The Mystery of Esau and Ephraim

“And now, behold, I go unto my people. Come therefore, and I will warn thee what this people shall do to thy people in the latter days,” Numbers 24:14;

— these Words, “in the latter days,” prophecised by Balaam, especially in regards to the house of Jacob, are prophecies for our times!

Numbers 35

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¹ And the Lord spoke unto Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan near Jericho, saying,

² “Command the children of Israel that they give unto the Levites from the inheritance of their possession cities to dwell in; and ye shall give also unto the Levites suburbs for the cities round about them. — the cities of the priests and Levites were not only to accommodate them, but to place them, as religious teachers, in several parts of the land;

— for though the typical service of the tabernacle was only in one place, the teaching of the word of God, and prayer and praise, were not thus confined. These cities were to be given out of each tribe; each thus made a grateful acknowledgement to God; each tribe had the benefit of the Levites dwelling amongst them, to teach them the knowledge of the Lord; thus no parts of the country were left to sit in darkness.

³ And the cities shall they have to dwell in, and the suburbs of them shall be for their cattle and for their goods and for all their beasts. — and ye shall give also unto the Levites suburbs; or rather, “pasture-grounds,”  the word migrash, “suburb,” indicates pasture ground into which flocks are driven.

⁴ And the suburbs of the cities, which ye shall give unto the Levites, shall reach from the wall of the city and outward a thousand cubits round about. — shall reach from the walls of the city, and outward, a thousand cubits round about; which was half a sabbath day’s journey, and pretty near half a mile;

⁵ And ye shall measure from outside the city on the east side two thousand cubits, and on the south side two thousand cubits, and on the west side two thousand cubits, and on the north side two thousand cubits; and the city shall be in the midst. This shall be to them the suburbs of the cities. — and the city shall be in the midst; in the midst of the circuit of three thousand cubits all around, so that it must stand very pleasant and convenient;

⁶ And among the cities which ye shall give unto the Levites there shall be six cities for refuge which ye shall appoint for the manslayer, that he may flee thither; and to them ye shall add forty and two cities. — of these cities which were given up to the Levites, six were to serve as cities of refuge; three of these cities of refuge were in the land of Canaan, and three on the other side Jordan, Numbers 35:14;

— the Israelites were to give of their possessions forty-two others, that is to say, forty-eight in all; and they were to do this, giving much from every tribe that had much, and little from the one which had little (Numbers 26:54);

— according to Joshua 21, the Levites received nine cities in the territory of Judah and Simeon, four in the territory of each of the other tribes, with the exception of Naphtali, only three, that is to say, ten in the land to the east of the Jordan, and thirty-eight in Canaan proper, of which the thirteen given up by Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin were assigned to the families of the priests, and the other thirty-five to the three Levitical families;

— this distribution of the Levites among all the tribes – by which the curse of division and dispersion in Israel, which had been pronounced upon Levi in Jacob’s blessing (Genesis 49:7), was changed into a blessing both for the Levites themselves and also for all Israel – was in perfect accordance with the election and destination of this tribe;

— called out of the whole nation to be the peculiar possession to watch over God’s covenant, and teach Israel His rights and His law (Deuteronomy 33:9-10; Leviticus 10:11; Deuteronomy 31:9-13), the Levites were to form and set forth among all the tribes and by their walk as well as by their divine calling; to foster and preserve the law and testimony of the Lord in Israel, and to awaken and spread the fear of God and piety among all the other tribes.

⁷ So all the cities which ye shall give to the Levites shall be forty and eight cities; these shall ye give with their suburbs. — thirteen cities in Simeon, Judah and Benjamin were assigned to the priests, the other thirty-five to other Levitical families;

— the Levites numbered nearly 50,000 souls (Numbers 26:62), so that each Levitical city would have an average population of about 1000 to start with.

⁸ And the cities which ye shall give shall be from the possession of the children of Israel. From those who have many ye shall give many, but from those who have few ye shall give few. Every one shall give from his cities unto the Levites according to his inheritance which he inheriteth.”

— nine cities were eventually given to the Levites from the large joint inheritance of Judah and Simeon; three from Naphtali, and the other tribes gave each four apiece; thus no parts of the country were left to sit in darkness;

— each tribe had the benefit of the Levites dwelling amongst them, to teach them the knowledge of the Lord; so that though hereby Jacob’s curse on this tribe had its fulfilment, that it should be divided in Jacob, and scattered in Israel, yet that became a blessing to the rest of the tribes; Genesis 49:7.

