กันดารวิถี 35:5 วิจารณ์

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.

And ye shall measure from without the city on the east side two thousand cubits,.... Before only 1000 cubits were ordered to bemeasured, and now 2000, even 2000 more, which were to be added to the other, and to begin where they ended. The first 1000 were for their cattle and goods, these 2000 for their gardens, orchards, fields, and vineyards; and so the Jewish writers understand it. Jarchi observes, that 1000 cubits are ordered, and after that 2000; and asks, how is this? or how is it to be reconciled? to which he answers, 2000 are put to them round about, and of them the 1000 innermost are for suburbs, and the outermost (i.e. the 2000) are for fields and vineyards; and with this agrees the Misnah (a), from whence he seems to have taken it; and the same was to be on every other side of the city, south, west, and north, as follows: and on the south side two thousand cubits, and on the west side two thousand cubits, and on the north side two thousand cubits; which, added to the other 1000 all around, must make a large circumference of land: and the city shall be in the midst; in the midst of the circuit of three thousand cubits all around, so that it must stand very pleasant and convenient: this shall be to them the suburbs of the cities; such a quantity of ground, consisting of so many cubits, shall be assigned to every city; the suburbs or glebe land to a Levite's city, on the four sides were four squares, and each square consisted of seventy six acres, one rood, twenty perches, and eighty square feet; all the four squares amounting to three hundred and five acres, two roods, one perch, besides fifty seven feet square, according to Bishop Cumberland. (a) Sotah, c. 5. sect. 3. Maimon. & Bartenora in ib.

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.

And ye shall measure from without the city - two thousand cubits, etc. - Commentators have been much puzzled with the accounts in these two verses. In Num 35:4 the measure is said to be 1,000 cubits from the wall; in Num 35:5 the measure is said to be 2,000 from without the city. It is likely these two measures mean the same thing; at least so it was understood by the Septuagint and Coptic, who have δισχιλιους πηχεις, 2,000 cubits, in the fourth, as well as in the fifth verse; but this reading of the Septuagint and Coptic is not acknowledged by any other of the ancient versions, nor by any of the MSS. collated by Kennicott and De Rossi. We must seek therefore for some other method of reconciling this apparently contradictory account. Sundry modes have been proposed by commentators, which appear to me, in general, to require full as much explanation as the text itself. Maimonides is the only one intelligible on the subject. "The suburbs," says he, "of the cities are expressed in the law to be 3,000 cubits on every side from the wall of the city and outwards. The first thousand cubits are the suburbs, and the 2,000, which they measured without the suburbs, were for fields and vineyards." The whole, therefore, of the city, suburbs, fields, and vineyards, may be represented by the diagram.

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.