Barmash P. - Homicide in the Biblical World (2005)(en)

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8 can be considered post-Deuteronomic, because they refer to Israel as a whole rather than to a specific community waiting to enter the land of Israel and because they use a late expression to refer to the priests, ywl ynb !ynhkh. There also may be pre-Deuteronomic law in verses 4–5, 11–12, assuming that casuistic formulation indicates earlier material, and post-Deuteronomic supplements in verses 8–10, a contradiction to 4:41–43.

The biblical laws on homicide, Num 35:9–34 and Deut 19:1–13, as well as Exod 21:12–14, are mutually independent sources. They do not have a common literary origin, and they stem from diverse historical and ideological/theological settings. Although previous studies of biblical law have assumed that each of the legal parts of the Pentateuch can be securely dated to different periods and have devised schemes of historical development in biblical law based on that dating, the legal portions of the Pentateuch cannot be dated with such precision and, in fact, all date from some time in the First Temple period with no clear evidence for historical priority.47

The legal sources in the Pentateuch, P and D, that differ on the characteristics of the places of refuge do so because they conceptualize the sanctuaries within their ideological/theological program. They disagree on the number, the sacred status, the rationale, and the existence of a technical term for the cities of refuge.

The statute in Num 35:9–34 calls for the establishment of six cities as refuges for the slayer from !dh lag, denoting them by the technical term

47The narrative sources are also difficult to date. Two examples, the killing of Joab (1 Kgs 2:5– 6, 28–34) and the execution of those who assassinated Joash (2 Kgs 14:5–6), can illustrate the quandary. The text of 1 Kgs 2:5–6, 28–34 forms part of the Succession Narrative (2 Sam 9–20; 2 Kgs 1–2), a product of an author in Solomon’s court who collected a number of independent stories and wove them together in order to justify the new king’s accession to the throne. (Cf. Leonhard Rost, The Succession to the Throne of David [trans. by Michael D. Rutter and David M. Gunn; intro. by Edward Ball; 1926; reprint, Sheffield: Almond Press, 1982]). The rest of Samuel is assigned to the earlier reign of David. However, can the Succession Narrative so easily be separated from the rest of Samuel? David’s admonition to Solomon to kill Joab, 1 Kgs 2:5–6, a part of the Succession Narrative, depends directly on the murders of Amasa and Abner in 2 Sam 2:18–23 and 3:28–30, which are not identified as part of the Succession Narrative. More critically, the dating of these texts to the reigns of David and Solomon is problematic. It has simply been assumed that the narratives are contemporary with the events described, but there are a number of details that would indicate a later date. (Cf. David M. Gunn, The Story of King David [JSOTSup 6; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1978], 32ff.) Indeed, the reigns of David and Solomon may have been an alluring setting to writers for centuries. Other narrative texts are also problematic. For example, the account of the execution of those who assassinated Joash, in 2 Kgs 14:5–6, contains a quotation of Deut 24:16. This could be used as a means of fixing the date of 2 Kgs 14:5–6. Unfortunately, I can argue for mutually contradictory dating with virtually the same reasoning. Does the quotation of Deut 24:16 by 2 Kgs 14:5–6 signify that 2 Kgs 14:5–6 must have been composed after the promulgation of Deuteronomy? Or does this show that Deut 24:16 circulated independently before the public release of Deuteronomy?

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flqm, “refuge; confines.”48 This term is not found in the other legal sections of the Pentateuch, and its appearance here reflects a characteristically Priestly concern for technical and ritual terminology.

Three cities were to be established on each side of the Jordan River, and all six were to be appointed simultaneously after the crossing of the Jordan River, reflecting P’s emphasis that the Land of Canaan was to be conquered in one fell swoop and that nothing was to be established there until the conquest was complete. Canaan was not to be distributed to the tribes piecemeal, but rather was apportioned at a single official ceremony. The cities of refuge were part of a scheme of forty-eight cities assigned to the Levites. The question of whether the Levitical cities ever existed in reality has been the subject of heated debate.49 Yet little doubt has been cast on the existence of the cities of refuge.

