whole clan has risen up against your maidservant and said, ‘Hand over the one who struck down his brother, that we may put him to death for the life of the brother whom he killed. Then we will cut off the heir as well!’ So they would extinguish my one remaining ember by not preserving my husband’s name or posterity on the earth.”
If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is executed, and you hang his body on a tree,
Now if the avenger of blood pursues him, they must not surrender the manslayer into his hand, because that man killed his neighbor accidentally without prior malice.