Numbers 35:25

And the congregation shall deliver the slayer out of the hand of the avenger of blood,.... Put him under the care of proper persons, to conduct him to one of the cities of refuge, or put him in the way to it; and restrain the avenger of blood from pursuing him, until such time that it may be judged he is safe arrived there:

and the congregation shall restore him to the city of refuge, whither he was fled; so that it seems by this, when one had been guilty of manslaughter, and fled to one of the cities of refuge, he might be taken from thence and had before a court of justice, and there take his trial; and if it appeared that the fact was committed by him, ignorantly, unawares, and without design, then he was returned to his city of refuge; but, if otherwise, he was put to death, notwithstanding he had fled thither; and so it is said in the Misnah (t), that"at first, or formerly, one that killed another ignorantly or presumptuously, they sent him before to one of the cities of refuge, and the sanhedrim sent and fetched him from thence: he who was condemned to death by the court, they slew him; he that was not condemned was dismissed; he that was condemned to banishment they returned him to his place, according to Num 35:25."

and he shall abide in it, unto the death of the high priest, which was anointed with the holy oil: and then he was to be set at liberty, and return to his house and family and have his former possessions and honours, if he had any, restored unto him, the commission or warrant for his detainer there ceasing, being made void by the death of the high priest; who was the prince of the priests and Levites, to whom those cities belonged, and so under his jurisdiction: or so it was ordered, because such was the general mourning for such a public loss as an high priest, that all private revenges would subside, and the cause of them be buried, in grief and forgetfulness; though, no doubt, this had a respect to something which will be hereafter taken notice of: the Jews say (u), that the mothers of the priests used to supply with a sufficient quantity of food and raiment such who fled to the cities of refuge, that they might not pray for the death of their sons; and according to them, a man's case was very bad when there was no high priest; for so they write (w)"he whose cause is finished (or his case determined in a court of judicature), and there is no high priest; and he that slays an high priest, or an high priest slays another, he never goes out, no not so much as to bear testimony in any cause, and even in what the congregation has need of him, but there are his dwelling, his death, and his burial.''

(t) Misn. Maccot. c. 2. sect. 6. (u) Misn. Maccot. c. 2. sect. 3. (w) Misn. Maccot, c. 2. sect. 7.

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

Num 35:25 And the congregation shall deliver the slayer out of the hand of the revenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to the city of his refuge, whither he was fled: and he shall abide in it unto the death of the high priest, which was anointed with the holy oil.

Ver. 25. Unto the death of the high priest.] Because he was amongst men, the chief god on earth, and so the offence did most directly strike against him. Or rather, because the high priest was a type of Christ: and so this release was a shadow of our freedom and redemption by the death of Christ.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Num 35:25. He shall abide in it — Shall be confined to it. Which was appointed, 1st, To show the hatefulness of murder in God’s account, by such a severe punishment, inflicted upon the very appearance of it: 2d, For the security of the manslayer, lest the presence of such a person, and his living among the kindred of the deceased, might occasion reproach and bloodshed: And, 3d, To teach others to be very watchful over themselves, lest by negligence they should chance to kill any one, and so be compelled to leave their own homes, families, and friends. The death of the high- priest — Perhaps to show that the death of Christ, the true High-Priest, whom the others represented, is the only means whereby sins are pardoned, and sinners set at liberty.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Under this figure is declared, that our sins could not be remitted, but by the death of the high Priest Jesus Christ.

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

(25) And he shall abide in it unto the death of the high priest.—Although the death which had been occasioned was accidental, not intentional, nevertheless the shedding of blood demanded expiation. The manslayer was, therefore, required to remain an exile from his own home until the death of the high priest who had been anointed with the holy oil. As the high priest, by reason of the anointing with the holy oil, became qualified to act as the representative of the nation, and in that capacity acted as their mediator on the great day of atonement, so the death of the high priest assumed a symbolical or representative character, and became a type of that of the great High Priest who, through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot to God, and who by His death made a propitiation for the sins of the world. Thus, as by the death of the Jewish high priest a typical atonement was made for the sin of the Israelitish manslayer, and he was restored thereupon to “the land of his possession” amongst his brethren, so by the death of our High Priest they who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before them, are restored to the inheritance which had been forfeited by sin, and made joint heirs with Christ of those mansions which He has gone before to prepare for those who love Him.

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

25. shall restore him] It is not stated where the congregation had taken him for judgement, but it was presumably to his own city. It is not, however, impossible that ‘the congregation’ means, as elsewhere in P , the whole community of Israel, and that P tacitly assumed that Jerusalem would be the place of judgement.