According to Num 35, six cities of refuge were to be established, and the number six develops from the Priestly law’s endeavor to schematize Israel’s antiquity.50 God is revealed in stages and, therefore, the relationship between God and human beings is described in a series of four covenants (implicitly with Adam, Gen 1:28–2:4a; Noah, Gen 9:1–17; Abraham, Gen 17; Israelites in the wilderness, Exod 24:1–8).51 The Israelites are divided into twelve tribes ruled by twelve chieftains. The tribes encamp in four groups of three around four standards on the four sides of the Tabernacle, the wilderness sanctuary. On the march, two standards precede the Tabernacle and two follow. Within the Tabernacle, four families serve. The priests and the Levites are given fortyeight cities, of which six are cities of refuge, three on each side of the Jordan. All these numbers are based upon the numeral 12, its multiple 48, and its divisors 2,3,4,6. The precise number of cities of refuge is therefore generated by the Priestly law’s theological numerology.

The Priestly law links the cities assigned to the Levites and the places of refuge. Many scholars have, therefore, extrapolated that the reason for assigning a certain city as a place of refuge was due to its status as a sacred city and/or to the existence of an altar, presuming that the institution of asylum

48The choice of this term for the cities of refuge reflects the theology/criminology informing the significance of the cities of refuge for the accidental killer. See the analysis of the accidental killer’s confinement in Chapter Four.

49E.g., W. F. Albright, “The List of Levitic Cities,” in Louis Ginzberg Jubilee Volume (New York: American Academy for Jewish Research, 1945), 1. 49–73; Benjamin Mazar, “The Cities of the Priests and the Levites,” Congress Volume 1960 (SVT 7; Leiden: Brill, 1960), 193–204; Menahem Haran, “Studies in the Account of the Levitical Cities,” JBL 80 (1961), 45–54, 156–

165(also Temples and Temple-Service in Ancient Israel [Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 1995], 122–131); J. P. Ross, “The ‘Cities of the Levites’ in Joshua XXI and I Chronicles VI,” Ph.D. diss., University of Edinburgh, 1973; John R. Spencer, “The Levitical Cities: A Study of the Role and Function of the Levites in the History of Israel,” Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1980.

50Rofe,´ “The History of the Cities of Refuge in Biblical Law,” 225.

51Wellhausen, Prolegomena, 338–342.

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developed historically from altar asylum to sanctuary in a sacred city. This begs the question as to why the status of city of refuge was not extended to all the Levitic cities: If they were sacred or possessed an altar, why did they not qualify as a city of refuge? Furthermore, a distinction must be drawn between a city for the Levites to dwell in and the location of the sanctuaries in which they performed cultic functions; there was no direct link between a Levitic city and a sacred place. A Levite might live in one place but officiate as a Levite in a different location.52 Abiathar, for example, owns a field in Anathoth, but officiates in Jerusalem and Nob (1 Kgs 2:26).

There is another aspect to the cities of the Levites that is critical to the functioning of a refuge. They were to be distributed evenly throughout the Land of Israel and Transjordan (Num 35:8). In order to provide equal and easy access for a slayer, the cities of refuge needed to be distributed evenly throughout the territory: If each tribe had its own place of refuge, slayers from tribes with smaller territory would have easier access than those from tribes with greater territory. This is reflected in the specific language of the command, “You shall make accessible to yourselves cities of refuge” (Num 35:11). It is not the sacredness of a Levitic city that determines its status as a refuge but rather its geographic distribution.

Understanding that the cities of refuge were selected for reasons of geography clarifies a difficulty with associating the right of asylum with a function of cult sites, with an altar and sacred space. It is assumed that while one who is in the presence of God is under his protection, those who are not supposed to be in a sacred space are executed. If the Priestly statute avers that the slaying pollutes (Num 35:33–34), would a slayer be permitted to encroach upon a sacred place? Indeed, the point of the Levitic cities is that they are manned by personnel not limited by tribal geography and who had access to nonsacred aspects of sacred items. The Priestly law stipulates that the priesthood was stratified into priests, strictly defined, and Levites, service personnel limited to assigned tasks of the transport, maintenance, and handling of cultic items (Num 3–4; 8:5–22). The Levites were the corps of subordinate servitors, relegated to nonsacral functions of sacred sites and rites.53 They assisted the priests (Num 18:2,4) and performed acts that do not pertain to the altar (Num 16:9). The functions of the Levites are outside cultic sanctity, according to the Priestly traditions (Ezek 44:11; 46:24).54 Being divorced from the sacred and being geographically distributed, the Levites are therefore the appropriate personnel to oversee the cities of refuge. A killer was to be kept away from all that was sacred because his offense polluted the land.

52Menahem Haran, Temples and Temple-Service in Ancient Israel (Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisembrauns, 1995), 119–120.

