Bible Verses About Homicide: Accidental

“If a bull gores a man or a woman to death, the bull shall surely be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the bull shall not be held responsible.

But if the bull had a habit of goring in the past, and it has been testified to its owner, and he has not kept it in, but it has killed a man or a woman, the bull shall be stoned, and its owner shall also be put to death.

If a ransom is laid on him, then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatever is laid on him.

Whether it has gored a son or has gored a daughter, according to this judgment it shall be done to him.

If the bull gores a male servant or a female servant, thirty shekels of silver shall be given to their master, and the ox shall be stoned.

then you shall appoint for yourselves cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the man slayer who kills any person unwittingly may flee there.

The cities shall be to you for refuge from the avenger, that the man slayer not die, until he stands before the congregation for judgment.

The cities which you shall give shall be for you six cities of refuge.

You shall give three cities beyond the Jordan, and you shall give three cities in the land of Canaan. They shall be cities of refuge.

For the children of Israel, and for the stranger and for the foreigner living among them, shall these six cities be for refuge; that everyone who kills any person unwittingly may flee there.

“‘But if he shoved him suddenly without hostility, or hurled on him anything without lying in wait,

or with any stone, by which a man may die, not seeing him, and cast it on him, so that he died, and he was not his enemy, neither sought his harm;

then the congregation shall judge between the striker and the avenger of blood according to these ordinances.

The congregation shall deliver the man slayer out of the hand of the avenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to his city of refuge, where he had fled. He shall dwell therein until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the holy oil.

“‘But if the man slayer shall at any time go beyond the border of his city of refuge, where he flees,

and the avenger of blood finds him outside of the border of his city of refuge, and the avenger of blood kills the man slayer; he shall not be guilty of blood,

because he should have remained in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest. But after the death of the high priest, the man slayer shall return into the land of his possession.

Then Moses set apart three cities beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise;

that the man slayer might flee there, who kills his neighbor unawares, and didn’t hate him in time past; and that fleeing to one of these cities he might live:

Bezer in the wilderness, in the plain country, for the Reubenites; and Ramoth in Gilead, for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan, for the Manassites.

you shall set apart three cities for yourselves in the midst of your land, which the LORD your God gives you to possess it.

You shall prepare the way, and divide the borders of your land, which the LORD your God causes you to inherit, into three parts, that every man slayer may flee there.

This is the case of the man slayer who shall flee there and live. Whoever kills his neighbor unawares, and didn’t hate him in time past;

as when a man goes into the forest with his neighbor to chop wood, and his hand fetches a stroke with the ax to cut down the tree, and the head slips from the handle, and lights on his neighbor, so that he dies, he shall flee to one of these cities and live.

Otherwise, the avenger of blood might pursue the man slayer, while his heart is hot, and overtake him, because the way is long, and strike him mortally; even though he was not worthy of death, because he didn’t hate him in time past.