Chapter 34

The Boundaries. ¹ The Lord spoke to Moses: ² Give the Israelites this order: When you enter the land of Canaan, this is the territory that shall fall to you as your heritage—the land of Canaan with its boundaries:

³ Your southern boundary will be at the wilderness of Zin along the border of Edom;^(A) on the east your southern boundary will begin at the end of the Salt Sea. ⁴ Then your boundary will turn south of the Akrabbim Pass and cross Zin. Terminating south of Kadesh-barnea, it extends to Hazar-addar and crosses to Azmon.^{(B) 5} Then the boundary will turn from Azmon to the Wadi of Egypt and terminate at the Sea.^(C)

⁶ For your western boundary you will have the Great Sea^[a] with its coast; this will be your western boundary.

⁷ This will be your boundary on the north: from the Great Sea you will draw a line to Mount Hor,^{[b] 8} and draw it from Mount Hor to Lebo-hamath, with the boundary terminating at Zedad. ⁹ Then the boundary extends to Ziphron and terminates at Hazar-enan. This will be your northern boundary.

¹⁰ For your eastern boundary you will draw a line from Hazar-enan to Shepham. ¹¹ From Shepham the boundary will go down to Riblah, east of Ain, and descending further, the boundary will strike the ridge on the east side of the Sea of Chinnereth;^{[c] 12} then the boundary will descend along the Jordan and terminate with the Salt Sea.

This will be your land, with the boundaries that surround it.

¹³ Moses also gave this order to the Israelites: “This is the land, to be apportioned among you by lot, which the Lord has commanded to be given to the nine and a half tribes. ¹⁴ For the tribe of the Reubenites according to their ancestral houses, and the tribe of the Gadites according to their ancestral houses, as well as half of the tribe of Manasseh, have already received their heritage; ¹⁵ these two and a half tribes have received their heritage across the Jordan opposite Jericho, in the east, toward the sunrise.”

Supervisors of the Allotment. ¹⁶ The Lord spoke to Moses: ¹⁷ These are the names of the men who shall apportion the land among you: Eleazar the priest, and Joshua, son of Nun; ^18 (D)and you will designate one leader from each of the tribes to apportion the land. ¹⁹ These are the names of the men:

Chapter 35

Cities for the Levites. ¹ The Lord spoke to Moses on the plains of Moab by the Jordan opposite Jericho: ^2 (E)Command the Israelites out of the heritage they possess to give the Levites cities to dwell in; you will also give the Levites the pasture lands around the cities. ³ The cities will be for them to dwell in, and the pasture lands will be for their cattle, their flocks, and all their other animals. ⁴ The pasture lands of the cities to be assigned the Levites shall extend a thousand cubits out from the city walls in every direction. ⁵ You will measure out two thousand cubits outside the city along the east side, two thousand cubits along the south side, two thousand cubits along the west side, and two thousand cubits along the north side, with the city lying in the center. These will be the pasture lands of their cities.

^6 (F)Now these are the cities you will give to the Levites: the six cities of asylum which you must establish for the homicide to run to, and in addition forty-two other cities— ⁷ a total of forty-eight cities with their pasture lands which you will assign to the Levites. ^8 [d]In assigning the cities from what the Israelites possess, take more from a larger group and fewer from a smaller one, so that each will cede cities to the Levites in proportion to the heritage which it receives.

Cities of Asylum. ^9 (G)The Lord spoke to Moses: ¹⁰ Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When you go across the Jordan into the land of Canaan, ¹¹ select for yourselves cities to serve as cities of asylum, where a homicide who has killed someone inadvertently may flee. ¹² These cities will serve you as places of asylum from the avenger of blood,^[e] so that a homicide will not be put to death until tried before the community. ¹³ As for the cities you assign, you will have six cities of asylum: ¹⁴ you will designate three cities beyond the Jordan, and you will designate three cities in the land of Canaan. These will be cities of asylum. ¹⁵ These six cities will serve as places of asylum for the Israelites, and for the resident or transient aliens among them, so that anyone who has killed a person inadvertently may flee there.

