Exodus 21:13 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

But God deliver him into his hand— As God is the Lord of life and death, whose providence is over all his works, the Scripture teaches us to ascribe to him all such events, as, in common phrase, are called accidental. See Deuteronomy 19:5. Of the cities of refuge we shall have occasion to speak hereafter. Before they were appointed, the altar served for a place of refuge, as the next verse shews.