Messianic Education Trust
		Mattot/Masa'ei   (Num 30:2(1) - 36:13)

B'Midbar/Numbers 35:34   And you shall not make impure the land in which you dwell, where I am resting in her midst, for I am the L-rd who rests in the midst of the Children of Israel.

View whole verse and interlinear translation ...

Our verse and the one that precedes it form a pair starting with strong negative commands about murder, the shedding of human blood. Verse 33 starts with the command וְלֹא־תַחֲנִיפוּ אֶת־הָאָרֶץ, "Do not pollute the land"; our verse starts with וְלֹא תְּטַמֵּא אֶת־הָאָרֶץ, "Do not defile the land". Pollution follows an uncleanness or corruption that flows from either an individual or the nation engaging in a variety of wrongful acts such as breaking or disobeying the terms of the covenant, or immorality or idolatry, crystalised here in the act of murder.¹ Defilement, making the land impure, describes the uncleanness or ritual impurity following diseases, bodily emissions, contact with the dead and breaking or disobeying the covenant.² Ritual impurity prevents an individual from participating in the worship and presence of The Name ...

HaShem: literally, Hebrew for 'The Name' - an allusion used to avoid pronouncing the Tetragrammaton, the so-called 'ineffable' name of G–d
HaShem. It is as if the act of murder both causes pollution of the land and forces impurity upon it, so blocking the land from hosting the Divine Presence.

Do these verbs refer to individuals or to the nation? The first one - תַחֲנִיפוּ, the Hif'il prefix 2mp form of the root חָנַף - is plural, while the second - תְּטַמֵּא, the Pi'el prefix 2ms form of the root טָמַא - is singular, but is then followed by אַתֶּם, the 2mp subject pronoun and יֹשְׁבִים, the Qal mp participle from the root יָשַׁב. Verse 33 is plural throughout, while verse 34 starts singular and switches to plural. The early interpreters obviously found this inconsistent as What Is ...

Targum Onkelos: An early (1^st-2^nd Century CE) translation/paraphrase of the Torah into Aramaic; attributed to a Roman convert to Judaism, Onkelos; used in Babylonian synagogues during the Talmudic era
Targum Onkelos changes the Hebrew תְּטַמֵּא 2ms to the Aramaic HerbrewBodyText(תְסָאֲבוּן), 2mp to match the overall plural pattern. However, by doing so, Onkelos looses the singularity of the command to the nation that would otherwise seem consistent matching a singular 'you' with the singular 'her' for the land and the singular sense (here) of "the Children of Israel" being addressed as a whole.

Can we see a difference here between pollution - which is essentially the actions of multiple people on multiple occasions in multiple locations, each polluting themselves or their own space, so represented as plural - and the defiling the Land, making it impure, which is a national act of defilement rendering the whole Land impure? The latter should probably be seen as a cumulative effect - when a critical mass of the people have polluted themselves, unchecked by the majority or those in authority, that adds up to a ritual defilement of the Land - rather than a single moment of corporate decision and action. Either way, we can see these two adjacent verses as both a warning and a command: don't let murder become a commonplace, so that the value and meaning of life becomes degraded; and don't even start the process by allowing a single murder to go unchecked and unresolved.

Why is this so important? Who Is ...

Rashi: Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (1040-1105 CE), French rabbi who wrote commentaries on the Torah, the Prophets and the Talmud, lived in Troyes where he founded a yeshiva in 1067; focuses on the plain meaning (p'shat) of the text, although sometimes quite cryptic in his brevity
Rashi proposes that the middle phrase of our verse - "where I am resting, or where I have pitched My tent, in her midst" - provides the reason why the land must not be made impure: "so that you should not make Me rest in its impurity." Following the argument through, Richard Elliott Friedman points out that, "as blood can make a person impure, so blood(shed) can render the land impure." This in turn could imply that HaShem Himself could be polluted by or become impure by His continued presence among the Israelites in the Land. Jacob Milgrom comments that, "The double metaphor of land and sanctuary are but two sides of the same coin: The land of Israel is also G-d's residence and is therefore equivalent in holiness to His sanctuary. The L-rd's demand in the wilderness that the camp be kept pure - 'Instruct the Israelites to remove from camp anyone with an eruption or a discharge and anyone defiled by a corpse. Remove male and female alike; put them outside the camp so that they do not defile the camp of those in whose midst I dwell' (B'Midbar 5:2-3, NJPS) - is, in Canaan, extended to all of G-d's land." Gordon Wenham explains that "G-d walks in the midst of His people and they must therefore be preserved from all impurity, particularly that caused by death."³ Thomas Dozeman even goes as far - after connecting this to Abel's blood shed by Cain (B'resheet 4:10) - as to say, "Human blood that has been shed in the land and not accounted for through proper expiation can drive even G-d away."⁴

But, surely, HaShem will not leave or abandon His people? The ancient rabbis will not hear a word of it. Connecting the third phrase of our verse, "I am HaShem who rests among the Children of Israel", to a verse from the Yom Kippur ritual - "Thus [Aharon] shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleannesses of the people of Israel and because of their transgressions, all their sins. And so he shall do for the tent of meeting, which dwells with them in the midst of their uncleannesses" (Vayikra 16:16, NJPS) - they conclude that "even when they are unclean, the Divine Presence is among them" (b. Yoma 56b). What Is ...

