³¹ You are not to accept a ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of killing someone; he must be put to death. ³² Neither should you accept a ransom for the person who flees to his city of refuge, allowing him to return and live in the land before the death of the high priest.^[a]

³³ “Do not defile the land where you are,^[b] for bloodshed defiles the land,^(A) and there can be no atonement for the land because of the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of the person who shed it. ³⁴ Do not make the land unclean where you live and where I reside; for I, Yahweh, reside among the Israelites.”