Numbers 35:27

Summary

The verse describes what happens if the go'el ha-dam ("avenger of the blood") finds the manslayer outside the boundary of his city of refuge: the avenger may kill him, and this killing carries no bloodguilt for the avenger. The text structures this as a conditional sequence culminating in a legal declaration of innocence.

Key words

• ma.Tza' ("he will find", H4672) — qal sequential perfect, continuing the conditional chain begun in the preceding verse; the subject is the avenger.
• go.'El ("[the] avenger of", H1350H) — qal participle in construct, literally "the one redeeming/avenging of," used substantively as a legal title; appears twice, once for each action (finding, killing).
• mik.la.T ("refuge", H4733) — masculine singular construct, forming the phrase "city of his refuge" ('ir mikla-to), specifying the protected space whose boundary matters legally.
• ro.Tze.ach ("killer", H7523) — qal participle, same root as the verb ra.Tzach ("he will kill", H7523) used for the avenger's action; the text uses one root for both the original killer and the retaliatory killing.
• 'ein... dam ("not... blood", H0369 + H1818) — the construct 'ein plus dam forms the idiom "there is no blood to him," meaning no bloodguilt is attached to the avenger.

What the text says

The verse is built as two sequential clauses joined by narrative vav ("and"): first u-matza' ("and he will find"), then ve-ratzach ("and he will kill"), both sequential perfects continuing the legal scenario from the prior verse. The subject of both verbs is go'el ha-dam, "the avenger of the blood," a fixed legal term formed from the participle go'el in construct with ha-dam.

The location is marked precisely: mi-chutz li-gvul 'ir mikla-to, "from outside to the border of the city of his refuge." The stacked construct chain (gvul... 'ir... mikla-to) narrows the location from general "outside" to the specific boundary of the specific city of refuge belonging to the manslayer, making the geographic condition central to the case.

The final clause, 'ein lo dam, uses the construct-like 'ein ("there is not") with the preposition lo ("to him") and dam ("blood"), an idiomatic Hebrew formula meaning no bloodguilt is charged to the avenger for this killing. The same root r-tz-ch is used both for the original rotzeach ("killer") and for the avenger's own action ratzach ("he will kill"), which the Hebrew does not distinguish lexically — both acts use the same verb root, though the grammatical roles (participle vs. finite verb) differ.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders 'ein lo dam ("there is no blood to him") as οὐκ ἔνοχός ἐστιν ("he is not liable/guilty"), shifting from the Hebrew's blood-idiom to an abstract legal term of guilt. The Vulgate similarly reads absque noxa erit ("he will be without fault"), also abstracting the Hebrew's concrete "blood" language into a general declaration of non-liability.