ASYLUM ă sī lum. The right of asylum is codified in four Biblical passages (Exod 21:12-14; Num 35:9-34; Deut 19:1-13 and Josh 20:7-9). The purpose of this law was to provide a place where the accidental homicide might dwell. This asylum takes two forms: the altar of Yahweh and the City of Refuge (see Cities of Refuge). The former is illustrated in the case of Adonijah who entered the house of God and clung to the horns of the altar for fear of Solomon’s wrath (1 Kings 1:50; 2:28), while the latter is seen in the passages mentioned.

M. Greenberg has pointed out that contrary to the commonly accepted view of Wellhausen, the cities of refuge were not conceived by the Deuteronomic reformers as a replacement for the “local” (?) altars, but they were early and necessary adjuncts to the asylum offered by the altar since that was only a temporary expedient. Further, since critical scholarship noted only the humanitarian and political grounds for the law of asylum, it missed the ancient religious reason for granting asylum (viz. Gen. 9:5, 6). Even shedding an innocent man’s blood unintentionally still involved blood-guilt for which no kinsman of the slain could even pardon or ransom (Num 35:31). Nothing can expiate an accidental homicide except the death of the high priest (35:25)! Life cannot be tr. into any other terms.

Bibliography G. T. Manley, The Book of The Law 1957, 119, 120, 125; M. Greenberg, “The Biblical Conception of Asylum,” JBL, 78 (1959), 125-132.