民数记 35:5

Chinese NCV (Simplified)

你們又要從城外，向東面量九百公尺，向南面量九百公尺，向西面量九百公尺，向北面量九百公尺，城在中間；這要歸給他們作城外的郊區。

Parallel Translations

Chinese Union (Simplified)
另 外 东 量 二 千 肘 ， 南 量 二 千 肘 ， 西 量 二 千 肘 ， 北 量 二 千 肘 ， 为 边 界 ， 城 在 当 中 ； 这 要 归 他 们 作 城 邑 的 郊 野 。

Contextual Overview

¹ The Lord spoke to Moses on the plains of Moab across from Jericho by the Jordan River. He said, ² "Command the Israelites to give the Levites cities to live in from the land they receive. Also give the Levites the pastureland around these cities. ³ Then the Levites will have cities where they may live and pastureland for their cattle, flocks, and other animals. ⁴ The pastureland you give the Levites will extend fifteen hundred feet from the city wall. ⁵ Also measure three thousand feet in each direction outside the city wall—three thousand feet east of the city, three thousand feet south of the city, three thousand feet west of the city, and three thousand feet north of the city, with the city in the center. This will be pastureland for the Levites' cities. ⁶ "Six of the cities you give the Levites will be cities of safety. A person who accidentally kills someone may run to one of those cities for safety. You must also give forty-two other cities to the Levites; ⁷ give the Levites a total of forty-eight cities and their pastures. ⁸ The larger tribes of Israel must give more cities, and the smaller tribes must give fewer cities. Each tribe must give some of its cities to the Levites, but the number of cities they give will depend on the size of their land."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Cross-References

Genesis 34:30
Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, "You have caused me a lot of trouble. Now the Canaanites and the Perizzites who live in the land will hate me. Since there are only a few of us, if they join together to attack us, my people and I will be destroyed."

Genesis 35:9
When Jacob came back from Northwest Mesopotamia, God appeared to him again and blessed him.

Genesis 35:11
God said to him, "I am God Almighty. Have many children and grow in number as a nation. You will be the ancestor of many nations and kings.

Genesis 35:15
And Jacob named the place Bethel.

Genesis 35:16
Jacob and his group left Bethel. Before they came to Ephrath, Rachel began giving birth to her baby,

Exodus 23:27
"I will make your enemies afraid of me. I will confuse any people you fight against, and I will make all your enemies run away from you.

Exodus 34:24
I will force out nations ahead of you and expand the borders of your land. You will go before the Lord your God three times each year, and at that time no one will try to take your land from you.

Deuteronomy 11:25
No one will be able to stop you. The Lord your God will do what he promised and will make the people afraid everywhere you go.

Joshua 5:1
All the kings of the Amorites west of the Jordan and the Canaanite kings living by the Mediterranean Sea heard that the Lord dried up the Jordan River until the Israelites had crossed it. After that they were scared and too afraid to face the Israelites.

1 Samuel 11:7
So he took a pair of oxen and cut them into pieces. Then he gave the pieces of the oxen to messengers and ordered them to carry them through all the land of Israel. The messengers said, "This is what will happen to the oxen of anyone who does not follow Saul and Samuel." So the people became very afraid of the Lord . They all came together as if they were one person.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And ye shall measure from without the city on the east side two thousand cubits,.... Before only 1000 cubits were ordered to be

measured, and now 2000, even 2000 more, which were to be added to the other, and to begin where they ended. The first 1000 were for their cattle and goods, these 2000 for their gardens, orchards, fields, and vineyards; and so the Jewish writers understand it. Jarchi observes, that 1000 cubits are ordered, and after that 2000; and asks, how is this? or how is it to be reconciled? to which he answers, 2000 are put to them round about, and of them the 1000 innermost are for suburbs, and the outermost (i.e. the 2000) are for fields and vineyards; and with this agrees the Misnah a, from whence he seems to have taken it; and the same was to be on every other side of the city, south, west, and north, as follows:

and on the south side two thousand cubits, and on the west side two thousand cubits, and on the north side two thousand cubits; which, added to the other 1000 all around, must make a large circumference of land:

and the city shall be in the midst; in the midst of the circuit of three thousand cubits all around, so that it must stand very pleasant and convenient:

this shall be to them the suburbs of the cities; such a quantity of ground, consisting of so many cubits, shall be assigned to every city; the suburbs or glebe land to a Levite's city, on the four sides were four squares, and each square consisted of seventy six acres, one rood, twenty perches, and eighty square feet; all the four squares amounting to three hundred and five acres, two roods, one perch, besides fifty seven feet square, according to Bishop Cumberland.

a Sotah, c. 5. sect. 3. Maimon. & Bartenora in ib.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

From without the city - Omit “from.” The demarcation here intended would run parallel to the wall of the city, outside which it was made. To guard against any restrictions of area, due to such causes as the irregular forms of the cities or the physical obstacles of the ground, it was ordained that the suburb should, alike on north, south, east, and west, present, at a distance of one thousand cubits (or, nearly one-third of a mile) from the wall, a front not less than two thousand cubits in length; and, by joining the extremities of these measured fronts according to the nature of the ground, a sufficient space for the Levites would be secured.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Numbers 35:5. And ye shall measure from without the city - two thousand cubits, c. — Commentators have been much puzzled with the accounts in these two verses. In Numbers 35:4 the measure is said to be 1,000 cubits from the wall in Numbers 35:5 the measure is said to be 2,000 from without the city. It is likely these two measures mean the same thing; at least so it was understood by the Septuagint and Coptic, who have δισχιλιους πηχεις, 2,000 cubits, in the fourth, as well as in the fifth verse; but this reading of the Septuagint and Coptic is not acknowledged by any other of the ancient versions, nor by any of the MSS. collated by Kennicott and De Rossi. We must seek therefore for some other method of reconciling this apparently contradictory account. Sundry modes have been proposed by commentators, which appear to me, in general, to require full as much explanation as the text itself. Maimonides is the only one intelligible on the subject. "The suburbs," says he, "of the cities are expressed in the law to be 3,000 cubits on every side from the wall of the city and outwards. The first thousand cubits are the suburbs, and the 2,000, which they measured without the suburbs, were for fields and vineyards." The whole, therefore, of the city, suburbs, fields, and vineyards, may be represented by the following diagram: -

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