Numbers 35:33

33 So you will not pollute the land in which you are; because blood pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is poured out on it except with the blood of the one who poured it out.

Numbers 35:33 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 35:33

So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are
The land of Canaan, as it had been by the old inhabitants of it, by idolatry, adultery, and murder:

for blood it defileth the land:
the shedding of innocent blood defiles a nation, and the inhabitants of it, brings guilt thereon, and subjects to punishment:

and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but
by the blood of him that shed it;
or "there can be no expiation" ^F2, or "atonement made" for it in any other way; the blood of the murderer is required at his hands, and nothing short of it will satisfy law and justice, see ( Genesis 9:6 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F2 (rpky al) "non posset expiatio", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; to the same sense Pagninus, Montanus, Tigurine version.

Numbers 35:33 In-Context

31 Also, you will not take a ransom payment for the life of a killer who [is] guilty of death; indeed, he must surely be put to death.

32 You will not take a ransom payment for the one that flees to the city of his refuge, so that he may return to live in the land before the death of the priest.

33 So you will not pollute the land in which you are; because blood pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is poured out on it except with the blood of the one who poured it out.

34 You will not defile the land on which you [are] living because I [am] living in the midst of it; I am Yahweh; I [am] living in the midst of the {Israelites}.'"