Numbers 35:34

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}.'"

Numbers 35:34 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 35:34

Defile not therefore the land which ye shall inherit
By the commission of such atrocious crimes, or suffering them to go unpunished, or by taking a compensation for the life of the guilty person:

wherein I dwell;
which is added to strengthen the exhortation, and as giving a reason why care should be taken not to pollute it, because the Holy God dwells there; as he did in the tabernacle erected for him, and in such a peculiar manner as he did not in other lands:

for I the Lord dwell among the children of Israel;
he now dwelt among them as their God, and their King; his tent or tabernacle being pitched in the midst of the camps of Israel; and so he would continue to dwell among them when they were come to the land of Canaan, so long as they observed his laws, statutes, and ordinances; and therefore it behoved them to be careful that they did not pollute themselves and their land, and cause him to depart from them.

Numbers 35:34 In-Context

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}.'"

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "sons/children of Israel"