Matthew Poole and continuators on Numbers 35:25

25 And the congregation shall deliver the slayer out of the hand of the revenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to the city of his refuge, whither he was fled: and he shall abide in it , unto the death of the high priest , which was anointed with holy oyl.

Be confined to it, partly to shew the hatefulness of wilful murder in Gods account by so severe a punishment, as this in many cases might prove, inflicted upon the very appearance of it, and partly for the security of the manslayer, least the presence of such a person and his conversation among the kindred of the deceased, might occasion reproach and blood-shed.

Partly because the publick grief for the loss of so publick a person was likely to asswage the private griefs and passions of men, the rather, because by this example they were minded of their own mortality, and thereby withheld from taking vengeance; and principally to shew that the death of Christ (the true High-Priest, whom the others did evidently and eminently represent and typifie) is the onely mean whereby sins are pardoned and sinners are set at liberty.

Marginal references: Exod. 29. [illegible: 1+ letters]. Lev. 4. 3. and 21. 10.