You shall not pollute the land in which you live, for blood pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of the one who shed it.
Numbers ends with laws for the land Israel is about to enter, and this verse names what would ruin it: murder stains the ground itself. So why does one killing pollute a whole country, and what happens to a land whose worst murder was the death of God's own Son?
Why blood pollutes the ground
God's answer to deliberate murder did not begin with Moses. It goes back to Genesis, and He has never withdrawn it.
Numerical Bible NotesWhere the evidence showed intent to kill, the image of God in which He made man left no room for pity. God had already spoken on this long before, in Genesis 9, and that word has never been taken back and never can be: "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image." That ground remains. This verse also affirms the guilt that rests on a land which does not avenge such blood. Those who in our day would abolish the death penalty may well weigh it: "the land cannot be cleansed of the blood shed in it, except by the blood of him who shed it."
(The older translation quoted here says "cleansed." The ESV says "no atonement can be made for the land.")
No payment accepted instead
Two verses earlier the law refuses any ransom for a murderer's life. That refusal shows what the Bible's word for atonement really means.
Morrish Bible DictionaryIn Exodus 21:30 a man pays a kopher (translated "sum of money") to save his life, where his ox had killed his neighbour. But Numbers 35:31 allows no kopher for the life of a murderer. Verse 33 tells us why: the land cannot be cleansed, kaphar, except by the blood of the man who shed blood as a murderer. This shows what the force of kopher and of kaphar is. A satisfaction is offered that suits the eye and mind of the one who is displeased and who judges. Through it comes purging of the offence, cleansing, forgiveness, and favour.
Whose blood, exactly
The verse has sometimes been stretched to justify punishing a criminal's family. Its wording forbids that.
Numerical Bible NotesTrue, "the land cannot be cleansed of the blood shed in it, except by the blood of him who shed it." But "the blood of him who shed it" means the very opposite of the blood of his descendants. The word of God does not contradict itself like that, and the Spirit of God rejects the principle outright.
Because God lives there
The next verse gives God's own reason. He lives in that land.
C. H. MackintoshGod's presence among them was always to be the spring of holiness and separation for His people... In the law about the manslayer we read, "You shall not defile the land in which you live, in the midst of which I dwell, for I the LORD dwell in the midst of the people of Israel." God's dwelling place must be holy... The way God deals with people may change from age to age. But God — blessed be His name — can never stop being "the holy, holy, holy Lord God of Israel." Nor can He ever stop working to make His people like what He is Himself.
The land that still carries a stain
One writer applies this law to Israel's long exile.
H Forbes WitherbyEighteen hundred years ago the manslayer lifted up his hand and shed innocent blood. From that day the blood of Jesus has defiled the land of Canaan. The manslayer has lost his inheritance and fled from his own city. The Jews have been driven out of their land... But the High Priest lives inside the veil, in the heavenly sanctuary... While He stays there, Israel will remain without their inheritance. But the heavenly High Priest will come out. Then Israel will receive full forgiveness, and each man will inherit his dwelling place once more.
The one blood that cleanses
If only blood can clear blood, what could ever clear the death of Christ?
J. N. DarbyWe cannot fail to see that the blood Israel is guilty of shedding is, above all, the blood of Christ (see Psalm 51), and the blood of Jesus is the only atonement for the sin that shed it.
Summary
- Life — Murder defaces the image of God in man. The death penalty for it goes back to Genesis 9, not to Moses, and God has never withdrawn it.
- Ransom — No money and no substitute can buy back a murderer's life. The word behind "atonement" means a satisfaction that the offended Judge Himself accepts.
- Limit — Only the blood of the one who shed blood — never his children's — can clear the land.
- Presence — The land must stay clean because God dwells in it; His dwelling place must be holy.
- Cleansing — The land still carries the stain of Christ's blood. That same blood is the only atonement for the sin that shed it. When the High Priest comes out, the exile ends and the inheritance returns.