Numbers 35:30–34, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Numbers 35:30–34
Witnesses, No Ransom, and Blood-Polluted Land Close the Law
A murderer dies only on more than one witness; ransom is refused
Whoever kills any person, the murderer shall be put to death by the mouth of witnesses. One witness shall not testify against any person to cause him to die. You shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death; he shall surely be put to death. You shall take no satisfaction for one who has fled to a city of refuge, that he should come again to dwell in the land before the death of the priest.
Blood pollutes the land where the LORD dwells
You shall not pollute the land wherein you are, for blood it 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. You shall not defile the land which ye shall inhabit, wherein I dwell: for I the LORD dwell among the children of Israel.
Witness plurality constrains a capital charge. Money cannot buy a murderer's life or an early exit from refuge. Pollution language is this law's theology of unaccounted killing, not a mystical excuse for retaliation, not a mandate for capital punishment now, and not a denial that other restorative paths may be required in later law and life. Accusation is not proof.
How this should shape us
Do not kill on a single voice, and do not let a rich killer buy his way home. Take bloodshed seriously as a communal wound. This closing does not hand a modern state a death penalty, and it does not let land-talk justify a feud.
Teach it back
Explain Numbers 35:30–34 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 “Witnesses, No Ransom, and Blood-Polluted Land Close the Law,” 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 35:30–34, 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 35:30–34
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 35:30–34
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 35:30–34
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 35:30–34
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 35:30–34, 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 35:30–34
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 35:30–34
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 35:30–34
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 35:30–34
Open source ↗