Numbers 35:2-12

2 "Tell the Israelites that from the property they receive they must give the Levites some cities to live in and pasture land around the cities.

3 These cities will belong to the Levites, and they will live there. The pasture land will be for their cattle and all their other animals.

4 The pasture land is to extend outward from the city walls five hundred yards in each direction,

5 so that there is a square area measuring one thousand yards on each side, with the city in the middle.

6 You are to give the Levites six cities of refuge to which any of you can escape if you kill someone accidentally. In addition, give them forty-two other cities

7 with their pasture land, making a total of forty-eight.

8 The number of Levite cities in each tribe is to be determined according to the size of its territory."

9 The Lord told Moses ¹

10 to say to the people of Israel: "When you cross the Jordan River and enter the land of Canaan,

11 you are to choose cities of refuge to which any of you can escape if you kill someone accidentally.

12 There you will be safe from the dead person's relative who seeks revenge. No one accused of manslaughter is to be put to death without a public trial.

Numbers 35:2-12 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.

Cross References

• 1. 35.9-28Deuteronomy 19.2-4;Joshua 20.1-9.