⁹ And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

¹⁰ “Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them: ‘When ye have come over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, — when ye come over Jordan into the land of Canaan; as they quickly would, being now very near it, since the Lord had promised to bring them over that river, and put them in possession of that land;

¹¹ then ye shall appoint you cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the slayer may flee thither who killeth any person unawares. — unawares; or ignorantly, as it is, Deuteronomy 19:4, and Joshua 20:3; that is, besides his intention, having no such design, and no hatred to him, Numbers 35:22;

¹² And they shall be unto you cities for refuge from the avenger, that the manslayer die not until he stand before the congregation in judgment. — until he stand before judgment; before the court of judicature, to be examined, tried, and judged, whether the murder was committed knowingly and willingly, or whether through mistake and being unintentional;

¹³ And of these cities which ye shall give, six cities shall ye have for refuge. — not all the forty eight cities were for refuge, only six of them.

¹⁴ Ye shall give three cities on this side of the Jordan, and three cities shall ye give in the land of Canaan, which shall be cities of refuge. — from the land of Canaan: Hebron in Judea; Shechem in Mount Ephraim; Kadesh in Mount Naphtali was opposite Golan Heights; and three cites on this side Jordan; which were Bezer in the wilderness, out of Reuben; and Ramoth in Gilead, out of Gad; and Golan in Bashan, out of Manasseh, Joshua 20:8

¹⁵ These six cities shall be a refuge both for the children of Israel, and for the stranger and for the sojourner among them, that every one who killeth any person unawares may flee thither. — for the stranger, and for the sojourner; the word ger, “stranger,” indicates a foreigner who took up a temporary abode amongst the Israelites; whereas toshab, “sojourner,” indicates one who was settled in Israel.

¹⁶ “‘And if he smite him with an instrument of iron so that he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death. — the murderer shall surely be put to death; and be executed by the order of the civil magistrate;

¹⁷ And if he smite him with throwing a stone wherewith he may die, and he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death. — and he die; by the blow he receives from it, either immediately or in a short time after: he is a murderer, and the murderer shall surely be put to death; as in the above case.

¹⁸ Or if he smite him with a hand weapon of wood wherewith he may die, and he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death. — with a hand-weapon; it made no difference with what kind of weapon he was killed, whether it was of iron, wood, or stone.

¹⁹ The avenger of blood himself shall slay the murderer; when he meeteth him, he shall slay him.

²⁰ But if he thrust him out of hatred, or hurl at him by lying in wait so that he die,

²¹ or in enmity smite him with his hand so that he die, he that smote him shall surely be put to death, for he is a murderer: the avenger of blood shall slay the murderer when he meeteth him.

²² “‘But if he thrust him suddenly without enmity, or have cast upon him anything without lying in wait,

²³ or with any stone wherewith a man may die, seeing him not and casting it upon him so that he die, and was not his enemy neither sought his harm,

²⁴ then the congregation shall judge between the slayer and the avenger of blood according to these judgments.

²⁵ And the congregation shall deliver the slayer out of the hand of the avenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to the city of his refuge whither he had fled; and he shall abide in it unto the death of the high priest who was anointed with the holy oil.

— unto the death of the high priest; partly because the public grief for the loss of so public a person was likely to assuage the private griefs and passions of men, the rather, because by this example they were minded of their own mortality, and thereby withheld from taking vengeance;

²⁶ But if the slayer shall at any time come outside the border of the city of his refuge whither he had fled,

²⁷ and the avenger of blood find him outside the borders of the city of his refuge, and the avenger of blood kill the slayer, he shall not be guilty of blood,

²⁸ because he should have remained in the city of his refuge until the death of the high priest; but after the death of the high priest the slayer shall return into the land of his possession. — but after the death of the high priest the slayer shall return into the land of his possession; to that part of the land to that tribe to which he belonged, to his house and family, and to his possessions and inheritances;

²⁹ “‘So these things shall be for a statute of judgment unto you throughout your generations in all your dwellings. — the enactment of God to Moses, throughout your generations in all your dwellings; for the Israelite, stranger and sojourner; throughout all ages, secured the advantage of promoting both the Law for humanity and Justice to each individual.

³⁰ Whoso killeth any person, the murderer shall be put to death by the mouth of witnesses; but one witness shall not testify against any person to cause him to die. — by the mouth of witnesses; the number of witnesses is not specified here but in Deuteronomy 17:6 it is ordained that the crime of idolatry should be punished with death “at the mouth of two witnesses, or of three witnesses;”

³¹ Moreover ye shall take no payment for the life of a murderer who is deserving of death, but he shall be surely put to death. — the murderer’s life may not be ransomed; and the man who has committed accidental homicide may not pay a ransom in lieu of detention in the city of refuge;

³² And ye shall take no payment for him that has fled to the city of his refuge, that he should come again to dwell in the land until the death of the priest. — that he should come again to dwell in the land, until the death of the priest; the high priest; thus we are reminded that the death of the our High Priest is the only means whereby sins are pardoned, and sinners set at liberty.

³³ So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are; for blood defileth the land, and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it. — murders in all its forms, and under all disguises, pollutes a land.

