Joshua — Chapter 20

Lapide: \"Appoint cities of refuge\" (urbes refugii) — Joshua designates six cities, three on each side of the Jordan, for those who kill involuntarily, per the command of God through Moses (Num. 35). These cities are allegorically Christ and the Church, refuge for sinners who have offended not out of malice but through ignorance or weakness.

Lapide: The involuntary homicide dwells in the city of refuge \"until he stand before the judgment for his cause... and until the death of the high priest who shall be at that time; then shall the manslayer return.\" Allegorically: the death of the High Priest (summus sacerdos) = the death of Christ the true High Priest, by which we are liberated from the debt of sin committed after Baptism.