These six cities will serve as a refuge for the Israelites and for the foreigner or stranger among them, so that anyone who kills a person unintentionally may flee there.
These six cities shall be a refuge both for the children of Israel and for the stranger,.... For an Israelite, and a proselyte of righteousness, one that embraced the Jewish religion, and in all things conformed to it, and to whom there was but one law in things civil and religious: and for the sojourner among you; the proselyte of the gate, who renounced idolatry...
Num 35:12-15 These towns were to serve for a refuge from the avenger of blood, that the manslayer might not die before he had taken his trial in the presence of the congregation. The number of cities was fixed at six, three on the other side of the Jordan, and three on this side in the land of Canaan, to which both the children of...
Commenting on Numbers 35:12-15