Num 35:9-34 | TNotes

35:12 ^a protection from a dead person’s relatives who want to avenge the death: Justice was enacted through vengeance at the hand of a designated avenger, usually a relative.
Summary for Num 35:15-24: 35:15-24 ^b The Old Testament makes a clear distinction between deliberate murder and involuntary manslaughter (35:11 ^c, 22-23 ^d; Exod 21:12-14 ^e; cp. Num 15:22-31 ^f). Murder required a penalty of execution, but an accidental death did not. The cities of refuge provided protection only for those who killed another person by accident.

• The use of a weapon was proof of malicious intent. 35:15 ^g Israelites, foreigners living among you, and traveling merchants. Anyone: The same law applied impartially to everyone; Israel had one standard of justice, not two (one for citizens, another for noncitizens), as in many societies (see also Lev 19:15 ^h; Deut 1:16-17 ⁱ; 1 Tim 5:21 ^j; Jas 2:2-4 ^k).
35:19 ^l The avenger was the victim’s closest relative; he was responsible for putting the murderer to death, carrying out the vengeance that justice required (Gen 9:6 ^m).
Summary for Num 35:22-23: 35:22-23 ⁿ Here are some instances in which a victim died but was not murdered through an intentional act of violence. The cities of refuge were created as places of safety for people who were responsible for such accidental deaths.
Summary for Num 35:24-25: 35:24-25 ^o If the slayer was cleared of the murder charge in his trial or hearing before the community (cp. Deut 19:11-12 ^p), he had to remain in the city of refuge to which he fled, and the avenger was not supposed to seek revenge, because the slayer was not guilty of murder.

• until the death of the high priest: The priest’s death probably provided a kind of expiation for the blood that had been shed; even though the slayer was innocent of murder, human bloodshed had polluted the land (Num 35:33 ^q; cp. Gen 4:10-11 ^r).
Summary for Num 35:26-29: 35:26-29 ^s The slayer still suffered a penalty for the death he had caused since he was restricted to a city of refuge until he or the high priest died. But after the death of the high priest, the slayer was free to return to his own home, and the avenger was not to seek revenge.
35:30 ^t All murderers were condemned to death, but their conviction required a high standard of evidence—the testimony of two or more witnesses (cp. Deut 17:6 ^u; 19:15 ^v).
Summary for Num 35:31-32: 35:31-32 ^w The payment of a ransom (monetary compensation) to free a convicted murderer from execution was prohibited, since the death penalty was required (cp. 2 Sam 21:2-9 ^x). Similarly, the slayer in an involuntary manslaughter could not pay a ransom to get around his confinement in a city of refuge.
35:33 ^y for murder pollutes the land: If the slayer in either a homicide or involuntary manslaughter were not dealt with as commanded, God regarded the land as polluted, because human bloodshed required death (Gen 4:10-11 ^z; 9:6 ^aa; contrast Exod 21:29-30 ^ab; see also Lev 18:28 ^ac; Ezek 36:17-18 ^ad; Hos 4:2-3 ^ae). In its stern warning about the evil of murder, this entire passage highlights the absolute value of human life (Exod 20:13 ^af).
35:34 ^ag The Lord lived among the people of Israel even as the Tabernacle stood in the middle of the Hebrew camp (see chs 1–4 ^ah). This meant that they must not defile their land by ignoring God’s commands or by failing to uphold justice (cp. 5:1-4 ^ai).