How God Requites Hidden Murder, Beasts, and the Inn at the Ladder

"And surely your blood, of your lives, will I require" (Genesis 9:5): at a time when you kill a person in secret, such that no one knows of it except the murderer alone — and even so, when the court does not know of it, so as to put him to death — I will require the blood of the one who was slain. "At the hand of every beast will I require it": for if the beasts kill him — as when a lion or a snake mauls him and kills him — I will require and demand his blood from the beasts. "At the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man": how so? The Holy One, blessed be He, summons this one who killed unintentionally and that one who killed intentionally to one inn — the one who killed intentionally below, beneath the ladder, and the one who killed unintentionally above, atop the ladder. The upper one falls upon the lower one and kills the lower one, and they sentence him to exile. It turns out that this one is exiled and that one is killed.