Towns for the Levites

21 The heads of the Levite families went to talk to Eleazar the priest, to Joshua son of Nun, and to the heads of the families of all the tribes of Israel. ² At Shiloh in the land of Canaan, the heads of the Levite families said to them, “The Lord commanded Moses that you give us towns where we may live and pastures for our animals.” ³ So the Israelites obeyed this command of the Lord and gave the Levite people these towns and pastures for their own land: ⁴ The Kohath family groups were part of the tribe of Levi. Some of the Levites in the Kohath family groups were from the family of Aaron the priest. To these Levites were given thirteen towns in the areas of Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin. ⁵ The other family groups of Kohath were given ten towns in the areas of Ephraim, Dan, and West Manasseh.

⁶ The people from the Gershon family groups were given thirteen towns in the land of Issachar, Asher, Naphtali, and the East Manasseh in Bashan.

⁷ The family groups of Merari were given twelve towns in the areas of Reuben, Gad, and Zebulun.

⁸ So the Israelites gave the Levites these towns and the pastures around them, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

⁹ These are the names of the towns that came from the lands of Judah and Simeon. ¹⁰ The first choice of towns was given to the Kohath family groups of the Levites. ¹¹ They gave them Kiriath Arba, also called Hebron, and all its pastures in the mountains of Judah. (Arba was the father of Anak.) ¹² But the fields and the villages around Kiriath Arba had been given to Caleb son of Jephunneh.

¹³ So they gave the city of Hebron to the descendants of Aaron (Hebron was a city of safety). They also gave them the towns of Libnah, ¹⁴ Jattir, Eshtemoa, ¹⁵ Holon, Debir, ¹⁶ Ain, Juttah, and Beth Shemesh, and all the pastures around them. Nine towns were given from these two tribes.

¹⁷ They also gave the people of Aaron these cities that belonged to the tribe of Benjamin: Gibeon, Geba, ¹⁸ Anathoth, and Almon. They gave them these four towns and the pastures around them.

¹⁹ So these thirteen towns with their pastures were given to the priests, who were from the family of Aaron.

²⁰ The other Kohathite family groups of the Levites were given these towns from the tribe of Ephraim: ²¹ Shechem in the mountains of Ephraim (which was a city of safety), Gezer, ²² Kibzaim, and Beth Horon. There were four towns and their pastures.

²³ The tribe of Dan gave them Eltekeh, Gibbethon, ²⁴ Aijalon, and Gath Rimmon. There were four towns and their pastures.

²⁵ West Manasseh gave them Taanach and Gath Rimmon and the pastures around these two towns.

²⁶ So these ten towns and the pastures around them were given to the rest of the Kohathite family groups.

²⁷ The Gershonite family groups of the Levite tribe were given these towns: East Manasseh gave them Golan in Bashan, which was a city of safety, and Be Eshtarah, and the pastures around these two towns.

²⁸ The tribe of Issachar gave them Kishion, Daberath, ²⁹ Jarmuth, and En Gannim, and the pastures around these four towns.

³⁰ The tribe of Asher gave them Mishal, Abdon, ³¹ Helkath, and Rehob, and the pastures around these four towns.

³² The tribe of Naphtali gave them Kedesh in Galilee (a city of safety), Hammoth Dor, and Kartan, and the pastures around these three towns.

³³ So the Gershonite family groups received thirteen towns and the pastures around them.

³⁴ The Merarite family groups (the rest of the Levites) were given these towns: The tribe of Zebulun gave them Jokneam, Kartah, ³⁵ Dimnah, and Nahalal, and the pastures around these four towns.

³⁶ The tribe of Reuben gave them Bezer, Jahaz, ³⁷ Kedemoth, and Mephaath, along with the pastures around these four towns.

³⁸ The tribe of Gad gave them Ramoth in Gilead (a city of safety), Mahanaim, ³⁹ Heshbon, and Jazer, and the pastures around these four towns.

⁴⁰ So the total number of towns given to the Merarite family groups was twelve.

⁴¹ A total of forty-eight towns with their pastures in the land of Israel were given to the Levites. ⁴² Each town had pastures around it.

⁴³ So the Lord gave the people all the land he had promised their ancestors. The people took the land and lived there. ⁴⁴ The Lord gave them peace on all sides, as he had promised their ancestors. None of their enemies defeated them; the Lord handed all their enemies over to them. ⁴⁵ He kept every promise he had made to the Israelites; each one came true.

