What Does Numbers 35:13 Mean in the King James?
And of these cities which ye shall give six cities shall ye have for refuge.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Hebrew word for refuge names a place that receives you, so protection begins with being taken in while judgment still lies ahead.
THE MEANING
This verse makes refuge a reachable place, not a feeling the endangered person must create. The six cities receive and shelter the manslayer from immediate retaliation while judgment still has its place.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that protection requires pretending harm did not happen: refuge interrupts revenge without erasing judgment.
THE ROOT
מִקְלָט
miqlāṭ
GROWS FROM
קלט
q-l-ṭ
To receive, take in, or harbor.
English makes refuge sound mainly like a condition of safety, while the Hebrew word connects it to receiving: a person is taken in somewhere. Here protection has a location, and it holds the manslayer apart from the avenger until judgment.
ALSO GROWS
qālaṭ: To receive or take in.
קָלַט
The verb is the action beneath refuge: someone is received rather than left exposed.
miqlāṭ: Refuge; a place of refuge.
מִקְלָט
The noun gives that receiving a place the endangered person can reach.
THE PATTERN
Refuge is given as a reachable place of shelter that protects a person before danger or retaliation has the final word.
And if a man lie not in wait, but God deliver him into his hand; then I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee.To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, A Song upon Alamoth. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:THE THREAD
And they shall be unto you cities for refuge from the avenger; that the manslayer die not, until he stand before the congregation in judgment.The same Hebrew word מִקְלָט (miqlāṭ, refuge) appears here: refuge is a place that receives the manslayer and keeps the avenger from killing them. The shelter lasts until the person stands for judgment, so protection does not erase accountability.
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