Numberschapter 35
34 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Numbers Overview.
Once the land was divided, the tribe of Levi would own no territory of its own. This chapter gives the Levites towns to live in and sets six of those towns apart for another purpose. In that world a killing was often avenged by the nearest male relative of the dead man, whatever the cause. Israel's law had to tell a murder from an accident and protect the innocent from a family's grief and anger. Listen for the questions each case turned on, and for the part the high priest's death plays. The chapter teaches why the shedding of blood touched the land itself.
Context
- Who
- The tribes who would hand over towns out of their own inheritance, and every household that might one day need a refuge
- What
- The forty-eight towns given to the Levites, the six cities of refuge among them, and the law that told murder from accidental killing.
- Where
- The plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho, with the towns to be spread through the land on both sides of the river.
- When
- In the fortieth year after the Exodus, about 1406 BC on the traditional dating, between Aaron's death in the fifth month and Moses' last addresses in the eleventh, while other scholars date the writing of the book later.
- Why
- To provide for the tribe that served at the sanctuary and to stop innocent blood being shed in revenge for an accident.
Historical context
The chapter is the LORD's word to Moses, spoken on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho, which verse 1 states. It stands in the fortieth year with the rest of the instructions for the crossing. The occasion is the allotment ordered in the chapter before it. The Levites were given no tribal territory and had to be provided for out of what the other tribes received. Verses 2 to 8 set that provision at forty-eight towns with their pasturelands, more from a larger tribe and less from a smaller one. A first hearer knew what the avenger of blood was. He was the nearest kinsman, and in that world the duty of answering a killing fell on the family rather than on a court. He also knew that a city of refuge held a man until his case was heard, since verse 12 says the manslayer lives there until he stands trial before the assembly. Verses 16 to 24 give the assembly its test, which turns on the weapon used and on whether there was hostility between the two men. The release in verses 25 to 28 is tied to the death of the high priest, so the term a man served was fixed by another life.
Significance
The law took the answering of blood out of the family's hands and put it before the congregation. It set six towns across the country, three on each side of the Jordan under verse 14, so a man fleeing could reach one. Verse 15 opened them to the foreigner living in Israel on the same terms. Verses 31 to 34 explain why the case had to be heard, since blood shed pollutes the land where the LORD dwells among them. A killing was treated as a matter between the nation and God.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The open land around the Levitical towns is read by Rashi as a rule with teeth. The ring outside the city was kept clear for the look of the city, and nobody might build a house there, plant a vineyard or sow it (Rashi on Numbers 35:2:1, citing Arakhin 33b). He settles the apparent clash between the thousand cubits of one verse and the two thousand of the next. Two thousand were assigned in all, the inner thousand kept open and the outer thousand given to fields and vineyards (Rashi on Numbers 35:4:1, citing Sotah 27b). He also holds that the towns were given for the needs of the Levites themselves rather than for their animals (Rashi on Numbers 35:3:1, citing Nedarim 81a).
How it is read
Rashi reads the cities of refuge as a system that had to be complete before it worked. Moses set aside three cities east of the Jordan in his lifetime, and none of the six gave refuge until Joshua had chosen the three in Canaan (Rashi on Numbers 35:13:1, citing Makkot 9b). He then answers the obvious objection about the numbers. Nine tribes west of the Jordan and two and a half east of it received the same three cities each, because killings were more frequent in Gilead. He rests that on Hosea 6:8 (Rashi on Numbers 35:14:1). He glosses the verb for appointing the cities as preparing them (Rashi on Numbers 35:11:1). The refuge itself he defines against the avenger, the near relative of the man who was killed (Rashi on Numbers 35:12:1).
The law of the weapon is read as a rule about size. Rashi holds that the verses about iron, stone and wood speak of a killing that was meant, and that each weapon must be large enough to cause death. Iron is the exception, because it kills at any size (Rashi on Numbers 35:16:1). A stone must fill a hand, and a wooden instrument must be able to kill, which closes a reading that Exodus 21:20 might have left open (Rashi on Numbers 35:17:1 and 35:18:1). He takes the word for lying in wait from the Targum (Rashi on Numbers 35:20:1). The word for an accidental blow means that the two were so close that there was no time to be careful (Rashi on Numbers 35:22:1). Of the avenger meeting a deliberate killer he says plainly that it holds even in the cities of refuge (Rashi on Numbers 35:19:1).
