Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Numbers 35:4
And the suburbs of the cities, which ye shall give unto the Levites, [shall reach] from the wall of the city and outward a thousand cubits round about.
Verse 4. And the suburbs of the cities – shall reach from the wall of the city and outward a thousand cubits round about.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
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 suburbsshall 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.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
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.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
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.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
4. And the suburbs of the cities. A discrepancy here appears, from whence a question arises; for Moses first limits the suburbs to a thousand cubits from the city in every direction; and then seems to extend them to two thousand. Some thus explain the difficulty, viz., that the parts nearest to the city were destined for cottages and gardens; and that then there was another space of a thousand cubits left free for their flocks and herds; but this seems only to be invented, in order to elude by the subterfuge the contradiction objected to. My own opinion rather is, that after Moses had given them a boundary of a thousand cubits on every side, he proceeds to shew the way in which they were to be measured, that thus he may obviate all the quarrels which might aria: from their neighbors. It is plain that, when he repeats the same thing twice, the latter verse is only an explanation of the former; and thus it would be absurd, that after having fixed a thousand cubits, he should immediately double that number. But it will be all very consistent, if this measurement be taken in a circuit; for if you draw a circle, and then a line from the center to the circumference, that line will be about a tenth part of the whole circumference; compare then the fourth part of the circle with the straight line which goes to the center, and it will be greater by one part and a half. But, if you leave a thousand cubits for the city, the two thousand cubits (199) in the four parts of the circumference will correspond with one thousand cubits from the city towards each of the boundaries.
It is afterwards prescribed, in accordance with equity, that a greater or less number of cities should be taken according to the size of the possessions belonging to each tribe; for, just as in paying tax or tribute, regard is had to each man’s means, so it was just that every tribe should contribute equitably in proportion to its abundance. As to the cities of refuge, I now omit to explain what their condition was, because this matter relates to the Sixth Commandment; only let us observe that the wretched exiles were entrusted to the care of the Levites, that they might be more safely guarded. Besides, it was probable that those who presided over holy things would be upright and honest judges, so as not to admit men indiscriminately out of hope of advantage, or from carelessness, but only to protect the innocent, after duly examining their case.
(199) “ Les huit mille coudees prinses aux quatre quatriers conviendront avec les mille coudees d’espace entre la ville, et les bornes des fanbourgs.” — Fr. The more common solution of this difficulty appears to be that suggested by Maimonides, viz., that besides the 1000 cubits allotted to the suburbs, 2000 more were added for fields and vineyards. Rosenmuller, however, demurs to this interpretation, which he does not consider the text will bear. I have translated C. word for word, but I believe his figures are wrong. It is probable that his theory is the same as that of Corn. a Lapide, which he thus more clearly propounds, “God seems here to comprise the city and its suburbs in a circle, so that the center should be the city, and the circumference should end at the distance of 1000 cubits on every side of the city walls. This circle He divides into four triangles, each of which is isosceles, i e., it, has its two sides equal, which are drawn from the center to the circumference. God, therefore, here commands, that the suburbs on every side should be extended a thousand cubits, and that the east side should be contained in two lines (each, of course, of 1000 cubits) drawn from the city to the circumference of the suburbs, which two lines comprehend that east side in the shape of a triangle;” and so also with the other sides, “so that the two lines drawn to the circumference of each side, which are the two equal sides of the triangle, should together contain 2000 cubits.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
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.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Num 35:4-5. The suburbs of the cities shall reach, &c. In the version of the LXX, instead of a thousand cubits round about, it is two thousand cubits, which, from the next verse, appears evidently to have been the true and original reading; a reading which entirely removes all those difficulties wherewith the passage otherwise is loaded, and which commentators have so laboriously endeavoured to remove. The plain meaning seems to be, that the suburbs of these cities, whether from the wall, or from the centre of the city, as Le Clerc would render it, were to be two thousand cubits in extent on every side, the city standing in the midst. The reader, desirous to enter into the critical disquisitions of this subject, will find sufficient matter in almost every commentator, particularly in Calmet, Houbigant, Scheuchzer, and Le Clerc. If, however, this reading of the LXX should not be approved, we may well follow Mr. Lowman’s interpretation: “In measuring from the wall of the city outward,” says he, “the law appoints one thousand cubits only, not two thousand; which Grotius seems well to express by spatium mille cubitorum accessio urbium: it was but one thousand cubits to the cities. The next verse, indeed, directs that you shall measure from without the city, on the east side, two thousand cubits, and so each way. At first view, it is plain, that these two directions cannot be meant of the same measure from and to the very place, or from the walls of the city to the end of the ground without the walls; it must be meant of different measures, and therefore of different places. In the first case, measure from the walls outward to the end of the suburbs, and it will be one thousand cubits; in the other case, measure from without the city, or from the end of the suburbs inward, and so into the city, and to the centre of the whole ground, and it will be two thousand cubits each way. This gives a just and easy sense to these directions, and the difference is no more than measuring outward from the walls in one case, and from the parts without the city into the city itself in the other case: so that one measure gives the contents of the suburbs alone, the other the contents of the suburbs and cities together; yet, as it is thought by some, that the areas of the cities are not included in the four thousand cubits square, let the addition be made for the areas of the cities: what shall it be, one thousand, fifteen hundred, or two thousand cubits square? Be it two thousand; and then, the whole being a square of six thousand cubits, or thirty-six millions of square cubits, will be somewhat more than as much again as the former computation, or as thirty-six to sixteen. Let then, if you will, an allowance be made to the Levitical cities of one hundred and ten thousand acres, instead of near fifty-three thousand in the former calculation; this will not amount to a tenth of the remainder of one million two hundred thousand acres, after the division of ten millions, and is not one in a hundred to eleven millions two hundred and sixty-four thousand, the very longest contents of the whole land.” See his Civ. Gov. of the Hebrews, p. 110. But respecting the subject, we refer to Joshua 20.
REFLECTIONS.As the Levites would need an abode when they came into the land, God assigns them forty-eight cities, with their suburbs, for their cattle in the several tribes. They needed not arable land, as the tithes were their portion, and the care of the soil would have diverted them from the care of men’s souls. For mutual edification, they dwell together; for general usefulness their cities are dispersed, each tribe; according to its extent, furnishing them out of their lot with a suitable abode. Note; (1.) To provide a gospel ministry should be the great concern of every people. (2.) They who are engaged in the ministry should, as much as possible, divest themselves of every worldly care. (3.) They who minister to us in spirituals have a right to reap our worldly things.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
cubits. See App-51.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
thousand cubits: The Septuagint reads “two thousand cubits,” as in the following verse; but this reading is not acknowledged by any other ancient version, except the Coptic, nor by any of the manuscripts collated by Kennicott and De Rossi. Various modes have been proposed for reconciling the accounts in these two verses, which appear in general to require full as much explanation as the text itself. The explanation of Maimonides is the only one that is intelligible, and appears perfectly satisfactory. “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 1,000 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:
Fields and vineyards Suburbs City 1,000; Cubits 2,000; Cubits
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
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.