Numbers 35:4

Object. In the next verse it is

two thousand. How do these agree?

Answ. 1. LXX. interpreters read both here and Num 35:5 two thousand cubits, whence some suppose this to be an error in the Hebrew text, which, being in a matter neither concerning faith nor good manners, is not prejudicial to the authority of the Holy Scriptures.

Answ. 2. The one thousand cubits may be in length from the city, and the two thousand cubits in breadth on each side of the city, and so they well agree; for a line of a thousand cubits being draw in length eastward, and another westward, and another northward, and another southward, a line drawn at a thousand cubits distance from the city, from east to west, must needs contain two thousand cubits, and so must the other line from north to south, and so on every side of the city there must be two thousand cubits.

Answ. 3. This verse and the next do not speak to the same thing: this speaks of the space or place from whence the suburbs shall be measured, the next verse speaks of the space unto which that measure shall be extended; and the words may very well be read thus, And the suburbs—shall be (so it is only an ellipsis of the verb substantive, which is most frequent, and the meaning is, shall be taken or accounted)

from the wall of the city, and from (that particle being supplied or understood from the foregoing words, which is very usual) without it, or, from the outward parts of it, (which being a general and indefinite expression is limited and explained by the following words,) even from

a thousand cubits round about; which are mentioned not as the thing measured, for as yet there is not a word of measuring, but as the term or space from which the measuring line should begin. And then it follows, Num 35:5, And ye shall measure from without the city (not from the wall of the city, as was said before, Num 35:4, but from without it, i.e. from the said outward part or space of a thousand cubits without the wall of the city round about) on the east side two thousand cubits, &c. So in truth there were three thousand cubits from the wall of the city, whereof one thousand probably were for out-houses, stalls for cattle, gardens, vineyards, and olive-yards, and the like, and the other two thousand for pasture, which are therefore called the field of the suburbs, Lev 25:34, by way of distinction from the suburbs themselves, which consist of the first thousand cubits from the wall of the city.

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

Num 35:4-5. From the wall of the city a thousand cubits — It appears, by comparing these two verses together, that there were three thousand cubits allowed them from the wall of the city; the first thousand, properly called the suburbs, probably for outhouses, gardens, vineyards, and olive-yards; and the other two for pasturage, which are therefore called the field of the suburbs, (Lev 25:34,) by way of distinction from the suburbs themselves.

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

35:4-5 Readers have long attempted to explain the alleged contradiction between the 1,500 feet and the 3,000 feet. If the Hebrews conceived of a town as a fixed point, then the square of territory around each town would measure 3,000 feet on each side. Another solution is to see a distinction between pastureland (35:4) and larger pastureland (35:5) around the town. On the basis of this text, some Jewish interpreters restricted the distance that one could walk on the Sabbath to 3,000 feet (2,000 cubits) from home.

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

Verse 4. And the suburbs of the cities - shall reach from the wall of the city and outward a thousand cubits round about.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

And the suburbs of the cities which ye shall give unto the Levites,.... The dimensions and bounds of them were not left to the Israelites, to give what ground they pleased for this purpose, but were fixed to what length they should be: these

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, which all around a city must contain a considerable quantity of ground, if the city was of any size, as it is certain that some of them given them at least were.

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

Paces. This is equivalent to 2000 cubits, (ver. 5,) or a sabbath day’s journey. (Selden, Jur. iii. 9.; St. Jerome, q. 9. ad algas.) Hebrew retains the same word, amma, "cubit," in both verses: but some copies of the Septuagint, Philo, and Josephus, have "2000 cubits," (Calmet) which Dr. Wall and Kennicott deem to be the original reading. (Haydock) --- Bonfrere would also correct the Hebrew by the Vulgate as a pace among the Greeks consisted of three feet, and a cubit of half that quantity. The geometric pace of the Romans contained five feet, and the sacred cubit of Villalpand half as much; so that 2000 sacred cubits make 1000 geometric paces. Thus the Vulgate is perfectly consistent with itself. (Menochius) --- Some imagine that Moses speaks of the common cubit here and of the sacred one, which was doubly as large, ver 5. But this is not probable; and the distinction of cubits, (Calmet) at least in his days, (Haydock) is very uncertain. Perhaps Moses may first specify the depth of this space of ground from the wall, and afterwards its length, which would be doubly greater. (Calmet) See Sevius on Jos. xxi. q. 8, &c. --- The semidiameter was probably 1000 cubits. (Du Hamel)

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).

