Commentary for Exodus 21:14

וכי יזד AND IF A MAN ACT INTENTIONALLY — Why is this stated at all (since v. 13 expressly provides a place for the murderer only if he does not lie in wait)? Since it is said, (v. 12) “Whosoever smiteth a man [so that he die shall be put to death]”, I might infer that this is so even if the victim is a heathen, and that there it included even a physician who kills a person as a result of his treatment, and a court-officer who kills a man when inflicting on him the forty lashes, and a father who beats and thereby kills his son, and a teacher who chastises his pupil and thereby kills him, and one who kills in error (שוגג, i. e. one who intended to kill a certain person but missed the mark and killed another instead — נתכוין להרוג את זה והרג את זה)! Scripture therefore states here: “if a man acts intentionally (יזיד)” — but not in error (שוגג); “against his fellowman (רעהו)” — but not against a heathen; “to slay with guile (בערמה)” — thus excluding the court-officer, the physician, and one who chastises his son or his pupil for all these though acting intentionally do not do so with guile (cf. Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 21:14:1).

מעם מזבחי, even though at that time when no cities of refuge existed yet the entire camp of the Levites, and not only the immediate area of the altar served as such a place of refuge.

וכי יזיד איש.. להרגו בערמה, If someone plans devious murder, etc. Mechilta concentrates on the word למות at the end of the verse and understands it as excluding "bringing him to trial, inflicting corporal punishment, or exile." This is the reason that Yoav (David's general) who had taken refuge in the Temple holding on to the altar was dragged away and executed. While it is true that Yoav was executed, this was because he was rebellious and not because he had murdered Avner or Amassa (compare Sanhedrin 49). He had fled before he could be brought to trial. The Talmud in Makkot 12 claims that Yoav's error in thinking that the altar could save his life was that at that time the altar was still a temporary structure, Solomon's Temple not having been built yet.