Appoint — The possessions being now divided among you, reserve some of them for the use which I have commanded. Cities of refuge — Designed to typify the relief which the gospel provides for poor, penitent sinners, and their protection from the curse of the law and the wrath of God, in our Lord Jesu... [ Continue Reading ]
Unwittingly — Heb. Through ignorance, or error, or mistake, and without knowledge. The same thing twice repeated to cut off all the expectations that wilful murderers might have of protection here; God having declared, that such should be taken even from his altar, that they might be killed. It is s... [ Continue Reading ]
The gate — Where the judges used to sit. His cause — Shall give them a true relation of the fact, and all its circumstances. They shall take him — If they are satisfied in the relation he makes, concerning the fact, otherwise it had been a vain thing to examine. Give a place — Which they might well... [ Continue Reading ]
Stand — Which was the posture of the accused and accusers. The congregation — The council appointed to judge of these matters, not the council of the city of refuge, for they had examined him before, Joshua 20:4, but of the city to which he belonged, or in or nigh which the fact was committed, as ap... [ Continue Reading ]
And they appointed — Concerning these cities note, That they were all upon mountains, that they might be seen at a great distance, and so direct those who fled thither. That they were seated at convenient distance one from another, for the benefit of the several tribes; for Kedesh was in the north,... [ Continue Reading ]
They assigned — Or, had assigned or given; for they were given by Moses, Deuteronomy 4:41, &c. or, they applied them to that use to which Moses designed them.... [ Continue Reading ]
The stranger — Not only proselytes, but others also; because this was a matter of common right, that a distinction might be made between casual man — slayers, and wilful murderers.... [ Continue Reading ]