What Does Numbers 35:26 Mean in the King James?
But if the slayer shall at any time come without the border of the city of his refuge, whither he was fled;
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
Refuge is a bounded place: once the slayer crosses its border, its protection no longer surrounds him.
THE MEANING
Here, protection has a boundary: the slayer remains within the refuge city, and crossing its border exposes him to the avenger. The shelter is a real place with an edge; its protection does not travel with him outside it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that once refuge has been reached, its protection follows the slayer wherever he goes; the verse locates that protection inside the city’s border.
THE ROOT
יָנוּס
yānûs
GROWS FROM
נוּס
n-w-s
To flee or escape.
The Hebrew verb for “fled” shares its root with מָנוֹס (mānôs), meaning “refuge” or “place of escape.” The word-link joins the act of fleeing to the place that receives the fugitive: refuge is a destination with a boundary, and crossing that boundary changes where protection holds.
ALSO GROWS
nās: He fled; a person in flight.
נָס
This is the same verb family as the verse’s “whither he was fled,” keeping the slayer’s flight in view.
mānôs: Refuge; a place of escape.
מָנוֹס
This noun shows the shared root’s other side: flight has a place of refuge, whose border marks the limit of shelter.
THE PATTERN
Protection is pictured as dwelling within or reaching the shelter that holds it.
For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.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
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.Both verses use the Hebrew root נוּס (nūs), meaning “flee” or “escape.” Verse 35:11 names the city as the destination of flight; verse 35:26 reveals the boundary that limits its shelter.
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