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1 The LORD also spake unto Joshua, saying, 2 Speak to the children of Israel, saying, Appoint out for you cities of refuge, whereof I spake unto you by the hand of Moses: 3 That the slayer that killeth any person unawares and unwittingly may flee thither: and they shall be your refuge from the avenger of blood. 4 And when he that doth flee unto one of those cities shall stand at the entering of the gate of the city, and shall declare his cause in the ears of the elders of that city, they shall take him into the city unto them, and give him a place, that he may dwell among them. 5 And if the avenger of blood pursue after him, then they shall not deliver the slayer up into his hand; because he smote his neighbour unwittingly, and hated him not beforetime. 6 And he shall dwell in that city, until he stand before the congregation for judgment, and until the death of the high priest that shall be in those days: then shall the slayer return, and come unto his own city, and unto his own house, unto the city from whence he fled. 7 And they appointed Kedesh in Galilee in mount Naphtali, and Shechem in mount Ephraim, and Kirjath-arba, which is Hebron, in the mountain of Judah. 8 And on the other side Jordan by Jericho eastward, they assigned Bezer in the wilderness upon the plain out of the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead out of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of Manasseh. 9 These were the cities appointed for all the children of Israel, and for the stranger that sojourneth among them, that whosoever killeth any person at unawares might flee thither, and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood, until he stood before the congregation.
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[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Joshua 20:6
There remains … what Scripture says concerning the death of the chief priest, “that the homicide shall be in the city of refuge even to that time, until the high priest dies.” In this passage the literal interpretation causes difficulty. First, the period of flight is limited by chance rather than by any consideration of fairness; further, in like cases the result is unlike. For it could happen that the high priest might die on the day after the homicide took refuge. However, what is the meaning beneath the uncertainty? And so, because the letter causes difficulty, let us search for spiritual meanings. Who is that high priest but the Son of God, the Word of God? We enjoy his advocacy in our behalf before the Father, for he is free from every offense, both willed and unintentional, and in him subsist all things which are on earth and which are in heaven. For all things have been bound by the bond of the Word and are held together by his power and subsist in him, because in him they have been created and in him all God’s fullness dwells. And so all things endure, because he does not allow what things he has bound to be loosened, since they subsist in his will. Indeed, so long as he wills, he keeps all things in check by his command and rules them and binds them by a harmony of nature. Therefore the Word of God lives, and he lives most of all in the souls of the holy, and the fullness of the Godhead never dies. For God’s everlasting divinity and eternal power never die. To be sure, he dies to us if he is separated from our soul, not that our spirit is destroyed by death, but that it is loosened and stripped from union with him. Yes, true death is the separation of the Word from the soul. Thereupon, the soul begins at once to be open to sins of volition.

Source: FLIGHT FROM THE WORLD 2.13
[AD 420] Jerome on Joshua 20:6
For the very words of Scripture indicate that even ignorance is a sin. [Thus], also, Job offers burnt offerings for his sons, [in the event] they may have sinned unwittingly in thought. And, if a man is killed by the iron of an axe that flies off the handle when a man is hewing wood, the wood hewer is ordered to flee to a city of refuge6 and remain in that place until the death of the high priest, that is to say, until he is redeemed by the blood of the Savior, either in the house of baptism or by repentance, which supplies the efficacy of the grace of baptism through the ineffable mercy of the Savior who does not wish anybody to perish. Nor does he find his delight in the death of sinners, but rather that they be converted from their way and live.

Source: Against the Pelagians 1.33