Passage: Numbers 34, 35, 36 (RSV)


Numbers 34


1The LORD said to Moses,
2"Command the people of Israel, and say to them, When you enter the land of Canaan (this is the land that shall fall to you for an inheritance, the land of Canaan in its full extent),
3your south side shall be from the wilderness of Zin along the side of Edom, and your southern boundary shall be from the end of the Salt Sea on the east;
4and your boundary shall turn south of the ascent of Akrab'bim, and cross to Zin, and its end shall be south of Ka'desh-bar'nea; then it shall go on to Ha'zar-ad'dar, and pass along to Azmon;
5and the boundary shall turn from Azmon to the Brook of Egypt, and its termination shall be at the sea.
6"For the western boundary, you shall have the Great Sea and its coast; this shall be your western boundary.
7"This shall be your northern boundary: from the Great Sea you shall mark out your line to Mount Hor;
8from Mount Hor you shall mark it out to the entrance of Hamath, and the end of the boundary shall be at Zeded;
9then the boundary shall extend to Ziphron, and its end shall be at Ha'zar-e'nan; this shall be your northern boundary.
10"You shall mark out your eastern boundary from Ha'zar-e'nan to Shepham;
11and the boundary shall go down from Shepham to Riblah on the east side of A'in; and the boundary shall go down, and reach to the shoulder of the sea of Chin'nereth on the east;
12and the boundary shall go down to the Jordan, and its end shall be at the Salt Sea. This shall be your land with its boundaries all round."
13Moses commanded the people of Israel, saying, "This is the land which you shall inherit by lot, which the LORD has commanded to give to the nine tribes and to the half-tribe;
14for the tribe of the sons of Reuben by fathers' houses and the tribe of the sons of Gad by their fathers' houses have received their inheritance, and also the half-tribe of Manas'seh;
15the two tribes and the half-tribe have received their inheritance beyond the Jordan at Jericho eastward, toward the sunrise."
16The LORD said to Moses,
17"These are the names of the men who shall divide the land to you for inheritance: Elea'zar the priest and Joshua the son of Nun.
18You shall take one leader of every tribe, to divide the land for inheritance.
19These are the names of the men: Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephun'neh.
20Of the tribe of the sons of Simeon, Shemu'el the son of Ammi'hud.
21Of the tribe of Benjamin, Eli'dad the son of Chislon.
22Of the tribe of the sons of Dan a leader, Bukki the son of Jogli.
23Of the sons of Joseph: of the tribe of the sons of Manas'seh a leader, Han'niel the son of Ephod.
24And of the tribe of the sons of E'phraim a leader, Kemu'el the son of Shiphtan.
25Of the tribe of the sons of Zeb'ulun a leader, Eli-za'phan the son of Parnach.
26Of the tribe of the sons of Is'sachar a leader, Pal'tiel the son of Azzan.
27And of the tribe of the sons of Asher a leader, Ahi'hud the son of Shelo'mi.
28Of the tribe of the sons of Naph'tali a leader, Pedah'el the son of Ammi'hud.
29These are the men whom the LORD commanded to divide the inheritance for the people of Israel in the land of Canaan."

