Numbers 35:3

Numbers 35 commands the Israelites to give the Levites cities to dwell in with surrounding pasturelands from their own inheritance. It designates six cities of refuge where a manslayer who killed someone unintentionally could flee from the avenger of blood, and it distinguishes accidental killing from intentional murder, which required the death of the murderer on the testimony of witnesses. The chapter closes by forbidding the pollution of the land by bloodshed, since the Lord Himself dwells among the children of Israel.