Numbers 35:2
SUBURBS - Rather, “pasture-grounds,” required for their large cattle, for their sheep and goats, and for all their beasts whatever they might be Numbers 35:3.... [ Continue Reading ]
SUBURBS - Rather, “pasture-grounds,” required for their large cattle, for their sheep and goats, and for all their beasts whatever they might be Numbers 35:3.... [ Continue Reading ]
FROM WITHOUT THE CITY - Omit “from.” The demarcation here intended would run parallel to the wall of the city, outside which it was made. To guard against any restrictions of area, due to such causes as the irregular forms of the cities or the physical obstacles of the ground, it was ordained that t... [ Continue Reading ]
The Levitical cities were in an special manner the Lord’s; and therefore the places of refuge, where the manslayer might remain under the protection of a special institution devised by divine mercy, were appropriately selected from among them. No doubt also the Priests and Levites would be the fitte... [ Continue Reading ]
Nine cities were eventually given to the Levites from the large joint inheritance of Judah and Simeon; three were taken from the territory of Naphtali, and the other tribes gave each four apiece.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE AVENGER - Hebrew גאל _gā'al_, a term of which the original import is uncertain. The very obscurity of its etymology testifies to the antiquity of the office which it denotes. That office rested on the principle of Genesis 9:6, “whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.” The un... [ Continue Reading ]
The sense is: Inasmuch as to take another man’s life by any means whatsoever is murder, and exposes the murderer to the penalty of retaliation; so, if the deed is done in hostility, it is in truth actual murder, and the murderer shall be slain; but if it be not done in hostility, then the congregati... [ Continue Reading ]
BY THE MOUTH OF WITNESSES - i. e. two witnesses, at the least (compare the marginal references). The provisions of this and the following verses protect the enactments of this chapter from abuse. The cities of refuge were not intended to exempt a criminal from deserved punishment.... [ Continue Reading ]
NO SATISFACTION - Rather, ransom (see Exodus 21:30). The permission to demand pecuniary compensation for murders (expressly sanctioned by the Koran) undoubtedly mitigates, in practice, the system of private retaliation; but it does so by sacrificing the principle named in Numbers 35:12, Numbers 35:3... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR I THE LORD DWELL ... - An emphatic protest against all enactment or relaxation of laws by men for their own private convenience.... [ Continue Reading ]