Numbers 35
Good News Translation
The Cities Assigned to the Levites
35 (A)In the plains of Moab across the Jordan from Jericho the Lord said to Moses, 2 “Tell the Israelites that from the property they receive they must give the Levites some cities to live in and pasture land around the cities. 3 These cities will belong to the Levites, and they will live there. The pasture land will be for their cattle and all their other animals. 4 The pasture land is to extend outward from the city walls five hundred yards in each direction, 5 so that there is a square area measuring one thousand yards on each side, with the city in the middle. 6 You are to give the Levites six cities of refuge to which any of you can escape if you kill someone accidentally. In addition, give them forty-two other cities 7 with their pasture land, making a total of forty-eight. 8 The number of Levite cities in each tribe is to be determined according to the size of its territory.”
The Cities of Refuge(B)
9 (C)The Lord told Moses 10 to say to the people of Israel: “When you cross the Jordan River and enter the land of Canaan, 11 you are to choose cities of refuge to which any of you can escape if you kill someone accidentally. 12 There you will be safe from the dead person's relative who seeks revenge. No one accused of manslaughter is to be put to death without a public trial. 13 Choose six cities, 14 three east of the Jordan and three in the land of Canaan. 15 These will serve as cities of refuge for Israelites and for foreigners who are temporary or permanent residents. Anyone who kills someone accidentally can escape to one of them.
16-18 “If, however, any of you use a weapon of iron or stone or wood to kill someone, you are guilty of murder and are to be put to death. 19 The dead person's nearest relative has the responsibility for putting the murderer to death. When he finds you, he is to kill you.
20 “If you hate someone and kill him by pushing him down or by throwing something at him 21 or by striking him with your fist, you are guilty of murder and are to be put to death. The dead person's nearest relative has the responsibility for putting the murderer to death. When he finds you, he is to kill you.
22 “But suppose you accidentally kill someone you do not hate, whether by pushing him down or by throwing something at him. 23 Or suppose that, without looking, you throw a stone that kills someone whom you did not intend to hurt and who was not your enemy. 24 In such cases the community shall judge in your favor and not in favor of the dead person's relative who is seeking revenge. 25 You are guilty only of manslaughter, and the community is to rescue you from the dead person's relative, and they are to return you to the city of refuge to which you had escaped. You must live there until the death of the man who is then High Priest. 26 If you leave the city of refuge to which you have escaped 27 and if the dead person's relative finds you and kills you, this act of revenge is not murder. 28 Any of you guilty of manslaughter must remain in the city of refuge until the death of the High Priest, but after that you may return home. 29 These rules apply to you and your descendants wherever you may live.
30 (D)“Those accused of murder may be found guilty and put to death only on the evidence of two or more witnesses; the evidence of one witness is not sufficient to support an accusation of murder. 31 Murderers must be put to death. They cannot escape this penalty by the payment of money. 32 If they have fled to a city of refuge, do not allow them to make a payment in order to return home before the death of the High Priest. 33 If you did this, you would defile the land where you are living. Murder defiles the land, and except by the death of the murderer there is no way to perform the ritual of purification for the land where someone has been murdered. 34 Do not defile the land where you are living, because I am the Lord and I live among the people of Israel.”
Numbers 35
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Chapter 35
Cities for the Levites. 1 The Lord spoke to Moses on the plains of Moab by the Jordan opposite Jericho: 2 (A)Command the Israelites out of the heritage they possess to give the Levites cities to dwell in; you will also give the Levites the pasture lands around the cities. 3 The cities will be for them to dwell in, and the pasture lands will be for their cattle, their flocks, and all their other animals. 4 The pasture lands of the cities to be assigned the Levites shall extend a thousand cubits out from the city walls in every direction. 5 You will measure out two thousand cubits outside the city along the east side, two thousand cubits along the south side, two thousand cubits along the west side, and two thousand cubits along the north side, with the city lying in the center. These will be the pasture lands of their cities.
