Numbers 32-36

Numbers 32

¹Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a great number of cattle: and when they saw that the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead was a good place for cattle;

²The children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and said to Moses and to Eleazar the priest and to the chiefs of the meeting,

³Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jazer, and Nimrah, and Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Sebam, and Nebo, and Beon,

⁴The land which the Lord gave into the hands of the children of Israel, is a land for cattle, and your servants have cattle.

⁵And they said, With your approval, let this land be given to your servants as their heritage: do not take us over Jordan.

⁶And Moses said to the children of Gad and the children of Reuben, Are your brothers to go to the war, while you take your rest here?

⁷Why would you take from the children of Israel the desire to go over into the land which the Lord has given them?

⁸So did your fathers, when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to see the land.

⁹For when they went up to the valley of Eshcol, and saw the land, they took from the children of Israel the desire to go into the land which the Lord had given them.

¹⁰And at that time the Lord was moved to wrath, and made an oath, saying,

¹¹Truly, not one of the men of twenty years old and over who came out of Egypt will see the land which I gave by oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; because they have not been true to me with all their heart;

¹²But only Caleb, the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, and Joshua, the son of Nun: because they have been true to the Lord.

¹³Then the Lord was angry with Israel, and he made them wanderers in the waste land for forty years? till all that generation who had done evil in the eyes of the Lord was dead.

¹⁴And now you have come to take the place of your fathers, another generation of sinners, increasing the wrath of the Lord against Israel.

¹⁵For if you are turned away from him, he will send them wandering again in the waste land; and you will be the cause of the destruction of all this people.

¹⁶Then they came to him, and said, We will make safe places for our cattle here, and towns for our little ones;

¹⁷But we ourselves will be ready armed to go before the children of Israel till we have taken them to their place: but our little ones will be safe in the walled towns against the people of the land.

¹⁸We will not come back to our houses till every one of the children of Israel has come into his heritage.

¹⁹For we will not have our heritage with them on the other side of Jordan and forward; because our heritage has come to us on this side of Jordan to the east.

²⁰Then Moses said to them, If you will do this, arming yourselves to go before the Lord to the war,

²¹Every armed man of you going across Jordan before the Lord till he has overcome and sent in flight all who are against him,

²²And the land is under the rule of the Lord: then after that you may come back, having done no wrong to the Lord and to Israel; and this land will be yours for your heritage before the Lord.

²³But if you do not do this, then you are sinners against the Lord; and you may be certain that your sin will have its reward.

²⁴So get to work building your towns for your little ones, and safe places for your sheep; and do as you have said.

²⁵And the children of Gad and the children of Reuben said to Moses, Your servants will do as my lord says.

²⁶Our little ones, our wives, and our flocks, and all our cattle, will be there in the towns of Gilead;

²⁷But your servants will go over, every man armed for war, before the Lord to the fight, as my lord says.

²⁸So Moses gave orders about them to Eleazar the priest and to Joshua, the son of Nun, and to the heads of families of the tribes of the children of Israel.

²⁹And Moses said to them, If the children of Gad and the children of Reuben go with you over Jordan, every man armed for the fight before the Lord, and all the land is given into your hands, then let them have the land of Gilead for a heritage:

³⁰But if they do not go over with you armed, they will have to take their heritage with you in the land of Canaan.

³¹Then the children of Gad and the children of Reuben said, As the Lord has said to your servants, so will we do.

³²We will go over armed before the Lord into the land of Canaan, and you will give us our heritage on this side of Jordan.

³³So Moses gave to them, even to the children of Gad and the children of Reuben and to the half-tribe of Manasseh, the son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon, king of the Amorites and Og, king of Bashan, all the land with its towns and the country round them.

³⁴And the children of Gad were the builders of Dibon and Ataroth and Aroer;

³⁵And Atroth-shophan and Jazer and Jogbehah;

³⁶And Beth-nimrah and Beth-haran: walled towns and shut-in places for sheep.

³⁷And the children of Reuben were the builders of Heshbon and Elealeh and Kiriathaim;

³⁸And Nebo and Baal-meon, (their names being changed,) and Sibmah: and they gave other names to the towns they made.

³⁹And the children of Machir, the son of Manasseh, went to Gilead and took it, driving out the Amorites who were living there.

⁴⁰And Moses gave Gilead to Machir, the son of Manasseh; and he made it his living-place.

⁴¹And Jair, the son of Manasseh, went and took the towns of Gilead, naming them Havvoth-Jair.

⁴²And Nobah went and took Kenath and its small towns, naming it Nobah, after himself.

Numbers 33

¹These are the journeys of the children of Israel, when they went out of the land of Egypt in their armies, under the direction of Moses and Aaron.