Sifrei: An early composite midrash/commentary on B'Midbar and D'varim; probably composed around the time of the Mishna (200CE); known and referenced in the Talmud; the B'Midbar portion from the school of R. Simeon, the D'varim portion from that of R. Akiva
Sifrei, the rabbinic commentary, says, "Beloved are Israel, for even when they are impure the Shechinah reposes among them" and Rabbi Nathan adds, "Beloved are Israel, for wherever they are exiled the Shechinah is with them. They were exiled to Egypt - the Shechinah was with them, as it is written, 'Did I not reveal Myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt' (1 Samuel 2:27) - and Babylon, as it is written, 'Because of you I was sent to Babylon' (Isaiah 43:14). Rebbi says: An analogy: A king says to his servant: Why do you search for me? I am with my son. Whenever you need me, I am with my son" (Sifrei B'Midbar 161).

Important though the Land is, the people are more important. While they are in the Land, Who Is ...

Abraham Ibn Ezra: (1089-1167 CE), born in Tudela, Spain; died in the South of France after wandering all around the shores of the Mediterranean and England; a philosopher, astronomer, doctor, poet and linguist; wrote a Hebrew grammar and a commentary on the Bible
Ibn Ezra reports, "Although the land may be impure, G-d can still be felt among the Israelites, for G-d's presence is not dependant on land." HaShem's over-riding commitment is to His people, so when they are in exile, Ibn Ezra cites the third phrase of our text "I am resting among the Children of Israel" - which uses a participle for ongoing action - and concludes that HaShem's presence among the people is "not for the sake of the land, but for the sake of Israel." He goes wherever they are; where they are, He is.

We can see how this works out for the disciples of Yeshua, wherever they are in the world. Sin, though we can and must resist it, is nevertheless a fact of life as John tells us: "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1:8, ESV). And, as Rav Sha'ul points out, "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). Yet Yeshua promises the disciples that "wherever two or three are gathered in My name, there am I among them" (Matthew 18:20). How can this be, except that Yeshua's first commitment, after the Father, is His people. He is our Shepherd and in order to rescue his sheep, any shepherd will - from time to time - have to get his hands dirty. We cannot, we dare not, presume upon His presence with us when we engage in sin - whether by words or actions - but by His grace we need to be prodded by the Spirit to convict us of sin and call us back in repentance: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9, ESV). The Good Shepherd reaches out and hauls His errant sheep out of the mire, washes them down and leads them back to green pasture.

Be absolutely sure that this is not licence. Although grace - G-d's undeserved mercy and favour in Yeshua in spite our of sin - extends to cover all sin that is confessed by His people and will never run out or be exhausted, Sha'ul asks rhetorically, "Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase?" (Romans 6:1, NASB); if grace is so good, then let's carry on sinning so that there will have to be more grace. No, he instantly replies, "May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?" (v. 2, NASB). The writer to the Hebrews bluntly explains that "if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment, and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries" (Hebrews 10:26-27, NASB). We, as the people of G-d in these days - Jew and Gentile united in Messiah - must stay clean and free of sin, keeping short accounts with the Master so that our indiscretions are covered as soon as possible. We must not "grieve the Holy Spirit of G-d, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption" (Ephesians 4:30, NASB) by "bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander" (v. 31, NASB), not to mention malice!

Lastly, let us not forget the corporate side of the matter. Despite the good behaviour of many individuals, the Body of Messiah has a key role to play in resisting sin at every level, lest it defile the Land - here, the kingdom of G-d, of which we are all a part - and bring HaShem Himself into disrepute. This may happen by allowing the unchecked accumulation of sinful practice among G-d's people, so that sin becomes a habit or a pattern rather than an exception, or by foolish or sinful decisions taken by leaders within the Body, ignoring or resisting the direction of the Spirit and the Word. While we are to "honour those who diligently labour among you, and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction" (1 Thessalonians 5:12), NASB), we are also told in the same passage, "Do not quench the Spirit" (v. 19, NASB) and "hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil" (vv. 21-22NASB). We must be prepared to call out leaders, congregations or denominations who pollute the land and make it impure! Let us examine our consciences and be sure that we - individually and corporately - are a fit place for Yeshua to pitch His tent in our midst.

1. - R. Dennis Cole, Numbers The New American Commentary, (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2000), page 555.

2. - Cole, page 556.

3. - Gordon J. Wenham, Numbers, TOTC, (Nottingham, IVP, 1981), page 266.

4. - Thomas B. Dozeman, "Numbers" in The New Interpreter's Bible Commentary Vol I, edited by Leander E. Keck, (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2015), page 848.

Further Study: Psalm 40:11-13; John 8:10-11; 2 Peter 2:20-21

Application: What can you do to make Yeshua welcome and comfortable in your life, your family, your work and your fellowship? Has there been any pollution or impurity that you can help to confess and repudiate so that that context becomes holy and pure for the Spirit to rest?

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© Jonathan Allen, 2024

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