אלו הן הגולין. היה מעגל במעגילה – a smooth round stone that we roll on top of the plaster or clay that is at the tope to smooth out the fissures/cracks.

היה משלשל בחבית – from above to below

אבל אם היה מושך במעגילה – from below to above

כל שבדרך ירידתו גולה – As it is written: (Numbers 35:23): “or inadvertently dropped upon him/ויפל עליו [any deadly object of stone, and death resulted – though he was not an enemy of his and did not seek his harm],” until it would be through falling, [and the word] "כל" includes even descending which is for the need of ascending.

נשמט הברזל מקתו – from the sleeve that it is fastened to

רבי אומר: אינו גולה – Rabbi (Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi) holds that if the iron (axe) chipped off the wood – that is, which was to be split (and the chip struck a person dead – see Tosefta Makkot, Chapter 2, Halakha 6), and not the wood handle which it is fastened to. But the Rabbis “from the wood” – from the wood handle to which it is fastened. And the Halakha is according to the Sages, for the wood that was to be split is an indirect action and via an indirect action, one is not exiled.

זרק את האבן לרשות הרבים – and even though it is close to acting with premeditation, for he should have thought that people would always be found in the public domain. Here we are dealing with a dunghill that was made in the public domain to be removed from there during the daytime and occasionally, it happens that he sits thee, and because of this, he is exiled, but it is not negligence nor is it totally unavoidably preventable (i.e., victim of an accident).

והוציא הלה את ראשו וקבלה פטור – As it is written (Deuteronomy 19:5): “[…the ax-head flies off the handle] and strikes the other [so that he dies. That man shall flee to one of these cities and live].”

אם יש רשות לניזק – if the owner gave him permission to enter

מה חטיבת עצים רשות – if he wants to go up to chop [wood], and if he does not want to, he does not go up.

יצא האב הרודה את בנו – for he is doing a Mitzvah

האב גולה על ידי בנו – for he did not hit him to teach him Torah or ethics or a trade

הכל גולין על ידי ישראל – and even a slave or a Cuthean

חוץ מעל ידי גר תושב – for if he inadvertently killed the son of an Israelite, he is not exiled, but is killed.

הסומא אינו גולה – As it is written (Numbers 35:23): “or inadvertently dropped upon him/"בלא ראות" [any object of stone, and death resulted – though he was not an enemy of his and did not seek his harm],” excluding someone blind.

רבי מאיר אומר: גולה – [The words] "בלא ראות"/”or inadvertently dropped upon him (without seeing) , includes he blind person. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Meir.

השונא – all who did not speak with him for three days because of enmity (see Mishnah Sanhedrin Chapter 3, Mishnah 5 – but Israelites were not suspected of this, according to that Mishnah). And the Halakha is not either according to Rabbi Yosi B’Rabbi Yehuda nor like Rabbi Shimon, but rather, the one who hates is not killed nor is he given the shelter of asylum because his legal status is close to acting with premeditation.

להיכן גולין לערי מקלט – and forty-two Levitical cities also all of which provide the shelter of asylum, but those six cities of refuge, whether the one who enters there is murderer with the knowledge that he will receive asylum or whether one enters without the knowledge that he will receive asylum, it provides asylum. And the forty-two cities, with the knowledge that it absorbs, for without the knowledge that it absorbs, they do not absorb, and if the blood avenger was to kill him there, he is exempt.

ומכוונות היו להם הדרכים – they would make the roads so that they would be in a line to the Cities of Refuge so that the murderer would not err on the way (see Talmud Makkot 9b – in which the cities in the Land of Israel and on the opposite side of the Jordan wer in straight parallel lines like two rows in a vineyard). And [the words] "מקלט מקלט" /”Asylum/Refuge”, “Asylum/Refuge” were written at the crossroads, in order that the murder would recognize it and turn to there.

וידברו אליו – they speak to the blood avenger: “do not follow the practice of those who shed blood; this matter came to his hand inadvertently.”

הוא מדבר על ידי עצמו – no Sages are required to speak to the blood avenger on his behalf, but he (i.e., the murderer) makes claims to himself. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Meir.

ואחד המרובה בגדים – since after the flask of anointing oil was hidden, he was not inaugurated to become the High Priest other than the wearing of eight garments.

ואחד שעבר ממשיחתו – that a nocturnal emission befell the High Priest on Yom Kippur and they appointed another n his place. With the death of all of those, he returns, even though the other one is alive, since “High Priest” is written three times in the portion.

רבי יהודה אומר: אף משוח מלחמה – Another Biblical verse is written (Numbers 35:32): “…enabling one to return to live on his land before the death of the priest.” But the Rabbis, since “High Priest” is not written in this verse, they don’t expound it. And the Halakha is according to the Sages.

שלא יתפללו על בניהם שימותו – and they were negligent, for they should have requested for mercy on this generation that no religious offense should happen on them, and they did not request this.

משנגמר דינו – for exile, for when the proceedings were finished (i.e., the sentence was pronounced), and he is about to be exiled, it is as if he was exiled.

נגמר דינו בלא כהן גדול – for there was no High Priest in the world

לא לעדות מצוה – for example, for testimony of the [New] Month

וכל אדם – except for the blood-avenger that killed him outside the City of Refuge is not liable for him, as it is written (Numbers 35:27): “[and the blood avenger comes upon him outside the limits of his city of refuge, and the blood-avenger kills the manslayer,] there is no bloodguilt on his account.” For the blood-avenger has the permission to kill him. And the Halakha is according to Rabbi Akiba. And these words [of our Mishnah] is if he left [having murdered] with premeditation; but if he left [having murdered] inadvertently, every person who kills him is killed on his account.

הכל הולך אחר הנוף – The Gemara explains that even the location of the branches decides the nature of the territory (see Mishnah Ma’aserot, Chapter 3, Mishnah 10) is spoken of, for if the root was inside the borders of the City of Refuge and the branches stretch outside the boundary, since he enters under the branch, he is “absorbed,” [by the City of Refuge] since its roots are inside and we judge that the branches follow after the roots, but if the roots were outside and the branches were inside, for just as within its branches, he cannot kill him, in its root also, he cannot kill him, for we cast the root after the branch for a stringency.

מעלים היו שכר ללוים – In the forty-two cities [of the Levites] that also absorb, the murderer accounts a reward to the owner who dwells in it.

ורבי מאיר אומר וכו' – But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Meir, and specifically in the forty-two [Levitical] cities, but in the six Cities of Refuge, everyone admits that we do not account a reward to the owner.

לא היה חוזר לשררה שהיה בה – as it is written (Leviticus 25:41): “…he shall go back to his family and return to his ancestral holding.” To his family he returns, but he does not return to what his family held. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yehuda.