The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 467

to be regarded as a family duty, because no o:te else would concern himself with it. And in the course of time what had begun in necessity ended in a conventional sense of honour, and of the obligations of kinship, which there was no way of escaping. Private revenge, whatever its abuses, whatever the dark instigations to it in the heart of the avenger, wae in a certain sense imperatively necessary when there was no efficient public tribunal of justice. Thus we see how much of the barbaric element still remained in Israel. It ie a matter of common agreement among us that a man must not take the law into hie own hands, but in ancient Israel every man seems to have done it without the slightest hesitation. II. We have here another illustration of THE ALLOWANCE THAT WAS IIADE FOR B.ARDNESB OJI' HEART ON THE PA.BT OJI' !SBA.EL, When the Pharisees came to our Lord, tempting him with a question concerning divorce, he replied, "Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives" (Matt. m. 8). So here we may say that Moses, because of the hardness of heart in Israel, provided these cities of refuge. It wos no manner of use to tell the goel, the blood avenger, not to pursue the manslayer. If he had neglected to do so he would have rested under heavy reproach all the days of hie life. Moses knew well how deeply fixed was thie institution of blood revenge. Had he not himself, in hie patriotic zeal, taken the law into hie own hand some eighty years before, and slain the Egyptian? God might indeed have forbidden this blood revenge altogether, but the command would have been a dead letter. He did a more efficacious thing in providing these cities of refuge. The existence of them was incompatible with the continuance in undiminiehed vigour of the practice of blood revenge. By appointing them God recognised the necessity out of which the practice had arisen. He allowed all that might be good and conscientious in the motive of the avenger, If the pel"BQll pursued were really guilty of wilful murder, he could not escape; the city of refuge was no refuge for him. The line between murder and accidental homicide wae very plainly drawn. Under such a system ae God had established in Israel he could not but protect the unfortunate ruan who was fleeing from a passionate, unreasoning pursuer, and secure for him a foir inquiry. Everything was done to secure the best interests of all. God could not but honour hie own solemn and exalted command, " Thou she.It not kill." III. An illustration also of THE UNDESERVED CALAMITIES WBICB MAY COME UPON A MAN IN A WORLD WHERE SIN REIGNS EVEN UNTO DEATH. One man slaying another unwittingly deserves our deepest pity and sympathy. We ho.ve heard of those to whom such a misfortune had come having to walk softly all the days of their life because of the unintended act. They could not get it out of their minds. Yet here, in addition to possible grief of heart, there was a seriollB, a long, perhaps a life-long, disadvantage. The homicide, however really innocent he might be, had to flee for his life and stay in the city of refuge till the death of the high priest. Thus we have another proof of the manifold power which death has to disturb the world. These inconveniences to the manslayer could not all at once be removed. \Ve live in a world where we not only may in a spirit of love bear one another's burdens, but some of them we must beo.r as a matter of necessity, The unwitting homicide had to bear the consequences of hie fellow-man being mortal. Yet nt the same time we are made to see how God was surely advancing to breo.k the power of death. 'l'he lot of the manslayer was greatly mended by the institution of these cities of refuge. We may well believe that in the course of time their character became so recognised that this particular obligation of the voel would fall into disuse ; the nation would come to accept the security, the supenority, and the rightness of public justice. IV. Consider the points in connection with the institution of cities of refuge which show THE RESPECT J!'OB BUMAN LIFE WHICH Gon WAS SEEKING TO TEACH THE PEOPLE. The path of Israel from Egypt to Canaan had indeed been marked by much of violent death. The overwhelming of Pharaoh's army, all the sudden visitations of Divine wrath upon Turael, the slaying in battle of the Amalekites, Amorites, and Midianites-these had made God to seem as if he were continuo.lly girt with the horrid instruments of the executioner. But for all these acts, dreadful as they were, there was a reason-a Divine, and therefore sufficient, reason. Whatever was done WllB done judicially._ If the circumstances and times of the Israelites are taken into  158 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [cH. XXXV. 1-Sf.