Numbers 35:26 Kommentar

We have in this chapter the determination of another question that arose upon the case of the daughters of Zelophehad. God had appointed that they should inherit, Num 27:7. Now here, I. An inconvenience is suggested, in case they should marry into any other tribe (Num 36:1-4). II. It is prevented by a divine appointment that they should marry in their own tribe and family (Num 36:5-7), and this is settled for a rule in like cases (Num 36:8, Num 36:9); and they did marry accordingly to some of their own relations (Num 36:10-12), and with this the book concludes (Num 36:13).

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, Num 35:1, six of which were to be cities of refuge, Num 35:9, but not for wilful murderers, in whatsoever way they might kill a man, Num 35:16, but for such who had killed a man unawares, Num 35:22, and several rules are given relating to such persons, Num 35:25, 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, Num 35:30.

But if the slayer shall at any time come without the border of the city of his refuge,.... Which seems to be the three thousand cubits assigned to every city of the Levites, and so to the cities of refuge; and which, according to the Jewish writers, were a refuge, as the city itself; and it is said (x),"he, that kills a man there, is killed for him, but though the border is a refuge, the slayer does not dwell in it, as it is said. Num 35:25, "he shall abide in it", but not in its borders:" whither he was fled; on account of manslaughter. (x) Maimon. Hilchot Rotzeach, c. 8. sect. 11. Misn. Maccot, c. 2. sect. 7.

The Israelites are commanded to give the Levites, out of their inheritances, cities and their suburbs for themselves and for their cattle, goods, etc., Num 35:1-3. The suburbs to be 3,000 cubits round about from the wall of the city, Num 35:4, Num 35:5. The cities to be forty-two, to which six cities of refuge should be added, in all forty-eight cities, Num 35:6, Num 35:7. Each tribe shall give of these cities in proportion to its possessions, Num 35:8. These cities to be appointed for the person who might slay his neighbor unawares, Num 35:9-12. Of these six cities there shall be three on each side Jordan, Num 35:13, Num 35:14. The cities to be places of refuge for all who kill a person unawares, whether they be Israelites, strangers, or sojourners, Num 35:15. Cases of murder to which the benefit of the cities of refuge shall not extend, Num 35:16-21. Cases of manslaughter to which the benefits of the cities of refuge shall extend, Num 35:22, Num 35:23. How the congregation shall act between the manslayer and the avenger of blood, Num 35:24, Num 35:25. The manslayer shall abide in the city of refuge till the death of the high priest; he shall then return to the land of his possession, Num 35:26-28. Two witnesses must attest a murder before a murderer can be put to death, Num 35:29, Num 35:30. Every murderer to be put to death, Num 35:31. The manslayer is not to be permitted to come to the land of his inheritance till the death of the high priest, Num 35:32. The land must not be polluted with blood, for the Lord dwells in it, Num 35:33, Num 35:34.

EIGHT AND FORTY CITIES GIVEN TO THE LEVITES. (Num 35:1-5) give unto the Levites of the inheritance of their possession cities to dwell in--As the Levites were to have no territorial domain allocated to them like the other tribes on the conquest of Canaan, they were to be distributed throughout the land in certain cities appropriated to their use; and these cities were to be surrounded by extensive suburbs. There is an apparent discrepancy between Num 35:4 and Num 35:5, with regard to the extent of these suburbs; but the statements in the two verses refer to totally different things--the one to the extent of the suburbs from the walls of the city, the other to the space of two thousand cubits from their extremity. In point of fact, there was an extent of ground, amounting to three thousand cubits, measured from the wall of the city. One thousand were most probably occupied with outhouses for the accommodation of shepherds and other servants, with gardens, vineyards, or oliveyards. And these which were portioned out to different families (Ch1 6:60) might be sold by one Levite to another, but not to any individual of another tribe (Jer 32:7). The other two thousand cubits remained a common for the pasturing of cattle (Lev 25:34) and, considering their number, that space would be fully required.

