The avenger of blood shall himself put the murderer to death. When he meets him, he shall put him to death.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 19. Him, with impunity. If the judges have passed sentence, he shall be obliged to put it in execution, verse 21. 31. Saint Augustine q. 65. E.—The laws of Athens required also that a relation should put the murderer to death, though the deceased were even of servile condition. Demost.—Those of Rome condemned the involuntary manslayer to retire for a year, and afterwards to appease some one of the relations, and to offer the sacrifices, and submit to the usual purifications. Even at the present day, the Persians and Arabs deliver the murderer to be slain by the kinsmen of the deceased, after sentence has been passed by the judges.