The release at the death of the high priest carries two readings in Rashi. In the first the high priest causes the divine presence to rest on Israel and so lengthens their days. The killer drives it away and shortens them, so the two do not belong in one place (Rashi on Numbers 35:25:1, citing Sifrei Bamidbar 160:9). In the second the high priest should have prayed that no such misfortune happen in Israel in his days (Rashi on Numbers 35:25:1, citing Makkot 11a). Sforno reads the rule about the size of a tribe's gift as a matter of fairness. The land had been valued by quality rather than quantity, so a tribe with large tracts giving more square cubits carried no unfair burden (Sforno on Numbers 35:8:1, the Munk translation, CC-BY).
Ibn Ezra comments at three places here and Malbim at five, and the corpus carries none of their text. Ibn Ezra stands cited at Numbers 35:10:1, 35:15:1 and 35:26:1, held back by the licence Sefaria reports. Malbim stands cited at Numbers 35:5:1, 35:6:1, 35:9:1, 35:21:1 and 35:24:1, because Sefaria holds no English version.
A Christian reader will know this chapter through the cities of refuge, and this site carries them at /featured/cities-of-refuge. The classical reading treats them as working law, with the weapon, the intention and the release all settled by rule. That is the ground it shares with any Christian reading of the chapter, and the commentators here are reported in their own terms.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. Twenty-five of them are Talmudic and fifteen are midrashic, because the law of the accidental killer is worked out at length in one tractate. The Jerusalem Talmud stands at Makkot 1:1:1, 1:5:2, 1:8:2, 2:5:2, 2:6:1 and 2:6:4, and at Shabbat 2:7:7, Eruvin 5:3:5 and Horayot 1:4:1. The Babylonian Makkot stands at 11b:12 and 12a:8. Bava Kamma stands at 28a:11, 83b:11, 86b:17 and 87a:1, and Eruvin at 51a:8, 51a:9 and 56b:6. Bava Batra stands at 24b:3, Bava Metzia at 31b:2, Avodah Zarah at 9b:1, Bekhorot at 55a:13, Horayot at 11b:6 and Arakhin at 16a:22. One further locator stands at Part II, Baba Batra, Chapter II 15.
The midrashic locators follow the same verses. Bamidbar Rabbah stands at 1:8, 2:9, 7:7, 7:8, 10:13 and 23:13. Ein Yaakov stands at Nedarim 7:2 and 11:2 and at Makkot 2:3, with the Glick Edition at Makkot 2:1. Midrash Lekach Tov stands at Numbers 35:2:1 and 35:20:1. Bereshit Rabbah stands at 98:5, Midrash Aggadah at Numbers 35:14:1, and the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael at Tractate Nezikin 7:7. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text, because the corpus holds these locators without it.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Numbers 35:2:1 to 35:25:1, the Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary translated by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, public domain; Sforno, Sforno on Numbers 35:8:1, the HaChut Hameshulash translation by Eliyahu Munk, CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Numbers 35:10:1, 35:15:1 and 35:26:1, cited by ref because the licence the corpus reports does not permit keeping the text; Malbim, Malbim on Numbers 35:5:1, 35:6:1, 35:9:1, 35:21:1 and 35:24:1, cited by ref because Sefaria holds no English version; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/numbers/35.json, the 25 Talmud and 15 Midrash locators of this chapter, fetched 2026-09-19; MannaFest, src/app/featured/cities-of-refuge/page.tsx, this site's page on the cities of refuge.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Forty-eight cities with pasture for Levi
Numbers 35:1-2
The formula at 22:1, 26:3 and 33:50 sets these last chapters "on the plains of Moab", where the book closes at 36:13. Levi, given no land at 18:20, now receives forty-eight towns set inside the other tribes' portions. Genesis 49:7 had said "I will disperse them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel", and Matthew Henry reads the scattering here as a posting through the whole country.
Albert Barnes renders the older word suburbs as pasture-grounds, land for the Levites' cattle, sheep and goats. Leviticus 25:34 had already made that ground their permanent possession, which may never be sold. The towns come out of the other tribes' inheritance.
