Numbers 35:22–29, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Numbers 35:22–29
Accidental Killing Requires Assembly Judgment and Refuge
A sudden shove or thrown object without hatred is a different case
If he thrusts him suddenly without enmity, or casts upon him anything without laying of wait, or with any stone by which a person may die, not seeing him, and casts it upon him so that he dies, and was not his enemy and did not seek his harm, then the congregation shall judge between the slayer and the revenger of blood according to these judgments.
The assembly delivers him to refuge until the high priest dies
The congregation shall restore the slayer to the city of refuge, and he shall dwell there until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the holy oil. If the slayer comes outside the border of the city, and the revenger of blood finds him and kills him, the revenger is not guilty of blood, because the slayer should have remained in the city until the high priest's death. After the high priest's death the slayer may return to the land of his possession. These things are a statute forever in their dwellings.
Lack of enmity still leaves a person dead. The assembly's job is to distinguish accident from murder, then confine the killer in refuge. Leaving the city reopens lethal retaliation. Confinement until an unrelated priestly death is the law's clock, not automatically a just sentence, not a warrant for blood vengeance, and not a substitute for negligence law, trauma care, or the dead person's family being heard.
How this should shape us
When a death was not hunted, still tell the truth that someone died. Separate accident from murder in public. Do not call confinement mercy and stop there, and do not let an avenger finish what the assembly has already judged.
Teach it back
Explain Numbers 35:22–29 in your own words. Include its place in Numbers' movement from Sinai to Moab, both movements within this thought unit, one material uncertainty, one affected person or group, and one use the complete context rules out.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: Interpreters debate historical geography, boundary idealization, settlement, source layers, women's property status, tribal memory, asylum development, and relationship to Joshua and Deuteronomy. The law's patrilineal gains and limits must both remain visible. For “Accidental Killing Requires Assembly Judgment and Refuge,” confidence is strongest in the received unit's stated sequence and literary function; source, date, demography, geography, mechanism, archaeology, and historical reconstruction remain probable, plausible, or uncertain as the evidence warrants.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Numbers 35:22–29, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, numbers, speeches, poems, legal clauses, older-English controls, and translation limits.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Num.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 35:22–29
Supports: Unit-bounded translation, syntax, lexical, ritual, legal, number, name, poetic, and selected textual notes; silence is not evidence.
NET Bible Numbers PDF, complete 134-page PDF, translation and translator notes attached to 35:22–29
Supports: Moab movement, law, leadership transition, land, war, women, refuge, and compositional framing.
Yale Bible Study, Numbers Part 2, complete two-page study guide sections on Balaam, Baal Peor, second census, women and inheritance, war with Midian, Transjordan, itinerary, boundaries, Levite and refuge cities, and final inheritance, applied to Numbers 35:22–29
Supports: Refuge-city adjudication, intent, blood vengeance, legal revision, due-process gains, and remaining ethical limits.
TheTorah, “Revising the Laws of Murder to Accommodate Blood Vengeance,” complete comparison of Exodus, Numbers 35, and Deuteronomy 19 on murder, accident, asylum, avenger, witnesses, and legal development, applied to Numbers 35:22–29
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: Numbers 35:22–29, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Numbers
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project
Open Scriptures, release 2.2, 2021
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, numbers, speeches, poems, legal clauses, older-English controls, and translation limits.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Num.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 35:22–29
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Numbers with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
eBible.org distribution of the NET Bible, source files dated 2026-08-08
Supports: Unit-bounded translation, syntax, lexical, ritual, legal, number, name, poetic, and selected textual notes; silence is not evidence.
Exact location: NET Bible Numbers PDF, complete 134-page PDF, translation and translator notes attached to 35:22–29
Open source ↗modern critical open study guide
Numbers Part 2
Yale Bible Study
Yale Divinity School, 2023 course edition
Supports: Moab movement, law, leadership transition, land, war, women, refuge, and compositional framing.
Exact location: Yale Bible Study, Numbers Part 2, complete two-page study guide sections on Balaam, Baal Peor, second census, women and inheritance, war with Midian, Transjordan, itinerary, boundaries, Levite and refuge cities, and final inheritance, applied to Numbers 35:22–29
Open source ↗modern jewish scholarly open legal and compositional study
Revising the Laws of Murder to Accommodate Blood Vengeance
TheTorah.com named scholarly contributor
TheTorah.com, 2022
Supports: Refuge-city adjudication, intent, blood vengeance, legal revision, due-process gains, and remaining ethical limits.
Exact location: TheTorah, “Revising the Laws of Murder to Accommodate Blood Vengeance,” complete comparison of Exodus, Numbers 35, and Deuteronomy 19 on murder, accident, asylum, avenger, witnesses, and legal development, applied to Numbers 35:22–29
Open source ↗