[232] _Rab. Salom. Iarchi. Deut. 19._ Concerning these Cities, the _Hebrews_ note from these words, _Thou shalt prepare the way_, _Deut. 9. 3._ That the _Senate_, or _Magistrate_ in _Israel_, were bound to prepare the ways to the _Cities of Refuge_, and[233] to make them fit, and broad, and to remove out of them all stumbling-blocks and obstacles: and they suffered not any Hill or Dale to be in the way, nor water-streams, but they made a Bridge over it, that nothing might hinder him that fled thither. And the breadth of the way to the _Cities of Refuge_, was not less than two and thirty Cubits, and at the partitions of the ways, they set up in writing, _Refuge, Refuge_: that the man-slayer might know and turn thitherward. On the fifteenth of the moneth _Adar_, or _February_, every year the _Magistrates_ sent messengers to prepare the ways. [233] _Maimon. in Rotsach. cap. 8. sect. 5._ Furthermore it was provided, that two or three wise men should be imployed, to perswade the _Avenger of blood_, if haply he did pursue the man-slayer on the way, that he should offer no violence, until the Cause were heard and examined. The manner of examination was thus; The Consistory or Bench of _Justices_, who lived in that quarter where the murder was committed,[234] placed the party being brought back from the _City of Refuge_, in the Court, or Judgment-Hall, and diligently enquired and examined the cause, who if he were found guilty of voluntary murder, then was he punished with death, but if otherwise the Fact were found casual, then did they safely conduct the party back again to the _City of Refuge_, where he enjoyed his liberty, not only within the walls of the City, but within certain Territories and bounds of the City, being confined to such and such limits, until the death of the _High Priest_, that was in those days, at what time it was lawful for the offender to return and come into his own City, and unto his own house, even unto the City from whence he fled, _Josh. 20. 6._ By this means the offender, though he was not punished with death, yet he lived for the time a kind of exile, for his own humiliation, and for the abatement of his wrath, who was the _avenger of blood_. The _Areopagitæ_[235] had a proceeding against mans slaughter not much unlike, punishing the offender ἀπενιαυτισμῷ, with a _years banishment_: Why the time of this exilement was limited to the death of the _High Priest_ at that time, is not agreed upon by Expositors. But it is most probably thought, that the offender was therefore confined within that City as within a Prison, during the _High Priest_’s life,[236] because the offence did most directly strike against him, as being amongst men, ἄρχηγος, _Ac princeps sanctitatis_, _The chief God on earth_. [234] _Paul. Fag. Num. 35. 6._ [235] _Masius in Jos. cap. 20._ [236] _Masius ibid._ THE THIRD BOOK TREATETH OF DAIES and TIMES. CHAP. I. _Days, Hours, Weeks, and Years._