Numbers 35:2
“Suburbs - Rather, “pasture-grounds,” required for their large cattle, for their sheep and goats, and for all their beasts whatever they might be Num 35:3.”
Numbers 35:3-5
The pasturelands, the Hebrew migrash, are grazing for the Levites' herds, so they hold pasture without holding a territory. Verse 4 measures a thousand cubits from the wall and verse 5 two thousand per side, which Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read as a line drawn from the first zone's edge. John Gill reports Jewish writers giving the first thousand to cattle and the next two thousand to fields and vineyards.
Verse 5 gives two thousand cubits instead. John Wesley holds that the verses measure different things, this one the space the measure starts from and the next the distance it reaches. Matthew Henry gives the thousand to outhouses for cattle and two thousand more to grazing fields.
Numbers 35:4
“There is an apparent discrepancy between Nu 35:4 and Nu 35:5, with regard to the extent of these suburbs; but the statements in the two verses refer to totally different things--the one to the extent of the suburbs from the walls of the city, the other to the space of two thousand cubits from their extremity.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Adam Clarke reports that the Septuagint and Coptic read two thousand in verse 4 as well, which would make the two figures one. He adds that no other ancient version and none of the manuscripts collated by Kennicott and De Rossi support that reading. Albert Barnes reads the line as running parallel to the wall.
Numbers 35:5
“And ye shall measure from without the city on the east side two thousand cubits,.... Before only 1000 cubits were ordered to bemeasured, and now 2000, even 2000 more, which were to be added to the other, and to begin where they ended. The first 1000 were for their cattle and goods, these 2000 for their gardens, orchards, fields, and vineyards; and so the Jewish writers understand it.”
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 35:5
“From without the city - Omit “from.” The demarcation here intended would run parallel to the wall of the city, outside which it was made.”
Numbers 35:6-8
Six of the forty-eight are cities of refuge, and verse 8 sets the quota by size, "more from a larger tribe and less from a smaller one". Joshua 21 records the count tribe by tribe, and Albert Barnes notes that Judah and Simeon together gave nine, Naphtali three, and the rest four apiece. The slayer is sheltered in a town of the one tribe with no country of its own.
Numbers 35:6
“The Levitical cities were in an special manner the Lord’s; and therefore the places of refuge, where the manslayer might remain under the protection of a special institution devised by divine mercy, were appropriately selected from among them. No doubt also the Priests and Levites would be the fittest persons to administer the law in the doubtful cases which would be sure to occur: compare Num 35:24 note.”
Joshua 21:41 records the total reached, forty-eight cities with their pasturelands within the territory of the Israelites. John Gill notes that Joshua 21 names each town and the tribe it came from. Six of the forty-eight were cities of refuge.
Numbers 35:7
“So all the cities which ye shall give to the Levites shall be forty eight cities,.... Of these forty eight cities, their names, and what tribes they were in, and which of them were particularly cities of refuge, an account is given in Jos 21:10, them shall ye give, with their suburbs; according to the dimensions before prescribed.”
The same scale governs the division of the land at Numbers 26:54 and 33:54, more for the larger and less for the smaller. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read it as an equitable share of the burden of supporting the Levites. A tribe gave towns as it received land.
Numbers 35:8
“Nine cities were eventually given to the Levites from the large joint inheritance of Judah and Simeon; three were taken from the territory of Naphtali, and the other tribes gave each four apiece.”
Six cities where the slayer may flee
Numbers 35:9-11
A second speech legislates for a country not yet entered, "When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan". The shelter covers only one who kills "unintentionally", the category of the sin at Leviticus 4:2, so the city covers the accident and never the deed. Adam Clarke contrasts the Greek and Roman asylums, which sheltered whoever reached them, and so marks these six cities as a law.
Numbers 35:9
“And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... At the same time, or he continued his speech unto him: saying: as follows.”
The words repeat Numbers 33:51 exactly, where the same crossing introduced the order to drive out the inhabitants. John Gill notes the certainty behind the phrasing, since the LORD had promised to bring them over the river. Both laws look ahead to the land beyond it.
Numbers 35:10
“Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them,.... Now, directly: when ye come over Jordan into the land of Canaan; as they quickly would, being now very near it, and of which there was the utmost certainty, since the Lord had promised to bring them over that river, and put them in possession of that land.”