53The distinction between priests and Levites may be a distinction only in Numbers. Cf. Levine, Numbers 1–20, 65, 81, 104–105.

54Haran, Temples and Temple-Service in Ancient Israel, 61.

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Just as the theological and social program of Numbers informs the statutes establishing the cities of refuge in that book, so too does the social and theological program of Deuteronomy shape its statutes on homicide. Deuteronomy manifests anxiety over the possibility that !dh lag might commit an accidental homicide because he could kill any slayer with impunity outside the city of refuge – “Whoever came with his fellow into the forest to cut wood: as his hand swings the ax to cut down the tree, the ax-head falls off the handle and hits the other so that he dies – that man shall flee to one of these cities and live, lest the blood avenger pursuing him in his hot anger, overtakes him and slays him because the distance is too great, yet he was not liable to the death penalty because he was not hostile to him in the past” (Deut 19:5–6). Deuteronomy is concerned with the slaying of the accidental killer and the effect it would have upon the Israelite people. In contrast to the Priestly law, where the slaying of the accidental killer does not incur culpability at all, the Deuteronomic statute evinces the belief that the killing of a fugitive who has not yet reached a refuge does. In his case, the fugitive’s status as an accidental or intentional killer is not yet clear: He may potentially be an accidental killer, whose death is unwarranted. In an ironic transformation, the same term for culpability for the victim, yqn !d, “innocent blood” (Deut 19:13), is used to refer to culpability for the killer slain before he reaches the city of refuge (Deut 19:10).

If the blood avenger manages to overtake the fugitive and kill him, the Israelite people as a whole are responsible, according to Deut 19:10. The Priestly law, by contrast, avers that the land, not the people, will be polluted by the presence of the unpunished slayer, not the death of the accidental slayer. The Priestly law is concerned with the purity and the pollution of space, the Deuteronomic with that of the Israelite people. The Priestly law is concerned with the pervading presence of God in the midst of Israel, while Deuteronomy focuses on the conduct and fate of the Israelite people.55 Indeed, Deuteronomy is completely unconcerned with the immanence of God: for Deuteronomy, the Temple in Jerusalem is not the dwelling place of God; it is the place where God causes his name to dwell. The Priestly law is concerned with the polluting effects of a slaying, whereas D is concerned with the social aspects of the law.

Like the statutes in Numbers, Deuteronomy’s places of refuge are divorced from any link with the sacred or the priesthood, but this is informed by the Deuteronomic trend toward secularization and the separation of sacred and secular. This tendency is part of the larger program of Deuteronomy.56 Warfare, for example, is stripped of its sacred ritual in Deuteronomy. There

55Moshe Weinfeld, Deuteronomy 1–11 (AB; New York: Doubleday, 1991), 25.

56Weinfeld, Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School, 233–243. The term secularization may be too strong a term for this aspect of Deuteronomy’s program, as Weinfeld himself notes (“On ‘Demythologization and Secularization’ in Deuteronomy,” IEJ 23 [1973],

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is no mention of the sounding of the priestly horns or of the plunder that is to be dedicated to the sanctuary.57 The use of the ark and the holy vessels is missing in Deuteronomic warfare. Even the function of the priests is secularized. In P, the priests are to sound their horns so that the warriors are remembered by YHWH (Num 10:9). In D, by contrast, the priest addresses the people to inspire their courage (Deut 20:1–4). This secularization is carried through in the Deuteronomic tradition of the cities of refuge. The Levites, who are considered the Priestly class in Deuteronomy, are not connected with the cities of refuge. The high priest is not a factor in the stay of the accidental homicide in a city of refuge.

Like Numbers, the Deuteronomic refuges are established on the basis of geographic considerations: The country is to be divided up into three parts with a city of refuge established in each area so as to enable a slayer to seek refuge efficiently.

