Numbers 35:15
לִבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְלַגֵּר וְלַתּוֹשָׁב בְּתוֹכָם תִּהְיֶינָה שֵׁשׁ־הֶעָרִים הָאֵלֶּה לְמִקְלָט לָנוּס שָׁמָּה כָּל־מַכֵּה־נֶפֶשׁ בִּשְׁגָגָֽה׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
לִבְנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֗ל וְלַגֵּ֤ר וְלַתּוֹשָׁב֙ בְּתוֹכָ֔ם תִּהְיֶ֛ינָה שֵׁשׁ־הֶעָרִ֥ים הָאֵ֖לֶּה לְמִקְלָ֑ט לָנ֣וּס שָׁ֔מָּה כָּל־מַכֵּה־נֶ֖פֶשׁ בִּשְׁגָגָֽה׃
φυγάδιον ἔσται τοῖς υἱοῖς· Ἰσραήλ, καὶ τῷ π ροσηλύτῳ τῷ παροίκῳ τῷ ἐν ὑμῖν· ἔσονται αἱ πόλεις αὗται εἰς φυγαδευτήριον, φυγεῖν ἐκεῖ παντὶ πατάξαντι ψυχὴν ἀκουσίως. σίως.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
tam filiis Israël quam advenis atque peregrinis, ut confugiat ad eas qui nolens sanguinem fuderit.
Estas seis ciudades servirán de refugio tanto para los israelitas como para los extranjeros o residentes temporales que vivan entre ustedes. Cualquiera que mate a alguien por accidente podrá huir a una de estas ciudades.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Estas seis ciudades serán para acogimiento á los hijos de Israel, y al peregrino, y al que morare entre ellos, para que huya allá cualquiera que hiriere de muerte á otro por yerro.
These six cities will serve as a refuge for the Israelites and for the foreigner or stranger among them, so that anyone who kills a person unintentionally may flee there.
✦ What the text says
Summary
Numbers 35:15 states that the six cities just mentioned will serve as a place of refuge for the Israelites and for two categories of non-Israelites living among them, so that anyone who kills a person by accident may flee there.
Key words
- v.Nei ("[the] people of", H1121G) — construct plural noun, opening a chain "sons/people of Israel," marking the first beneficiary group.
- Ger ("sojourner", H1616) and to.Shav ("resident alien", H8453A) — two distinct masculine singular nouns, each introduced by its own preposition la ("for the"), naming separate legal categories of non-Israelite residents.
- tih.Yei.nah ("they will become", H1961) — Qal imperfect, third person feminine plural, agreeing with the feminine plural referent "the cities," expressing a future/ongoing state.
- ma.keh ("[one who] strikes down", H5221) — Hiphil participle in construct form, meaning "the striker of," forming a construct chain with Ne.fesh ("a person", H5315J) to designate the category of person the law addresses.
- sh.ga.Gah ("inadvertence", H7684) — feminine singular noun preceded by bi ("by"), specifying the manner of the killing as unintentional.
What the text says
The sentence opens with three prepositional phrases — li.v.Nei Yis.ra.'El ("for the people of Israel"), ve.la.Ger ("and for the sojourner"), ve.la.to.Shav ("and for the resident alien") — all fronted before the verb tih.Yei.nah. This fronting places emphasis on the beneficiaries of the refuge law before naming the action ("will become") and its subject, "the six cities." The verb's feminine plural form matches the feminine plural noun for "cities," a grammatical agreement not visible in translation.
The final clause uses a construct chain, kol-ma.keh-Ne.fesh ("any striker of a person"), a participle-plus-noun combination that functions as a single designation for the class of person addressed by the law, followed by bi.sh.ga.Gah ("by inadvertence"), which qualifies the killing as unintentional. The infinitive la.Nus ("to flee") plus the directional sha.mah ("there," with directional -he) expresses the purpose and destination of the refuge cities together.
Differences between versions
The Hebrew be.to.Kham ("in their midst," third person, referring to the Israelites) is rendered in the LXX as ἐν ὑμῖν ("among you," second person), and reflected in the Spanish SBLIBRE as "que vivan entre ustedes," shifting the grammatical person from third to second. The LXX further splits the single Hebrew clause into two nouns, φυγάδιον and εἰς φυγαδευτήριον, both rendering miqlat ("refuge", H4733), where the Hebrew uses this term only once.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.