Worthy.Bible » STRONG » Numbers » Chapter 35 » Verse 28

Numbers 35:28 King James Version with Strong's Concordance (STRONG)

28 Because he should have remained H3427 in the city H5892 of his refuge H4733 until the death H4194 of the high H1419 priest: H3548 but after H310 the death H4194 of the high H1419 priest H3548 the slayer H7523 shall return H7725 into the land H776 of his possession. H272

Cross Reference

John 15:4-6 STRONG

Abide G3306 in G1722 me, G1698 and I G2504 in G1722 you. G5213 As G2531 the branch G2814 cannot G3756 G1410 bear G5342 fruit G2590 of G575 itself, G1438 except G3362 it abide G3306 in G1722 the vine; G288 no more G3761 G3779 can ye, G5210 except G3362 ye abide G3306 in G1722 me. G1698 I G1473 am G1510 the vine, G288 ye G5210 are the branches: G2814 He that abideth G3306 in G1722 me, G1698 and I G2504 in G1722 him, G846 the same G3778 bringeth forth G5342 much G4183 fruit: G2590 for G3754 without G5565 me G1700 ye can G1410 do G4160 nothing. G3756 G3762 If G3362 a man G5100 abide G3306 not G3362 in G1722 me, G1698 he is cast G906 forth G1854 as G5613 a branch, G2814 and G2532 is withered; G3583 and G2532 men gather G4863 them, G846 and G2532 cast G906 them into G1519 the fire, G4442 and G2532 they are burned. G2545

Acts 11:23 STRONG

Who, G3739 when he came, G3854 and G2532 had seen G1492 the grace G5485 of God, G2316 was glad, G5463 and G2532 exhorted G3870 them all, G3956 that with purpose G4286 of heart G2588 they would cleave unto G4357 the Lord. G2962

Acts 27:31 STRONG

Paul G3972 said G2036 to the centurion G1543 and G2532 to the soldiers, G4757 Except G3362 these G3778 abide G3306 in G1722 the ship, G4143 ye G5210 cannot G3756 G1410 be saved. G4982

Hebrews 3:14 STRONG

For G1063 we are made G1096 partakers G3353 of Christ, G5547 if G1437 G4007 we hold G2722 the beginning G746 of our confidence G5287 stedfast G949 unto G3360 the end; G5056

Hebrews 6:4-8 STRONG

For G1063 it is impossible G102 for those who were once G530 enlightened, G5461 and G5037 have tasted G1089 of the heavenly G2032 gift, G1431 and G2532 were made G1096 partakers G3353 of the Holy G40 Ghost, G4151 And G2532 have tasted G1089 the good G2570 word G4487 of God, G2316 and G5037 the powers G1411 of the world G165 to come, G3195 If G2532 they shall fall away, G3895 to renew them G340 again G3825 unto G1519 repentance; G3341 seeing they crucify G388 to themselves G1438 the Son G5207 of God G2316 afresh, G388 and G2532 put him to an open shame. G3856 For G1063 the earth G1093 which G3588 drinketh in G4095 the rain G5205 that cometh G2064 oft G4178 upon G1909 it, G846 and G2532 bringeth forth G5088 herbs G1008 meet G2111 for them G1565 G2532 by G1223 whom G3739 it is dressed, G1090 receiveth G3335 blessing G2129 from G575 God: G2316 But G1161 that which beareth G1627 thorns G173 and G2532 briers G5146 is rejected, G96 and G2532 is nigh G1451 unto cursing; G2671 whose G3739 end G5056 is to G1519 be burned. G2740

Hebrews 9:11-12 STRONG

But G1161 Christ G5547 being come G3854 an high priest G749 of good things G18 to come, G3195 by G1223 a greater G3187 and G2532 more perfect G5046 tabernacle, G4633 not G3756 made with hands, G5499 that is to say, G5123 not G3756 of this G5026 building; G2937 Neither G3761 by G1223 the blood G129 of goats G5131 and G2532 calves, G3448 but G1161 by G1223 his own G2398 blood G129 he entered in G1525 once G2178 into G1519 the holy place, G39 having obtained G2147 eternal G166 redemption G3085 for us.