²And the stages of their journey on their way out were put down in writing by Moses at the order of the Lord: these are the stages of their journey and the way they went.

³On the fifteenth day of the first month they went out from Rameses; on the day after the Passover the children of Israel went out by the power of the Lord before the eyes of all the Egyptians,

⁴While the Egyptians were placing in the earth the bodies of their sons on whom the Lord had sent destruction: and their gods had been judged by him.

⁵So the children of Israel went from Rameses and put up their tents in Succoth.

⁶And they went on from Succoth and put up their tents in Etham on the edge of the waste land.

⁷And from Etham, turning back to Pi-hahiroth which is before Baal-zephon, they put up their tents before Migdol.

⁸And journeying on from before Hahiroth, they went through the sea into the waste land: they went three days' journey through the waste land of Etham and put up their tents in Marah.

⁹And from Marah they went on to Elim: and in Elim there were twelve water-springs and seventy palm-trees; and they put up their tents there.

¹⁰And they went on from Elim and put up their tents by the Red Sea.

¹¹Then from the Red Sea they went on and put up their tents in the waste land of Sin.

¹²And they went on from the waste land of Sin, and put up their tents in Dophkah.

¹³And they went on from Dophkah, and put up their tents in Alush.

¹⁴And they went on from Alush, and put up their tents in Rephidim, where there was no drinking-water for the people.

¹⁵And they went on from Rephidim, and put up their tents in the waste land of Sinai.

¹⁶And they went on from the waste land of Sinai and put up their tents in Kibroth-hattaavah.

¹⁷And they went on from Kibroth-hattaavah, and put up their tents in Hazeroth.

¹⁸And they went on from Hazeroth, and put up their tents in Rithmah.

¹⁹And they went on from Rithmah, and put up their tents in Rimmon-perez.

²⁰And they went on from Rimmon-perez, and put up their tents in Libnah.

²¹And they went on from Libnah, and put up their tents in Rissah.

²²And they went on from Rissah, and put up their tents in Kehelathah.

²³And they went on from Kehelathah, and put up their tents in Mount Shepher.

²⁴And they went on from Mount Shepher, and put up their tents in Haradah.

²⁵And they went on from Haradah, and put up their tents in Makheloth.

²⁶And they went on from Makheloth, and put up their tents in Tahath.

²⁷And they went on from Tahath, and put up their tents in Terah.

²⁸And they went on from Terah, and put up their tents in Mithkah.

²⁹And they went on from Mithkah, and put up their tents in Hashmonah.

³⁰And they went on from Hashmonah, and put up their tents in Moseroth.

³¹And they went on from Moseroth, and put up their tents in Bene-jaakan.

³²And they went on from Bene-jaakan, and put up their tents in Hor-haggidgad.

³³And they went on from Hor-haggidgad, and put up their tents in Jotbathah.

³⁴And they went on from Jotbathah, and put up their tents in Abronah.

³⁵And they went on from Abronah, and put up their tents in Ezion-geber.

³⁶And they went on from Ezion-geber, and put up their tents in the waste land of Zin (which is Kadesh).

³⁷And they went on from Kadesh, and put up their tents in Mount Hor, on the edge of the land of Edom.

³⁸And Aaron the priest went up into the mountain at the order of the Lord, and came to his death there, in the fortieth year after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fifth month, on the first day of the month.

³⁹Aaron was a hundred and twenty-three years old at the time of his death in Mount Hor.

⁴⁰And news of the coming of the children of Israel came to the king of Arad, the Canaanite, who was living in the South in the land of Canaan.

⁴¹And from Mount Hor they went on, and put up their tents in Zalmonah.

⁴²And they went on from Zalmonah, and put up their tents in Punon.

⁴³And they went on from Punon, and put up their tents in Oboth.

⁴⁴And they went on from Oboth, and put up their tents in Iye-abarim at the edge of Moab.

⁴⁵And they went on from Iyim, and put up their tents in Dibon-gad.

⁴⁶And from Dibon-gad they went on, and put up their tents in Almon-diblathaim.

⁴⁷And from Almon-diblathaim they went on, and put up their tents in the mountains of Abarim, before Nebo.

⁴⁸And they went on from the mountains of Abarim, and put up their tents in the lowlands of Moab by Jordan at Jericho;

⁴⁹Planting their tents by the side of Jordan from Beth-jeshimoth as far as Abel-shittim in the lowlands of Moab.

⁵⁰And in the lowlands of Moab by Jordan at Jericho, the Lord said to Moses,

⁵¹Say to the children of Israel, When you go over Jordan into the land of Canaan,

⁵²See that all the people of the land are forced out from before you, and put to destruction all their pictured stones, and all their metal images, and all their high places:

⁵³And take the land for yourselves, for your resting-place: for to you I have given the land as your heritage.

