Numbers 35:24

Summary

Numbers 35:24 establishes that the congregation ('edah, H5712) is responsible for judging between the person who struck another and the avenger of blood, applying a specific set of judgments or ordinances to reach a decision.

Key words

• sha.fe.Tu ("they will judge", H8199) — qal sequential perfect, continuing the narrative sequence; the verb of legal judgment/adjudication.
• 'e.Dah ("congregation", H5712) — feminine singular noun with definite article, the collective body acting as judicial subject.
• ma.Keh ("[one who] struck", H5221) — hiphil participle, masculine singular, describing the agent who caused the strike (causative sense: "the one who caused the striking").
• go.'El ("[the] avenger of", H1350H) — qal participle, masculine singular construct, "the one doing [redeeming/avenging]," bound to ha.Dam ("the blood", H1818) that follows.
• mish.pa.Tim ("judgments", H4941G) — masculine plural noun with definite article, referring back to a body of legal rulings already established in the preceding context.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative vav (ve, H9001) attached to sha.fe.Tu, signaling continuity with prior legal instructions rather than a new independent statement. The subject ha.'e.Dah ("the congregation") follows the verb — a common Hebrew word order placing the verb first, then the subject, which is standard for narrative and legal sequences in this style.

The core of the sentence is built on the preposition bein ("between", H0996G) repeated twice ("between X and between Y"), a Hebrew construction marking the two parties in a dispute: ha.ma.Keh ("the one who struck") and go.'El ha.Dam ("the avenger of the blood"). Both terms are participles — ma.Keh in hiphil, denoting the one who caused the strike, and go.'el in qal construct, "the one who avenges," bound tightly to dam ("blood"). The construct chain go.'el ha.dam functions as a single legal role/title rather than two separate ideas.

The final phrase, 'al ha.mishpatim ha.'elleh ("according to these judgments"), uses the preposition 'al ("on/according to", H5921A) to indicate the standard by which the congregation must judge — pointing to a defined set of rulings (mishpatim, plural) rather than a single law.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders ha.'edah ("the congregation") with synagoge (community/assembly), a term with a somewhat different institutional connotation than the Hebrew collective noun. The Vulgate shifts the grammatical structure significantly, using a passive construction ("fuerit comprobatum," "shall have been proven") and describing the process as a "quaestio" (inquiry/investigation) between the "percussor" (striker) and "propinquus sanguinis" (blood relative), rather than preserving the Hebrew's twofold bein...bein ("between...between") judicial framing with the specific term go'el ha-dam ("avenger of the blood").