Exodus 21:13 had promised a place where the accidental slayer could flee, and this verse sets out what that place will be. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown describe the blood feud the cities answered, still found among Arab tribes in their day. Deuteronomy 19:5 gives an example, an axe head flying loose.
Numbers 35:11
“Ye shall appoint - cities of refuge - The cities of refuge among the Israelites were widely different from the asyla among the Greeks and Romans, as also from the privileged altars among the Roman Catholics. Those among the Hebrews were for the protection of such only as had slain a person involuntarily. The temples and altars among the latter often served for the protection of the most profligate characters.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 35:11
“This is exemplified among the Arabs in the present day. Should an Arab of one tribe happen to kill one of another tribe, there is "blood" between the tribes, and the stain can only be wiped out by the death of some individual of the tribe with which the offense originated. Sometimes the penalty is commuted by the payment of a stipulated number of sheep or camels.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Numbers 35:12-13
The avenger is the goel, the same word and office as the "nearest of kin" of Leviticus 25:25 and the "kinsman-redeemer" of Ruth 3:12. The one who redeems a family's land also answers for its blood. Verse 12 states what the city is for, "so that the manslayer will not die until he stands trial before the assembly", and the gate buys him a hearing and no more.
Numbers 35:12
“From the avenger - Hebrew. from the redeemer, or, from the next kinsman, to whom by the law belonged the right of redemption of the lands of; and vindication of the injury done to, the person deceased.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
John Gill reads the verse as settling that only six of the forty-eight Levitical towns gave refuge. Deuteronomy 19:9 allowed three more if the LORD enlarged the territory and the people kept his commandments. Joshua 20:7-8 names the six.
Numbers 35:13
“And of these cities which ye shall give,.... Of the forty eight cities they were to give to the Levites, Num 35:7, six cities shall ye have for refuge; which, I think, makes it clear, that not all the forty eight cities were for refuge, only six of them.”
Numbers 35:14-15
Three cities east of Jordan and three in Canaan, and Moses severs the eastern three himself at Deuteronomy 4:41-43, Bezer, Ramoth and Golan, before he dies. Joshua 20:7-8 names the western three, Kedesh, Shechem and Hebron, so the six stand on record twice. Verse 15 opens all six to the stranger and the sojourner on the same terms as the Israelite, and Matthew Henry reads that provision as the pattern of Christ receiving Greek and Jew alike.
Numbers 35:14
“On this side Jordan - Because that land was as long as Canaan, though not so broad, and besides these might be convenient for many of them that lived in Canaan.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Joshua 20:9 repeats the provision when the cities are set apart, "for all the Israelites and foreigners among them". Protection turns on the deed alone, whatever the slayer's birth. Matthew Henry adds that even the pasturelands of the city were security enough for the offender.
Murder, accident, and the avenger of blood
Numbers 35:16-18
Three instruments are named, iron, stone and wood, and only the iron object carries no qualifier. The stone must be "of deadly size" and the wood "a deadly object", since a stone or stick may be in hand for harmless reasons and a blade may not. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the list as proof of settled purpose, and John Gill takes the chosen instrument as showing the slayer's design.
Numbers 35:16
“And if he smite him with an instrument of iron, so that he die,.... As with an hatchet, hammer, sword, knife, &c. he is a murderer; the instrument used by him, and with which he smote, shows that he had a bad design, and intended to kill, or he would never have smitten a man with such an instrument: the murderer shall surely be put to death; be condemned to death, and be executed, by the order of the civil magistrate, according to the law in Gen 9:6 and not be allowed the benefit of a city of refuge.”
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 35:16
“If he smite him with an instrument of iron, so that he die, &c.--Various cases are here enumerated in which the Goel or avenger was at liberty to take the life of the murderer; and every one of them proves a premeditated purpose.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The stone is judged by whether it could kill, since any man may have a stone in his hand. A heavy stone returns at verse 23, dropped without looking on a man who was no enemy, and that death is manslaughter. Intent decides between the two cases.
John Gill names a stick, staff or club and explains deadly as heavy enough to kill a man, as the Targum reads it. Such a killer is denied the city of refuge. Deuteronomy 19:11-12 has the elders of his own city fetch him back from it.
