Numbers 5:8

5:8 But if the individual has no close relative ¹  to whom reparation can be made for the wrong, the reparation for the wrong must be paid to the Lord ²  for the priest, in addition to the ram of atonement by which atonement is made for him.

Numbers 9:6

9:6 It happened that some men ³  who were ceremonially defiled ⁴  by the dead body of a man ⁵  could not keep ⁶  the Passover on that day, so they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day.

Numbers 18:24

18:24 But I have given ⁷  to the Levites for an inheritance the tithes of the Israelites that are offered ⁸  to the Lord as a raised offering. That is why I said to them that among the Israelites they are to have no inheritance.”

Numbers 35:6

35:6 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. ⁹  And you must give them forty-two other towns.

Numbers 35:15

35:15 These six towns will be places of refuge for the Israelites, and for the foreigner, and for the settler among them, so that anyone who kills any person accidentally may flee there.

¹ sn For more information on the word, see A. R. Johnson, “The Primary Meaning of גאל,” VTSup 1 (1953): 67-77.

² tc The editors of BHS prefer to follow the Greek, Syriac, and Latin and not read “for the Lord” here, but read a form of the verb “to be” instead. But the text makes more sense as it stands: The payment is to be made to the Lord for the benefit of the priests.

³ tn In the Hebrew text the noun has no definite article, and so it signifies “some” or “certain” men.

⁴ tn The meaning, of course, is to be ceremonially unclean, and therefore disqualified from entering the sanctuary.

⁵ tn Or “a human corpse” (so NAB, NKJV). So also in v.7; cf. v. 10.

⁶ tn This clause begins with the vav (ו) conjunction and negative before the perfect tense. Here is the main verb of the sentence: They were not able to observe the Passover. The first part of the verse provides the explanation for their problem.

⁵ tn The classification of the perfect tense here too could be the perfect of resolve, since this law is declaring what will be their portion – “I have decided to give.”

⁶ tn In the Hebrew text the verb has no expressed subject (although the “Israelites” is certainly intended), and so it can be rendered as a passive.

⁷ 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.”