Numbers 35:21

Summary

Numbers 35:21 describes a case where one person strikes another with the hand out of 'eivah ("enmity", H0342) and the victim dies. The text rules that the striker must be put to death because he is classified as a rotzeach ("murderer", H7523), and states that the "avenger of blood" is the one who will execute him when they meet.

Key words

• 'eivah ("enmity", H0342) — feminine singular noun; establishes the motive of hostility that distinguishes this case from accidental killing.
• hikkahu ("he struck him", H5221) — hiphil perfect with pronominal suffix; the causative stem marks the act as a deliberate blow inflicted on another, and the perfect places it as a completed action.
• mot yumat ("he will certainly be put to death", H4191) — qal infinitive absolute followed by a hophal imperfect; the doubled root is the standard Hebrew construction for emphasis, and the hophal marks the verb as passive ("be put to death" rather than "die").
• rotzeach ("murderer/killer", H7523) — qal participle used as a predicate noun in the clause rotzeach hu ("he is a murderer"); the participle designates an ongoing category or status rather than a single completed act.
• go'el ha-dam ("avenger of the blood", H1350H construct + H1818) — qal participle in construct with dam ("blood", H1818); names the figure who carries out the execution.

What the text says

The verse is built as a conditional case followed by a ruling. The condition is introduced by 'o ("or", H0176A), linking this case to a preceding list of ways a person can be killed, and specifies that the blow was delivered be'eivah ("in enmity") and be-yado ("with his hand", H3027G + H9023), i.e., by direct bodily force rather than an object. The narrative vav on vayamot ("and he died", H9001+H4191) marks the death as the sequential outcome of the strike.

The ruling section opens with the infinitive absolute plus hophal imperfect mot yumat ("he shall surely be put to death"), a grammatical intensifier common in Hebrew legal and narrative style, followed by the article-bearing hiphil participle ha-makkeh ("the one who struck", H5221) identifying the subject of the penalty. The nominal clause rotzeach hu ("he is a murderer") uses the qal participle rotzeach as a predicate, classifying the striker's legal status rather than merely narrating an event. The final clause names go'el ha-dam as the agent who will kill (yamit, hiphil imperfect, H4191) the rotzeach "when he meets him" (be-fig'o-vo, infinitive construct with suffix, H6293 + H9033), a temporal clause indicating the moment of the encounter rather than a formal trial setting.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the penalty clause twice — θανάτῳ θανατούσθω is applied both to "the one who struck" (ὁ πατάξας) and again to "the one murdering" (ὁ φονεύων) — where the Hebrew mot yumat appears only once, attached to ha-makkeh. The Vulgate renders rotzeach hu as "homicidii reus erit" ("he will be guilty of homicide"), introducing the legal term reus ("guilty"), where the Hebrew simply states a nominal identification, "he is a murderer." The Vulgate also adds statim ("immediately") to the meeting clause, a temporal marker not present in the Hebrew be-fig'o-vo ("when he meets him").