Numbers 35:2, commentary and pictures

The verse opens the command for Israel to set apart dwelling places for the Levites out of the inheritance of their possession, together with surrounding pastureland or suburbs round about the cities. The Levites received no separate tribal territory like the other tribes, but were given forty-eight cities taken from the lands of the other tribes and scattered among all the tribes. Those cities were distributed according to the size of each tribe's territory, with more taken where the inheritance was larger. The arrangement placed religious workers to live among the tribes near the people to perform their priestly duties and support their service, so that their influence for good might be more widely felt and they might be prepared for contact with the people.

The surrounding suburbs furnished room for family gardens and vineyards and for grazing, and the grazing land sustained the cattle whose offerings served the sanctuary. Each city with its surrounding land covered about one thousand acres, and the allotment was not intended as a source of financial profit but to support the work of the Levites. The Levites were further supported by tithes of the produce of the land. Their scattering in Jacob and Israel fulfilled Jacob's prediction that Levi would be divided and scattered among Israel, turning the curse into a blessing. It shows that when God pronounces evil against wickedness and people turn from evil, He turns from the evil purposed and gives blessing instead.

The chapter concerns the cities of refuge for manslayers, and six cities were appointed for anyone who killed another person without meaning to. Those cities of refuge were chosen from among the Levitical cities, six of the forty-eight. A fugitive seeking refuge was received at the city gate by the elders, whose decision admitted him until a later trial before a higher court after witnesses and accusers could appear. The slayer had to flee to one of those cities and live there until the death of the high priest, and if he went outside the city he was in danger of being killed by the avenger of blood.

The cities of refuge are a type of the refuge found in Christ Jesus. The avenger of blood is a type of God's law, which relentlessly pursues the sinner and demands his life, but the sinner who flees to Christ is safe. The sinner must remain in the true refuge until the death of the high priest, but Christ dies no more and lives forever to make intercession, so the sinner abiding in Christ is safe forever and the law is satisfied to have him there.