Numbers 35:18
“Or if he smote him with an hand weapon of wood,.... A stick, or staff, or club: wherewith he may die, and he die; which is sufficient to kill a man, as the same Targum explains it; and a man dies with the blow that is given him by it: he is a murderer, and the murderer shall surely be put to death; no pardon given him, or the benefit of the city of refuge allowed him.”
Numbers 35:19-21
The law turns to the mind, and verses 20 and 21 call a blow given "maliciously", "intentionally" or "in hostility" murder. Verse 19 gives the killing to the "avenger of blood" himself, and readers divide over whether that permits the kinsman or names an office he fills after sentence. Matthew Henry reports the Chaldee reading it as execution after the court's sentence, and leaves the plain sense standing.
Numbers 35:19
“The revenger of blood - גאל הדם goel haddam, the redeemer of blood; the next in blood to him who was slain. See on Num 35:12 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
A push or a thrown object is murder here because of the hatred behind it, which John Gill takes from the words thrust him of hatred. Deuteronomy 19:11 describes the same man as one who hates his neighbor and lies in wait. Exodus 21:14 denies him even the altar.
A bare hand makes a murderer when the blow is struck in hostility, so the purpose weighs more than the instrument. The avenger's duty is repeated from verse 19. Matthew Henry ties it to verse 33, where the land is cleansed only by the blood of the murderer.
Numbers 35:22-24
The accident is drawn carefully, a push "suddenly, without hostility", a stone dropped "without looking", by one who "was not an enemy". Verse 24 has the congregation "judge between the slayer and the avenger of blood", so the bereaved family does not weigh its own case. John Gill takes the congregation as a court hearing both sides, and in Joshua 20:4 the fugitive states "his case before its elders".
Numbers 35:22
“But if he thrust him suddenly, without enmity,.... Push him from a precipice, before he is aware, without any malicious design against his life, but merely through accident: or have cast upon him anything; from the top of a house, or from a building he is pulling down, or pushes a bowing wall upon him, not knowing that he is passing by it: and without lying of wait: or having contrived to do it, just as he goes along, or in any other similar way.”
The verse describes the plain accident, a stone falling on someone the thrower never saw. John Gill reports a Jewish dispute drawn from the words seeing him not, some freeing a blind man entirely and others sending him to a city of refuge. The closing words, he was not an enemy, settle the motive.
Numbers 35:23
“Or with any stone wherewith a man may die,.... Which is sufficient to kill a man, if thrown at him: seeing him not; and so without intention: the Jews (s) from hence gather, that a blind man is to be acquitted and dismissed, and not banished and so stands in no need of a city of refuge; though others say he is to be banished, and needs it, and ought to have the privilege of it: and cast it upon him that he die; casting, it upon another account, and with another view, but yet falling upon a man, it…”
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 35:23
“If he neglected thus to surrender himself, it was at his peril; if the avenger of blood met him elsewhere, or overtook him loitering in his way to the city of refuge, and slew him, his blood was upon his own head, because he did not make use of the security which God had provided for him.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Matthew Henry reads the judges as stepping in only where the case was in doubt. Where the killing was plainly wilful, the avenger acted without guilt. Joshua 20:6 keeps the fugitive in the city until he stands trial before the assembly.
The term ends at one event, "the death of the high priest", and no fine, span of years or conduct shortens it. Adam Clarke and Matthew Henry both read that of Christ, Clarke writing at verse 32 that no sinner recovers his forfeited inheritance until the great high priest has died for his offences. The New Testament nowhere states the link, and Hebrews does not use this law.
Numbers 35:25
“The man who renounces the vices and rejects the way of life of his countrymen is in flight like Lot. Such a one does not look behind himself but enters that city which is above by the passageway of his thoughts, and he does not withdraw from it until the death of the chief priest who bore the sin of the world. He indeed died once, but he dies for each person who is baptized in Christ's death, that we may be buried together with him and rise with him and walk in the newness of his life.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · FLIGHT FROM THE WORLD 9.55patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 35:25
“But he had to "abide in it." His confinement within its walls was a wise and salutary rule, designed to show the sanctity of human blood in God's sight, as well as to protect the manslayer himself, whose presence and intercourse in society might have provoked the passions of the deceased's relatives.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Numbers 35:26-28
Protection has a boundary and the manslayer keeps inside it or loses it, and John Gill reports the Jewish writers counting the measured pasturelands as part of the refuge. Verse 28 states the term a second time within four verses, which is where the weight of the passage sits. What the release gives back is named as well, "the land he owns", so it restores property along with liberty.
