According to David Bokovoy, in ancient Israel a person accused of committing a serious offense could flee to an altar to avoid immediate death. The Old Testament refers to this tradition in the so-called Covenant Code of Exodus (see Exodus 21:12-14). 1 Kings 1:50-51, 2:2 relate that Solomon's enemies Adonijah and Joab fled to the tabernacle and "caught hold on the horns of the altar" in hopes of deliverance, albeit with different results.
This information proves significant for an understanding of altars in Nephite society. One of the four references to altars in the Book of Mormon establishes a direct correlation between that record and the Old Testament. Alma 15:17 notes that after Alma established the church at Sidom, the people
"began to humble themselves before God, and began to assemble themselves together at their sanctuaries to worship God before the altar, watching and praying continually, that they might be delivered from Satan, and from death, and from destruction."
This verse invokes Israelite custom by identifying the altar as a location of deliverance, a subtlety that provides further evidence that the Book of Mormon clearly reflects the traditions of antiquity. [David Bokovoy, "A Place of Deliverance: Altars in the Hebrew Bible and Book of Mormon," in FARMS Update, No 143, Vol. 21, 2001, in Insights, Vol. 21, 2001, p. 2]