Numbers 35 Footnotes

35:4-5 Commentators have noted the seeming incongruity of the dimensions given here, measurements which would require the cities to be of minimal size to meet both distance parameters. The figures delineate a territory extending out 1000 cubits (1500 feet) from the city walls with a total of 2000 cubits (3000 feet) on a side. Most walled cities were 3-5 acres in size, so the figure of 2000 cubits per side does not allow a distance of 1500 feet from any side of the city. Several writers have suggested that the 3000-foot dimension represents the view from outside the city, making the walled city the epicenter of a 3000-foot square Levitical territory. Others suggest the outer distances are meant to be taken as 3000 feet plus the city area.

35:9-34 The promised land was to be a holy land, free from the heinous impurity of shed blood. The six cities of refuge (Jos 20) established a place where someone who committed accidental manslaughter (unintentional, as in Nm 15:22-29) could find protection from a vengeful member of the slain person’s family. In another sense, the “city of refuge” was a place of banishment for the offender. City elders assessed each case individually to determine the nature and cause of the victim’s death. The killer’s guilt was atoned only through the death of the high priest, so the killer was obliged to remain inside the city until the high priest died. The law did not apply to willful murders; if the local city congregation determined that the death of the victim had been the result of premeditation or intent to harm, they were to execute the slayer.

35:30-31 The death penalty could not be carried out on the basis of a single witness but only on the basis of multiple attestations. If the case was determined to be murder, the “city of refuge” offered no protection for the perpetrator.