Numbers 35:26
“But if the slayer shall at any time come without the border of the city of his refuge,.... Which seems to be the three thousand cubits assigned to every city of the Levites, and so to the cities of refuge; and which, according to the Jewish writers, were a refuge, as the city itself; and it is said (x),"he, that kills a man there, is killed for him, but though the border is a refuge, the slayer does not dwell in it, as it is said.”
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 35:26
“If the offender was ever caught struggling out of the borders of his city of refuge, or stealing home to his house again, he lost the benefit of his protection, and lay exposed to the avenger of blood; so those that are in Christ must abide in Christ, for it is at their peril if they forsake him and wander from him.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Outside the border the avenger may kill him without guilt. John Gill takes the border as the whole measured ground around the city, its fields and vineyards included. Matthew Henry compares the English appeal of murder, brought by the widow or next heir.
Numbers 35:27
“And the revenger of blood find him without the borders of the city of his refuge,.... Without the suburbs, fields, and vineyards belonging to it: and the revenger of blood kill the slayer; being exasperated against him, and to avenge the blood of his relation on him: he shall not be guilty of blood; or be reckoned murderer, or die for it.”
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 35:27
“Our law allows an appeal to be brought against a murderer by the widow, or next heir, of the person murdered, yea, though the murderer have been acquitted upon an indictment; and, if the murderer be found guilty upon that appeal, execution shall be awarded at the suit of the appellant, who may properly be called the avenger of blood.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The verse gives the reason for the ruling of verse 27. Paterius asks what the homicide's return after the high priest's death means, and he answers that the human race receives absolution after the death of the true priest, our Redeemer. Joshua 20:6 repeats the term.
Numbers 35:28
“What does it mean that a homicide returns for absolution after the death of the high priest, except that the human race, which brought death upon itself by sinning, receives absolution for its guilt after the death of the true priest, namely, our Redeemer?”
Paterius · written before 606 · EXPOSITION OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT, NUMBERS 24patristic
Numbers 35:29-30
The statute holds "wherever you live", so a blood trial runs by one rule in every town. Verse 30 forbids a death "based on the testimony of a lone witness", a rule Deuteronomy 17:6 and 19:15 repeat and Matthew 18:16, 2 Corinthians 13:1, 1 Timothy 5:19 and Hebrews 10:28 carry forward. Adam Clarke's practical ground is that one man may be mistaken or malicious and separate examinations expose the difference.
Blood defiles the land you live in
Albert Barnes reads witnesses as two at the least. He says the rules of these closing verses protect the chapter from abuse, since the cities of refuge were meant to shelter the innocent slayer and never to spare a criminal his deserved punishment. Deuteronomy 19:15 extends the rule to every offense.
Numbers 35:30
“But one witness shall not testify against any - This was a just and necessary provision. One may be mistaken, or so violently prejudiced as to impose even on his own judgment, or so wicked as to endeavor through malice to compass the life of his neighbor: but it is not likely that two or more should be of this kind; and even were they, their separate examination would lead to a discovery of the truth, and to their conviction.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Numbers 35:31-32
Two payments are forbidden in two verses, one for the murderer's life and one for the manslayer's exile. The word rendered satisfaction is kopher, the ransom that Exodus 21:30 does allow where an ox has gored a man, which Albert Barnes points out, so the law prices some losses and refuses to price this one. Verse 32 closes the other door, since money cannot buy the fugitive home a single day early either.
Numbers 35:31
“No satisfaction - Rather, ransom (see Exo 21:30). The permission to demand pecuniary compensation for murders (expressly sanctioned by the Koran) undoubtedly mitigates, in practice, the system of private retaliation; but it does so by sacrificing the principle named in Num 35:12, Num 35:33.”
The ransom refused here would have shortened an exile, and the one refused in verse 31 would have spared a life. Both refusals put the price of blood beyond money. Verse 33 gives the reason, that only the blood of the one who shed it atones for the land.