Murder and Manslaughter. ^16 [f]If someone strikes another with an iron instrument and causes death, that person is a murderer, and the murderer must be put to death.^{(H) 17} If someone strikes another with a death-dealing stone in the hand and death results, that person is a murderer, and the murderer must be put to death. ¹⁸ Or if someone strikes another with a death-dealing club in the hand and death results, that person is a murderer, and the murderer must be put to death. ¹⁹ The avenger of blood is the one who will kill the murderer, putting the individual to death on sight.

²⁰ If someone pushes another out of hatred, or throws something from an ambush, and death results,^{(I) 21} or strikes another with the hand out of enmity and death results, the assailant must be put to death as a murderer. The avenger of blood will kill the murderer on sight.

^22 (J)However, if someone pushes another without malice aforethought, or without lying in ambush throws some object at another, ²³ or without seeing drops upon another some death-dealing stone and death results, although there was neither enmity nor malice— ²⁴ then the community will judge between the assailant and the avenger of blood in accordance with these norms. ²⁵ The community will deliver the homicide from the avenger of blood and the community will return the homicide to the city of asylum where the latter had fled;^(K) and the individual will stay there until the death of the high priest who has been anointed with sacred oil. ²⁶ If the homicide leaves at all the bounds of the city of asylum to which flight had been made, ²⁷ and is found by the avenger of blood beyond the bounds of the city of asylum, and the avenger of blood kills the homicide, the avenger incurs no bloodguilt; ²⁸ for the homicide was required to stay in the city of asylum until the death of the high priest. Only after the death of the high priest may the homicide return to the land of the homicide’s possession.

²⁹ This is the statute for you throughout all your generations, wherever you live, for rendering judgment.

Judgment. ³⁰ Whenever someone kills another, the evidence of witnesses is required to kill the murderer.^(L) A single witness does not suffice for putting a person to death.

No Indemnity. ³¹ You will not accept compensation in place of the life of a murderer who deserves to die, but that person must be put to death. ³² Nor will you accept compensation to allow one who has fled to a city of asylum to return to live in the land before the death of the high priest. ³³ You will not pollute the land where you live. For bloodshed pollutes the land, and the land can have no expiation for the blood shed on it except through the blood of the one who shed it. ³⁴ Do not defile the land in which you live and in the midst of which I dwell;^(M) for I the Lord dwell in the midst of the Israelites.

Psalm 86^[a]

Prayer in Time of Distress

¹ A prayer of David.

I

II

III

Chapter 19

Paul in Ephesus. ^1 [a]While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior of the country and came [down] to Ephesus where he found some disciples. ² He said to them, “Did you receive the holy Spirit when you became believers?” They answered him, “We have never even heard that there is a holy Spirit.” ³ He said, “How were you baptized?” They replied, “With the baptism of John.” ⁴ Paul then said, “John baptized with a baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, in Jesus.”^{(A) 5} When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. ⁶ And when Paul laid [his] hands on them, the holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.^{(B) 7} Altogether there were about twelve men.

⁸ He entered the synagogue, and for three months debated boldly with persuasive arguments about the kingdom of God. ⁹ But when some in their obstinacy and disbelief disparaged the Way before the assembly, he withdrew and took his disciples with him and began to hold daily discussions in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. ¹⁰ This continued for two years with the result that all the inhabitants of the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord, Jews and Greeks alike. ¹¹ So extraordinary were the mighty deeds God accomplished at the hands of Paul ¹² that when face cloths or aprons that touched his skin were applied to the sick, their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them.^(C)

The Jewish Exorcists. ¹³ Then some itinerant Jewish exorcists tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those with evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.” ¹⁴ When the seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish high priest, tried to do this, ¹⁵ the evil spirit said to them in reply, “Jesus I recognize, Paul I know, but who are you?” ¹⁶ The person with the evil spirit then sprang at them and subdued them all. He so overpowered them that they fled naked and wounded from that house. ¹⁷ When this became known to all the Jews and Greeks who lived in Ephesus, fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in great esteem. ¹⁸ Many of those who had become believers came forward and openly acknowledged their former practices. ¹⁹ Moreover, a large number of those who had practiced magic collected their books and burned them in public. They calculated their value and found it to be fifty thousand silver pieces. ²⁰ Thus did the word of the Lord continue to spread with influence and power.