4, 5. Suburbs… a thousand cubits — There would be no perplexity in making a diagram fulfilling this requirement if it were not added that a distance of two thousand cubits must be measured from without the city on each of the four sides. Eight different kinds of diagrams have been devised to meet the requirements of the text, one of which will be found in Jos_21:2, note. The Seventy, Josephus, and Philo cut this knot by reading two thousand in both verses. In the summer of 1878 two stones bearing the inscription in old Hebrew and Greek characters, “The limit or boundary of Geser,” were found near Abou-Shushek, the ancient Levitical city of Gezer, (Jos_21:21,) taken from the Philistines by the king of Egypt, and given by Pharaoh to his daughter, Solomon’s wife. 1Ki_9:16. This discovery will go far toward fixing the standard of the Jewish cubit, and in determining the shape and extent of the suburbs of these cities. The limit of the inner suburb was one thousand cubits from the wall round about the city, which was probably circular. The outer precincts were two thousand cubits beyond the inner, according to the Hebrew text, to the east, west, north, and south corners; so the boundary of the outlying fields could not have been circular, but diagonal. The suburbs did not measure three thousand cubits in all directions, only the angles at the four cardinal points. The first thousand cubits were to be measured “from the wall of the city,” not from the center of it, the city being “in the midst.” This discovery corrects the diagram of Keil. See Jos_21:2, note.

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

A thousand cubits - In the next verse it is two thousand. But this verse and the next do not speak to the same thing; this speaks of the space from whence the suburbs shall be measured, the next speaks of the space unto which that measure shall be extended; and the words may very well be read thus. And the suburbs - Shall be from the wall of the city and from without it, or, from the outward parts of it, even from a thousand cubits round about. Which are mentioned not as the thing measured, but as the space from which the measuring line should begin. And then it follows, ver. 5. And ye shall measure from without the city, (not from the wall of the city, as said before ver. 4, but from without it, that is, from the said outward space of a thousand cubits without the wall of the city round about) on the east side two thousand cubits. So in truth there were three thousand cubits from the wall of the city, whereof one thousand probably were for out-houses, stalls for cattle, gardens, vineyards and olive-yards, and the other two thousand for pasture, which are therefore called the field of the suburbs, Lev. xxv, 34, by way of distinction from the suburbs themselves, which consist of the first thousand cubits from the wall of the city.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

The pasture lands of the different towns were to measure "from the town wall outwards a thousand cubits round about," i.e., on each of the four sides. "And measure from without the city, the east side 2000 cubits, and the south side 2000 cubits, and the west side 2000 cubits, and the north side 2000 cubits, and the city in the middle," i.e., so that the town stood in the middle of the measured lines, and the space which they occupied was not included in the 2000 cubits. The meaning of these instructions, which have caused great perplexity to commentators, and have latterly been explained by Saalschtz (Mos. R. pp. 100, 101) in a marvellously erroneous manner, was correctly expounded by J. D. Michaelis in the notes to his translation. We must picture the towns and the surrounding fields as squares, the pasturage as stretching 1000 cubits from the city wall in every direction, as the accompanying figures show, and the length of each outer side as 2000 cubits, apart from the length of the city wall: so that, if the town itself occupied a square of 1000 cubits (see fig. a), the outer side of the town fields would measure 2000 + 1000 cubits in every direction; but if each side of the city wall was only 500 cubits long (see fig. b), the outer side of the town fields would measure 2000 + 500 cubits in every direction.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

אלף אמה סביב A THOUSAND CUBITS ROUND ABOUT — But afterwards, (v. 5) it says, “two thousand cubits”!? How can that be? They assign two thousand for them (for the Levites) round about their cities, and of these, the innermost thousand serves as the “open space” and the outermost is for fields and vineyards (Sotah 27b).

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.