Numbers 35:19

Summary

The verse states that the go'el ha-dam ("the avenger of blood") is the one who will put the killer to death. It specifies that when this avenger encounters the killer, he will kill him.

Key words

• go.'El ("[the] avenger of", H1350H) — qal participle, masculine singular construct, meaning "the one who redeems/avenges"; in construct form it links to the following noun dam to form the compound title "avenger of the blood."
• Dam ("blood", H1818) — masculine singular noun with the definite article prefixed (ha-, H9009); completes the construct phrase, identifying whose blood is being avenged.
• hu' ("he", H1931) — personal pronoun appearing twice in the verse (positions 4 and 14), each time emphatically restating the subject before the verb yamit / yemitennu.
• ya.Mit ("he will put to death", H4191) — hiphil (causative) imperfect, third person masculine singular; the causative stem indicates the avenger causes the death, rather than simply killing incidentally.
• ro.Tze.ach ("killer", H7523) — qal participle, masculine singular, with definite article; describes the one who committed the killing, marked by the direct object marker 'et (H0853) as the object of the verb.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built in two parallel halves, each opening with the emphatic pronoun hu' ("he", H1931) before a hiphil imperfect form of H4191. This repetition of the pronoun before the verb is a common Hebrew construction for emphasis, underscoring that it is specifically the go'el ha-dam — and not another party — who carries out the act. The first half names the agent (go'el ha-dam) and the action (yamit, "he will put to death") directed at the object marked by 'et (H0853), the rotzeach ("killer", H7523). The second half restates the action using an infinitive construct with pronominal suffix, be-fig'o-vo ("when he meets him"), followed again by hu' and a suffixed form of the same verb, yemitennu ("he will put him to death"). The suffix -nu (H9033) on the final verb replaces the separate object marker used in the first clause, showing two different grammatical strategies within the same verse for expressing "put him to death." The infinitive construct with prepositional prefix be- (H9003) creates a temporal clause, "when he meets him," rather than a conditional one, though the sense of contingency (the moment of encounter) is present in the grammar.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders go'el ha-dam as ho agchisteuōn to haima ("the one who acts as next-of-kin for the blood"), preserving the kinship-based avenger concept found in the Hebrew participle go.'El (H1350H). The Vulgate uses propinquus occisi ("the relative of the slain one"), shifting the phrase from "avenger of blood" to a more general term for a relative of the victim, without an explicit verb of avenging embedded in the noun phrase as the Hebrew participle provides.