Numbers 35
35
The Towns for the Levites
1 #
Js 21.1-42. While the people of Israel were still camped in the lowlands of Moab across the Jordan River from Jericho, the Lord told Moses 2to say to them:
When you receive your tribal lands, you must give towns and pastures to the Levi tribe. 3That way, the Levites will have towns to live in and pastures for their animals. 4-5The pasture around each of these towns must be in the shape of a square, with the town itself in the center. The pasture is to measure 900 meters on each side, with 450 meters of land outside each of the town walls. This will be the Levites' pastureland.
6Six of the towns you give them will be Safe Towns where a person who has accidentally killed someone can run for protection. But you will also give the Levites 42 other towns, 7so they will have a total of 48 towns with their surrounding pastures.
8Since the towns for the Levites must come from Israel's own tribal lands, the larger tribes will give more towns than the smaller ones.
The Safe Towns
(Deuteronomy 19.1-13; Joshua 20.1-9)
9 #
Dt 19.2-4; Js 20.1-9. The Lord then told Moses 10to tell the people of Israel:
After you have crossed the Jordan River and are settled in Canaan, 11choose Safe Towns, where a person who has accidentally killed someone can run for protection. 12If the victim's relatives think it was murder, they might try to take revenge.#35.12 the victim's relatives … revenge: At this time in Israel's history, the clan would appoint the closest male relative to find and kill a person who had killed a member of their clan. Anyone accused of murder can run to one of these Safe Towns for protection and not be killed before a trial is held.
13There are to be six of these Safe Towns, 14three on each side of the Jordan River. 15They will be places of protection for anyone who lives in Israel and accidentally kills someone.
Laws about Murder and Accidental Killing
The Lord said:
16-18Suppose you hit someone with a piece of iron or a large stone or a dangerous wooden tool. If that person dies, then you are a murderer and must be put to death 19by one of the victim's relatives. He will take revenge#35.19 the victim's relatives … revenge: See the note at 35.12.for his relative's death as soon as he finds you.
20-21Or suppose you get angry and kill someone by pushing or hitting or by throwing something. You are a murderer and must be put to death by one of the victim's relatives.
22-24But if you are not angry and accidentally kill someone in any of these ways, the townspeople must hold a trial and decide if you are guilty. 25If they decide that you are innocent, you will be protected from the victim's relative and sent to stay in one of the Safe Towns until the high priest dies. 26But if you ever leave the Safe Town 27and are killed by the victim's relative, he cannot be punished for killing you. 28You must stay inside the town until the high priest dies; only then can you go back home.
29The community of Israel must always obey these laws.
30 #
Dt 17.5-7; 19.15. Death is the penalty for murder. But no one accused of murder can be put to death unless there are at least two witnesses to the crime. 31You cannot give someone money to escape the death penalty; you must pay with your own life! 32And if you have been proven innocent of murder and are living in a Safe Town, you cannot pay to go back home; you must stay there until the high priest dies.
33-34I, the Lord, live among you people of Israel, so your land must be kept pure. But when a murder takes place, blood pollutes the land, and it becomes unclean. If that happens, the murderer must be put to death, so the land will be clean again. Keep murder out of Israel!
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Numbers 35
35
1 The 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.
4“The pasture lands of the cities, which you shall give to the Levites, shall be from the wall of the city and outward one thousand cubits#35:4 A cubit is the length from the tip of the middle finger to the elbow on a man’s arm, or about 18 inches or 46 centimeters. around it. 5You shall measure outside of the city for the east side two thousand cubits, and for the south side two thousand cubits, and for the west side two thousand cubits, and for the north side two thousand cubits, the city being in the middle. This shall be the pasture lands of their cities.
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. 7All the cities which you shall give to the Levites shall be forty-eight cities together with their pasture lands. 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.” 9The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 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. 13The cities which you shall give shall be for you six cities of refuge. 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. 17If he struck him with a stone in the hand, by which a man may die, and he died, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death. 18Or if he struck him with a weapon of wood in the hand, by which a man may die, and 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, 23or with any stone, by which a man may die, not seeing him, and cast it on him so that he died, and he was not his enemy and not seeking his harm, 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.
26“‘But if the man slayer shall at any time go beyond the border of his city of refuge where he flees, 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.
29“‘These things shall be for a statute and ordinance to you throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
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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