³⁴ Defile not therefore the land which ye shall inhabit wherein I dwell; for I, the Lord, dwell among the children of Israel.’” — for I the Lord dwell among the children of Israel, therefore the murderer’s hand is raised against me; the blood of the slain is ever before my eyes, its cry for vengeance ever in my ears (Genesis 4:10; Matthew 23:35; Revelation 6:10).

Numbers 36

¹ And the chief fathers of the families of the children of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of the sons of Joseph, came near and spoke before Moses and before the princes, the chief fathers of the children of Israel. — and before the princes, the chief fathers of the children of Israel: the seventy elders; as the Targum of Jonathan indicates, “the house of judgment” that is, the Sanhedrin or court of judicature;

— the chief fathers of the families; we read before of a provision made for the family of the heiresses of Zelophehad, a branch of the tribe of Manasseh, Numbers 27, and though Moses had secured them a distinct inheritance;

— yet some of the chief heads of that family, foreseeing that a great inconvenience might possibly happen in the marriage of these women, made a new petition to Moses, in the presence of the princes, or chief fathers of Israel, for a proper law to prevent it;

— they represented to him, that in case these heiresses should marry into other tribes, the estates they were invested in would, of course, be alienated from their own tribe, and be incorporated into that in which they married, by the right of their husbands.

² And they said, “The Lord commanded my lord to give the land for an inheritance by lot to the children of Israel, and my lord was commanded by the Lord to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother unto his daughters.

³ And if they be married to any of the sons of the other tribes of the children of Israel, then shall their inheritance be taken from the inheritance of our fathers, and shall be added to the inheritance of the tribe whereunto they are received: so shall it be taken from the lot of our inheritance.

⁴ And when the Jubilee of the children of Israel shall be, then shall their inheritance be added unto the inheritance of the tribe whereunto they are received: so shall their inheritance be taken away from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers.”

⁵ And Moses commanded the children of Israel according to the word of the Lord, saying, “The tribe of the sons of Joseph hath said well.

⁶ This is the thing which the Lord doth command concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, saying, ‘Let them marry whom they think best; only, within the family of the tribe of their father shall they marry.’

— only into the family of the tribe of their father shall they marry; they were to marry not only such as were of the tribe of Manasseh, but of their father’s family in that tribe; they could only marry into the family of the Hepherites; Numbers 26:32

— this affair concerning the daughters of Zelophehad; this affair relative to them; but including all heiresses, so all such after as well as before the division of the land, since the reason of it holds good after as before;

⁷ So shall not the inheritance of the children of Israel remove from tribe to tribe, for every one of the children of Israel shall keep himself to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers.

— though they were not strictly obliged to marry in their own tribe; everyone of the children of Israel shall keep himself to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers; or cleave to a wife in that tribe for marriage; this word is used in the original institution of it, Genesis 2:24

⁸ And every daughter who possesseth an inheritance in any tribe of the children of Israel shall be the wife unto one of the family of the tribe of her father, that the children of Israel may enjoy every man the inheritance of his fathers. — that the children of Israel may enjoy every man the inheritance of his fathers; of his father’s brethren, or of those that are near akin to him.

⁹ Neither shall the inheritance remove from one tribe to another tribe, but every one of the tribes of the children of Israel shall keep himself to his own inheritance.” — but that he must belong to the family of their father’s tribe, that is to say, must be a Manassite;

— for (Numbers 36:7) the inheritance was not to turn away the Israelites from one tribe to another (not to be transferred from one to another), but to keep to the inheritance of his father’s tribe, and no one was to enter upon the possession of another tribe by marrying an heiress belonging to that tribe.

¹⁰ Even as the Lord commanded Moses, so did the daughters of Zelophehad;

¹¹ for Mahlal, Tirzah, and Hoglah, and Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were married unto their fathers’ brothers’ sons. — accordance with these instructions, the five daughters of Zelophehad, whose names are repeated from Numbers 26:33 and Numbers 27:1 (also Joshua 17:3), married husbands from the families of the Manassites, namely, sons of their cousins (or uncles), and thus their inheritance remained in their father’s tribe;

¹² And they were married into the families of the sons of Manasseh the son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained in the tribe of the family of their father. — these were married unto their father’s brothers’ sons; so that they were first cousins; and their inheritance remained in the tribe of the family of their father; by means of these marriages, even both in their father’s tribe and family.

¹³ These are the commandments and the judgments which the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses unto the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan near Jericho. — these are the commandments and the judgments; the judicial laws concerning the division of the land of Canaan, the case of inheritances in it, and the cities of refuge;

— which the Lord commanded by, the hand of Moses unto the children of Israel, in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho; where the Israelites had been ever since they were first observed by Balak king of Moab, and where the various things had been done recorded in the preceding chapters from that time.

~ by Japheth on April 6, 2024.

Posted in Books of Moses