Numbers 35

Notes on the verses

Chap. XXXV. Ver. 2. and 4. Give unto the Levites cities,….. suburbs, &c.—The Septuagint reads “two thousand cubits,” as in the following verse; but this reading is not acknowledged by any other ancient version except the Coptic, nor by any of the MSS. collated by Dr. Kennicott and De Rossi. Various modes have been proposed for reconciling the accounts in these two verses, which appear in general to require full as much explanation as the text itself. The explanation of Maimonides is the only one that is intelligible, and appears more satisfactory: ‘The suburbs,” says he, ** of the cities are expressed in the law to be 3000 cubits on every side, from the wall of the city and outwards. The first 1000 cubits are the suburbs; and the 2000, which they measured without the suburbs, were for fields and vineyards.”

|—Bagster. The whole, therefore, of the city, suburbs, fields, and vineyards may be represented by the following diagram: Ver. 11. Appoint you cities, &c.—[As the Goel, or kinsman, had a right to Two thousand Cubits for One thousand Cubits for Suburbs. Fields and Vineyards. avenge the death of his relation, by slaying the murderer wherever he found him, the appointment of these cities was a humane institution for the protection of the involuntary homicide; for they were designed only for the protection of such, by which they were distinguished from the asyia of the Greeks and Romans.]—Bagster f Ver. 12. Refuge from the avenger.—That is, the nearest relative of the deceased, who was considered bound to vengeance, as a duty.—It is remarkable that this law, which doubtless originated in patriarchal times, still subsists among the Indians in North America, and even in Greenland.’ Hans Egede Saabye, a Moravian missionary, relates an instance of a boy of thirteen, who saw his father murdered, but was too young to avenge him.

Long after he grew to manhood, even twenty years after the fact, he took some of his relations with him, and went to live near the murderer, with the express desire of vengeance; but he met with the missionary, and God met with him: he became a Christian, and was reconciled even to the murderer.—Saabye’s Green- Ver. 13. Six cities ye shall have for refuge.—This custom is also found among the Indians. ‘The North American Indians have most of them either a house or town of refuge, which is a sure asylum to protect a manslayer, or unfortunate captive. In almost every Indian nation there are several peaceable towns which are called old beloved, ancient holy, or white towns, (white being the emblem of peace and purity.) ‘They seem to have been formerly towns of refuge, for it is not in the memory of their oldest people, that blood was ever shed in them.”—Adair’s Indians.

_In Persia, the king’s stable is the most sacred of all sanctuaries.—Malcolm’s Hist. Ver. 14. Three cities on this side.—|‘The region east of Jordan was nearly as long as that on the west of that river; and therefore three cities were appointed in each division. One or other of these cities would be within half a day’s journey of every part of the land; and as it would rarely happen that the avenger of blood would be on the spot, and none had a right to assault or detain the manslayer, at least if no malicious intention was manifest; the unhappy men would, therefore, get the start of their adversaries, and very few of them be overtaken before they gained the place of refuge. But then they must forsake their families, employments, most important interests, and dearest comforts; and they must neither loiter nor yield to weariness, nor regard difficulties, nor slacken their pace, till they had got safe within the walls of the city.

The Jewish writers inform us, that, to afford every facility to those who thus fled for their life, the road to these cities was always preserved in good repair; and way-posts, upon which was inscribed, REFUGE, were placed wherever needful, that they might not so much as hesitate for a moment.—Bagster. Ver. 31. Ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer.—This is done in almost all Pagan countries: see Orient. Lit. No. 316. “The ancient Greeks had no public officer charged by the state to look after murderers. The relations of the deceased alone had a right to pursue vengeance. Pausanias in many places speaks of this ancient usage, a usage that appears to have subsisted always in Greece.—Goguet’s Origin of Laws.