Hebrews 9:15-17 STRONG

And G2532 for this G5124 cause G1223 he is G2076 the mediator G3316 of the new G2537 testament, G1242 that G3704 by means G1096 of death, G2288 for G1519 the redemption G629 of the transgressions G3847 that were under G1909 the first G4413 testament, G1242 they which are called G2564 might receive G2983 the promise G1860 of eternal G166 inheritance. G2817 For G1063 where G3699 a testament G1242 is, there must also of necessity G318 be G5342 the death G2288 of the testator. G1303 For G1063 a testament G1242 is of force G949 after G1909 men are dead: G3498 otherwise G1893 it is of G2480 no G3379 strength G2480 at all G3379 while G3753 the testator G1303 liveth. G2198

Hebrews 10:26-30 STRONG

For G1063 if we G2257 sin G264 wilfully G1596 after G3326 that we have received G2983 the knowledge G1922 of the truth, G225 there remaineth G620 no more G3765 sacrifice G2378 for G4012 sins, G266 But G1161 a certain G5100 fearful G5398 looking for G1561 of judgment G2920 and G2532 fiery G4442 indignation, G2205 which shall G3195 devour G2068 the adversaries. G5227 He G5100 that despised G114 Moses' G3475 law G3551 died G599 without G5565 mercy G3628 under G1909 two G1417 or G2228 three G5140 witnesses: G3144 Of how much G4214 sorer G5501 punishment, G5098 suppose ye, G1380 shall he be thought worthy, G515 who G3588 hath trodden under foot G2662 the Son G5207 of God, G2316 and G2532 hath counted G2233 the blood G129 of the covenant, G1242 wherewith G3739 G1722 he was sanctified, G37 an unholy thing, G2839 and G2532 hath done despite G1796 unto the Spirit G4151 of grace? G5485 For G1063 we know G1492 him that hath said, G2036 Vengeance G1557 belongeth unto me, G1698 I G1473 will recompense, G467 saith G3004 the Lord. G2962 And G2532 again, G3825 The Lord G2962 shall judge G2919 his G846 people. G2992

Hebrews 10:39 STRONG

But G1161 we G2249 are G2070 not G3756 of them who draw back G5289 unto G1519 perdition; G684 but G235 of them that believe G4102 to G1519 the saving G4047 of the soul. G5590

Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Numbers 35

Commentary on Numbers 35 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary


Verses 1-3

Appointment of Towns for the Levites. - As the Levites were to receive no inheritance of their own, i.e., no separate tribe-territory, in the land of Canaan (Numbers 18:20 and Numbers 18:23), Moses commanded the children of Israel, i.e., the rest of the tribes, in accordance with the divine instructions, to give (vacate) towns to the Levites to dwell in of the inheritance that fell to them for a possession, with pasturage by the cities round about them for their cattle. “Towns to dwell in,” i.e., not the whole of the towns as their own property, but as many houses in the towns as sufficed for the necessities of the Levites as their hereditary possession, which could be redeemed, if sold at any time, and which reverted to them without compensation in the year of jubilee, even if not redeemed before (Leviticus 25:32-33); but any portion of the towns which was not taken possession of by them, together with the fields and villages, continued the property of those tribes to which they had been assigned by lot (cf. Joshua 21:12, and my commentary on this passage: also Bהhr, Symbolik , ii. p. 50; Ewald , Gesch . ii. p. 403). They were also to give them מגרשׁ (from גּרשׁ , to drive, drive out), pasturage or fields, to feed their flocks upon, all round the cities; and according to Leviticus 25:34, this was not to be sold, but to remain the eternal possession of the Levites. לבהמתּם , for their oxen and beasts of burden, and לרכוּשׁם , for their (remaining) possessions in flocks (sheep and goats), which are generally described in other cases as Mikneh , in distinction from behemah (e.g., Numbers 32:26; Genesis 34:23; Genesis 36:6). לכל־חיּתם and for all their animals, is merely a generalizing summary signifying all the animals which they possessed.


