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Chapter 35: The Portion of the Levites and Manslaughter and Murder Defined
Numbers 35:1-8 The Portion of the Levites
The Levities were not allotted ancestral farmland to own individually like the members of other tribes (see Num 18:20-24). They were, however, to receive permanent residences for themselves and pasture land for their livestock in forty-eight walled towns with adjoining fields. Six of those towns were to be designated "cities of refuge". The measurements for these communities took into account the possibility of their growth and the initial size of the towns. Joshua Chapter 21 records the execution of these provisions for the Levities and the names and locations of the towns (also see 1 Chr 6:54-81).
Numbers 35:9-15 The Command to Establish Cities of Refuge
Question: Why were cities of refuge necessary? See Ex 21:12-14; Dt 4:41-43; 19:1-13; Josh Chapter 20.
Answer: Cities of refuge were necessary to protect someone from blood vengeance before a trial could be held with witnesses.
The three cities of refuge on the east side of the Jordan River were:
- Bezer in the desert tableland of Reuben
- Ramoth in Gilead of Gad
- Golan in Bashan in the Upper Gilead of Manasseh
The three cities of refuge on the west side of the Jordan River were:
- Kedesh in the Galilee highlands belonging to Naphtali
- Shechem in the central highlands of Ephraim
- Kiriath-Abra (Hebron) in the highlands of Judah
Numbers 35:16-21 Legislation Defining the Difference between Manslaughter and Murder
The Hebrew term for a kinsman who takes on the duty described in verse 19 is go'el ha-dam, literally "the blood redeemer"; this phrase is used in verses 19, 21, 24, and 27. He is a "redeemer" because he restores justice to the family and order to the community. Jesus is our Kinsman-Redeemer who paid with His own blood, our blood-debt for sin and restored to mankind the Promised Land of heaven.
In Numbers 35:16-34: God made a distinction between "murder", including deliberate negligence resulting in death, and unintentional killing (see Ex 21:13-14 and also the legislation in Ex 21:20-21; Dt 4:42; 19:4-6).
Two kinds of homicide are listed:
- Striking and killing someone with a weapon.
- Intentionally delivering a death-blow with one's fist or an object.
In Numbers 35:19-21, the family of the murdered victim participated in the penalty phase. An avenger (blood redeemer) was chosen (see verse 12) to carry out the execution. When no blood relative came forward, the witnesses took on that role, for example the witnesses cast the first stones in a death by stoning verdict (Dt 17:6-7).
Numbers 35:22-34 The Procedure in Cases of Involuntary and Intentional Homicide
Question: How was the community to deal with violence that ended in loss of life? In what way did the violence of premature death reach beyond the community? What was the remedy?
Answer: The land is holy because God dwells there and atonement must be made for the shedding of innocent blood. The blood of the innocent victim polluted the land, even in the case of an unintentional killing. A death could only be avenged and the land cleaned of the pollution of death by the trial and death of the guilty murderer or by the exile of the person guilty of manslaughter to a city of refuge pending a trial. Even after a trial, so long as the person guilty of manslaughter remained in exile, he was safe from a vengeance killing and was to remain in exile in the city of refuge until the death of the ordained high priest, whose death atoned for his blood guilt. When the high priest died and his blood debt was atoned, he was free to return to his normal life. If, however, he stepped outside the boundaries of the city of refuge, the pollution was released again and the blood avenger was justified in destroying the cause of pollution. In the death of Abel, his blood cried out from the ground to God for justice (Gen 4:10). Cain was exiled to the east away from God, and could be killed if he returned but in exile the mark God put on him saved him from reprisal (Gen 4:11-16). The death penalty in the case of intentional murder was not set until after the Flood (Gen 9:5-6).
Chapter 36:
Legislation Concerning a Woman who Inherits Ancestral Land and the Conclusion
Numbers 36:1-4 A Question of the Inheritance of Heiresses
This legation is an amendment to the commands concerning the inheritance of women in Numbers 27:7-8.
Question: What question of inheritance did members of the tribe of Manasseh bring to Moses and the leaders?
Answer: Their concern was if a daughter inherited her father's lands and then married outside her tribe that the ancestral lands of that tribe would be lost forever, increasing the holdings of another tribe.
Numbers 36:5-12 Legislation on the Marriage Requirements for Heiresses
Question: What was the solution that Yahweh provided for the possible loss of tribal lands through the inheritance of daughters?
Answer: The law required that women who inherit must marry within the tribal family or forfeit their property.
Numbers 36:13 The Conclusion
In the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses will address his people for the final time before his death and before they begin the conquest of Canaan, the land God promised to give the descendants of Abraham, dispossessing the various peoples who inhabited the land.
Question: Why did God dispossess the peoples occupying the land of Canaan and why at this point in the history of the world? See Gen 1:1-2:4a; 9:25-27; 15:19-21, Dt 32:8, 24:1-2 and Jer 25:5.