Unlike the refuges in Numbers, the tally of the cities of refuge in Deuteronomy is complex because, as the present text of Deuteronomy reads, the calculation is linked to a multistaged conquest, in contrast to the comprehensive conquest in Numbers. Three stages are indicated in the establishment of the cities of refuge. In Deut 4:41–43, Moses designates three cities after the territory east of the Jordan is conquered.58 In Deut 19:1–7, the Israelites are commanded to designate three cities after the conquest of the Land of Israel. In Deut 19:8–9, three more cities are to be added after additional conquests. If we were to read the chapters of Deuteronomy in succession, the total number of the cities of refuge is nine. However, in Deut 19:1–7, the command to set up three cities after the conquest of the Land of Israel is presented as a new injunction without any reference to the establishment of earlier cities in the territory east of the Jordan River.59 Indeed, in Deut 19:7– 9, the text reads: “When the LORD your God enlarges your territory . . . you shall add three more cities to these three.” If the law was to include the three cities mentioned in Deut 4:41–43 as well as the three established by Deut 19:1–7, it would have stated “these six.” It clearly appears that the author of Deuteronomy 19 did not know of Moses’ action in Deut 4:41–43. In fact, Deut 4:41–43 is placed between Moses’ lengthy orations of Deut 1:1–4:40 and 4:44–26:19, an appropriate place for an insertion.

Deut 19:8–9, the command to establish three more cities after additional conquests in the land of Israel, is apparently parenthetical to the command in Deut 19:1–7.60 Deut 19:10 does not refer back to verse 9 but to verse 7

230). Cf. Milgrom, “The Alleged ‘Demythologization and Secularization’ in Deuteronomy,” IEJ 23 (1973), 156–161.

57Compare Num 10:9; 31:6, 50–54; Judg 7:19–20; 2 Sam 8:11; 11:11.

58This section and Josh 20:8 are almost identical, but it is difficult to say which has priority. Cf. Auld, “Cities of Refuge in Israelite Tradition,” 138.

59Rofe,´ “History of the Cities of Refuge,” 222.

60Ibid., 222–224.

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because it deals with “the land that the LORD God is allotting to you,” not to the enlarged territory. Furthermore, the motive cited by verse 10, “Thus the blood of the innocent will not be shed,” is linked to verse 6, “yet he was not guilty of a capital crime.” Deut 19:8–9 is a secondary layer whose purpose is to adapt the law of the cities of refuge to Num 35:9–34, which stipulates the establishment of six cities. The author of Deut 19:8–9 attempts to reconcile the two laws. However, another attempt was made to reconcile the sources, Deut 4:41–43. These texts in Deut 4:41–43 and 19:7–8 are not to be seen as connected with historical reality but as examples of intrabiblical exegesis reconciling contradictions in inherited legal literature. In fact, the original command in Deuteronomy was to establish only three cities.61

Both Numbers and Deuteronomy outline a specific procedure to adjudicate whether the killer committed intentional or accidental homicide. According to Numbers, once the fugitive has reached the city of refuge, the trial is conducted before the hd[, “assembly.”62 The hd[ and the leaders of the hd[ play an important role in the book of Numbers. The term hd[ refers to the entirety of the Israelites,63 who witness public ceremonies.64 The term can refer more specifically to the assembly of adult Israelite males.65 The chiefs of the hd[ hold executive powers.66 They take the initiative in dealing with certain problems and represent the entirety of the Israelites in situations where the presence of all the Israelites would be impossible.67 When it appears in biblical literature portraying a later period, it seems to be a

61Rofe´ argues that Jerusalem was also to be included as a place of refuge even though the statute in Deuteronomy does not allude to Jerusalem (“History of the Cities of Refuge,” 215, 224). Rofe´ understands “(geographic name) $ra lwbg” in Deut 19:3 as Israelite territory outside of Jerusalem and Benjamin which does not include Jerusalem and Benjamin. Therefore, the threefold division was established in addition to the territorial unit of Jerusalem and Benjamin. There are two difficulties with this. First, if Jerusalem were to be included as a city of refuge, why did the text not stipulate a fourfold division of the country? Second, a study of the phrase “(geographic name) lwbg” indicates that when it refers to dividing territory, it includes the entire territory of a country within the actual line serving as a boundary: There is no indication that the capital city is excluded. (Cf. the dividing of the country in Num 34 and Josh 15. Also, an entire country: Gen 10:19; Exod 7:27; 10:4; Num 20:16, 17. The phrase “(geographic name) lwbg lk”: Exod 10:14, 19; 13:7; Judg 19:29; 1 Sam 11:3, 7; 27:1; 1 Kgs 1:3; 2 Kgs 10:32; 14:25; 1 Chr 21:12.)

62The term hd[ can be used as proof for the First Temple date of the Priestly tradition. Cf. Avi Hurvitz, “The Use of the Priestly Term ‘hd[’ in Biblical Literature,” [Hebrew] Tarbiz 40 (1970): 261–267.

