Numbers 35
Safe Until the High Priest Dies
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Provision for the Levites
35:1The Lord spoke to Moses on the western side of Moab, beside the Jordan opposite Jericho, saying,
35:2“Instruct the Israelites to give the Levites towns to live in from their allotted possessions. They shall also give the Levites the outlying lands around the towns.
35:3The towns shall be theirs to live in, and their designated lands shall be for their livestock and all their four-footed animals.
35:4The lands adjoining the towns that you give the Levites shall extend two thousand cubits outward from the town wall all around.
35:5Outside the town measure two thousand cubits on the eastern side, two thousand on the southwestern side, two thousand on the seaward side, and two thousand on the northern side. The town shall be in the middle of this for you, together with the towns’ adjoining lands.
35:6You shall give the Levites the six cities of refuge that you provide for the person who has killed someone to flee to, and in addition to these, forty-two towns.
35:7All the towns you give the Levites shall be forty-eight towns, together with their outlying lands.
35:8For the towns that you give from the Israelites’ possession, take many from those with much and fewer from those with less. Each shall give towns to the Levites according to the inheritance he receives.”
Protection and Punishment Under the Law
35:9The Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
35:10“Speak to the Israelites and say to them: You are crossing the Jordan into the land of Canaan,
35:11and you shall set apart towns for yourselves. They shall be refuges for the killer to flee there, anyone who has struck a person unintentionally.
35:12The towns shall be refuges for you from the kinsman who avenges blood, so that the killer shall certainly not die before standing before the congregation for judgment.
35:13The towns you provide, the six towns, shall be refuges for you.
35:14Provide three towns across the Jordan and three towns in the land of Canaan.
35:15There shall be a refuge for the Israelites; for the newcomer and the resident alien among you, these towns shall also be refuges, so that anyone who strikes a person unintentionally may flee there.
35:16But if he strikes someone with an iron object and that person dies, he is a murderer. Let the murderer surely be put to death.
35:17If he strikes someone with a stone from his hand capable of causing death and that person dies, he is a murderer. Let the murderer surely be put to death.
35:18If he strikes someone with a wooden object from his hand capable of causing death and that person dies, he is a murderer. Let the murderer surely be put to death.
35:19The kinsman who avenges blood shall himself kill the murderer. When he encounters him, he shall kill him.
35:20If he pushes someone out of enmity and throws an object at him from ambush and that person dies,
35:21or strikes him with his hand out of wrath and he dies, let the one who struck him surely be put to death; he is a murderer. Let the murderer surely be put to death. The kinsman who avenges blood shall kill the murderer when he encounters him.
35:22But if he suddenly pushes someone without enmity, or throws any object at him without ambush,
35:23or, without his knowing, a stone capable of causing death falls upon him and he dies, though he was not his enemy and was not seeking to harm him,
35:24then the congregation shall judge between the one who struck him and the kinsman who avenges blood according to these judgments.
35:25The congregation shall rescue the killer from the kinsman who avenges blood and restore him to the city of refuge to which he fled. He shall live there until the high priest dies, whom they anointed with the holy oil.
35:26But if the killer goes outside the boundaries of the city to which he fled,
35:27and the kinsman who avenges blood finds him outside the boundaries of his city of refuge and kills the killer, the avenger is not liable.
35:28For he must live in the city of refuge until the high priest dies. After the high priest dies, the killer may return to the land of his possession.
35:29These shall be an ordinance of judgment for you throughout your generations in all your settlements.
Judicial Precepts and Pollution of the Land
35:30In every case of a person being struck down, you shall put the killer to death through witnesses. A single witness shall not testify against a person so as to cause his death.
35:31You shall not accept a ransom for a life from the killer who is liable to be killed; he shall surely be put to death.
35:32You shall not accept a ransom concerning flight to a city of refuge, allowing him to live in the land again before the high priest dies.
35:33You shall certainly not stain with murder the land in which you live, for this blood stains the land with murder. The land shall not be expiated from the blood shed upon it except by the blood of the one who shed it.
35:34You shall not defile the land in which you live, in which I will dwell among you, for I am the Lord, dwelling among the Israelites.”
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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.