What Does Numbers 35:15 Mean?
These six cities shall be cities of escape for the children of Israel, and for the sojourner, and for the one who settles among them, so that anyone who strikes a living soul by straying may flee there.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
These six cities shall be a refuge, both for the children of Israel, and for the stranger, and for the sojourner among them: that every one that killeth any person unawares may flee thither.THE KEY
Refuge is open both to the outsider and to the person whose act caused a death without intent.
THE MEANING
When a death comes through an act without intent, refuge remains available. It extends to the Israelite, the stranger, and the sojourner among them; a person’s standing in the community does not decide whether refuge is open.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that causing a death without intent leaves no place to flee, or that refuge belongs only to insiders.
THE ROOT
בִּשְׁגָגָה
bishgagah
GROWS FROM
שׁגג
To stray or err; to act unintentionally.
“by straying” in this verse is bishgagah. The word for “unawares” carries the sense of an error or misstep. The root distinguishes lack of intent without making the death itself disappear.
ALSO GROWS
shegagah: Inadvertence; an unintentional error.
שְׁגָגָה
This is the noun form used here: the killing happens through error, rather than design.
shogeg: A person who acts unintentionally.
שׁוֹגֵג
The same root can describe the person by the inadvertence of the act, clarifying why refuge is provided.
גֵּר
ger
GROWS FROM
גור
To sojourn or dwell as a resident outsider.
“sojourner” in this verse is ger. “Stranger” here is a person living among the community, not someone beyond its reach. The root links the outsider’s place of residence to the refuge’s reach.
ALSO GROWS
gur: To sojourn or dwell as an outsider.
גּוּר
The verb describes the resident life behind the noun “stranger.”
megurim: Sojournings or places of sojourn.
מְגוּרִים
This related form ties the root to the place where a person lives, underscoring that the stranger is among the community.
תּוֹשָׁב
toshav
GROWS FROM
ישב
To sit, remain, or dwell.
“the one who settles among them” in this verse is toshav. The paired “stranger” and “sojourner” name people living among Israel in different ways. The verse extends refuge across those distinctions of residence.
ALSO GROWS
yashav: To sit or dwell.
יָשַׁב
This verb is the root’s basic image of remaining in a place.
moshav: A dwelling place or settlement.
מוֹשָׁב
This related noun makes the root’s connection to residence concrete.
THE PATTERN
Refuge gives a place to flee when unintended harm or danger leaves someone exposed.
And if a man does not lie in wait, but God lets him come into his hand, then I set for you a place to which he flees.To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, A Song upon Alamoth. God is our refuge and strength, a help found very near in the narrow place.So that through two unshifting deeds, in which it is without power for God to lie, we might have a strong comfort, we who have fled for refuge to grip the hope lying before us.THE THREAD
Speak to the children of Israel, saying, If a living soul misses the mark through straying from any of the commandments of the LORD, concerning the things which ought not to be done, and does against one of them;Leviticus uses the same Hebrew word, שְׁגָגָה (shegagah, inadvertence), translated here as “through ignorance.” The shared root reveals how the text distinguishes an act done in error from deliberate action, while still naming its consequence.
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