Refuge

The term refuge is used here with irony — the text contrasts what these Benjaminites actually became (founders and warriors) against the diminished status one might expect from displaced people merely surviving in foreign territory.

Refuge is the implicit concept at stake here — Abel's inhabitants are endangered because one man sheltered inside their walls, turning the city into an unwitting sanctuary with lethal consequences.

The Beerothites' status as refugees explains why men like Rechab and Baanah were socially and politically precarious — displaced people looking for an angle to secure their future.

Refuge is relevant here because Aquila and Priscilla are political refugees — displaced by Claudius's expulsion of Jews from Rome — whose forced relocation paradoxically positioned them to partner with Paul.

The cities of refuge are the central institution of this passage — designated safe zones where a person who accidentally killed someone could flee before the victim's family could exact revenge.

Refuge is institutionalized here as Moses designates three specific cities where someone who accidentally killed a neighbor could flee and be protected — God's mercy built structurally into the legal system.

Refuge is paired with mercy here to describe the altar's horns — a detail that transforms the place of death and cost into simultaneously a place of safety for those desperately seeking God's protection.