63Exod 12:3, 6, 47; 16:1, 2, 9, 10, 19; 17:1; 35:1; Lev 4:13; 10:6; 16:5; 19:2; Num 1:53; 3:7; 8:9, 20; 10:2; 13:26; 14:1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 25, 27; 15:24, 25, 26, 33, 35, 36; 16:3; 17:6, 7, 10, 11; 19:9; 20:1, 2, 8, 11, 22, 27, 29; 25:6, 7; 27:2, 3, 14, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22; 31:12, 16, 43; Josh 9:19, 21; 18:1; 22:12, 16, 17, 18, 20; Ps 74:2; Jer 6:18; 30:20.

64Lev 8:3, 4, 5; 9:5; Num 10:3; 1 Kgs 8:5 [1 Chr 5:6].

65Exod 35:4, 10; Num 1:2, 18; 26:2.

66Num 1:16.

67Exod 16:22; 35:31; Lev 4:15; Num 4:34; 16:2; 31:13, 26, 27; 32:2, 4; Josh 9:15, 18, 27; 22:30.

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pan-Israelite assembly. In Judg 20:1 and 21:10, 16, it has both political and judicial aspects. The hd[ arbitrates between an individual and a tribe, declares war on a particular tribe, and accepts terms of peace. Its political role is otherwise vague. None of the judges is portrayed as consulting with the hd[. There is only a single reference to it in the history of the monarchy: 1 Kgs 12:20 refers to hd[ as the body that crowns Jeroboam I.

It would seem very unwieldy to convene all the Israelites to judge a case of homicide, as Numbers 35 prescribes. The wilderness setting of the book of Numbers makes the judicial function of the hd[ appear to be an archetype for local communities and sanctuaries. Just as the law of slaughter in Lev 17, as an example, applies to local sanctuaries, not to a central sanctuary, so too does the term hd[ apply to a small local court, not a central assembly. Numbers 35 is the only reference to the judicial function of the hd[. The references elsewhere to the role of the hd[ in the punishment of a violator of the Sabbath and of a blasphemer (Num 15:33, 35, 36; Lev 24:13, 16) are misleading because the hd[ in these cases does not exercise any role in the adjudication. Rather, the hd[ in Num 15 and Lev 24 is the entirety of the Israelites from whose midst the transgressor is extirpated. The term hd[ appears to signify one meaning in almost all of the Hebrew Bible and another in Numbers 35. It appears to be a judicial body outside of the city of refuge because of the stipulation that the hd[ will return the slayer to the city of refuge upon deciding that the death was inadvertent.

In Deuteronomy, the obligation for adjudicating the case devolves upon the killer’s home city. According to Deut 19:12, if intentional homicide took place, the elders of the killer’s city,68 not a pan-Israelite body like the hd[, should take the killer from the city of refuge and have the blood avenger execute him. The accused must be judged in his own city in absentia because 1) the text describes the action of the elders as the implementation of a judgment already made, and 2) the accused is in one of the cities of refuge to which he fled in fear of the blood avenger after committing the killing. Who makes this judgment? It is likely that these elders are the ones, because 1) they are explicitly mentioned as extraditing the intentional killer, and 2) the

68Deut 19:12 refers to wry[ ynqz, “the elders of his city.” Although one might argue that this refers to the elders of the victim’s city, it is much more likely that the elders of the killer’s city were involved. (Cf. Driver, Deuteronomy, 233; von Rad, Deuteronomy, 127; Rofe,´ “History of the Cities of Refuge,” 228.) The elders of the offender’s city are more inclined to keep one of their own safe and hold a fair trial than the victim’s city with the victim’s kin thirsting for revenge. If they were partial to the slayer because he was one of their own, bloodguilt would fall upon them. (Cf. Hanokh Reviv, The Institution of the Elders in Ancient Israel

[Hebrew], [Text and Studies; Jerusalem: Magnes, 1983], 66.) Another Deuteronomic stipulation, Deut 21:1–9, contains a ceremony designed to address the guilt of the city nearest to the place where a human corpse is found. If we may call upon evidence of the role of elders from another legal action, Deut 25:5–10 stipulates that in the case of levirate marriage, the responsibility for resolving the dispute devolves upon the elders of the offender’s city.

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elders do exercise judicial functions in general.69 If the fugitive is condemned as having committed homicide intentionally and with prior malice, the elders send for him and deliver him to the blood avenger.