the high priest] lit. ‘the great priest.’ The title is used in P of Aaron and his eldest descendants. Outside the Hexateuch, it first appears of Jehoiada (2Ki_12:10), then of Hilkiah (2Ki_22:4; 2Ki_22:8); and after the exile, of Joshua (Hag_1:1 &c., Zec_3:1; Zec_3:8) and Eliashib (Neh_3:1; Neh_3:20; Neh_13:28). The high priest was the head of the religious affairs of the Jewish church, and rose, in the popular estimation, to a higher importance than the civil governor who was appointed by a foreign power. So that ‘until the death of the high priest’ would have almost the same force that the words ‘until the death of the reigning sovereign’ would bear to-day.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Delivered. Hebrew, "the multitude shall deliver the slayer." It seems the judges pronounced sentence, according to the votes of the people assembled; (Calmet) or the plurality of voices among the 21 judges decided the matter. (Grotius) (Haydock) --- High priest. This mystically signified that our deliverance was to be effected by the death of Christ, the high priest and the anointed of God. (Challoner) --- He rescued us from the hand of the revenger, the devil. (Theodoret, q. 50, 51.) --- Before his death, the way of our true country was not open, nor secure. (St. Gregory, hom 6. in Ezec.) (Worthington) --- By this law, Moses shewed a horror for murder, and the respect due to the person of the high priest, during whose life even the involuntary murderer was obliged to keep himself retired in a city of refuge. (Masius) --- At the death of the pontiff, all Israel put on mourning, so that private injuries were to be forgotten, when the public had such cause for sorrow; and in the mean time the vengeance of kinsmen would relent. (Maimonides; More. iii. 40.) --- Murder was punished by the Greeks, in the days of Homer, with banishment, though sometimes this was remitted by the relations, for a sum of money. (Iliad ix.) (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

He shall abide in it, be confined to it, partly to show the hatefulness of wilful murder in God’s account by so severe a punishment, as this in many cases might prove, inflicted upon the very appearance of it; and partly for the security of the man-slayer, lest the presence of such a person, and his conversation among the kindred of the deceased, might occasion reproach and bloodshed.

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; and principally to show that the death of Christ (the true High Priest, whom the others did evidently and eminently represent and typify) is the only mean whereby sins are pardoned, and sinners are set at liberty.

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

25. Unto the death of the high priest — The reason for this requirement is not given. May it not be to symbolize that the death of the antitypical High Priest, Jesus Christ, constitutes a successful plea against the demands of divine justice as the sin avenger? It is a Jewish tradition that the mother of the high priest made presents to the refugees that they might not be praying for the death of her son.

Holy oil — Anointing with this oil was a symbol of the Holy Spirit imparted. Hence the high priest’s death may be considered as in a sense expiatory, so that the refugee might return cleansed to his own city. For the preparation of the anointing oil see Exo_30:23-24; Lev_4:3, note.

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

The congregation (hde) shall restore him to the city of his refuge. It is perfectly plain from this (and from Jos_20:6) that the general assembly of all Israel was to summon both homicide and avenger before them with their witnesses, and, if they found the accused innocent, were to send him back under safe escort to the city in which he had taken refuge. He shall abide in it unto the death of the high priest. No doubt his family might join him in his exile, and his life might be fairly happy as well as safe within certain narrow limits; but under ordinary circumstances he must forfeit much and risk more by his enforced absence from home and land. It is not easy to see why the death of the high priest should have set the fugitive free from the law of vengeance, except as foreshadowing the death of Christ. No similar significance is anywhere else attributed to the death of the high priest; and it was rather in its unbroken continuance than in its recurring interruption that the priesthood of Aaron typified that of the Redeemer. To see anything of a vicarious or satisfactory character in the death of the high priest seems to be introducing an element quite foreign to the symbolism of the Old Testament. The stress, however, which is laid upon the fact of his decease (cf. verse 28), and the solemn notice of his having been anointed with the holy oil, seem to point unmistakably to something in his official and consecrated character which made it right that the rigour of the law should die with him. What the Jubilee was to the debtor who had lost his property, that the death of the high priest was to tile homicide who had lost his liberty. If it was the case, as commonly believed, that all blood feuds were absolutely terminated by the death of the high priest, might this not be because the high priest, as chief minister of the law of God, was himself the goel of the whole nation? When he died all processes of" vengeance lapsed, because they had really been commenced in his name.

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

עד מות הכהן הגדול [HE SHALL ABIDE IN IT] UNTIL THE DEATH OF THE HIGH PRIEST — because he serves to cause the Shechinah to dwell in Israel and thereby prolong their days, whilst the murderer serves to make the Shechinah depart from Israel and thereby shortens the days of the living. He is therefore not worthy that he should stand before a High Priest (that he should be anywhere near a High Priest) (Sifrei Bamidbar 160:9). Another explanation why he had to remain there until the High Priest’s death: Because the High Priest should have prayed that this misfortune might never happen in Israel in his days (cf. Makkot 11a).

אשר משח אתו בשמן הקדש WHO WAS ANOINTED WITH THE HOLY OIL — According to its plain sense, this is one of the elliptical sentences — for it does not expressly mention who anointed him, but it is the same as אשר משחו המושח בשמן המשחה “… the High Priest whom he who carried out the anointing had anointed with the holy oil”. — Our Rabbis, however, expounded it in Treatise Makkot 11b as a proof for a law: that it intends to teach that if, before the sentence on him has been passed that he should go into a city of refuge, the High Priest died and they appointed another in his stead, and afterwards his case was finished, he returns home through the death of the second, because it is said, אשר משח אתו. But did he anoint the priest or did the priest anoint him? for the words may literally mean either: “until the death of the High Priest whom he (the murderer) had anointed” or “until the death of the High Priest who has anointed him (the murderer)” — but the words are used to include the case of the High Priest who was anointed in his days (and whom, as it were he had anointed), viz., that he (such a High Priest) causes him to return home through his death.

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.