Numbers 35


1The LORD said to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho,
2"Command the people of Israel, that they give to the Levites, from the inheritance of their possession, cities to dwell in; and you shall give to the Levites pasture lands round about the cities.
3The cities shall be theirs to dwell in, and their pasture lands shall be for their cattle and for their livestock and for all their beasts.
4The pasture lands of the cities, which you shall give to the Levites, shall reach from the wall of the city outward a thousand cubits all round.
5And you shall measure, outside the city, for the east side two thousand cubits, and for the south side two thousand cubits, and for the west side two thousand cubits, and for the north side two thousand cubits, the city being in the middle; this shall belong to them as pasture land for their cities.
6The cities which you give to the Levites shall be the six cities of refuge, where you shall permit the manslayer to flee, and in addition to them you shall give forty-two cities.
7All the cities which you give to the Levites shall be forty-eight, with their pasture lands.
8And as for the cities which you shall give from the possession of the people of Israel, from the larger tribes you shall take many, and from the smaller tribes you shall take few; each, in proportion to the inheritance which it inherits, shall give of its cities to the Levites."
9And the LORD said to Moses,
10"Say to the people of Israel, When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan,
11then you shall select cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the manslayer who kills any person without intent may flee there.
12The cities shall be for you a refuge from the avenger, that the manslayer may not die until he stands before the congregation for judgment.
13And the cities which you give shall be your six cities of refuge.
14You shall give three cities beyond the Jordan, and three cities in the land of Canaan, to be cities of refuge.
15These six cities shall be for refuge for the people of Israel, and for the stranger and for the sojourner among them, that any one who kills any person without intent may flee there.
16"But if he struck him down with an instrument of iron, so that he died, he is a murderer; the murderer shall be put to death.
17And if he struck him down with a stone in the hand, by which a man may die, and he died, he is a murderer; the murderer shall be put to death.
18Or if he struck him down with a weapon of wood in the hand, by which a man may die, and he died, he is a murderer; the murderer shall be put to death.
19The avenger of blood shall himself put the murderer to death; when he meets him, he shall put him to death.
20And if he stabbed him from hatred, or hurled at him, lying in wait, so that he died,
21or in enmity struck him down with his hand, so that he died, then he who struck the blow shall 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 stabbed him suddenly without enmity, or hurled anything on him without lying in wait,
23or used a stone, by which a man may die, and without seeing him cast it upon him, so that he died, though he was not his enemy, and did not seek his harm;
24then the congregation shall judge between the manslayer and the avenger of blood, in accordance with these ordinances;
25and the congregation shall rescue the manslayer from the hand of the avenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to his city of refuge, to which he had fled, and he shall live in it until the death of the high priest who was anointed with the holy oil.
26But if the manslayer shall at any time go beyond the bounds of his city of refuge to which he fled,
27and the avenger of blood finds him outside the bounds of his city of refuge, and the avenger of blood slays the manslayer, he shall not be guilty of blood.
28For the man must remain in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest; but after the death of the high priest the manslayer may return to the land of his possession.
29"And these things shall be for a statute and ordinance to you throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
30If any one kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death on the evidence of witnesses; but no person shall be put to death on the testimony of one witness.
31Moreover you shall accept no ransom for the life of a murderer, who is guilty of death; but he shall be put to death.
32And you shall accept no ransom for him who has fled to his city of refuge, that he may return to dwell in the land before the death of the high priest.
33You shall not thus pollute the land in which you live; for blood pollutes the land, and no expiation can be made for the land, for the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of him who shed it.
34You 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."

Numbers 36


1The heads of the fathers' houses of the families of the sons of Gilead the son of Machir, son of Manas'seh, of the fathers' houses of the sons of Joseph, came near and spoke before Moses and before the leaders, the heads of the fathers' houses of the people of Israel;
2they said, "The LORD commanded my lord to give the land for inheritance by lot to the people of Israel; and my lord was commanded by the LORD to give the inheritance of Zeloph'ehad our brother to his daughters.
3But if they are married to any of the sons of the other tribes of the people of Israel then their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of our fathers, and added to the inheritance of the tribe to which they belong; so it will be taken away from the lot of our inheritance.
4And when the jubilee of the people of Israel comes, then their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe to which they belong; and their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers."
5And Moses commanded the people of Israel according to the word of the LORD, saying, "The tribe of the sons of Joseph is right.
6This is what the LORD commands concerning the daughters of Zeloph'ehad, `Let them marry whom they think best; only, they shall marry within the family of the tribe of their father.
7The inheritance of the people of Israel shall not be transferred from one tribe to another; for every one of the people of Israel shall cleave to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers.
8And every daughter who possesses an inheritance in any tribe of the people of Israel shall be wife to one of the family of the tribe of her father, so that every one of the people of Israel may possess the inheritance of his fathers.
9So no inheritance shall be transferred from one tribe to another; for each of the tribes of the people of Israel shall cleave to its own inheritance.'"
10The daughters of Zeloph'ehad did as the LORD commanded Moses;
11for Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zeloph'ehad, were married to sons of their father's brothers.
12They were married into the families of the sons of Manas'seh the son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained in the tribe of the family of their father.
13These are the commandments and the ordinances which the LORD commanded by Moses to the people of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.



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