Numbers 35:24-34

24 then ¹the congregation shall judge between the slayer and the blood avenger according to these ordinances.

25 'The congregation shall deliver the manslayer from the hand of the blood avenger, and the congregation shall restore him to his city of refuge to which he fled; and he shall live in it until the death of the high priest who was anointed with the holy oil.

26 'But if the manslayer at any time goes beyond the border of his city of refuge to which he may flee,

27 and the blood avenger finds him outside * the border of his city of refuge, and the blood avenger kills the manslayer, he will not be guilty of blood

28 because he should have remained in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest. But after the death of the high priest the manslayer shall return to the land of his possession.

29 'These things shall be for a ²statutory ordinance to you throughout your generations in all your dwellings.

30 '³If anyone kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death at the evidence of witnesses, but ⁴no person shall be put to death on the testimony of one witness.

31 'Moreover, you shall not take ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death, but he shall surely be put to death.

32 'You shall not take ransom for him who has fled to his city of refuge, that he may return to live in the land before the death of the priest.

33 '⁵So you shall not pollute the land in which you are; for blood pollutes the land and no expiation can be made for the land for the blood that is shed on it, except * ⁶by the blood of him who shed it.

34 'You shall not ⁷defile the land in which you live, in the midst of which ⁸I dwell; for I the LORD am dwelling in the midst of the sons of Israel.' "

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Numbers 35:24-34 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO NUMBERS 35

Though the tribe of Levi had no part in the division of the land, yet cities out of the several tribes are here ordered to be given them to dwell in, to the number of forty eight, Nu 35:1-8, six of which were to be cities of refuge, Nu 35:9-15, but not for wilful murderers, in whatsoever way they might kill a man, Nu 35:16-21, but for such who had killed a man unawares, Nu 35:22-24, and several rules are given relating to such persons, Nu 35:25-29, but no satisfaction was to be taken in case of murder, nor to excuse a person's return to his own house before the death of the high priest, who had fled to a city of refuge, that so the land might not be defiled, Nu 35:30-34.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 8

1. Joshua 20:6
2. Numbers 27:11
3. Numbers 35:16
4. Deuteronomy 17:6; Deuteronomy 19:15; Matthew 18:16; John 7:51; John 8:17, 18
5. Deuteronomy 21:7, 8; Psalms 106:38
6. Genesis 9:6
7. Leviticus 18:24, 25
8. Numbers 5:3

Footnotes 2

[a]. Lit "mouth"
[b]. Or "until"

Numbers 35:24-34

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Numbers 35:24-34 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO NUMBERS 35

Cross References 8

Footnotes 2