RIFUGIO, CITTÀ di. – One of the Mosaic laws attributed to the period of the sojourn in the “steppes of Moab” (Num. 21, 1 ff.; 35, 1 ff.) prescribed, for Israel’s future settlement in its lands, the selection of the “Levitical cities” (ibid. 35, 1-5) and, among them, of six cities—three east and three west of the Jordan—that would have the right of asylum (v.) for those responsible for involuntary homicide (ibid. 35, 9 ff.). Whoever, being in such a condition, succeeded in entering the enclosure of these cities of refuge was to be protected and shielded from blood vengeance, “so that he might not die before appearing in judgment” (v. 12). The matter concerns involuntary homicide: in any other case, the law itself prescribed the death penalty (vv. 16-18), regulating its application in the event of vengeance, which, since it had to be carried out after judgment, was in substance merely the execution of the sentence (v. 19 ff).
In Deuteronomy the first applications of the law are recounted: for the region east of the Jordan, BOSONE (v.) in Reuben, Ramoth Galaad in Gad, and Golan in Manasseh were designated (Deut. 4, 41-43). Moses then recalled the obligation to select three other cities in the part west of the Jordan (ibid. 19, 1-14), adding new practical cases for the application of the law: the cities selected on this side of the Jordan were Cedes in Nephthali, Sichem in Ephraim, and Hebron in Judah (Ios. 20, 1-9).
This provision is one of the admirable peculiarities that raise the Mosaic law, in its spirit of moderation and humanity, above all the other codes of antiquity. The instinct of blood vengeance, so powerful among primitive peoples and particularly among the Semites (even today, among certain Bedouin tribes, it is regarded as a duty whose neglect would be cowardice), could not immediately be eradicated: Moses, in a certain sense, disciplined it by prescribing that it be carried out only after judgment. By establishing asylum at the altar for the period in the desert (Ex. 21, 12-14), and, when this proved insufficient, in the cities of refuge, he placed a restraint upon it that often nullified its effects (cf. Num. 35, 25; etc.).