Appointment of Towns for the Levites. - As the Levites were to receive no inheritance of their own, i.e., no separate tribe-territory, in the land of Canaan (Num 18:20 and Num 18:23), Moses commanded the children of Israel, i.e., the rest of the tribes, in accordance with the divine instructions, to give (vacate) towns to the Levites to dwell in of the inheritance that fell to them for a possession, with pasturage by the cities round about them for their cattle. "Towns to dwell in," i.e., not the whole of the towns as their own property, but as many houses in the towns as sufficed for the necessities of the Levites as their hereditary possession, which could be redeemed, if sold at any time, and which reverted to them without compensation in the year of jubilee, even if not redeemed before (Lev 25:32-33); but any portion of the towns which was not taken possession of by them, together with the fields and villages, continued the property of those tribes to which they had been assigned by lot (cf. Jos 21:12, and my commentary on this passage: also Bhr, Symbolik, ii. p. 50; Ewald, Gesch. ii. p. 403). They were also to give them מגרשׁ (from גּרשׁ, to drive, drive out), pasturage or fields, to feed their flocks upon, all round the cities; and according to Lev 25:34, this was not to be sold, but to remain the eternal possession of the Levites. לבהמתּם, for their oxen and beasts of burden, and לרכוּשׁם, for their (remaining) possessions in flocks (sheep and goats), which are generally described in other cases as Mikneh, in distinction from behemah (e.g., Num 32:26; Gen 34:23; Gen 36:6). לכל־חיּתם and for all their animals, is merely a generalizing summary signifying all the animals which they possessed.

If he left the city of refuge before this, and the avenger of blood got hold of him, and slew him outside the borders (precincts) of the city, it was not to be reckoned to him as blood (דּם לו אין, like דּמים לו אין, Exo 22:1). But after the death of the high priest he might return "into the land of his possession," i.e., his hereditary possession (cf. Lev 27:22), sc., without the avenger of blood being allowed to pursue him any longer. In these regulations "all the rigour of the divine justice is manifested in the most beautiful concord with His compassionate mercy. Through the destruction of life, even when not wilful, human blood had been shed, and demanded expiation. Yet this expiation did not consist in the death of the offender himself, because he had not sinned wilfully." Hence an asylum was provided for him in the free city, to which he might escape, and where he would lie concealed. This sojourn in the free city was not to be regarded as banishment, although separation from house, home, and family was certainly a punishment; but it was a concealment under "the protection of the mercy of God, which opened places of escape in the cities of refuge from the carnal ardour of the avenger of blood, where the slayer remained concealed until his sin was expiated by the death of the high priest." For the fact, that the death of the high priest was hereby regarded as expiatory, as many of the Rabbins, fathers, and earlier commentators maintain (see my Comm. on Joshua, p. 448), is unmistakeably evident from the addition of the clause, "who has been anointed with the holy oil," which would appear unmeaning and superfluous on any other view. This clause points to the inward connection between the return of the slayer and the death of the high priest. "The anointing with the holy oil was a symbol of the communication of the Holy Ghost, by which the high priest was empowered to act as mediator and representative of the nation before God, so that he alone could carry out the yearly and general expiation for the whole nation, on the great day of atonement. But as his life and work acquired a representative signification through this anointing with the Holy Ghost, his death might also be regarded as a death for the sins of the people, by virtue of the Holy Ghost imparted to him, through which the unintentional manslayer received the benefits of the propitiation for his sin before God, so that he could return cleansed to his native town, without further exposure to the vengeance of the avenger of blood" (Comm. on Joshua, p. 448). But inasmuch as, according to this view, the death of the high priest had the same result in a certain sense, in relation to his time of office, as his function on the day of atonement had had every year, "the death of the earthly high priest became thereby a type of that of the heavenly One, who, through the eternal (holy) Spirit, offered Himself without spot to God, that we might be redeemed from our transgressions, and receive the promised eternal inheritance (Heb 9:14-15). Just as the blood of Christ wrought out eternal redemption, only because through the eternal Spirit He offered Himself without spot to God, so the death of the high priest of the Old Testament secured the complete deliverance of the manslayer form his sin, only because he had been anointed with the holy oil, the symbol of the Holy Ghost."