Numbers 35:6

Summary

The verse specifies the total allotment of cities the Israelites are to give the Levites: among these, six are designated as cities of refuge for a manslayer to flee to, and forty-two additional cities are to be given beyond these six.

Key words

• ti.te.Nu ("you will give", H5414) — qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural, repeated three times in the verse (positions 6, 15, 25), structuring the verse as a repeated command/description of the giving action performed by the Israelites toward the Levites.
• mik.Lat ("refuge", H4733) — masculine singular noun, in construct relationship with 'a.Rei ("cities of", H5892B), forming the technical phrase "cities of refuge."
• la.Nus ("to flee", H5127) — qal infinitive, expressing purpose: the reason the refuge cities are given, "in order to flee there."
• ro.Tze.ach ("killer", H7523) — qal participle masculine singular, functioning as a substantive ("the one who kills/has killed"), designating the person entitled to flee to these cities.
• 'ar.ba.'Im ("forty", H0705) and she.Ta.yim ("two", H8147) — cardinal numbers combined to express "forty-two," the count of cities given in addition to the six refuge cities.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built around three occurrences of the verb ti.te.Nu ("you will give", H5414), each introducing a distinct piece of information about the cities given to the Levites. The first occurrence (position 6) introduces the general category: "the cities that you will give to the Levites." The second occurrence (position 15) narrows this to a subset: "the six cities of refuge that you will give," followed by the infinitive la.Nus ("to flee", H5127) plus the adverb Sha.ma ("there", H8033) with directional he suffix, expressing purpose — so that ha.ro.Tze.ach ("the killer", H7523), a definite participle acting as a noun, may flee there. The third occurrence (position 25) shifts to the remaining allotment: "and in addition to them ('a.lei.Hem, "to them", H5921A + H9038) you will give forty-two cities."

The construct chain shesh 'a.Rei ha.mik.Lat ("six cities of the refuge") uses the cardinal number shesh ("six", H8337) in construct form, directly binding it to 'a.Rei ("cities of", H5892B) and then to ha.mik.Lat ("the refuge", H4733), producing the fixed technical designation for these cities. The repetition of the giving-verb across the verse, rather than a single verb governing all clauses, gives the Hebrew a distributive, itemized quality: total cities, then the six for refuge with their stated purpose, then the remaining forty-two.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the Hebrew participle ha.ro.Tze.ach ("the killer", H7523) with the participial phrase τῷ φονεύσαντι ("to the one who has killed"), matching the substantival use of the Hebrew participle. The Vulgate expands this into a relative clause, qui fuderit sanguinem ("who has shed blood"), which specifies the act (bloodshed) rather than translating the participle directly as "killer." The Hebrew construct phrase 'a.Rei ha.mik.Lat ("cities of the refuge") appears in the LXX as πόλεις τῶν φυγαδευτηρίων ("cities of the places of refuge/asylum"), using a plural abstract noun for "refuge" rather than a single term paralleling the Hebrew singular mik.Lat.