Numbers 35:31
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
Moreover you shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer, which is guilty of death: but he shall be surely put to death.
American King James Version (AKJV)
Moreover you shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer, which is guilty of death: but he shall be surely put to death.
American Standard Version (ASV)
Moreover ye shall take no ransom for the life of a murderer, that is guilty of death; but he shall surely be put to death.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
Further, no price may be given for the life of one who has taken life and whose right reward is death: he is certainly to be put to death.
Webster's Revision
Moreover, ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer, who is guilty of death: but he shall be surely put to death.
World English Bible
"'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.
English Revised Version (ERV)
Moreover ye shall take no ransom for the life of a manslayer, which is guilty of death: but he shall surely be put to death.
Clarke's Numbers 35:31 Bible Commentary
Ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer - No atonement could be made for him, nor any commutation, so as to save him from death. All the laws of the civilized world have either adjudged the murderer to death, or to a punishment equivalent to it; such as perpetual imprisonment, in a dungeon, under ground, on a stone floor, without light, and to be fed on a small portion of bread and water. In such circumstances a man could live but a short time; and though it is not called the punishment of death, yet, from its inevitable consequences, it only differed from it by being a little longer respite than was usual where the punishment of death was awarded. See the note on Genesis 9:6.
Barnes's Numbers 35:31 Bible Commentary
No satisfaction - Rather, ransom (see Exodus 21:30). The permission to demand pecuniary compensation for murders (expressly sanctioned by the Koran) undoubtedly mitigates, in practice, the system of private retaliation; but it does so by sacrificing the principle named in Numbers 35:12, Numbers 35:33.