Numbers 35:32
“Until the death of the priest - Probably intended to typify, that no sinner can be delivered from his banishment from God, or recover his forfeited inheritance, till Jesus Christ, the great high priest, had died for his offenses, and risen again for his justification.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Numbers 35:33-34
Blood "pollutes the land", and no atonement is made for it "except by the blood of the one who shed it", which is Genesis 9:6 stated as a property of the ground. Verse 34 grounds the whole chapter in one clause, "where I dwell", so the law rests on who lives in the country. Deuteronomy 21:1-9 takes up the case left standing, a body found and the killer unknown.
Numbers 35:33
“For blood it defileth the land - The very land was considered as guilty till the blood of the murderer was shed in it. No wonder God is so particularly strict in his laws against murderers, 1. Because he is the author of life, and none have any right to dispose of it but himself. 2. Because life is the time to prepare for the eternal world, and on it the salvation of the soul accordingly depends; therefore it is of infinite consequence to the man that his life be lengthened out to the utmost limits assigned by Divine Providence.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Albert Barnes calls the clause an emphatic protest against any making or relaxing of laws by men for their own convenience. The land is kept clean because the LORD lives in it. Numbers 5:3 gave the same reason for keeping the camp clean.
Numbers 35:34
“For I the Lord dwell ... - An emphatic protest against all enactment or relaxation of laws by men for their own private convenience.”
How this psalm is built
The form: Law in two parts, the provision of the Levitical towns and the law of homicide with its cities of refuge, as Barnes classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Six out of forty-eight | The chapter counts the towns twice. Verse 6 gives six cities of refuge and forty-two others, and verse 7 states the total as forty-eight. The refuge towns are a subset of the Levitical towns rather than a separate provision. | Numbers 35:6, Numbers 35:7 |
| The murderer must surely be put to death | The same verdict closes each of the three cases at verses 16, 17 and 18, which differ only in the weapon used. Iron, a stone of deadly size and a deadly object of wood each carry the identical sentence. | Numbers 35:16, Numbers 35:17, Numbers 35:18 |
| Intent tested by what was in the hand | The law is built as two matching lists. Verses 16 to 21 set out the cases that make a man a murderer, and verses 22 to 23 set out the matching cases that make him a manslayer. The wording runs in parallel so the point of difference stands out, which is hostility. | Numbers 35:16-21, Numbers 35:22-23 |
The pasturelands and the two measurements
14 more paragraphs on the patterns
Verse 4 gives a thousand cubits from the wall and verse 5 gives two thousand on each side, which looks at first like a conflict.
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown hold that the two verses refer to different things, one giving the extent of the suburbs from the city wall and the other a further measure.
John Wesley states the same solution in his own words. Verse 4 speaks of the space from which the suburbs are measured, and verse 5 of the space to which that measure extends.
Matthew Henry reads the provision as generous by design, so that the Levites might live plentifully and have every convenience about them.
The avenger of blood
John Wesley gives the Hebrew sense of the term at verse 12 as the redeemer or next kinsman. To that man belonged the right of redeeming family land and of answering an injury done to the dead. Adam Clarke gives the Hebrew directly at verse 19 as goel haddam, the redeemer of blood, the next in blood to the man who was slain.
Wesley also notes the two ways the avenger's duty has been read. Either it permits him to act himself without offence to God, or it is a command carried out through the magistrate from whom he demands justice.
Why money could not close the case
Verse 31 refuses a ransom for the life of a murderer. Albert Barnes observes that permitting money compensation for a killing mitigates private retaliation in practice, and names the Koran as expressly sanctioning it, while noting what such a permission costs.
Adam Clarke reads verse 33 as the reason. The land itself was considered guilty until the blood of the murderer was shed in it, and he grounds God's strictness here in the fact that God is the author of life.
The release and the high priest
Verse 25 ties the manslayer's release to the death of the high priest who was anointed with the holy oil. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the confinement as a wise and salutary rule, meant to show the sanctity of human blood and to protect the manslayer himself.
How it compared with the nations
Adam Clarke sets the six towns beside the asylums of the Greeks and Romans and the privileged altars of later Europe. He notes the difference that decides the matter, which is that these towns protected only those who had killed involuntarily.
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Numbers 35:11; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, on Numbers 35:6 and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on Numbers 35:4.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch; MannaFest exposition; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Paterius, Exposition of the Old and New Testament.