Numbers 35:32-34

Good News Translation

³² If they have fled to a city of refuge, do not allow them to make a payment in order to return home before the death of the High Priest. ³³ If you did this, you would defile the land where you are living. Murder defiles the land, and except by the death of the murderer there is no way to perform the ritual of purification for the land where someone has been murdered. ³⁴ Do not defile the land where you are living, because I am the Lord and I live among the people of Israel.”