Road Markers to the Cities of Refuge and God's Mercy to Adam

(Numbers 35:9-10:) AND THE LORD SPOKE, <saying:> WHEN YOU CROSS <the Jordan into the land of Canaan>, etc. This is what Scripture says (in Psalms 25:8): GOOD AND UPRIGHT IS THE LORD; THEREFORE HE INSTRUCTS SINNERS IN THE WAY. (Ibid., verse 6:) REMEMBER YOUR MERCIES, O LORD, AND YOUR ACTS OF STEADFAST LOVE, etc. David said before the Holy One, blessed be He: Master of the Universe, were it not for Your mercies that went before the first man, Adam, he would have had no standing. For You said to him (in Genesis 2:17): FOR ON THE DAY THAT YOU EAT OF IT YOU SHALL SURELY DIE; yet You did not do so, but rather You sent him out of the Garden of Eden, as it is said (in Genesis 3:24): AND HE DROVE OUT THE MAN. And why was he driven out? Because he brought death to <all the> generations, he should have died immediately; but because You had mercy upon him, You drove him out, in the manner of one who kills by mistake, who is exiled to the cities of refuge. Therefore it is said: REMEMBER YOUR MERCIES, O LORD, AND YOUR ACTS OF STEADFAST LOVE, etc. When Moses arose, the Holy One, blessed be He, said to him (in Numbers 35:11): YOU SHALL PROVIDE FOR YOURSELVES CITIES, etc. Moses said: Master of the Universe, this one who kills a person by mistake in the south or in the north—from where will he know where the cities of refuge are, so that he may flee there? He said to him (in Deuteronomy 19:3): YOU SHALL PREPARE FOR YOURSELF THE WAY—you shall make the way straight for yourself, so that they will not go astray, and the blood avenger find him and kill him, when he has no judgment of death. He said to Him: How? He said to him: Set up for them markers directed toward the cities of refuge, so that he will know to go there; and upon every marker is inscribed: "Killer—to the cities of refuge," as it is said (in Deuteronomy 19:3): YOU SHALL PREPARE FOR YOURSELF THE WAY, etc. Therefore David said (in Psalms 25:8): GOOD AND UPRIGHT IS THE LORD; THEREFORE HE INSTRUCTS SINNERS IN THE WAY. If for killers He made a path and a way that they might flee and be saved, for the righteous how much the more so! (Psalms 25:9:) HE LEADS THE HUMBLE IN JUSTICE.