The cities shall be for you a refuge from the avenger, that the manslayer may not die until he stands before the congregation for judgment.
And they shall be unto you cities of refuge from the avenger,.... Or near kinsman; for as the right of redemption of an estate that was mortgaged belonged to such an one, so of revenging the blood of any one that was killed: that the manslayer die not; by the hand of the avenger, who in the heat of his passion would, could he come...
And they shall be unto you cities for refuge from the avenger; that the manslayer die not, until he stand before the congregation in judgment. (d) Meaning, from the next of the kindred, who ought to pursue the cause.
Until he stand before the congregation in judgment - So one of these cities was not a perpetual asylum; It was only a pro tempore refuge, till the case could be fairly examined by the magistrates in the presence of the people, or the elders their representatives; and this was done in the city or place where he had done the murder, Jos 20:4, Jos 20:6.