Answer: All the earth belongs to God. He created it and He allows man to occupy the land, setting the boundaries for all nations. Since God owns the land, He has the authority to cast out those who defile the land by polluting the land with innocent blood, and as the Creator, He has the authority to give the land to whomever He chooses. This was the case with the Canaanites who were occupying land that was intended for the descendants of Shem (Gen 9:25-27). The different peoples who occupied the land: the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites (Gen 15:19-21), were allowed to live on the land, as God told Abraham, until "... the iniquity of the Amorites (the majority population)... reached its full extent" (Gen 15:16).
At this point in the Biblical narrative, the waiting was over and the time had come for divine judgment to fall on the peoples of Canaan. The Israelites were not taking the land for their own gain; instead they were going to be God's agents in punishing the idol worshiping Canaanites, and they were to receive the land in gratitude and obedience. They were commanded to destroy all Canaanite idols and places of worship when they entered the land, and they were forbidden to allow the Canaanites of live among them to lead the Israelites into their sinful practices.
The wilderness journey was been completed, the iniquity of the Gentile peoples in Canaan has reached its height in the rejection of the True God and in their perverted sexual practices and human sacrifices, and God's new generation of holy warriors were ready to fulfill their destiny. The Israelite's willingness to possess the land of Canaan was an act of obedience to God's will. It was time for the Israelites to receive their promised inheritance-it was time for the struggle for the conquest of the Promised Land to begin.
Chapter 34: The Death of Moses
And now Moses, the faithful servant of Yahweh, having set Master's "house" in order, prepared for his own "exodus," his departure from this life. From the time Yahweh first called him from the brush which earthly flames could not destroy, Moses' life's mission had been to cooperate in God's plan for the salvation of his people. Mindful that the work to bring Israel to the Promised Land had not been completed, Moses asked Yahweh to appoint "a shepherd" over Israel to succeed him (see Num 27:15-21). With the appointment and anointing of Joshua and with his final homilies and his renewal of the covenant with the new generation accomplished, his mission was completed.
Moses Overlooking the Promised Land
Deuteronomy 34:1-4
Moses Views the Promised Land from Mt. Nebo
"Gilead as far as Dan" was the northern limits of the Promised Land. The land of Naphtali was in the upper Galilee. Ephraim and Manasseh occupied the central region of the Promised Land, and land of Judah came to include all of those sites mentioned in verse 2b-3. The Negeb was the southern most part of the Promised Land and Zoar was a town southeast of the Dead Sea where Lot escaped to with his daughters after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 19:18-22, 30; also see Gen 13:10; Is 15:5; Jer 48:34).
Alone with God, Moses set out on his last journey (Dt 34:1-4). He climbed to the highest peak of the mountain, approximately 4,000 feet up, a rapid ascent but not rugged. The people's eyes must have followed him as he made his final journey. At the top of the mountain, standing there alone, his old eyes would have taken in the full view of the Promised Land. As Moses stood on the crest of the mountain, the sweep of the land would have seemed almost endless. Turning his back on the river and looking east, Moses saw the fertile Transjordan plains stretching from the south lands bordering the Salt Sea (Dead Sea) to the north, pastures and rolling hills that were now the homeland of the tribes of Reuben, Gad and the two clans of Manasseh. Then, turning and looking below slightly to the southwest, he might have seen that the land descended in terraces from the Salt Sea (Dead Sea) and beyond the Salt Sea the plains that turned into hill country and beyond the hills to the southwest the arid lands that became the Negeb, the southern most boundary of Canaan. From the Negeb his eyes might have moved northeast until he saw the ridge of Hebron, and then, as his eyes traveled further north toward central Canaan, he might have seen the high mountain ridges that would be home to both the little village of Bethlehem and the ancient city of Jerusalem. It was at Jerusalem where Yahweh's Sanctuary would find its final home and become "a place for Yahweh's name."
Looking down from the mountain, Moses would have seen the winding course of the Jordan River passing near the ancient city of Jericho, resplendent with its many palm trees. Continuing his gaze across the river slightly to the northwest into central Canaan his old eyes would have rested on the rounded tops of Mounts Ebal and Gerizim, the site of the next covenant renewal ceremony. Perhaps God gave him vision beyond the mountains to the pleasant sight of the fertile Plain of Esdraelon (Plain of Jezerel) and beyond the plain to the shoulder of Mount Carmel. Moses might have picked out a blue haze in the far distance beyond Mount Carmel that was the visible line of the Great Western Sea (Mediterranean). Still farther northward perhaps he could have seen the outline of Mount Tabor and then straining his eyes and looking east of Mts. Carmel and Tabor he might even have had a vision of the beautiful lake country of the Galilee with its lush green grass and its rolling hills. Perhaps farther to the north he saw the snow-clad outline of Mount Hermon and, if the day was clear, perhaps the highest range of the mountains of Lebanon slightly to the east and the Golan Heights of Syria to the northwest. How the site of this beautiful land must have filled his old heart with hope for his people and gratitude for the faithfulness of his God.
