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Numbers 35:13

in Numbers 35

The cities you select will be your six cities of refuge.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

And the cities which ye shall give shall be for you six cities of refuge.

KJV

And of these cities which ye shall give six cities shall ye have for refuge.

This verse in Numbers 35

Commentary

2 notes on this verse

This site's exposition

cities for refuge from the avenger

on Numbers 35:12-13

The avenger is the goel, the same word and the same office as the kinsman who buys back a poor brother's field at Leviticus 25:25 and the near kinsman of Ruth 3:12. The man whose duty is to redeem a family's land is the man whose duty is to answer for its blood. Verse 12 also states what the city is for, that the manslayer die not until he stand before the congregation in judgment, so the gate buys him a hearing and no more than that.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

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.

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

On the verses either side of this one

מגאל — [AND THE CITIES SHALL BE UNTO YOU AS A REFUGE] מגאל — i.e. as a refuge on account of the avenger of blood, — he who is the near relative of the murdered man.
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on Numbers 35:12:1, via Sefaria, Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 5 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

8 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וְהֶעָרִ֖יםand the cities

    vehearimH58921090 times

  • אֲשֶׁ֣רwhich

    ʾasherH8345497 times

  • תִּתֵּ֑נוּyou will give

    titenuH54142011 times

  • שֵׁשׁ־six

    shesh-H8337216 times

  • עָרֵ֥יcities of

    ʾareiH58921090 times

  • מִקְלָ֖טrefuge

    miklatH473320 times

  • תִּהְיֶ֥ינָהthey will be

    tihyeinahH19613559 times

  • לָכֶֽם׃for <the> you

    lakhem

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Where this verse is studied

On this page

About Numbers

The Bronze Serpent, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
The Bronze Serpent, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch.