V.1-10 Man was made in the image of God. Shedding blood was a serious thing to God. However, He does make a great difference between shedding by accident and deliberate murder. In neither case would He let them forget the seriousness of it. His land was not to have blood defiling it. It was a holy land. So God provided these cities for a person to run to who had killed a person unintentionally. They were called “cities of refuge.” No one would be more than about 20 miles from one of these cities in the land. Numbers chapter 15 adds 3 more cities on the other side of the river Jordan.
V.11-13 However there was to be no pity shown to anyone who deliberately shed the blood of another person. He was to die. Some difference today!
V.15-21 Witnesses were to be true. They were not to keep quiet if they knew something wrong was done. If a person made up an untrue story about another person, the punishment which would have been given to that person, was to be given to the one who told the untruth!