Verse 4-5

The pasture lands of the different towns were to measure “ from the town wall outwards a thousand cubits round about ,” i.e., on each of the four sides. “ And measure from without the city, the east side 2000 cubits, and the south side 2000 cubits, and the west side 2000 cubits, and the north side 2000 cubits, and the city in the middle ,” i.e., so that the town stood in the middle of the measured lines, and the space which they occupied was not included in the 2000 cubits. The meaning of these instructions, which have caused great perplexity to commentators, and have latterly been explained by Saalschtz ( Mos. R. pp. 100, 101) in a marvellously erroneous manner, was correctly expounded by J. D. Michaelis in the notes to his translation. We must picture the towns and the surrounding fields as squares, the pasturage as stretching 1000 cubits from the city wall in every direction, as the accompanying figures show, and the length of each outer side as 2000 cubits, apart from the length of the city wall: so that, if the town itself occupied a square of 1000 cubits (see fig. a ), the outer side of the town fields would measure 2000 + 1000 cubits in every direction; but if each side of the city wall was only 500 cubits long (see fig. b ), the outer side of the town fields would measure 2000 + 500 cubits in every direction.


Verses 6-8

Of these cities which were given up to the Levites, six were to serve as cities of refuge (see at Numbers 35:12) for manslayers, and in addition to these ( עליהם , over upon them) the Israelites were to give of their possessions forty-two others, that is to say, forty-eight in all; and they were to do this, giving much from every tribe that had much, and little from the one which had little (Numbers 26:54). With the accusatives הערים את and ערי שׁשׁ עת (Numbers 35:6), the writer has already in his mind the verbs תּרבּוּ and תּמעיטוּ of Numbers 35:8, where he takes up the object again in the word והערים . According to Josh 21, the Levites received nine cities in the territory of Judah and Simeon, four in the territory of each of the other tribes, with the exception of Naphtali, in which there were only three, that is to say, ten in the land to the east of the Jordan, and thirty-eight in Canaan proper, of which the thirteen given up by Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin were assigned to the families of the priests, and the other thirty-five to the three Levitical families. This distribution of the Levites among all the tribes - by which the curse of division and dispersion in Israel, which had been pronounced upon Levi in Jacob's blessing (Genesis 49:7), was changed into a blessing both for the Levites themselves and also for all Israel - was in perfect accordance with the election and destination of this tribe. Called out of the whole nation to be the peculiar possession of Jehovah, to watch over His covenant, and teach Israel His rights and His law (Deuteronomy 33:9-10; Leviticus 10:11; Deuteronomy 31:9-13), the Levites were to form and set forth among all the tribes the ἐκλογή of the nation of Jehovah's possession, and by their walk as well as by their calling to remind the Israelites continually of their own divine calling; to foster and preserve the law and testimony of the Lord in Israel, and to awaken and spread the fear of God and piety among all the tribes. Whilst their distribution among all the tribes corresponded to this appointment, the fact that they were not scattered in all the towns and villages of the other tribes, but were congregated together in separate towns among the different tribes, preserved them from the disadvantages of standing alone, and defended them from the danger of moral and spiritual declension. Lastly, in the number forty-eight, the quadrupling of the number of the tribes (twelve) is unmistakeable. Now, as the number four is the seal of the kingdom of God in the world, the idea of the kingdom of God is also represented in the four times twelve towns (cf. Bähr, Symbolik , ii. pp. 50, 51).


