Deuteronomy 19 · a question people ask
Who decided whether the man slayer was a murderer?
The passages each name a different part. Numbers: "the congregation shall judge between the striker and the avenger of blood according to these ordinances" (Numbers 35:24), and the city is refuge "that the man slayer not die until he stands before the congregation for judgment" (Numbers 35:12). Deuteronomy, for the one who killed on purpose: "the elders of his city shall send and bring him there, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die" (19:12). Joshua, at the gate of the city he fled to: he "shall stand at the entrance of the gate of the city, and declare his case in the ears of the elders of that city" (Joshua 20:4), and dwell there "until he stands before the congregation for judgment" (Joshua 20:6). Deuteronomy 19 doesn't mention the congregation, and Numbers 35 doesn't mention elders. The texts don't say how the steps fit together. What they share: the cities were no refuge for one who killed on purpose (Numbers 35:16-21; 19:11-12), and the one who killed unintentionally was not handed to the avenger (Numbers 35:25; Joshua 20:5).
The verses
“The cities shall be for your refuge from the avenger, that the man slayer not die until he stands before the congregation for judgment.”
“then the congregation shall judge between the striker and the avenger of blood according to these ordinances. The congregation shall deliver the man slayer out of the hand of the avenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to his city of refuge, where he had fled. He shall dwell therein until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the holy oil.”
“then the elders of his city shall send and bring him there, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die.”
“But if any man hates his neighbor, lies in wait for him, rises up against him, strikes him mortally so that he dies, and he flees into one of these cities;”