R' Yose bar Yehudah says: To begin with, both the unintentional and the intentional [murderers] hasten to the cities of re-fuge, and the court summons and brings him from there. Whoever is found by the court to be liable to the death penalty they execute, and whoever is found not to be liable to the death penalty they free. Whoever is found liable to exile, they return him to his place, as it is said (Num. 35:25): And the congregation shall return him to his city of refuge, etc. Whether [the Kohen Gadol] was one anointed with the anointment oil, or one [inaugurated by donning] the additional vestments, or one who has stepped down from his position —- [his death] allows the murderer to return. R' Yehudah says: Even [the death of] the Kohen Anointed for Battle allows the murderer to return. Therefore, the mothers of the Kohanim would supply them with food and clothing, so that they should not pray for their sons to die.  [If,] after his sentence was passed, the Kohen Gadol died, he is not exiled. If the Kohen Gadol died before his sentence was passed, and they ap-pointed another one in his stead, and then his sentence was passed, he returns upon the death of the second one.

[If] his sentence was passed without a Kohen Gadol, [or if] he killed a Kohen Gadol, or [if] a Kohen Gadol killed, he never leaves there. He may not leave there either for testimony related to a mitzvah, for testimony related to monetary cases, or for testi-mony related to capital cases. Even if Israel needs him, even if he is the general of the army of Israel like Yoav the son of Tzeruyah, he may never leave there, as it is said (Num. 35:25): Who fled there —- there shall be his dwelling; there shall be his death; there shall be his burial.  Just as the city affords refuge, so its boundaries afford refuge. [If] a murderer went out of the boundary, and the goel hadam encountered him —- R' Yose HaGlili says: It is an obligation upon the goel hadam [to kill him], and it is optional for anyone else. R' Akiva says: It is optional for the goel hadam, and anyone else is not liable for him.  [If] a tree was standing within the boundary and its branches extended beyond the boundary, or it was standing beyond the boundary and its branches extended into the boundary, everything follows the branches.  [If] he killed in that city, [he] is exiled from section to section; but a Levi is exiled from city to city.

Similarly, a murderer who went into exile in his city of refuge, and the people of the city wished to honor him, he should say to them, “I am a murderer.” [If] they said to him, “Even so,” he may accept [the honor] from them, as it is said (Deut. 19:4): And this is the matter of the murderer. They would pay rent to the Leviim; [these are] the words of R' Yehudah. R' Meir says: They would not pay them rent.  He returns to the office he had previously occupied; [these are] the words of R' Meir. R' Yehudah says: He would not return to the office he had occupied.

These are the ones who incur the penalty of lashes: One who cohabits with his sister, his father's sister, his mother's sister; his wife's sister; his brother's wife, his father's brother's wife, or with a menstruant; a widow to a Kohen Gadol, a divorcee or a chalutzah to an ordinary Kohen, a mamzeress or a Nesinite to a Yisrael, a Yisraelis to a Nesinite or to a mamzer. For a widow and a divorcee, one is liable for two [negative] commandments; for a divorcee and a chalutzah, he is liable for but one [negative] commandment.