Introduction
THE CITIES FOR THE LEVITES AND THE CITIES OF REFUGE.
Since the tribe of Levi was to have no territorial allotment, there must be some other mode adopted of settling its members among the people. This mode, foreshadowed in Leviticus 25:32, (see note,) is here fully unfolded in the requirement to assign to the Levites forty-eight cities scattered among all the twelve tribes. This exactly tallies with the prediction of Jacob. Genesis 49:4-7; comp. Numbers 34:25-26. See Numbers 1:49, note.
CONCLUDING NOTE.
The purpose of the cities of refuge was humane. Moses found the law of revenge so deeply rooted in the habits of the people that it was impossible to eradicate it altogether. He could only check its execution and mitigate its horrors. He did not design to screen the real murderer from punishment, but merely to secure a fair judicial investigation. If convicted of murder, the culprit was handed over to the avenger of blood, who was himself to be the executioner.
But in the case of the purely accidental homicide through such an accident as the axe slipping from the helve there seems but scant justice, bordering hard on injustice, accorded to the innocent. He must take to his heels and run for dear life, with the possibility of being struck down by the swifter avenger. The utmost favour shown to him, if he entered the gate, was to be shut up in the city, and to be exposed to be killed as an outlaw if he ventured out. Cruel and unjust as was the custom of blood avenging, it has prevailed substantially among the many tribes in these Oriental lands from remote ages down to this day; and although there are now no cities of refuge, still no manslayer is safe outside the city gate. Christianity is the only cure for such injustice.
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