⁵⁴And you will take up your heritage in the land by the decision of the Lord, to every family its part; the greater the family the greater its heritage, and the smaller the family the smaller will be its heritage; wherever the decision of the Lord gives to any man his part, that will be his; distribution will be made to you by your fathers' tribes.

⁵⁵But if you are slow in driving out the people of the land, then those of them who are still there will be like pin-points in your eyes and like thorns in your sides, troubling you in the land where you are living.

⁵⁶And it will come about that as it was my purpose to do to them, so I will do to you.

Numbers 34

¹And the Lord said to Moses,

²Give orders to the children of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land of Canaan; (this is the land which is to be your heritage, the land of Canaan inside these limits,)

³Then your south quarter will be from the waste land of Zin by the side of Edom, and your limit on the south will be from the east end of the Salt Sea,

⁴And round to the south of the slope of Akrabbim, and on to Zin: and its direction will be south of Kadesh-barnea, and it will go as far as Hazar-addar and on to Azmon:

⁵And from Azmon it will go round to the stream of Egypt as far as the sea.

⁶And for your limit on the west you will have the Great Sea and its edge: this will be your limit on the west.

⁷And your limit on the north will be the line from the Great Sea to Mount Hor:

⁸And from Mount Hor the line will go in the direction of Hamath; the farthest point of it will be at Zedad:

⁹And the limit will go on to Ziphron, with its farthest point at Hazar-enan: this will be your limit on the north.

¹⁰And on the east, your limit will be marked out from Hazar-enan to Shepham,

¹¹Going down from Shepham to Riblah on the east side of Ain, and on as far as the east side of the sea of Chinnereth:

¹²And so down to Jordan, stretching to the Salt Sea: all the land inside these limits will be yours.

¹³And Moses gave orders to the children of Israel saying, This is the land which is to be your heritage, by the decision of the Lord, which by the Lord's order is to be given to the nine tribes and the half-tribe:

¹⁴For the tribe of the children of Reuben, by their fathers' families, and the tribe of the children of Gad, by their fathers' families, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, have been given their heritage:

¹⁵The two tribes and the half-tribe have been given their heritage on the other side of Jordan at Jericho, on the east looking to the dawn.

¹⁶And the Lord said to Moses,

¹⁷These are the names of the men who are to make the distribution of the land among you: Eleazar the priest and Joshua, the son of Nun.

¹⁸And you are to take one chief from every tribe to make the distribution of the land.

¹⁹And these are the names of the men: of the tribe of Judah, Caleb, the son of Jephunneh.

²⁰And of the tribe of the children of Simeon, Shemuel, the son of Ammihud.

²¹Of the tribe of Benjamin, Elidad, the son of Chislon.

²²And of the tribe of the children of Dan, a chief, Bukki, the son of Jogli.

²³Of the children of Joseph: of the tribe of the children of Manasseh, a chief, Hanniel, the son of Ephod:

²⁴And of the tribe of the children of Ephraim, a chief, Kemuel, the son of Shiphtan.

²⁵And of the tribe of the children of Zebulun, a chief, Elizaphan, the son of Parnach.

²⁶And of the tribe of the children of Issachar, a chief, Paltiel, the son of Azzan.

²⁷And of the tribe of the children of Asher, a chief, Ahihud, the son of Shelomi.

²⁸And of the tribe of the children of Naphtali, a chief, Pedahel, the son of Ammihud.

²⁹These are they to whom the Lord gave orders to make the distribution of the heritage among the children of Israel in the land of Canaan.

Numbers 35

¹And the Lord said to Moses in the lowlands of Moab by Jordan at Jericho,

²Give orders to the children of Israel to give to the Levites, from the heritage which is theirs, towns for themselves, with land on the outskirts of the towns.

³These towns are to be their living-places, with land round them for their cattle and their food and all their beasts,

⁴Stretching from the wall of the towns a distance of a thousand cubits all round.

⁵The measure of this space of land is to be two thousand cubits outside the town on the east, and two thousand cubits on the south and on the west and on the north, the town being in the middle. This space will be the outskirts of their towns.

⁶And the towns which you give the Levites are to be the six safe places to which the taker of life may go in flight; and in addition you are to give them forty-two towns.

⁷Forty-eight towns are to be given to the Levites, all with land round them.

⁸And these towns are to be given out of the heritage of the children of Israel, taking the greater number from those who have much, and a smaller number from those who have little: everyone, in the measure of his heritage, is to give of his property to the Levites.

