Numbers 35
The Levites' Cities and Pasturelands 1–8
Establishing the Cities of Refuge 9–15
Defining Murder and Manslaughter 16–29
Judicial Procedures and Land Purity 30–34
Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain
Study Notes for Numbers 35
Verse 1
in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho — Israel had pitched here since Num 22:1, and the last commands of the book are given at this place: the census (Num 26:63), the order to divide the land (Num 33:50), the Levites’ cities here, and the closing line of the book (Num 36:13).
Verse 2
cities to dwell in — The Levites had no share of the land, since Moses ‘gave none inheritance among them’ (Josh 14:3); the other tribes gave ‘cities to dwell in, with their suburbs for their cattle and for their substance’ (Josh 14:4). Lev 25:32 lets the Levites redeem their houses ‘at any time’.
Verse 4
a thousand cubits round about — The suburbs (migrash, open pasture land) are measured from the wall of the city outward, a belt ‘a thousand cubits round about’. V.5 then gives two thousand cubits on each of the four sides, with ‘the city … in the midst’. V.3 says what the land was for: ‘their cattle, and for their goods, and for all their beasts’.
Verse 6
six cities for refuge — Miqlat is the noun for refuge, a place to which the slayer ‘may flee thither’. The six were named in Josh 20:7–8: Kedesh, Shechem and Hebron west of the Jordan, and Bezer, Ramoth in Gilead and Golan east of it, the last three set apart by Moses (Deut 4:41–43). They were counted among the forty-eight Levite cities (v.7; Josh 21:41).
Verse 8
from them that have many ye shall give many — The rule matches the division of the land itself: ‘To many thou shalt give the more inheritance, and to few thou shalt give the less inheritance’ (Num 26:54). Every tribe gave Levite cities in proportion to its inheritance, and Josh 21 lists them, totalling ‘forty and eight cities with their suburbs’ (Josh 21:41).
Verse 11
at unawares — Shegagah is an error or inadvertence, the word rendered ‘it is ignorance’ in Num 15:25. Ex 21:13 had already promised ‘a place whither he shall flee’ where a man ‘lie not in wait, but God deliver him into his hand’. Moses set apart the first three cities ‘That the slayer might flee thither, which should kill his neighbour unawares’ (Deut 4:42).
Verse 12
the avenger — Go’el is the near kinsman, the word that Ruth uses of Boaz, ‘thou art a near kinsman’ (Ruth 3:9), and Job of his ‘redeemer’ (Job 19:25). In a killing he is the family’s representative against the slayer. The manslayer is protected ‘until he stand before the congregation in judgment’.
Verse 15
the stranger, and for the sojourner — Ger, a foreigner living in the land, and toshav, a settler, are the pair of Lev 25:23, ‘ye are strangers and sojourners with me’. The refuge is open to them as to Israel, in line with ‘One law and one manner shall be for you, and for the stranger that sojourneth with you’ (Num 15:16; Josh 20:9).
Verse 16
an instrument of iron — Three weapons are named in vv.16–18, of iron, stone and wood, and in each case if the man dies the striker is a ‘murderer’. The Hebrew word for murderer, ratsach, is also the word for the ‘manslayer’ of v.6 and the verb of the commandment in Ex 20:13; intent decides which. The ground is Gen 9:6, ‘for in the image of God made he man’.
Verse 19
The revenger of blood — This is the go’el called ‘the avenger’ in v.12; the KJV uses both English words for the same Hebrew in this chapter (vv.12, 19, 21, 24, 25, 27). He may slay the murderer ‘when he meeteth him’, but the verses that follow confine this to the case of hatred, ambush and enmity (vv.20–21).
Verse 25
the high priest, which was anointed with the holy oil — The congregation delivers the slayer from the avenger and restores him to the refuge city, where he stays until the high priest’s death. The high priest is the one ‘upon whose head the anointing oil was poured’ (Lev 21:10; Ex 29:7). Josh 20:6 repeats the term: ‘until the death of the high priest that shall be in those days’.
Verse 28
until the death of the high priest — The term is stated in vv.25, 28 and 32. If the slayer left the city’s border and the avenger found him, the avenger ‘shall not be guilty of blood’ (v.27). After the high priest’s death ‘the slayer shall return into the land of his possession’, as Josh 20:6 puts it, ‘unto his own house’.
Verse 30
by the mouth of witnesses — The Hebrew says ‘by the mouth’, the phrase of Deut 19:15, ‘at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established’. One witness ‘shall not testify against any person to cause him to die’. Christ and Paul cite the rule (Matt 18:16; John 8:17; 2 Cor 13:1).
Verse 31
no satisfaction for the life of a murderer — ‘Satisfaction’ is kopher, the ransom, the word of the ‘ransom for his soul’ paid at the census (Ex 30:12). Ex 21:30 allowed a ransom in another case of death, where an ox killed a man, but here none may be taken. Life for life was settled in Gen 9:6; v.32 bars it also for returning early.
Verse 33
cannot be cleansed — The verb is kaphar, to make atonement, the verb of the sacrifices (Num 29:5). For blood shed in the land the atonement named is ‘the blood of him that shed it’. Ps 106:38 shows the stain: ‘the land was polluted with blood’. ‘Pollute’ is chanaph, to defile.
Verse 34
I the LORD dwell among the children of Israel — Shakan, to settle or tabernacle, is the verb behind mishkan, the tabernacle. The promise is that of Ex 29:45, ‘I will dwell among the children of Israel’, and Num 5:3 uses it for putting the unclean out of the camp, ‘in the midst whereof I dwell’. Paul applies it to believers (2 Cor 6:16).