As we have seen, Numbers 35 and Deuteronomy 19 reflect the theological and social programs of the Priestly literature and of Deuteronomy. Their conceptualization of the adjudication of a slaying coincides and diverges because their distinctive theological and social programs shape the process differently.

A new element in procedure, a hearing of admission to gain entrance into the city of refuge, is found in another tradition about the cities of refuge, Josh 20:1–9:

1 The LORD said to Joshua, 2 “Speak to the Israelites, saying, ‘Assign the cities of refuge, about which I commanded you through Moses,

3 to which a slayer who strikes down a person by mistake unintentionally may flee; they shall be a refuge for you from the blood avenger.

4 He shall flee to one of these cities, present himself at the entrance to the city gate, and plead his case before the elders of that city. They shall

admit him into the city and give him a place to live among them. 5 If the blood avenger should pursue him, they shall not hand the slayer over to him, for he struck his neighbor unintentionally and had not

been his enemy before. 6 He shall live in that city until he stands before the assembly for trial, [and remain there] until the death of the high priest who is in office at that time. Then the slayer may return

to his town and his home from where he fled.’” 7 They sanctified Kedesh in the Galilee, in the hill country of Naphtali, Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kiryat Arba, that is, Hebron, in the hill

country of Judah. 8 On the other side of the Jordan, eastward, they assigned Bezer in the wilderness, in the steppe of the tribe of Reuben, Ramot in Gilead, of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in the Bashan, of

the tribe of Menasseh. 9 These are the designated cities for all the Israelites and the alien who dwells among them, so that anyone who

69Cf. Deut 21:18–21 (although there is no explicit mention of a trial; if the child’s parents did have the right to condemn him without need of official judgment, why would the parents be required to present the situation before the elders?); 22:13–21; 25:5–10; 1 Kgs 21:8–13; Ruth 4:1–12. However, Rofe´ suggests that if the families of the victim and the killer agree that the killing was unintentional, there is no need for the elders to be involved in any capacity (“The History of the Cities of Refuge,” 229). Only if they agree on the culpability of the killer, then the elders must exercise their executive function in extraditing the fugitive. If the families of the victim and the killer do not agree, according to Rofe,´ the determination is made by the consensus of the local community. This solution of Rofe’s´ seems unwieldy. A dispute cannot be resolved by an amorphous body deciding on the basis of rumors and hearsay. If a formal presentation is required for other offenses that are less serious than a charge of murder, it would be unlikely that a slaying would be adjudicated in a less organized manner. Therefore, a formal trial in absentia before the elders was warranted.

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kills a person by mistake may flee there and not die by the hand of the blood avenger before he has stood trial before the assembly.

In order to understand the origin of this innovation, the relationship of this tradition to the other two must be analyzed.

The presence of elements from both Numbers 35 and Deuteronomy 19 in Joshua 20 is apparent:70

Josh 20:2 h£m d∂Œ !eyo3 y#ìÀ‹Ar£3 flãŽU yî√At0 !el Wn!, “Assign the cities of refuge” – The term flãy yî√, “cities of refuge,” appears only in Numbers 35 (vv. 11, 14, 25, 26, 27, 28, 32). The verb used for assigning cities here and in Num 35:13–14 is n-t-n.

Josh 20:3 .!‘U l5‚y flãym !el WyW¨ t¡EAyp<– hPP•– vÉ} hŠr U¥/r hO§ sWnl, “to which a slayer who strikes down a person by mistake unintentionally may flee; they shall be a refuge for you from the blood avenger.” – The entire verse is an almost complete parallel to Num 35:11b–12a, which reads l5‚y flãym !yï√V !el WyW¨ hPP•– vÉ} hŠr \¥ó hO§ sn¨ “to which a slayer who strikes down a person unintentionally may flee; the cities shall be as a refuge from the avenger.” The double characterization of this type of murder, t¡EAyp<– hPP•– “by mistake unintentionally,” is a conflation of the criteria of Numbers and Deuteronomy. Num 35:11b denotes this category of killing by the term hgg`b, “by mistake,” while Deut 19:4 uses t[d ylbb, “unintentionally.”

Josh 20:4a hk· 5W !yï√Vx t\.Al0 sn¨, “He shall flee to one of these cities.” – This clause is similar to Deut 19:5b, yk™ hk· 5W !yï√V t\.Al0 sWnŸ aWh, “that man shall flee to one of these cities and live.”