Three Tribes Go Home

22 Then Joshua called a meeting of all the people from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh. ² He said to them, “You have done everything Moses, the Lord’s servant, told you to do. You have also obeyed all my commands. ³ For a long time you have supported the other Israelites. You have been careful to obey the commands the Lord your God gave you. ⁴ The Lord your God promised to give the Israelites peace, and he has kept his promise. Now you may go back to your homes, to the land that Moses, the Lord’s servant, gave you, on the east side of the Jordan River. ⁵ But be careful to obey the teachings and laws Moses, the Lord’s servant, gave you: to love the Lord your God and obey his commands, to continue to follow him and serve him the very best you can.”

⁶ Then Joshua said good-bye to them, and they left and went away to their homes. ⁷ Moses had given the land of Bashan to East Manasseh. Joshua gave land on the west side of the Jordan River to West Manasseh. And he sent them to their homes and he blessed them. ⁸ He said, “Go back to your homes and your riches. You have many animals, silver, gold, bronze, and iron, and many beautiful clothes. Also, you have taken many things from your enemies that you should divide among yourselves.”

⁹ So the people from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh left the other Israelites at Shiloh in Canaan and went back to Gilead. It was their own land, given to them by Moses as the Lord had commanded.

¹⁰ The people of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh went to Geliloth, near the Jordan River in the land of Canaan. There they built a beautiful altar. ¹¹ The other Israelites still at Shiloh heard about the altar these three tribes built at the border of Canaan at Geliloth, near the Jordan River on Israel’s side. ¹² All the Israelites became very angry at these three tribes, so they met together and decided to fight them.

¹³ The Israelites sent Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest to Gilead to talk to the people of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh. ¹⁴ They also sent one leader from each of the ten tribes at Shiloh. Each of them was a leader of his family group of Israelites.

¹⁵ These leaders went to Gilead to talk to the people of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh. They said: ¹⁶ “All the Israelites ask you: ‘Why did you turn against the God of Israel by building an altar for yourselves? You know that this is against God’s law. ¹⁷ Remember what happened at Peor? We still suffer today because of that sin, for which God made many Israelites very sick. ¹⁸ And now are you turning against the Lord and refusing to follow him?

“‘If you don’t stop what you’re doing today, the Lord will be angry with everyone in Israel tomorrow. ¹⁹ If your land is unclean, come over into our land where the Lord’s Tent is. Share it with us. But don’t turn against the Lord and us by building another altar for the Lord our God. ²⁰ Remember how Achan son of Zerah refused to obey the command about what must be completely destroyed. That one man broke God’s law, but all the Israelites were punished. Achan died because of his sin, but others also died.’”

²¹ The people from Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh answered, ²² “The Lord is God of gods! The Lord is God of gods! God knows, and we want you to know also. If we have done something wrong, you may kill us. ²³ If we broke God’s law, we ask the Lord himself to punish us. We did not build this altar to offer burnt offerings or grain and fellowship offerings.

²⁴ “We did not build it for that reason. We feared that someday your people would not accept us as part of your nation. Then they might say, ‘You cannot worship the Lord, the God of Israel. ²⁵ The Lord made the Jordan River a border between us and you people of Reuben and Gad. You cannot worship the Lord.’ So we feared that your children might make our children stop worshiping the Lord.

²⁶ “That is why we decided to build this altar. But it is not for burnt offerings and sacrifices. ²⁷ This altar is proof to you and us and to all our children who will come after us that we worship the Lord with our whole burnt offerings, grain, and fellowship offerings. This was so your children would not say to our children, ‘You are not the Lord’s.’

²⁸ “In the future if your children say that, our children can say, ‘See the altar made by our ancestors. It is exactly like the Lord’s altar, but we do not use it for sacrifices. It shows that we are part of Israel.’

²⁹ “Truly, we don’t want to be against the Lord or to stop following him by building an altar for burnt offerings, grain offerings, or sacrifices. We know the only true altar to the Lord our God is in front of the Holy Tent.”

³⁰ When Phinehas the priest and the ten leaders heard the people of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh, they were pleased. ³¹ So Phinehas, son of Eleazar the priest, said, “Now we know the Lord is with us and that you didn’t turn against him. Now the Israelites will not be punished by the Lord.”

³² Then Phinehas and the leaders left the people of Reuben and Gad in Gilead and went back to Canaan where they told the Israelites what had happened. ³³ They were pleased and thanked God. So they decided not to fight the people of Reuben and Gad and destroy those lands.

³⁴ And the people of Reuben and Gad named the altar Proof That We Believe the Lord Is God.

God, the King of the World

For the director of music. A psalm of the sons of Korah.