Verses 9-11

Selection and Appointment of Cities of Refuge for Unpremeditated Manslayers. - Numbers 35:10, Numbers 35:11. When the Israelites had come into the land of Canaan, they were to choose towns conveniently situated as cities of refuge, to which the manslayer, who had slain a person ( nephesh ) by accident ( בּשׁגגה : see at Leviticus 4:2), might flee. הקרה , from קרה , to hit, occurrit , as well as accidit ; signifies here to give or make, i.e., to choose something suitable ( Dietrich ), but not “to build or complete” ( Knobel ), in the sense of קרה , as the only meaning which this word has is contignare , to join with beams or rafters; and this is obviously unsuitable here. Through these directions, which are repeated and still further expanded in Deuteronomy 19:1-13, God fulfilled the promise which He gave in Exodus 21:13 : that He would appoint a place for the man who should unintentionally slay his neighbour, to which he might flee from the avenger of blood.


Verses 12-15

These towns were to serve for a refuge from the avenger of blood, that the manslayer might not die before he had taken his trial in the presence of the congregation. The number of cities was fixed at six, three on the other side of the Jordan, and three on this side in the land of Canaan, to which both the children of Israel, and also the foreigners and settlers who were dwelling among them, might flee. In Deuteronomy 19:2., Moses advises the congregation to prepare ( הכין ) the way to these cities, and to divide the territory of the land which Jehovah would give them into three parts ( שׁלּשׁ ), i.e., to set apart a free city in every third of the land, that every manslayer might flee thither, i.e., might be able to reach the free city without being detained by length of distance or badness of road, lest, as is added in Deuteronomy 19:6, the avenger of blood pursue the slayer while his heart is hot ( יחם , imperf. Kal of חמם ), and overtake him because the way is long, and slay him ( נפשׁ הכּה , as in Genesis 37:21), whereas he was not worthy of death (i.e., there was no just ground for putting him to death), “because he had not done it out of hatred.” The three cities of refuge on the other side were selected by Moses himself (Deuteronomy 4:41-43); the three in Canaan were not appointed till the land was distributed among the nine tribes and a half (Joshua 20:7). Levitical or priests' towns were selected for all six, not only because it was to the priests and Levites that they would first of all look for an administration of justice ( Schultz on Deuteronomy 19:3), but also on the ground that these cities were the property of Jehovah, in a higher sense than the rest of the land, and for this reason answered the idea of cities of refuge, where the manslayer, when once received, was placed under the protection of divine grace, better than any other places possibly could.