·

Josh 20:5aα wyë`. !‘U l5‚ #Dìª yi¨, “If the blood avenger should pursue

·

him” – This is paralleled in Deut 19:6, \¥óW yî`. !‘U l5‚ #DìªA@X, “lest the blood avenger pursue him.”

Josh 20:5b !/vmß l/m!y /l aWh aqcA4l¨ Wh«îAt0 hE[ t¡DAypij yH, “for he struck his neighbor unintentionally and had not been his enemy before.” –

·

This is paralleled in Deut 19:4b, l/m!y /l aqc 4l aWh¨ t¡EAypi– Wh«îAt0 hD∂ r£3 !®mß, “whoever slays his fellow without intent and was not hostile to him in the past.”

Josh 20:6aβ fY•ym hE«W yqÖp /du√ d¡, “until he stands before the assembly for trial.” – A trial before the assembly is stipulated in Num 35:24.

Josh 20:6γ lØdfiU @ZIU tØm d¡, “until the death of the priest” – The release date of the accidental homicide is the same as in Num 35:28.

Josh 20:6b .!&y sn r£3 ry»WAl0 ØtyœAl0¨ Øry»Al0 a;W j¥ØrW bWvŸ z1; “Then the

A

killer may return to his town and his home from where he fled.” – Num

70There may be another parallel, if a textual emendation is warranted. In v. 7, the cities west of the Jordan are set aside (wvdqyw), and I would argue that this is an error for wrqyw, the same verb used in Num 35:11. The error was caused by the proximity of the place name Kadesh (vFâ) in the same verse.

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35:28 stipulates that the killer may return to his patrimonial estate, hl`m. Deut 19:12 mentions that the killer departed from “his town,” /ry».

Joshua 20, however, does contain one verse that constitutes a departure from Numbers 35 and Deuteronomy 19. Josh 20:4 mandates that before the fugitive is permitted to enter the city of refuge, a hearing must take place in order to determine whether he is eligible for admission to the city at all. The accidental killer is to be stopped at the gate of the city of refuge. He can only gain admittance after he presents his case to the elders of the city of refuge that the slaying was accidental. This appears to be separate from his trial, which must still take place before the assembly (Josh 20:6). The hearing is apparently a way to prevent intentional slayers from entering the city of refuge at all.

This new element, the procedure of admission in Josh 20:4, has a relationship to certain elements in Deuteronomy. In Deut 19:12, the elders of the slayer’s city play a role in determining his guilt and, if he is found culpable, deliver him to the blood avenger. City elders resolve disputes in Deut 22:13–21 and 25:5–10. In the same vein, Josh 20:4, in introducing a procedure of admission, assigns it to the elders, albeit of the city of refuge, not the elders of the killer’s city, as in Deut 19:12. This is appropriate since the elders of the city of refuge are protecting it from the presence of intentional killers. In addition, the elaboration in Josh 20:5–6 that the accidental slayer will not be delivered to the blood avenger and will live in the city of refuge, b`yw. . . wrgsyAalw, uses language reminiscent of Deut 23:16–17, which mandates that an escaped slave will not be delivered over (rygst) to his master and will live among (b`y Am[) the Israelites.71

How can the presence of a new procedure in Deuteronomic language that does not appear in Deuteronomy be explained? The simplest explanation is that Joshua 20 is a Deuteronomic reworking of a Priestly kernel.72 In fact, one manuscript of the LXX, Codex Vaticanus, contains none of the Deuteronomic additions, including Josh 20:4, and therefore provides evidence for the independent existence of a Priestly pericope. The new procedure in Josh 20:4 was worded in Deuteronomic style, although its content differs significantly. While the other versions, Numbers 35 and Deuteronomy 19, eventually restrict asylum to accidental killers, Joshua 20 limits initial entrance into the city of refuge only to accidental killers. The probability of a Deuteronomic reworking of Priestly material is further heightened by the fact that where Joshua 20 has parallels to both Numbers 35 and Deuteronomy 19, it is invariably closer to, or identical with, Deuteronomy 19. This makes sense since both are part of the Deuteronomic literature. A Deuteronomic author, later than both Numbers 35 and Deuteronomy 19, designed this new

71Rofe,´ “Joshua 20: Historico-Literary Criticism Illustrated,” in Empirical Models for Biblical Criticism (ed. Jeffrey H. Tigay; Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1985), 137–138.

72Ibid., 141–143.