Numbers · 34 verses
Numbers 35
Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.
The chapter
What happens here
Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.
An accidental killer’s sentence is kept by a clock no court can set: he remains in the city of refuge until the high priest dies, and only then may he go home.
Forty-eight cities, with room to grazevv. 1–8
On the plains of Moab, the LORD tells Moses how Israel is to make room for Levi. The Levites are to receive forty-eight cities, six of them refuge cities, with pasturelands measured out around each one in increasingly grand squares. The shares are to follow the tribes’ size: more from a large inheritance, less from a small one. Even livestock receives a careful territorial arrangement, which is perhaps the chapter’s gentlest touch.
The refuge city and the long waitvv. 9–28
Across the Jordan and in Canaan, six cities are to receive the person who kills unintentionally: three on one side, three on the other. The chapter then sorts killing by object, intention, and temper. Iron, a stone of deadly size, and wood can all make a murderer; yet a sudden push, an unmeant thrown object, or a dropped stone sends the case before the congregation instead. The avenger of blood remains close to the story, but the assembly protects the manslayer and returns him to refuge. There he must stay until the death of the high priest, whose holy anointing supplies the chapter’s most personal and least predictable legal calendar. Leaving early is a dangerous experiment: outside the city, the avenger may kill him without guilt.
Blood on the landvv. 29–34
The arrangements are declared lasting, but the final movement tightens rather than settles them. A murderer requires the testimony of witnesses, never a lone witness, and neither a murderer nor a manslayer may buy an early release. Bloodshed pollutes the land, and the stated remedy is starkly circular: the blood of the one who shed it. The reason given is that the LORD dwells among the Israelites, making the land both inhabited ground and a place that must not be defiled.
The text
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Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.
Num 35:1Again the LORD spoke to Moses on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho:
Num 35:2“Command the Israelites to give, from the inheritance they will possess, cities for the Levites to live in and pasturelands around the cities.
Num 35:3The cities will be for them to live in, and the pasturelands will be for their herds, their flocks, and all their other livestock.
Num 35:4The pasturelands around the cities you are to give the Levites will extend a thousand cubits from the wall on every side.
Num 35:5You are also to measure two thousand cubits outside the city on the east, two thousand on the south, two thousand on the west, and two thousand on the north, with the city in the center. These areas will serve as larger pasturelands for the cities.
Num 35:6Six of the cities you give the Levites are to be appointed as cities of refuge, to which a manslayer may flee. In addition to these, give the Levites forty-two other cities.
Num 35:7The total number of cities you give the Levites will be forty-eight, with their corresponding pasturelands.
Num 35:8The cities that you apportion from the territory of the Israelites should be given to the Levites in proportion to the inheritance of each tribe: more from a larger tribe and less from a smaller one.”
Num 35:10“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan,
Num 35:11designate cities to serve as your cities of refuge, so that a person who kills someone unintentionally may flee there.
Num 35:12You are to have these cities as a refuge from the avenger, so that the manslayer will not die until he stands trial before the assembly.
Num 35:13The cities you select will be your six cities of refuge.
Num 35:14Select three cities across the Jordan and three in the land of Canaan as cities of refuge.
Num 35:15These six cities will serve as a refuge for the Israelites and for the foreigner or stranger among them, so that anyone who kills a person unintentionally may flee there.
Num 35:16If, however, anyone strikes a person with an iron object and kills him, he is a murderer; the murderer must surely be put to death.
Num 35:17Or if anyone has in his hand a stone of deadly size, and he strikes and kills another, he is a murderer; the murderer must surely be put to death.
Num 35:18If anyone has in his hand a deadly object of wood, and he strikes and kills another, he is a murderer; the murderer must surely be put to death.
Num 35:19The avenger of blood is to put the murderer to death; when he finds him, he is to kill him.
Num 35:20Likewise, if anyone maliciously pushes another or intentionally throws an object at him and kills him,
Num 35:21or if in hostility he strikes him with his hand and he dies, the one who struck him must surely be put to death; he is a murderer. When the avenger of blood finds the murderer, he is to kill him.
Num 35:22But if anyone pushes a person suddenly, without hostility, or throws an object at him unintentionally,
Num 35:23or without looking drops a heavy stone that kills him, but he was not an enemy and did not intend to harm him,
Num 35:24then the congregation must judge between the slayer and the avenger of blood according to these ordinances.
Num 35:25The assembly is to protect the manslayer from the hand of the avenger of blood. Then the assembly will return him to the city of refuge to which he fled, and he must live there until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the holy oil.
Num 35:26But if the manslayer ever goes outside the limits of the city of refuge to which he fled
Num 35:27and the avenger of blood finds him outside of his city of refuge and kills him, then the avenger will not be guilty of bloodshed,
Num 35:28because the manslayer must remain in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest. Only after the death of the high priest may he return to the land he owns.
Num 35:29This will be a statutory ordinance for you for the generations to come, wherever you live.
Num 35:30If anyone kills a person, the murderer is to be put to death on the testimony of the witnesses. But no one is to be put to death based on the testimony of a lone witness.
Num 35:31You are not to accept a ransom for the life of a murderer who deserves to die; he must surely be put to death.
Num 35:32Nor should you accept a ransom for the person who flees to a city of refuge and allow him to return and live on his own land before the death of the high priest.
Num 35:33Do not pollute the land where you live, for bloodshed pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land on which the blood is shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it.
Num 35:34Do not defile the land where you live and where I dwell. For I, the LORD, dwell among the Israelites.”
01 — Also here
Who else the chapter reaches
Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.
Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.
Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.
02 — Read alongside
Where this is echoed
Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 193 passages were voted onto 26 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.
- 11Exodus 21:13If, however, he did not lie in wait, but God allowed it to happen, then I will appoint for you a place where he may flee.
- 33Luke 11:50–51As a result, this generation will be charged with the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the foundation of the world,
- 8Numbers 26:54Increase the inheritance for a large tribe and decrease it for a small one; each tribe is to receive its inheritance according to the number of those registered.
- 8Numbers 33:54And you are to divide the land by lot according to your clans. Give a larger inheritance to a larger clan and a smaller inheritance to a smaller one. Whatever falls to each one by lot will be his. You will receive an inheritance according to the tribes of your fathers.
- 20Exodus 21:14But if a man schemes and acts willfully against his neighbor to kill him, you must take him away from My altar to be put to death.
- 30Hebrews 10:28Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
- 33Psalms 106:38They shed innocent blood—the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood.
- 16Leviticus 24:17And if a man takes the life of anyone else, he must surely be put to death.
- 20Deuteronomy 19:11If, however, a man hates his neighbor and lies in wait, attacks him and kills him, and then flees to one of these cities,
- 24Joshua 20:6He is to stay in that city until he stands trial before the assembly and until the death of the high priest serving at that time. Then the manslayer may return to his own home in the city from which he fled.”
- 25Exodus 29:7Then take the anointing oil and anoint him by pouring it on his head.
- 29Numbers 27:11And if his father has no brothers, give his inheritance to the next of kin from his clan, that he may take possession of it. This is to be a statutory ordinance for the Israelites, as the LORD has commanded Moses.’”
- 30Matthew 18:16But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’
- 30Deuteronomy 19:15A lone witness is not sufficient to establish any wrongdoing or sin against a man, regardless of what offense he may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.
- 33Genesis 9:6Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man his blood will be shed; for in His own image God has made mankind.
- 33Isaiah 26:21For behold, the LORD is coming out of His dwelling to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth will reveal her bloodshed and will no longer conceal her slain.
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