Numbers 35:22

THE UNINTENTIONAL MANSLAYER, Num_35:22-28.

Human life is so sacred that it must be hedged about by all possible safeguards. Hence, when one kills another by casualty, perfectly innocent of any evil intention, he must undergo the privation of his liberty by a lifelong imprisonment in the city of refuge. Such a liability tended to the utmost caution in the intercourse of man with man.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

35:22-23 Here are some instances in which a victim died but was not murdered through an intentional act of violence. The cities of refuge were created as places of safety for people who were responsible for such accidental deaths.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Or, suddenly.

Hebrew, instrument.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

But if he thrust him suddenly without enmity, or have cast upon him any thing without laying of wait, &c.--Under the excitement of a sudden provocation, or violent passion, an injury might be inflicted issuing in death; and for a person who had thus undesignedly committed slaughter, the Levitical cities offered the benefit of full protection. Once having reached the nearest, for one or other of them was within a day's journey of all parts of the land, he was secure. But he had to "abide in it." His confinement within its walls was a wise and salutary rule, designed to show the sanctity of human blood in God's sight, as well as to protect the manslayer himself, whose presence and intercourse in society might have provoked the passions of the deceased's relatives. But the period of his release from this confinement was not until the death of the high priest. That was a season of public affliction, when private sorrows were sunk or overlooked under a sense of the national calamity, and when the death of so eminent a servant of God naturally led all to serious consideration about their own mortality. The moment, however, that the refugee broke through the restraints of his confinement and ventured beyond the precincts of the asylum, he forfeited the privilege, and, if he was discovered by his pursuer, he might be slain with impunity.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(22, 23) But if he thrust him suddenly . . . —See Deu_19:4-5, where the meaning of the law is illustrated.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But if he thrust him suddenly, without enmity,.... Push him from a precipice, before he is aware, without any malicious design against his life, but merely through accident:

or have cast upon him anything; from the top of a house, or from a building he is pulling down, or pushes a bowing wall upon him, not knowing that he is passing by it:

and without lying of wait: or having contrived to do it, just as he goes along, or in any other similar way.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Suddenly; through sudden passion or provocation. Or, by chance, or unawares.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Without enmity...without laying of wait. These expressions seem intended to limit mercy to cases of pure accident, such as that quoted in Deu_19:5. Neither provocation nor any other "extenuating circumstances" are taken into account, nor what we now speak of as absence of premeditation. The want of these finer distinctions, as well as the short and simple list of farm injuries given, show the rudeness of the age for which these regulations were made.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

without premeditated hate

"without planning it out of hate ahead of time"

without lying in wait

Someone intentionally seeking a way to harm another person is spoken of as if someone were hiding in order to ambush that other person. AT: "without intentionally having tried to harm the victim" (See: Metaphor)

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

בפתע means BY ACCIDENT. In the Targum it is translated by בתכיף (in close proximity), meaning that he was very close to him and so had no time to be careful about him (i.e. to be on his guard not to kill him; see Rashi on Makkot 7b).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.