The establishment of cities of refuge presupposed the custom and right of revenge. The custom itself goes back to the very earliest times of the human race (Genesis 4:15, Genesis 4:24; Genesis 27:45); it prevailed among the Israelites, as well as the other nations of antiquity, and still continues among the Arabs in unlimited force (cf. Niebuhr , Arab. pp. 32ff.; Burckhardt , Beduinen, 119, 251ff.). “Revenge of blood prevailed almost everywhere, so long as there was no national life generated, or it was still in the first stages of its development; and consequently the expiation of any personal violation of justice was left to private revenge, and more especially to family zeal” ( Oehler in Herzog's B. Cycl., where the proofs may be seen). The warrant for this was the principle of retribution, the jus talionis , which lay at the foundation of the divine order of the world in general, and the Mosaic law in particular, and which was sanctioned by God, so far as murder was concerned, even in the time of Noah, by the command, “Whoso sheddeth man's blood,” etc. (Genesis 9:5-6). This warrant, however, or rather obligation to avenge murder, was subordinated to the essential principle of the theocracy, under the Mosaic law. Whilst God Himself would avenge the blood that was shed, not only upon men, but upon animals also (Genesis 9:5), and commanded blood-revenge, He withdrew the execution of it from subjective caprice, and restricted it to cases of premeditated slaying or murder, by appointing cities of refuge, which were to protect the manslayer from the avenger, until he took his trial before the congregation. גּאל , redeemer, is “ that particular relative whose special duty it was to restore the violated family integrity, who had to redeem not only landed property that had been alienated from the family (Leviticus 25:25.), or a member of the family that had fallen into slavery (Leviticus 25:47.), but also the blood that had been taken away from the family by murder” ( Oehler ). In the latter respect he was called הדּם גּאל , (Numbers 35:19, Numbers 35:21, Numbers 35:24.; Deuteronomy 19:6, Deuteronomy 19:12). From 2 Samuel 14:7, we may see that it was the duty of the whole family to take care that blood-revenge was carried out. The performance of the duty itself, however, was probably regulated by the closeness of the relationship, and corresponded to the duty of redeeming from bondage (Leviticus 25:49), and to the right of inheritance (Numbers 27:8.). What standing before the congregation was to consist of, is defined more fully in what follows (Numbers 35:24, Numbers 35:25). If we compare with this Joshua 20:4., the manslayer, who fled from the avenger of blood into a free city, was to stand before the gates of the city, and state his cause before the elders. They were then to receive him into the city, and give him a place that he might dwell among them, and were not to deliver him up to the avenger of blood till he had stood before the congregation for judgment. Consequently, if the slayer of a man presented himself with the request to be received, the elders of the free city had to make a provisional inquiry into his case, to decide whether they should grant him protection in the city; and then if the avenger of blood appeared, they were not to deliver up the person whom they had received, but to hand him over, on the charge of the avenger of blood, to the congregation to whom he belonged, or among whom the act had taken place, that they might investigate the case, and judge whether the deed itself was wilful or accidental.


Verses 16-18

Special instructions are given in Numbers 35:16-28, with reference to the judicial procedure. First of all (Numbers 35:16-21), with regard to qualified slaying or murder. If any person has struck another with an iron instrument (an axe, hatchet, hammer, etc.), or “ with a stone of the hand, from which one dies ,” i.e., with a stone which filled the hand, - a large stone, therefore, with which it was possible to kill, - or “ with a wooden instrument of the hand, from which one dies ,” i.e., with a thick club, or a large, strong wooden instrument, and he then died (so that he died in consequence), he was a murderer, who was to be put to death. “For the suspicion would rest upon any one who had used an instrument, that endangered life and therefore was not generally used in striking, that he had intended to take life away” ( Knobel ).


Verse 19

The avenger of blood could put him to death, when he hit upon him, i.e., whenever and wherever he met with him.


Verses 20-23

And so also the man who hit another in hatred, or threw at him by lying in wait, or struck him with the hand in enmity, so that he died. And if a murderer of this kind fled into a free city, the elders of his city were to have him fetched out and delivered up to the avenger of blood (Deuteronomy 19:11-12). Then follow, in Numbers 35:22-28, the proceedings to be taken with an unintentional manslayer, viz., if any one hit another “in the moment,” i.e., suddenly, unawares (Numbers 6:9), without enmity, or by throwing anything upon him, without lying in wait, or by letting a stone, by which a man might be killed, fall upon him without seeing him, so that he died in consequence, but without being his enemy, or watching to do him harm. In using the expression בּכל־אבן , the writer had probably השׁליך still in his mind; but he dropped this word, and wrote ויּפּל in the form of a fresh sentence. The thing intended is explained still more clearly in Deuteronomy 19:4-5. Instead of בּפתע , we find there בּבלי־דעת , without knowing unintentionally. The words, “without being his enemy,” are paraphrased there by, “without hating him from yesterday and the day before yesterday” (i.e., previously), and are explained by an example taken from the life: “ When a man goeth into the wood with his neighbour to hew wood, and his hand fetcheth a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree, and the iron slippeth ( נשׁל Niphal of שׁלל ) from the wood (handle), and lighteth upon his neighbour .”


Verse 24-25

In such a case as this, the congregation was to judge between the slayer and the avenger of blood, according to the judgments before them. They were to rescue the innocent man from the avenger of blood, to bring him back to his (i.e., the nearest) city of refuge to which he had fled, that he might dwell there till the death of the high priest, who had been anointed with the holy oil.


