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4 Hope of Israel Ministries BIBLE Correspondence Course Lesson 22

Read Numbers 35:24-33.
COMMENT: Here are the same verses
in Numbers 35 rendered by The Revised Stan-
dard Version. Notice! “...Then the congregation
[i.e., the governmental assembly of Israel] shall
judge between the manslayer [the one who has
taken life] and the avenger of blood [the
executioner]...And these things shall be for a
statute and ordinance to you throughout your
generations in all your dwellings. If anyone kills
a person, the murderer SHALL BE PUT TO
DEATH....Moreover you shall accept no
ransome for the life of a murderer, WHO IS
GUILTY OF DEATH [not even the sustitution
of life imprisonment]; but HE SHALL BE PUT
TO DEATH...You shall not thus pollute the land
in which you live; for blood pollutes the land;
and no expiation can be made for the land, for the
blood that is shed in it, EXCEPT BY THE
BLOOD OF HIM WHO SHED IT.”
COMMENT: Under this law every
nation is fully justified in executing the
murderer. This law makes such execution
MANDATORY and the nation that refuses to
carry out this law is GUILTY of failure to
administer justice in the land. Such failure will
result in a LAND FILLED WITH VIOLENCE
AND CRIME.
Statue of Moses Holding the Tablets of Stone 3. In order to PROTECT the man whose
Containing the Ten Commandments. duty it is to execute the criminal, a judgment was
rendered under this sixth commandment. Notice
RIGHT to set up a standard of personal conduct! Numbers 35:27.
That has already been done by YEHOVAH God COMMENT: Contrary to popular be-
through the Ten Commandments. It is equally lief, the Bible DOES NOT hold life cheaply. It is
true that NO NATION has a right to say what a serious thing in YEHOVAH’s eyes to take life,
type of punishment shall be meted out to those and for the taking of life the murderer FOR-
who violate any of the commandments. The FEITS his life.
punishments have ALREADY been declared by 4. But those who ACCIDENTLY cause
the statutes and judgments of YEHOVAH. the death of another are confined in a CITY OF
REFUGE until the death of the High Priest. This
Capital Punishment Mandatory is covered in Numbers 35:22-28.
COMMENT: In some cases this might
1. What was the original statute re- amount to life imprisonment. Such a law
garding capital punishment? Genesis 9:6. certainly produced respect for life and made a
2. This original statute was ENLARGED man careful of the life of his fellowman. If this
upon by a statute given to Israel at Mount Sinai. law was in operation today automobile accidents

YEHOVAH’s Law and Our Neighbor