BLOOD AVENGER AND KINSMAN REDEEMER

SPECIAL TOPIC: BLOOD AVENGER AND KINSMAN REDEEMER (go'el)

YHWH's covenant people were to care for each other (i.e., family, neighbors, tribe). This care is expressed in several legal commands.

Love your neighbor
1. Positively
  1. love your neighbor – Lev. 19:18 (Jesus' second most important command, Matt. 19:19; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27)
  2. Jesus adds, "as yourself" – Matt. 22:39-40; Rom. 13:9
2. Negatively (Ten Commandments)
  1. do not slander
  2. do not give false witness
  3. do not covet his property
  4. do not steal from him
  5. do not take his life
  6. do not cheat financially – Deut. 15:2; 24:10
  7. do not forsake a friend – Prov. 27:10
  8. do not hate – Lev. 19:17
Levirate Marriage
1. SPECIAL TOPIC: LEVIRATE MARRIAGE
2. See IVP Bible Background Commentary, OT, pp. 99, 139
Eye-for-an-eye revenge (Lex Talionis)
The "eye-for-an-eye" justice of Israel, which seems so cruel (i.e., Lex Talionis, which is also characteristic of the Code of Hammurabi, see Old Testament Times, by R. K. Harrison, pp. 57-61 and Hard Sayings of the Bible, p. 150-151) was in reality meant to stop "revenge wars" between families and tribes, as well as maintain the ritual purity of God's covenant people.

One wonders about how literally this law was actually carried out. It seems that physical mutilation was replaced by appropriate compensation. This is based on the parallel in Exod. 21:23-25. The immediate contexts of Deuteronomy 19 deal with compensation. The later rabbis assigned appropriate compensation for actions resulting in personal damage.

According to Gordon Wenham, Leviticus, New International Commentary, p. 312, vv. 16-22 form a chiasm, with vv. 19-20 being the main truth. Roland deVaux, Ancient Israel, pp. 149-150, explains how the rabbis developed the idea of appropriate compensation. However, for premeditated murder there was no compensation (i.e., Num. 35:31; Deut. 19:11-12).
Kinsman Redeemer (i.e., go'el, from the VERB, "to buy back")
1. SPECIAL TOPIC: CITIES OF REFUGE
2. "go'el"
  It is interesting that in Numbers 35 we are introduced to the term "Go'el" (BDB 145 I), which is often translated as "the kinsman redeemer" (cf. Boaz in the book of Ruth). Here, the same term means "the blood avenger" (cf. Num. 35:19, 21, 24, 25, 27). The closest relative was responsible for maintaining family unity, economically and here, in the case of revenge for a death (see Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, pp. 63-65, 501). Basically this is an attempt to limit the "eye-for-an-eye" revenge (cf. Exod. 21:23-25), which was common during the time of Israel's living in the desert and to set up the legal procedures of a settled community (see Hard Sayings of the Bible, pp. 150-151). Premeditation seems to be the key in determining whether a death was accidental (cf. Num. 35:22-28) or not (cf. vv. 16-21). See SPECIAL TOPIC: UNINTENTIONAL SINS (OT) and NIDOTTE, vol. 4, pp. 42-43.
  
  This "relative" (BDB 145 I) is the family member who
  1. rescues the family – Gen. 48:16; Exod. 6:6
  2. redeems persons – Lev. 25:47-55
  3. redeems property – Lev. 25:25; 27:9-25; Jer. 32:8
  4. redeems family honor of dead relative – Num. 5:8
  5. kinsman avenger – Num. 35:9-34
Blood Avenger
This is the Hebrew term (BDB 145 I) which denoted a near relative who rendered aid to the family and avenged the family in a case of death or injury to a family member (cf. Num. 35:19,21,24,25,27; Josh. 20:3-5). The concept first appears in Gen. 4:14 and 9:5,6.