Verses 26-28

If he left the city of refuge before this, and the avenger of blood got hold of him, and slew him outside the borders (precincts) of the city, it was not to be reckoned to him as blood ( דּם לו אין , like דּמים לו אין , Exodus 22:1). But after the death of the high priest he might return “into the land of his possession,” i.e., his hereditary possession (cf. Leviticus 27:22), sc., without the avenger of blood being allowed to pursue him any longer.

In these regulations “all the rigour of the divine justice is manifested in the most beautiful concord with His compassionate mercy. Through the destruction of life, even when not wilful, human blood had been shed, and demanded expiation. Yet this expiation did not consist in the death of the offender himself, because he had not sinned wilfully.” Hence an asylum was provided for him in the free city, to which he might escape, and where he would lie concealed. This sojourn in the free city was not to be regarded as banishment, although separation from house, home, and family was certainly a punishment; but it was a concealment under “the protection of the mercy of God, which opened places of escape in the cities of refuge from the carnal ardour of the avenger of blood, where the slayer remained concealed until his sin was expiated by the death of the high priest.” For the fact, that the death of the high priest was hereby regarded as expiatory, as many of the Rabbins, fathers, and earlier commentators maintain (see my Comm. on Joshua, p. 448), is unmistakeably evident from the addition of the clause, “who has been anointed with the holy oil,” which would appear unmeaning and superfluous on any other view. This clause points to the inward connection between the return of the slayer and the death of the high priest. “The anointing with the holy oil was a symbol of the communication of the Holy Ghost, by which the high priest was empowered to act as mediator and representative of the nation before God, so that he alone could carry out the yearly and general expiation for the whole nation, on the great day of atonement. But as his life and work acquired a representative signification through this anointing with the Holy Ghost, his death might also be regarded as a death for the sins of the people, by virtue of the Holy Ghost imparted to him, through which the unintentional manslayer received the benefits of the propitiation for his sin before God, so that he could return cleansed to his native town, without further exposure to the vengeance of the avenger of blood” (Comm. on Joshua, p. 448). But inasmuch as, according to this view, the death of the high priest had the same result in a certain sense, in relation to his time of office, as his function on the day of atonement had had every year, “the death of the earthly high priest became thereby a type of that of the heavenly One, who, through the eternal (holy) Spirit, offered Himself without spot to God, that we might be redeemed from our transgressions, and receive the promised eternal inheritance (Hebrews 9:14-15). Just as the blood of Christ wrought out eternal redemption, only because through the eternal Spirit He offered Himself without spot to God, so the death of the high priest of the Old Testament secured the complete deliverance of the manslayer form his sin, only because he had been anointed with the holy oil, the symbol of the Holy Ghost.”


Verses 29-32

If, therefore, the confinement of the unintentional manslayer in the city of refuge was neither an ordinary exile nor merely a means of rescuing him from the revenge of the enraged goel , but an appointment of the just and merciful God for the expiation of human blood even though not wilfully shed, that, whilst there was no violation of judicial righteousness, a barrier might be set to the unrighteousness of family revenge; it was necessary to guard against any such abuse of this gracious provision of the righteous God, as that into which the heathen right of asylum had degenerated.

(Note: On the asyla, in general, see Winer's Real-W


Verse 33

The Israelites were not to desecrate their land by sparing the murderer; as blood, i.e., bloodshed or murder, desecrated the land, and there was no expiation ( יכפּר ) to the land for the blood that was shed in it, except through the blood of the man who had shed it, i.e., through the execution of the murderer, by which justice would be satisfied.


Verse 34

And they were not to desecrate the land in which they dwelt by tolerating murderers, because Jehovah, the Holy One, dwelt in it, among the children of Israel (cf. Leviticus 18:25.).