REFUGE, CITY OF. - One of the Mosaic laws relating to the period of the sojourn in the "plains of Moab" (Num. 21:1ff.; 35:1ff.) prescribes for the future settlement of Israel in its lands the choice of the "Levitical cities" (ibid. 35:1-5), among which six cities, three on the east and three on the west of the Jordan, were to have the right of asylum (v.) for those guilty of involuntary manslaughter (ibid. 35:9ff.). Whoever, in such a condition, managed to enter the precincts of these free cities was to be protected and delivered from the blood vengeance, "so that he might not die before he came before the judgment" (v. 12). This refers to involuntary manslaughter: in the case of deliberate homicide, the law itself imposed the death penalty (vv. 16-18), regulating its application in the case of vengeance, which, having to be carried out after a trial, was in substance only an execution of the sentence (v. 19ff).
In Deuteronomy the first
RIGA, ARCHDIOCESE OF - Façade of the Cathedral.
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