Numbers 35:32-34

New International Reader's Version

³² “ ‘Do not accept payment for anyone who has run to a city for safety. Do not let them buy their freedom to return home. They must not go back and live on their own land before the high priest dies.

³³ “ ‘Do not pollute the land where you are. Murder pollutes the land. Only one thing can pay to remove the pollution in the land where murder has been committed. The blood of the one who spilled another’s blood must be spilled. ³⁴ So do not make the land where you live “unclean,” because I live there too. I, the Lord, live among the Israelites.’ ”