Commentaria in Numeros
Chapter the Thirty-fifth
God commands that 48 cities be given to the Levites to dwell in, with suburbs, for the feeding of their cattle; and that six of them be designated as asylum for homicides. Secondly, verse 16, He commands the cause of the homicide to be tried, that, if it be voluntary, he be put to death: but if involuntary, he remain in the asylum until the death of the high priest.
1. These things also the Lord spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab, upon the Jordan, over against Jericho: 2. Command the children of Israel that they give to the Levites out of their possessions, 3. cities to dwell in, and the suburbs of them round about; that they may abide in the towns, and the suburbs be for their cattle and beasts: 4. which suburbs shall reach from the walls of the cities outward round about the space of a thousand paces. 5. Toward the east there shall be two thousand cubits, and toward the south in like manner there shall be two thousand cubits: toward the sea also, which looketh to the west, there shall be the same measure, and the northern quarter shall be bounded with an equal end, and the cities shall be in the midst, and without them the suburbs. 6. And of the towns which you shall give to the Levites, six shall be set apart for the cities of refuge for fugitives, that he who shall shed blood may flee to them: and besides these, other forty-two towns, 7. that is, together forty-eight with their suburbs. 8. And the cities which shall be given of the possessions of the children of Israel, from them that have more, more shall be taken; and from them that have less, fewer; each shall give towns to the Levites according to the measure of his inheritance. 9. The Lord said to Moses: 10. Speak to the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them: When you shall have passed over the Jordan into the land of Chanaan, 11. determine which cities ought to be for the refuge of fugitives, who have shed blood unwillingly: 12. to which when he is fled, the kinsman of the slain shall not be able to kill him, till he stand in the sight of the multitude, and his cause be judged. 13. And of the cities themselves which are set apart for the refuge of fugitives, 14. three shall be beyond the Jordan, and three in the land of Chanaan, 15. as well for the children of Israel as for strangers and sojourners, that he may flee to them who hath shed blood unwillingly. 16. If any man strike with iron, and he die that was struck, he shall be guilty of murder, and he himself shall die. 17. If he throw a stone, and he that is struck die, he shall be punished in like manner. 18. If he that is struck with wood die, he shall be revenged by the blood of the striker. 19. The kinsman of him that was slain shall kill the murderer: as soon as he apprehendeth him, he shall kill him. 20. If through hatred any man push a man, or throw any thing at him by laying wait: 21. or being his enemy strike him with his hand, and he die: the striker shall be guilty of murder, and the kinsman of the slain, as soon as he findeth him, shall kill him. 22. But if by chance medley, and without hatred, 23. and enmities, he do any of these things, 24. and this be proved in the hearing of the people, and the question be debated between the striker and the kinsman of the blood: 25. the innocent shall be delivered from the hand of the revenger; and shall be brought back by sentence into the city to which he had fled, and he shall abide there till the high priest, who is anointed with the holy oil, die. 26. If the slayer be found without the borders of the cities which are appointed for the banished, 27. and be struck by him who is the revenger of blood, he that killed him shall be without guilt; 28. for the fugitive ought to have stayed in the city till the death of the high priest: but after he is dead, the murderer shall return into his own land. 29. These things shall be perpetual, and for an ordinance in all your dwellings. 30. The murderer shall be punished by witnesses: no man shall be condemned upon the testimony of one man. 31. You shall not take a price of him who is guilty of blood, but he shall die forthwith. 32. The banished and fugitives before the death of the high priest shall by no means be allowed to return into their cities: 33. lest you pollute the land of your habitation, which is stained with the blood of the innocent: neither can it be otherwise expiated but by his blood that shed the blood of another, 34. and so shall your possession be cleansed, I abiding with you. For I am the Lord that dwell among the children of Israel.
1. THESE THINGS ALSO THE LORD SPOKE, etc., UPON THE JORDAN,—near, by the Jordan.
2 and 3. COMMAND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL THAT THEY GIVE TO THE LEVITES OUT OF THEIR POSSESSIONS, CITIES TO DWELL IN.—“To the Levites,” namely both priests and Levites properly so called. For Levite here signifies all of the tribe of Levi; to all these no inheritance indeed, but yet a dwelling, was to be given. Whence various cities were assigned to them, in which they dwelt in common and promiscuously. They were in number 48, as is plain from Josue xxi, and from verse 7 here. And in one of these almost was the tabernacle, to which each betook himself when the turns of their ministering recurred, and the turns being completed, returned home to their cities. Lyranus thinks that these cities belonged to the priests only as to use; for that the dominion of them was with others, and he proves it from Hebron, which was given to the priests, Josue xxi, and Josue 14:3. But Lyranus is mistaken. For Leviticus 25:32 and following says that the cities and suburbs of the Levites are their perpetual possession, and that they may sell and redeem their houses in them; lastly, that in the jubilee these must return to them as to their absolute owners, just like the houses of laymen. As to Hebron, only the fields and vineyards which were in the territory of Hebron were Caleb’s; but the city and suburbs were the priests’, as is said in Josue 21:11. Again, Leviticus, last chapter, verse 21, it is ordained that, if any one has vowed a field to the Lord, the priests shall possess it
WHICH SUBURBS SHALL REACH FROM THE WALLS OF THE CITIES OUTWARD ROUND ABOUT THE SPACE OF A THOUSAND PACES.—The suburbs are here given to the Levites to the extent of a thousand paces round about their cities, and this for the pasture of their cattle. This verse, in the Hebrew, Septuagint and others, seems wholly to contradict the following: for here only a thousand amma, that is cubits, are given; but in the following verse two thousand amma, that is cubits, are given, and that toward every quarter of the world.
First, Rabbi Solomon, Lyranus and Vatablus answer that a thousand cubits were given to the Levites; but that in the first thousand it was not lawful to plough and sow, in the latter it was lawful. But this answer seems fabricated from the brain; for Scripture hints nothing of the sort. Secondly, Burgensis, whom Arias Montanus follows on Josue xiv, answers that around each city of the Levites, and its suburbs, a square was described, so that its semi-diameter, as it were, from the walls of the city to the end of the suburbs contained a thousand cubits; but each side of the square itself contained two thousand cubits. But it is certain that cities are for the most part not square but round, and therefore that the suburbs about them to a thousand cubits ought to have been described, not in a square but in a circle. Add that from the diameter here the length of the city itself is excluded (for these suburbs were to be measured outward, not from the centre of the city, but from the walls of the city), and therefore this square, which on each side comprised a semi-diameter of a thousand cubits (that is a diameter of two thousand cubits) outside the city, and at the same time the diameter of the city itself, contained more than two thousand cubits on each side of the square. Thirdly, Masius answers on Josue xiv, and Serarius on Josue xxi, namely that these suburbs, to Fourthly, Abulensis thinks that this is to be followed here, and two thousand from every side, that is, in all eight thousand, as this figure shows: