In Numbers 35, we find some laws about murder and manslaughter. Namely, murder was the highest order of capital offense and punishable by death. In the case of manslaughter, the case was brought before a judge (a priest) to rule in motive. If the death was found to truly be accidental, a relative of the murder victim’s family was free to kill the offender on one condition. The offender was to move his entire life to within the confines of one of the 6 cities of refuge scattered around Israel. Each of them was one of the towns given to the Levites for inheritance, so they were under a watchful eye. If the offender left the city for any reason, the victims family was justified in killing the offender and was not held accountable. When the high priest holding office at the time of the death passed away, the offender was free to return to normal life in his normal town.
What principal can we glean here? Namely, that God has always treated man fairly, though harsh when punishment is needed. Intentional sin must be punished - as was the case in murder or even a fight turned sour by use of weapons - but accidents happen and, though there were repercussions, the penalty was never more than could be borne and almost always includes an element of time. I see this as a biblical version of time out that protects both the offender and the victim’s family. In modern terms, outside of murder, consider anger (which Jesus says is akin to murder). When angry, there are two ways things go: intentional malice, which demands immediate and sever penalty, and harsh words of passion, which also has consequences but can be overlooked after time passes and space is made to allow a period of healing.
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