6 (B)Now these are the cities you will give to the Levites: the six cities of asylum which you must establish for the homicide to run to, and in addition forty-two other cities— 7 a total of forty-eight cities with their pasture lands which you will assign to the Levites. 8 [a]In assigning the cities from what the Israelites possess, take more from a larger group and fewer from a smaller one, so that each will cede cities to the Levites in proportion to the heritage which it receives.
Cities of Asylum. 9 (C)The Lord spoke to Moses: 10 Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When you go across the Jordan into the land of Canaan, 11 select for yourselves cities to serve as cities of asylum, where a homicide who has killed someone inadvertently may flee. 12 These cities will serve you as places of asylum from the avenger of blood,[b] so that a homicide will not be put to death until tried before the community. 13 As for the cities you assign, you will have six cities of asylum: 14 you will designate three cities beyond the Jordan, and you will designate three cities in the land of Canaan. These will be cities of asylum. 15 These six cities will serve as places of asylum for the Israelites, and for the resident or transient aliens among them, so that anyone who has killed a person inadvertently may flee there.
Murder and Manslaughter. 16 [c]If someone strikes another with an iron instrument and causes death, that person is a murderer, and the murderer must be put to death.(D) 17 If someone strikes another with a death-dealing stone in the hand and death results, that person is a murderer, and the murderer must be put to death. 18 Or if someone strikes another with a death-dealing club in the hand and death results, that person is a murderer, and the murderer must be put to death. 19 The avenger of blood is the one who will kill the murderer, putting the individual to death on sight.
20 If someone pushes another out of hatred, or throws something from an ambush, and death results,(E) 21 or strikes another with the hand out of enmity and death results, the assailant must be put to death as a murderer. The avenger of blood will kill the murderer on sight.
22 (F)However, if someone pushes another without malice aforethought, or without lying in ambush throws some object at another, 23 or without seeing drops upon another some death-dealing stone and death results, although there was neither enmity nor malice— 24 then the community will judge between the assailant and the avenger of blood in accordance with these norms. 25 The community will deliver the homicide from the avenger of blood and the community will return the homicide to the city of asylum where the latter had fled;(G) and the individual will stay there until the death of the high priest who has been anointed with sacred oil. 26 If the homicide leaves at all the bounds of the city of asylum to which flight had been made, 27 and is found by the avenger of blood beyond the bounds of the city of asylum, and the avenger of blood kills the homicide, the avenger incurs no bloodguilt; 28 for the homicide was required to stay in the city of asylum until the death of the high priest. Only after the death of the high priest may the homicide return to the land of the homicide’s possession.
29 This is the statute for you throughout all your generations, wherever you live, for rendering judgment.
Judgment. 30 Whenever someone kills another, the evidence of witnesses is required to kill the murderer.(H) A single witness does not suffice for putting a person to death.
No Indemnity. 31 You will not accept compensation in place of the life of a murderer who deserves to die, but that person must be put to death. 32 Nor will you accept compensation to allow one who has fled to a city of asylum to return to live in the land before the death of the high priest. 33 You will not pollute the land where you live. For bloodshed pollutes the land, and the land can have no expiation for the blood shed on it except through the blood of the one who shed it. 34 Do not defile the land in which you live and in the midst of which I dwell;(I) for I the Lord dwell in the midst of the Israelites.
Footnotes
- 35:8 This provision was hardly observed in the actual assignment of the levitical cities as narrated in Jos 21.
- 35:12 The avenger of blood: Hebrew, go’el, often translated as “redeemer,” one who, as next of kin to the slain (2 Sm 14:7), and here, as executor of public justice, had the right and duty to take the life of the murderer; cf. Dt 19:6, 12; Jos 20:3, 5, 9.
- 35:16–25 Here, as also in Dt 19:1–13, there is a casuistic development of the original law as stated in Ex 21:12–14.
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