Comentários bíblicos

The preceding chapters are mainly concerned with the Levites, and are more or less connected by a unity of subject. But this and the following chapter contain a miscellaneous collection of regulations on a variety of matters, belonging, in all probability, to different strata of priestly tradition, Numbers 5:1-4. Unclean persons to be excluded from the camp. Numbers 5:5-10. Payments in compensation for wrongs, vv.11–31. The Ordeal of Jealousy.

1–4. Exclusion of unclean persons. The compiler has very suitably placed this in connexion with the careful arrangements enjoined in the preceding chapter to preserve the sacredness of the Dwelling of Jehovah. Because of His presence the whole camp (‘in the midst whereof I dwell’) was sacred, and all pollution must be rigorously avoided (cf. Leviticus 15:31). The same principle is applied, in Numbers 35:33 f., to the whole land of Canaan.

2. Three forms of uncleanness are here mentioned, all of which are dealt with in detail elsewhere, and all are considered contagious in their ceremonial pollution:—leprosy (Leviticus 13), discharges (Leviticus 15), and contact with the dead (Numbers 19).

5–10. Payments in compensation for wrongs.

Part of this section (Numbers 5:6-8) is supplementary to the regulations in Leviticus 6:1-7. It is there laid down that if anyone incur guilt through wronging his neighbour by robbery, or oppression, by appropriating something committed to his keeping as a deposit, or by concealing the fact that he has found lost property, he must confess, and restore the property plus one-fifth, and offer to God as an atonement for his sin a guilt-offering of a ram. It is, to use a modern phrase, ‘conscience money.’ In the present passage it is further provided that if the neighbour whom he has wronged be dead, and there be no gô’çl (see note below) to whom the property can be restored, it is to be paid to the priest. The ram of the guilt-offering is, of course, to be offered as well.

6. to da a trespass against the Lord] in acting unfaithfully towards Jehovah. To sin against one’s fellow men involves breaking faith with God; cf. Leviticus 6:2.

7. make restitution for his guilt] lit. ‘restore his guilt,’ abstract for concrete; he shall restore that which he guiltily holds in possession; and similarly in Numbers 5:8.

the fifth part] The same compensation is enjoined in other cases—the eating of sacred food unwittingly (Leviticus 22:14), the redemption of an unclean animal that has been vowed (Leviticus 27:11-13), or that is a firstling (id. 27), and the redemption of tithe (id. 31).

8. The verse deals with the case in which the injured person dies before restitution has been made to him, and leaves no representative.

kinsman] Heb. gô’çl. A technical term of considerable importance in Israelite law. A man’s next of kin was (1) a full brother, (2) failing him, an uncle on the father’s side, (3) failing him, a first cousin on the father’s side, (4) failing him, any near kinsman. His duties were manifold. In civil law: (a) to buy back the family estate of his kinsman, which the latter had sold through poverty (Leviticus 25:25, Ruth 4:1-6). He also had the refusal of it before it was sold (Jeremiah 32:8-12). (b) To buy back the person of his kinsman, if the latter had sold himself as a slave through poverty (Leviticus 25:47 ff.). In both these cases his action may be denoted by the word ‘redeem.’ (c) To receive restitution due to his deceased kinsman (here). In criminal law: to claim satisfaction for the blood of his murdered kinsman, in which case he was known as the gô’çl haddâm, ‘avenger of blood.’

unto the Lord shall be the priest’s] lit. ‘shall be for Jehovah for the priest.’ The priest shall receive it as the representative of Jehovah.

the ram of the atonement] The guilt-offering described in Leviticus 6:6.

9. every heave-offering] every contribution. The Heb. terûmâh is derived from a root signifying ‘to lift up, or off,’ and denotes that which is lifted off from a larger mass, and separated or contributed for sacred purposes. LXX. in the Pentateuch renders it by ἀφαιρεμα. It is used of gifts taken from the produce of the earth (Numbers 15:19-21 (P ), Deuteronomy 12:6; Deuteronomy 12:11), of money, spoils, &c. dedicated to Jehovah (Numbers 31:19; Numbers 31:41; Numbers 31:52), of the Levites’ tithe (Numbers 18:24), of the priests’ share of the tithe (Numbers 18:26-29), of materials for the Tabernacle (Exodus 25:2 f., Numbers 35:5; Numbers 35:21; Numbers 35:24) and for the second temple (Ezra 8:25), of the half shekel for defraying the expenses of the Tabernacle services (Exodus 30:13 ff.), and even of land reserved for the priests and Levites (Ezekiel 45:1; Ezekiel 45:6, &c.). As applied to animal sacrifices, the term is employed only of the shoulder of the peace-offering (Numbers 6:20, Exodus 29:27, Leviticus 7:34; Leviticus 10:14 f.). See Driver’s article ‘Offer’ in Hastings’ DB. iii. 588.