Exodus 21:13-14

There was no place of safety for the guilty murderer, not even the altar of Yahweh. Thus all superstitious notions connected with the right of sanctuary were excluded. Adonijah and Joab 1 Kings 1:50; 1 Kings 2:28 appear to have vainly trusted that the common feeling would protect them, if they took hold of the horns of the altar on which atonement with blood was made Leviticus 4:7. But for one who killed a man “at unawares,” that is, without intending to do it, the law afterward appointed places of refuge, Numbers 35:6; Deuteronomy 4:41; Deuteronomy 19:2; Joshua 20:2. It is very probable that there was some provision answering to the cities of refuge, that may have been based upon old usage, in the camp in the Wilderness.