Numbers 35:1-8
New English Translation
The Levitical Cities
35 [a] Then the Lord spoke to Moses in the rift valley plains[b] of Moab along the Jordan near Jericho. He said: 2 “Instruct the Israelites to give[c] the Levites towns to live in from the inheritance the Israelites[d] will possess. You must also give the Levites grazing land around the towns. 3 Thus they will have towns in which to live, and their grazing lands will be for their cattle, for their possessions, and for all their animals. 4 The grazing lands around the towns that you will give to the Levites must extend to a distance of 500 yards[e] from the town wall.
5 “You must measure[f] from outside the wall of the town on the east 1,000 yards,[g] and on the south side 1,000 yards, and on the west side 1,000 yards, and on the north side 1,000 yards, with the town in the middle.[h] This territory must belong to them as grazing land for the towns. 6 Now from these towns that you will give to the Levites you must select six towns of refuge to which a person who has killed someone may flee.[i] And you must give them forty-two other towns.
7 “So the total of the towns you will give the Levites is forty-eight. You must give these together with their grazing lands. 8 The towns you will give must be from the possession of the Israelites. From the larger tribes you must give more; and from the smaller tribes fewer. Each must contribute some of its own towns to the Levites in proportion to the inheritance allocated to each.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Numbers 35:1 sn This section has two main parts, the Levitical cities (vv. 1-8) and the Cities of Refuge (vv. 9-34).
- Numbers 35:1 sn This is the area of the rift valley basin to the north of the Dead Sea and east of the Jordan. See the note at Num 21:1.
- Numbers 35:2 tn The verb is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive: “command…and they will give,” or “that they give.”
- Numbers 35:2 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Israelites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
- Numbers 35:4 tn Heb “1,000 cubits.” The standard cubit in the OT is assumed by most authorities to be about 18 inches (45 cm) in length, so this would be a distance of 1,500 feet or 500 yards (457.2 meters).
- Numbers 35:5 tn The verb is the Qal perfect of מָדַד (madad, “to measure”). With its vav (ו) consecutive it carries the same instructional force as the imperfect.
- Numbers 35:5 tn Heb “2,000 cubits” (also three more times in this verse). This would be a distance of 3,000 feet or 1,000 yards (914.4 meters).
- Numbers 35:5 sn The precise nature of the layout described here is not altogether clear. V. 4 speaks of the distance from the wall as being 500 yards; v. 5, however, describes measurements of 1,000 yards. Various proposals have been made in order to harmonize vv. 4 and 5. P. J. Budd, Numbers (WBC), 376, makes the following suggestion: “It may be best to assume that the cubits of the Levitical pasture lands are cubit frontages of land—in other words on each side of the city there was a block of land with a frontage of 2,000 cubits (v 5), and a depth of 1000 cubits (v 4).”
- Numbers 35:6 tn The “manslayer” is the verb “to kill” in a participial form, providing the subject of the clause. The verb means “to kill”; it can mean accidental killing, premeditated killing, or capital punishment. The clause uses the infinitive to express purpose or result: “to flee there the manslayer,” means “so that the manslayer may flee there.”
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