The revenger of blood himself shall slay the murderer: when he meeteth him, he shall slay him.
| Word | Hebrew | Strong’s | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| revenger | גֹּאֵ֣ל go.'El | H1350 | to be the next of kin (and as such to buy back a relati… · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular construct |
| blood | הַדָּ֔ם ha.Dam | H1818 | blood (as that which when shed causes death) of man or… · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute |
| slay | יָמִ֖ית ya.Mit | H4191 | to die (literally or figuratively) · verb, hiphil imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular |
| murderer | הָרֹצֵ֑חַ ha.ro.Tze.ach | H7523 | properly · definite article + verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute |
| meeteth | בְּפִגְעוֹ be.fig.'ov- | H6293 | to impinge · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular |
| he | ה֥וּא hu' | H1931 | he (she or it) · personal pronoun, 3rd person masculine singular |
| slay | יְמִיתֶֽנּוּ ye.mi.Te.nu | H4191 | to die (literally or figuratively) · verb, hiphil imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular |
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
If he smite him with an instrument of iron, so that he die, &c.--Various cases are here enumerated in which the Goel or avenger was at liberty to take the life of the murderer; and every one of them proves a premeditated purpose.
The revenger of blood - גאל הדם goel haddam, the redeemer of blood; the next in blood to him who was slain. See on Num 35:12 (note).
The revenger of blood himself shall slay the murderer,.... Not only shall have power to do it, but, as it seems, should be obliged to do it; be the executioner of the murderer; but not before his case has been heard, examined, tried, and judged; wherefore the Targum of Jonathan adds,"in judgment,''that is, as Onkelos explains it,"when he is condemned by judgment,''the court of judicature: when he meeteth him he shall slay him; the first opportunity he has, even though, as Jarchi says, if he meets him in the midst of one of the cities of refuge, and no judgment is passed on him.
Numbers 35:9-34 9. And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, 9. Et locutus est Jehova ad Mosen dicendo: 10. Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come over Jordan into the land of Canaan, 10. Alloquere filios Israel, et dicas eis, Quum transieritis Jordanem in terra Chanaan, 11. Then ye shall appoint you cities to be cities of refuge for you; that the slayer may flee thither, which killeth any person at unawares. 11. Constituetis vobis urbes: urbes autem refugii erunt vobis, quo fugiet homicida qui percusserit aliquem per errorem. 12. And they shall be unto you cities for refuge from the avenger; that the manslayer die not, until he stand before the congregati…
Read the whole note in the consoleThe avenger of blood could put him to death, when he hit upon him, i.e., whenever and wherever he met with him.
The avenger was the victim’s closest relative; he was responsible for putting the murderer to death, carrying out the vengeance that justice required (Gen 9:6).
בפגעו בו WHENEVER HE MEETETH HIM [HE MAY KILL HIM] — even in the cities of refuge.
Henry, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Clarke, Gill, Calvin and Keil & Delitzsch are in the public domain; Tyndale Open Study Notes © Tyndale House Publishers, CC BY-SA 4.0 — all from the Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org). Rashi: the Rosenbaum & Silbermann Pentateuch (public domain) and the Judaica Press and Metsudah Tanakh (CC BY), via Sefaria. Spurgeon's Treasury of David: public domain (lyteword's markdown edition, CC0).
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
