Bible Commentaries
Numbers 35

Verse 2

35:2 Command the children of Israel, that they give unto the {a} Levites of the inheritance of their possession {b} cities to dwell in; and ye shall give [also] unto the Levites suburbs for the cities round about them.

(a) Because they had no inheritance assigned them in the land of Canaan.

(b) God would have them scattered through all the land, because the people might be preserved by them in the obedience of God and his Law.

Verse 5

35:5 And ye shall measure from without the city on the east side {c} two thousand cubits, and on the south side two thousand cubits, and on the west side two thousand cubits, and on the north side two thousand cubits; and the city [shall be] in the midst: this shall be to them the suburbs of the cities.

(c) So that in all were three thousand, and in the compass of these two thousand, they might plant and sow.

Verse 12

35:12 And they shall be unto you cities for refuge from the {d} avenger; that the manslayer die not, until he stand before the congregation in judgment.

(d) Meaning, from the next of the kindred, who ought to pursue the cause.

Verse 14

35:14 Ye shall give three cities {e} on this side Jordan, and three cities shall ye give in the land of Canaan, [which] shall be cities of refuge.

(e) Among the Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh, De 4:41.

Verse 16

35:16 And if he {f} smite him with an instrument of iron, so that he die, he [is] a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death.

(f) Wittingly, and willingly.

Verse 17

35:17 And if he smite him with throwing a {g} stone, wherewith he may die, and he die, he [is] a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death.

(g) That is, with a big and dangerous stone: in Hebrew, with a stone of his hand.

Verse 24

35:24 Then the congregation shall judge between the slayer and the {h} revenger of blood according to these judgments:

(h) That is, his next kinsman.

Verse 25

35:25 And the congregation shall deliver the slayer out of the hand of the revenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to the city of his refuge, whither he was fled: and he shall abide in it unto the death of the {i} high priest, which was anointed with the holy oil.

(i) Under this figure is declared, that our sins could not be remitted, but by the death of the high Priest Jesus Christ.

Verse 27

35:27 And the revenger of blood find him without the borders of the city of his refuge, and the revenger of blood kill the {k} slayer; he shall not be guilty of blood:

(k) By the sentence of the judge.

Verse 29

35:29 So these [things] shall be for a {l} statute of judgment unto you throughout your generations in all your dwellings.

(l) A law to judge murders done either on purpose, or accidentally.

Verse 31

35:31 Moreover ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer, which [is] {m} guilty of death: but he shall be surely put to death.

(m) Who purposely committed murder.

Verse 33

35:33 So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye [are]: for blood it defileth the land: and the land cannot be {n} cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it.

(n) So God is mindful of the blood wrongfully shed, that he makes his dumb creatures demand vengeance of it.