Verse 6
6. Until he stand before the congregation The local authorities shall summon him and the Goel to appear before them for a judicial inquest and verdict. The congregation or jury was to hear both sides, and to decide whether the deed proceeded from malice or was accidental. If he was condemned he was to be executed; but if he was acquitted he was not set at liberty, but was sent back to live in the refuge till the death of the High Priest. Here we see the superiority of this system of protection over the pagan asylum of the altar, in the temple of some god, which shielded the guilty and the innocent alike.
Until the death of the high priest This does not mean that the death of the High Priest takes place at the same time with the summons to trial. The only occasions on which an innocent manslayer may leave the refuge are, 1st, temporarily, for a trial where the manslaying occurred; and 2d, permanently, at the death of the High Priest.
Why should he be released when the High Priest dies? Probably because he was anointed as the representative and mediator of the people, who alone was able to offer annual expiation for the whole people. His death, therefore, may be regarded as an atonement prefiguring the death of our heavenly High Priest, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot unto God. Hebrews 9:14-15.
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