Sunday Sermonette: Is there an echo in here?

The concept of the cities of refuge is evidently one of Yahweh's most important ideas, because he repeats the instructions for them five times: Exodus 21, Numbers 35, Deuteronomy 4 and 19, and again here. Why this bears so much repetition I can't say, but this does give us some insight into the nature of the society organized around tribe and clan. 

 

The Torah at several points specifies lex talionis, summarized as "eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," with the possibility in some cases of substituting monetary compensation. But it is not clear who decides these matters, and whether there are formally authorized  judges. Priests are given authority to adjudicate some limited categories of dispute, such as whether a pregnancy is the result of adultery, but whether this extends to what we would consider criminal law is not specified. What is mentioned here is "trial before the assembly" but what this consists of and how it is conducted is not described. 

There does not appear to be any law enforcement apparatus, rather the community is called upon to stone blasphemers and conduct this "trial before the assembly," and clearly families are responsible for vengeance in the case of murder. Hence the sanctuary cities. Yahweh expects that in the case of what we would call negligent manslaughter, or even accidental death, the victims family will try to kill the perpetrator. That doesn't seem quite right, so we get this kludgy solution. Evidently this was still the case in the time of King Josiah, even though there was a secular government. Make of it what you will.

 

20 Then the Lord said to Joshua: ² “Tell the Israelites to designate the cities of refuge, as I instructed you through Moses, ³ so that anyone who kills a person accidentally and unintentionally may flee there and find protection from the avenger of blood. ⁴ When they flee to one of these cities, they are to stand in the entrance of the city gate and state their case before the elders of that city. Then the elders are to admit the fugitive into their city and provide a place to live among them. ⁵ If the avenger of blood comes in pursuit, the elders must not surrender the fugitive, because the fugitive killed their neighbor unintentionally and without malice aforethought. ⁶ They are to stay in that city until they have stood trial before the assembly and until the death of the high priest who is serving at that time. Then they may go back to their own home in the town from which they fled.”

⁷ So they set apart Kedesh in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali, Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the hill country of Judah. ⁸ East of the Jordan (on the other side from Jericho) they designated Bezer in the wilderness on the plateau in the tribe of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead in the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan in the tribe of Manasseh. ⁹ Any of the Israelites or any foreigner residing among them who killed someone accidentally could flee to these designated cities and not be killed by the avenger of blood prior to standing trial before the assembly.