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Numbers 35:34 King James Version with Strong's Concordance (STRONG)

34 Defile H2930 not therefore the land H776 which ye shall inhabit, H3427 wherein H8432 I dwell: H7931 for I the LORD H3068 dwell H7931 among H8432 the children H1121 of Israel. H3478

Cross Reference

Numbers 5:3 STRONG

Both male H2145 and female H5347 shall ye put out, H7971 without H2351 the camp H4264 shall ye put H7971 them; that they defile H2930 not their camps, H4264 in the midst H8432 whereof H834 I dwell. H7931

Exodus 25:8 STRONG

And let them make H6213 me a sanctuary; H4720 that I may dwell H7931 among H8432 them.

Exodus 29:45-46 STRONG

And I will dwell H7931 among H8432 the children H1121 of Israel, H3478 and will be their God. H430 And they shall know H3045 that I am the LORD H3068 their God, H430 that brought them forth H3318 out of the land H776 of Egypt, H4714 that I may dwell H7931 among H8432 them: I am the LORD H3068 their God. H430

Leviticus 18:24-25 STRONG

Defile H2930 not ye yourselves in any of these things: H428 for in all these the nations H1471 are defiled H2930 which I cast out H7971 before H6440 you: And the land H776 is defiled: H2930 therefore I do visit H6485 the iniquity H5771 thereof upon it, and the land H776 itself vomiteth out H6958 her inhabitants. H3427

Leviticus 20:24-26 STRONG

But I have said H559 unto you, Ye shall inherit H3423 their land, H127 and I will give H5414 it unto you to possess H3423 it, a land H776 that floweth H2100 with milk H2461 and honey: H1706 I am the LORD H3068 your God, H430 which have separated H914 you from other people. H5971 Ye shall therefore put difference H914 between clean H2889 beasts H929 and unclean, H2931 and between unclean H2931 fowls H5775 and clean: H2889 and ye shall not make your souls H5315 abominable H8262 by beast, H929 or by fowl, H5775 or by any manner of living thing that creepeth H7430 on the ground, H127 which I have separated H914 from you as unclean. H2930 And ye shall be holy H6918 unto me: for I the LORD H3068 am holy, H6918 and have severed H914 you from other people, H5971 that ye should be mine.

1 Kings 6:13 STRONG

And I will dwell H7931 among H8432 the children H1121 of Israel, H3478 and will not forsake H5800 my people H5971 Israel. H3478

Psalms 132:14 STRONG

This is my rest H4496 for ever: H5703 here will I dwell; H3427 for I have desired H183 it.

Psalms 135:21 STRONG

Blessed H1288 be the LORD H3068 out of Zion, H6726 which dwelleth H7931 at Jerusalem. H3389 Praise H1984 ye the LORD. H3050

Isaiah 8:12 STRONG

Say H559 ye not, A confederacy, H7195 to all them to whom this people H5971 shall say, H559 A confederacy; H7195 neither fear H3372 ye their fear, H4172 nor be afraid. H6206

Isaiah 57:15 STRONG

For thus saith H559 the high H7311 and lofty One H5375 that inhabiteth H7931 eternity, H5703 whose name H8034 is Holy; H6918 I dwell H7931 in the high H4791 and holy H6918 place, with him also that is of a contrite H1793 and humble H8217 spirit, H7307 to revive H2421 the spirit H7307 of the humble, H8217 and to revive H2421 the heart H3820 of the contrite ones. H1792

Hosea 9:3 STRONG

They shall not dwell H3427 in the LORD'S H3068 land; H776 but Ephraim H669 shall return H7725 to Egypt, H4714 and they shall eat H398 unclean H2931 things in Assyria. H804

2 Corinthians 6:16-17 STRONG

And G1161 what G5101 agreement G4783 hath the temple G3485 of God G2316 with G3326 idols? G1497 for G1063 ye G5210 are G2075 the temple G3485 of the living G2198 God; G2316 as G2531 God G2316 hath said, G2036 G3754 I will dwell G1774 in G1722 them, G846 and G2532 walk in G1704 them; and G2532 I will be G2071 their G846 God, G2316 and G2532 they G846 shall be G2071 my G3427 people. G2992 Wherefore G1352 come out G1831 from G1537 among G3319 them, G846 and G2532 be ye separate, G873 saith G3004 the Lord, G2962 and G2532 touch G680 not G3361 the unclean G169 thing; and G2504 I will receive G1523 you, G5209

Revelation 21:3 STRONG

And G2532 I heard G191 a great G3173 voice G5456 out of G1537 heaven G3772 saying, G3004 Behold, G2400 the tabernacle G4633 of God G2316 is with G3326 men, G444 and G2532 he will dwell G4637 with G3326 them, G846 and G2532 they G846 shall be G2071 his G846 people, G2992 and G2532 God G2316 himself G846 shall be G2071 with G3326 them, G846 and be their G846 God. G2316

Revelation 21:27 STRONG

And G2532 there shall G1525 in no wise G3364 enter G1525 into G1519 it G846 any thing G3956 that defileth, G2840 neither G2532 whatsoever worketh G4160 abomination, G946 or G2532 maketh a lie: G5579 but G1508 they which are written G1125 in G1722 the Lamb's G721 book G975 of life. G2222

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.).