You are to build roads for yourselves and divide into three regions the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, so that any manslayer can flee to these cities.
It was one of the precepts given to the sons of Noah that whoso sheddeth man's blood by man shall his blood be shed, that is, by the avenger of blood, Gen 9:6. Now here we have the law settled between blood and blood, between the blood of the murdered and the blood of the murderer, and effectual provision made, I.
Commenting on Deuteronomy 19:1-13
Thou shalt prepare thee a way,.... A road, an highway to those cities: on the first of Adar, or February, the magistrates used to meet, and proclaimed, or ordered to be proclaimed, that the ways be repaired (r), particularly those leading to the cities of refuge; which was done by making them smooth and plain, so that there was not an hill or dale to...
Thou shalt prepare thee a way--The roads leading to them were to be kept in good condition and the brooks or rivers to be spanned by good bridges; the width of the roads was to be thirty-two cubits; and at all the crossroads signposts were to be erected with the words, Mekeleth, Mekeleth, "refuge, refuge," painted on them. divide the coasts of thy land . . .