Exodus 21:13

World English Bible (2000)

but not if it is unintentional, but God allows it to happen: then I will appoint you a place where he shall flee.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

וַאֲשֶׁר לֹא צָדָה וְהָאֱלֹהִים אִנָּה לְיָדוֹ וְשַׂמְתִּי לְךָ מָקוֹם אֲשֶׁר יָנוּס שָׁמָּה

Transliteration

wa-ʾasher lōʾ ṣādāh wə-hā-ʾĕlōhîm ʾinnāh lə-yādô wə-śamtî ləkā māqôm ʾasher yānûs shāmmāh

Grammar Details

• *wa-ʾasher*: conjunction *wə* + relative pronoun - but one who
• *lōʾ*: negative particle - not
• *ṣādāh*: qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular - he lay in wait
• *wə-hā-ʾĕlōhîm*: conjunction *wə* + definite article + masculine plural noun - but God
• *ʾinnāh*: piel perfect, 3rd person masculine singular - caused to meet/delivered
• *lə-yādô*: preposition *lə* + feminine singular noun with 3rd person masculine singular suffix - to his hand
• *wə-śamtî*: conjunction *wə* + qal perfect, 1st person singular - then I will appoint
• *ləkā*: preposition with 2nd person masculine singular suffix - for you
• *māqôm*: masculine singular noun - a place
• *ʾasher*: relative pronoun - where/to which
• *yānûs*: qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular - he may flee
• *shāmmāh*: adverb - there/to there

Word Meanings

• *ṣādāh*: lay in wait/planned/ambushed/intended
• *ʾinnāh lə-yādô*: caused to meet his hand/delivered to his hand/caused it to happen
• *śamtî*: I will appoint/establish/designate
• *māqôm*: place/location/refuge
• *yānûs*: he may flee/escape/find refuge