Deuteronomy 34:5-9
The Death of Moses
The last lines of the Pentateuch were probably written by Moses' successor Joshua. After Moses completed his last journey, he fulfilled his last act of obedience to Yahweh by dying. Moses was born a slave, raised to be a prince, and spent the last forty years of his life as the intimate servant of the One True God. He died just as Yahweh decreed; he died and was buried in the valley of Moab opposite the pagan shrine of Beth-Peor, the site of the new generation's fall from grace when the men were seduced into participating in pagan fertility rites (Num 25:18). Moses was 120 years old. Israel mourned for thirty days, and Joshua succeeded the great prophet as the leader of the nation of Israel. You may recall that Aaron also died on a mountain top and was mourned for thirty days (Num 20:28-29; 33:38). Aaron died in the 40th year of the Exodus, on the first day of the fifth month when he was 123 years old. Moses probably died in the twelfth month of the liturgical year (February). Thirty days later, the tribes crossed the Jordan River into Canaan on the 10th day of the first month, and they celebrated the Passover four days later in the Promised Land (Josh 5:10-12).
Question: According to verse 6, who buried Moses?
Answer: God
There was a peaceful transition from Moses as leader to Joshua.
David's son King Solomon also received the gift of divine wisdom to govern Israel (1 Kng 3:7-12).
Question: What was the significance of Moses laying hands upon Joshua in verse 9? Also see Num 27:18, 23.
Answer: It was a rite of investiture in which Moses' power and authority was transmitted to Joshua as witnessed by the people.
The same gesture in the Catholic Church is part of the ordination ceremony for priests, the consecration of those receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation, and in Rabbinic Judaism, it is part of the ceremony of rabbinic ordination, which is called semikhah, "laying [of hands]" (The JPS Torah Commentary: Deuteronomy, page 339).
Deuteronomy 34:10-12
Concluding Eulogy
This eulogy is a declaration of Moses' unique status among Israel's leaders.
The works of Moses as God's covenant mediator were never equaled by another Old Testament prophet. Until the advent of the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, no prophet as great as Moses, who communicated directly with God, had come to lead the covenant people. The eulogy picks up the theme of the future Messiah using Moses as a "type" for the future redeemer who will come as a "new Moses" to speak the words of God to the people, to lead a new "exodus" and to fulfill the promises God made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by bringing a world-wide blessing to the nations of the earth.
St. Peter spoke of Moses in his homily to the "men of Israel" at the Jerusalem Temple sometime after the miracle of Pentecost, telling them that Jesus of Nazareth was the "new Moses," the prophet Moses prophesied would one day come to Israel speaking the words of God: Moses, for example, said "From among your brothers the Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me; you will listen to whatever he tells you. Anyone who refuses to listen to that prophet shall be cut off from the people." In fact, all the prophets that have ever spoken, from Samuel onwards, have predicted these days. You are the heirs of the prophets, the heirs of the covenant God made with your ancestors when he told Abraham, "All the nations of the earth will be blessed in your descendants." It was for you in the first place that God raised up his servant [Jesus of Nazareth] and sent him to bless you as every one of you turns from his wicked ways' (Acts 3:22-26).
CHALLENGE: “The Catholic Church says Protestants are damned. The Council of Trent contains many canons saying that if someone endorses a particular Protestant belief, ‘Let him be anathema’ (damned by God).”
DEFENSE: This fundamentally misunderstands what an anathema was. It reads a non-Catholic understanding of the term into Catholic documents. In Church documents, the term “anathema” does not mean “damned by God.” It refers to a form of excommunication that used to be practiced.
When a person was excommunicated by anathema, a series of procedures had to be followed, including the local bishop warning the person he was committing a grave ecclesiastical crime and imperiling his soul.
If he failed to repent, an ecclesiastical court would try and convict him, then the bishop would hold a public ceremony where he was excommunicated (cf. 1 Cor. 5:1–5, 1 Tim. 1:20).
If he later repented, the bishop would perform another public ceremony, lift the excommunication, and welcome him back (cf. 2 Cor. 2:6–8). When Trent used the formula “Let him be anathema,” it indicated bishops could apply this form of excommunication to Catholics in their flocks who committed certain offenses.
The penalty did not take effect automatically. Thus, it never applied globally to Protestants. Not only were Protestants not subjects of Catholic bishops, the bishops had better things to do than conduct endless court procedures and ceremonies concerning people who were not part of the Catholic community.
In practice, the penalty of anathema was imposed rarely and only on those who continued to assert their Catholic identity. Eventually, it became so infrequent that it was abolished and does not exist today.
The current Code of Canon Law (1983) does not contain the penalty of anathema, and it abrogates all penalties it does not contain (cf. canon 6).
Excommunication still exists and is still applied if a Catholic embraces a heresy (canons 751, 1364; cf. canons 11, 1321–23, 1330). However, the form of excommunication known as anathema no longer exists. But even when it did, anathema did not judge the state of a person’s soul—something only God knows. It was a disciplinary measure intended to protect the Catholic community and to wake a Catholic up to the spiritual danger he was in.
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
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