Deuteronomy 19:1

Cities of refuge

1 Once the LORD your God has eliminated those nations—whose land the LORD your God is giving you—and you displace them, settling into their cities and their houses,

Deuteronomy 19:1 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 19:1

When the Lord thy God hath cut off the nations whose land the
Lord thy God giveth thee
The seven nations of the land of Canaan, whose destruction was of the Lord for their sins, and whose land was a gift of him that had a right to dispose of it to the children of Israel; see ( Deuteronomy 12:29 )

and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their cities, and in their
houses;
should possess their land in their stead, by virtue of the gift of it to them by the Lord, and inhabit their cities and houses built by them.

Deuteronomy 19:1 In-Context

1 Once the LORD your God has eliminated those nations—whose land the LORD your God is giving you—and you displace them, settling into their cities and their houses,

2 you must designate three cities for your use in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess.

3 Mark out the roads to them and divide the regions of the land the LORD your God is apportioning to you into three parts. These cities are the places to which a person who has killed can escape.

4 Here is the rule concerning a person who killed someone and is permitted to escape to one of these cities and live: If it is someone who killed his neighbor accidentally, without having hated that person previously;

5 or if someone goes into the forest with a neighbor to chop some wood, and while swinging an ax to cut down the tree, the axhead flies off its handle and hits the neighbor, who subsequently dies—these kinds of killers may escape to one of these cities and live.