וַאֲשֶׁר֩ יָבֹ֨א אֶת־רֵעֵ֥הוּ בַיַּעַר֮ לַחְטֹ֣ב עֵצִים֒ וְנִדְּחָ֨ה יָד֤וֹ בַגַּרְזֶן֙ לִכְרֹ֣ת הָעֵ֔ץ וְנָשַׁ֤ל הַבַּרְזֶל֙ מִן־הָעֵ֔ץ וּמָצָ֥א אֶת־רֵעֵ֖הוּ וָמֵ֑ת ה֗וּא יָנ֛וּס אֶל־אַחַ֥ת הֶעָרִים־הָאֵ֖לֶּה וָחָֽי׃
Misalnya, orang yang pergi bersama sesamanya ke hutan untuk menebang kayu, lalu tangannya terayun dengan kapak untuk menebang pohon, dan mata kapak itu terlepas dari gagangnya serta mengenai sesamanya sehingga ia mati, maka orang itu boleh melarikan diri ke salah satu kota ini dan tetap hidup.
On Flight and Finding
[77] After treating in this way of unintentional acts he goes on to legislate concerning assault and premeditation, saying, “If a man set upon his neighbour to slay him by guile and flee for refuge” (Exod. 21:14) to God, even to Him Who has been already symbolically called a place, Who is the occasion of life to all; for in another place likewise it says, “Whosoever shall flee there shall live” (Deut. 19:5).
On the Special Laws
§ 120. (Involuntary homicide.) What does Philo understand by this? In the Pentateuch it seems to mean accidental homicide, see particularly the example given in Deut. 19:5 of the man killed by the slip of the head from his neighbour’s axe. Nothing is said in these sections exactly in contradiction of this, though the μὴ ἐκ προνοίας in § 128 may point to a wider interpretation. But in §§ 92 and 104 we have had suggestions that he regards homicide, if committed in sudden anger or in an unpremeditated quarrel, as different from ordinary murder, though he does not follow this up (see notes on §§ 92 and 104). His view in fact seems much the same as that of Plato, who (Laws 866 D ff.) discusses the point and says that one who kills another in hot blood or unpremeditatedly is οὐ παντάπασιν ἀκούσιος ἀλλʼ εἰκὼν ἀκουσίου. Philo’s ἡμίεργον in § 92 is a rough equivalent of Plato’s εἰκών (“likeness or shadow,” Jowett) and indeed may be a reminiscence of it. That is to say, it is something between ἀκούσιος and ἑκούσιος. One may conjecture that he does not consider it worthy of death, but in face of the law of Ex. 21:18, 19, described in § 100, refrains from saying so.