⁹And the Lord said to Moses,

¹⁰Say to the children of Israel, when you have gone over Jordan into the land of Canaan;

¹¹Then let certain towns be marked out as safe places to which anyone who takes the life of another in error may go in flight.

¹²In these towns you may be safe from him who has the right of punishment; so that death may not overtake the taker of life till he has been judged by the meeting of the people.

¹³Six of the towns which you give will be such safe places;

¹⁴Three on the other side of Jordan and three in the land of Canaan, to be safe places for flight.

¹⁵For the children of Israel and for the man from another country who is living among them, these six towns are to be safe places, where anyone causing the death of another through error may go in flight.

¹⁶But if a man gives another man a blow with an iron instrument, causing his death, he is a taker of life and is certainly to be put to death.

¹⁷Or if he gives him a blow with a stone in his hand, causing his death, he is a taker of life and is certainly to be put to death.

¹⁸Or if he gave him blows with a wood instrument in his hands, causing his death, he is a taker of life and is certainly to be put to death.

¹⁹He whose right it is to give punishment for blood, may himself put to death the taker of life when he comes face to face with him.

²⁰If in his hate he put a sword through him, or waiting secretly for him sent a spear or stone at him, causing his death;

²¹Or in hate gave him blows with his hand, causing death; he who gave the death-blow is to be put to death; he is a taker of life: he whose right it is to give punishment for blood may put to death the taker of life when he comes face to face with him.

²²But if a man has given a wound to another suddenly and not in hate, or without design has sent something against him,

²³Or has given him a blow with a stone, without seeing him, so causing his death, though he had nothing against him and no desire to do him evil:

²⁴Then let the meeting of the people be judge between the man responsible for the death and him who has the right of punishment for blood, acting by these rules:

²⁵And let the people keep the man responsible for the death safe from the hands of him who has the right of punishment for blood, and send him back to his safe town where he had gone in flight: there let him be till the death of the high priest who was marked with the holy oil.

²⁶But if ever he goes outside the walls of the safe town where he had gone in flight,

²⁷And the giver of punishment, meeting him outside the walls of the town, puts him to death, he will not be responsible for his blood:

²⁸Because he had been ordered to keep inside the safe town till the death of the high priest: but after the death of the high priest the taker of life may come back to the place of his heritage.

²⁹These rules are to be your guide in judging through all your generations wherever you may be living.

³⁰Anyone causing the death of another is himself to be put to death on the word of witnesses: but the word of one witness is not enough.

³¹Further, 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.

³²And no price may be offered for one who has gone in flight to a safe town, for the purpose of letting him come back to his place before the death of the high priest.

³³So do not make the land where you are living unholy: for blood makes the land unholy: and there is no way of making the land free from the blood which has come on it, but only by the death of him who was the cause of it.

³⁴Do not make unclean the land where you are living and in which is my House: for I the Lord am present among the children of Israel.

Numbers 36

¹Now the heads of the families of the children of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of the sons of Joseph, came to Moses, the chiefs and the heads of families of the children of Israel being present,

²And said, The Lord gave orders to my lord to make distribution of the land as their heritage to the children of Israel: and my lord was ordered by the Lord to give the heritage of Zelophehad, our brother, to his daughters.

³Now if they get married to any of the sons of other tribes of the children of Israel, then their property will be taken away from the heritage of our fathers, and become part of the heritage of the tribe into which they get married: and their heritage will be taken away from the heritage of our tribe.

⁴And at the time of the Jubilee of the children of Israel, their property will be joined to the heritage of the tribe of which they are part and will be taken away from the heritage of the tribe of our fathers.

⁵So by the direction of the Lord, Moses gave orders to the children of Israel, saying, What the tribe of the sons of Joseph have said is right.

⁶This is the order of the Lord about the daughters of Zelophehad: The Lord says, Let them take as their husbands whoever is most pleasing to them, but only among the family of their father's tribe.

⁷And so no property will be handed from tribe to tribe among the children of Israel; but every one of the children of Israel will keep the heritage of his father's tribe.

⁸And every daughter owning property in any tribe of the children of Israel is to be married to one of the family of her father's tribe, so that every man of the children of Israel may keep the heritage of his fathers.

⁹And no property will be handed from one tribe to another, but every tribe of the children of Israel will keep its heritage.

¹⁰So the daughters of Zelophehad did as the Lord gave orders to Moses:

¹¹For Mahlah, Tirzah, and Hoglah, and Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, took as their husbands the sons of their father's brothers:

¹²And were married into the families of the sons of Manasseh, the son of Joseph, and their property was kept in the tribe of their father's family

¹³These are the laws and the orders which the Lord gave to the children of Israel by Moses, in the lowlands of Moab by Jordan at Jericho.