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Numbers 35

Numbers 35 orders Israel’s life around God’s presence, providing refuge for accidental killers while requiring judgment for murder.

YHWH speaks to Moses on the plains of Moab, across the Jordan from Jericho, about Israel’s coming life in the land. The tribes must provide forty-eight cities with pasture lands for the Levites, including six cities of refuge. These refuges protect people who kill without intent while the congregation judges their cases. The laws distinguish murder from accidental killing, set limits on vengeance, and forbid payments that would bypass the required penalties.

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1The LORD spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying,
2“Command the children of Israel to give to the Levites cities to dwell in out of their inheritance. You shall give pasture lands for the cities around them to the Levites.
3They shall have the cities to dwell in. Their pasture lands shall be for their livestock, and for their possessions, and for all their animals.
6“The cities which you shall give to the Levites, they shall be the six cities of refuge, which you shall give for the man slayer to flee to. Besides them you shall give forty-two cities.
8Concerning the cities which you shall give of the possession of the children of Israel, from the many you shall take many, and from the few you shall take few. Everyone according to his inheritance which he inherits shall give some of his cities to the Levites.”
10“Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘When you pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan,
11then you shall appoint for yourselves cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the man slayer who kills any person unwittingly may flee there.
12The cities shall be for your refuge from the avenger, that the man slayer not die until he stands before the congregation for judgment.
14You shall give three cities beyond the Jordan, and you shall give three cities in the land of Canaan. They shall be cities of refuge.
15These six cities shall be refuge for the children of Israel, for the stranger, and for the foreigner living among them, that everyone who kills any person unwittingly may flee there.
16“‘But if he struck him with an instrument of iron, so that he died, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death.
19The avenger of blood shall himself put the murderer to death. When he meets him, he shall put him to death.
20If he shoved him out of hatred, or hurled something at him while lying in wait, so that he died,
21or in hostility struck him with his hand, so that he died, he who struck him shall surely be put to death. He is a murderer. The avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death when he meets him.
22“‘But if he shoved him suddenly without hostility, or hurled on him anything without lying in wait,
24then the congregation shall judge between the striker and the avenger of blood according to these ordinances.
25The congregation shall deliver the man slayer out of the hand of the avenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to his city of refuge, where he had fled. He shall dwell therein until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the holy oil.
27and the avenger of blood finds him outside of the border of his city of refuge, and the avenger of blood kills the man slayer, he shall not be guilty of blood,
28because he should have remained in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest. But after the death of the high priest, the man slayer shall return into the land of his possession.
30“‘Whoever kills any person, the murderer shall be slain based on the testimony of witnesses; but one witness shall not testify alone against any person so that he dies.
31“‘Moreover you shall take no ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death. He shall surely be put to death.
32“‘You shall take no ransom for him who has fled to his city of refuge, that he may come again to dwell in the land before the death of the priest.
33“‘So you shall not pollute the land where you live; for blood pollutes the land. No atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is shed in it, but by the blood of him who shed it.
34You shall not defile the land which you inhabit, where I dwell; for I, the LORD, dwell among the children of Israel.’”
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Key verses
Numbers 35:33Bloodshed pollutes the land where God dwells, making the handling of murder a matter of holiness.
Numbers 35:30The requirement for multiple witnesses places a safeguard around a judgment that would cost a human life.
Numbers 35:25The congregation must protect the accidental killer, whose confinement in refuge lasts until the high priest’s death.
Where this chapter reaches

Joshua records the assignment of cities of refuge and Levitical towns, while Deuteronomy shares laws about refuge and the need for multiple witnesses. Exodus also distinguishes deliberate killing from accidental killing, and Genesis shares the demand for accountability when human blood is shed.

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After reading the whole chapter

What do the distinctions between murder and accidental killing show you about the justice required here?

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How does God’s presence in the land shape your reading of these penalties and protections?

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Questions people ask about Numbers 35

What were the cities of refuge in Numbers 35?

They were six of the forty-eight cities assigned to the Levites, with three on each side of the Jordan. A person who killed someone without intent could flee there for protection from the avenger of blood. The congregation judged the case, and protection extended to Israelites and foreigners living among them.

Why did the accidental killer stay until the high priest died?

The high priest’s death marks the point when the accidental killer may return home without remaining under the refuge restrictions. Before then, leaving the city exposes the person to the avenger of blood. The chapter establishes this boundary but does not explain why the high priest’s death ends the confinement.

What does Numbers 35 mean when it says blood pollutes the land?

The closing laws treat murder as a defilement of the land where YHWH dwells among Israel. Money cannot ransom a convicted murderer or remove the bloodguilt attached to the land. The chapter requires the murderer’s death and ties that penalty to the holiness of God’s dwelling among his people.

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What the Bible says about anger →

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).