Joshua 20:1-6

YAHWEH instructed Joshua: “A person who accidentally and unintentionally kills someone will need a place of asylum—a city where he can run for safety. Otherwise, the dead man’s relatives will kill him.” So now YAHWEH said to Joshua, “Tell the people of Israel to choose these cities of asylum as I instructed you through Moses. The one who has committed manslaughter shall escape for protection to one of these cities and stand at the entrance to the city gates and explain his case to the leaders of the city. The leaders must then receive him into their city and grant him asylum. When the one looking for revenge comes after him, the leaders of the city must protect him and not hand him over, for he killed the person accidentally and without premeditation. He must remain in the city until he has had a public trial; then he must remain protected in the city until the man who is high priest at that time has died. Afterward, he may return to his family and his own hometown.”