Referenced Verses

• Josh 20:2-9 : 2 "Speak to the children of Israel, saying, 'Assign the cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you by Moses, 3 that the manslayer who kills any person accidentally or unintentionally may flee there. They shall be to you for a refuge from the avenger of blood. 4 He shall flee to one of those cities, and shall stand at the entrance of the gate of the city, and declare his cause in the ears of the elders of that city. They shall take him into the city with them, and give him a place, that he may live among them. 5 If the avenger of blood pursue after him, then they shall not deliver up the manslayer into his hand; because he struck his neighbor unintentionally, and didn't hate him before. 6 He shall dwell in that city until he stands before the congregation for judgment, until the death of the high priest that shall be in those days. Then the manslayer shall return, and come to his own city, and to his own house, to the city he fled from.'" 7 They set apart Kedesh in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali, Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kiriath Arba (the same is Hebron) in the hill country of Judah. 8 Beyond the Jordan at Jericho eastward, they assigned Bezer in the wilderness in the plain out of the tribe of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead out of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of Manasseh. 9 These were the appointed cities for all the children of Israel, and for the alien who lives among them, that whoever kills any person unintentionally might flee there, and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood, until he stands before the congregation.
• 1 Sam 24:4 : 4 The men of David said to him, "Behold, the day of which Yahweh said to you, 'Behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you.'" Then David arose, and cut off the skirt of Saul's robe secretly.
• 1 Sam 24:10 : 10 Behold, this day your eyes have seen how that Yahweh had delivered you today into my hand in the cave. Some urged me to kill you; but I spared you; and I said, I will not put forth my hand against my lord; for he is Yahweh's anointed.
• 1 Sam 24:18 : 18 You have declared this day how you have dealt well with me, because when Yahweh had delivered me up into your hand, you didn't kill me.
• Deut 4:41-43 : 41 Then Moses set apart three cities beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise; 42 that the manslayer might flee there, who kills his neighbor unawares, and didn't hate him in time past; and that fleeing to one of these cities he might live: 43 [namely], Bezer in the wilderness, in the plain country, for the Reubenites; and Ramoth in Gilead, for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan, for the Manassites.
• Deut 19:1-9 : 1 When Yahweh your God shall cut off the nations, whose land Yahweh your God gives you, and you succeed them, and dwell in their cities, and in their houses; 2 you shall set apart three cities for you in the midst of your land, which Yahweh your God gives you to possess it. 3 You shall prepare you the way, and divide the borders of your land, which Yahweh your God causes you to inherit, into three parts, that every manslayer may flee there. 4 This is the case of the manslayer, that shall flee there and live: whoever kills his neighbor unawares, and didn't hate him in time past; 5 as when a man goes into the forest with his neighbor to chop wood, and his hand fetches a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree, and the head slips from the handle, and lights on his neighbor, so that he dies; he shall flee to one of these cities and live: 6 lest the avenger of blood pursue the manslayer, while his heart is hot, and overtake him, because the way is long, and strike him mortally; whereas he was not worthy of death, inasmuch as he didn't hate him in time past. 7 Therefore I command you, saying, You shall set apart three cities for yourselves. 8 If Yahweh your God enlarges your border, as he has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land which he promised to give to your fathers; 9 if you keep all this commandment to do it, which I command you this day, to love Yahweh your God, and to walk ever in his ways; then you shall add three cities more for yourselves, besides these three: 10 that innocent blood not be shed in the midst of your land, which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance, and so blood be on you. 11 But if any man hates his neighbor, and lies in wait for him, and rises up against him, and strikes him mortally so that he dies, and he flees into one of these cities; 12 then the elders of his city shall send and bring him there, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die. 13 Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall put away the innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with you.
• Num 35:10-34 : 10 "Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, 'When you pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, 11 then you shall appoint you cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the manslayer who kills any person unwittingly may flee there. 12 The cities shall be to you for refuge from the avenger, that the manslayer not die, until he stands before the congregation for judgment. 13 The cities which you shall give shall be for you six cities of refuge. 14 You shall give three cities beyond the Jordan, and you shall give three cities in the land of Canaan; they shall be cities of refuge. 15 For the children of Israel, and for the stranger and for the foreigner living among them, shall these six cities be for refuge; that everyone who kills any person unwittingly may flee there. 16 "'But if he struck him with an instrument of iron, so that he died, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death. 17 If he struck him with a stone in the hand, by which a man may die, and he died, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death. 18 Or if he struck him with a weapon of wood in the hand, by which a man may die, and he died, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death. 19 The avenger of blood shall himself put the murderer to death: when he meets him, he shall put him to death. 20 If he thrust him of hatred, or hurled at him, lying in wait, so that he died, 21 or in enmity struck him with his hand, so that he died; he who struck him shall surely be put to death; he is a murderer: the avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death, when he meets him. 22 "'But if he thrust him suddenly without enmity, or hurled on him anything without lying in wait, 23 or with any stone, by which a man may die, not seeing him, and cast it on him, so that he died, and he was not his enemy, neither sought his harm; 24 then the congregation shall judge between the striker and the avenger of blood according to these ordinances; 25 and the congregation shall deliver the manslayer out of the hand of the avenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to his city of refuge, where he was fled: and he shall dwell therein until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the holy oil. 26 "'But if the manslayer shall at any time go beyond the border of his city of refuge, where he flees, 27 and the avenger of blood find him outside of the border of his city of refuge, and the avenger of blood kill the manslayer; he shall not be guilty of blood, 28 because he should have remained in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest: but after the death of the high priest the manslayer shall return into the land of his possession. 29 "'These things shall be for a statute [and] ordinance to you throughout your generations in all your dwellings. 30 "'Whoever kills any person, the murderer shall be slain at the mouth of witnesses: but one witness shall not testify against any person that he die. 31 "'Moreover you shall take no ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death; but he shall surely be put to death. 32 "'You shall take no ransom for him who is fled to his city of refuge, that he may come again to dwell in the land, until the death of the priest. 33 "'So you shall not pollute the land in which you are: for blood, it pollutes the land; and no expiation can be made for the land for the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him who shed it. 34 You shall not defile the land which you inhabit, in the midst of which I dwell: for I, Yahweh, dwell in the midst of the children of Israel.'"
• 2 Sam 16:10 : 10 The king said, "What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? Because he curses, and because Yahweh has said to him, 'Curse David;' who then shall say, 'Why have you done so?'"
• Isa 10:7 : 7 However he doesn't mean so, neither does his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off not a few nations.
• Mic 7:2 : 2 The godly man has perished out of the earth, and there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; every man hunts his brother with a net.