The Boundaries of the Land

34 The 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), ³ your 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; ⁴ and 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; ⁵ and 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^[a] 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; ⁸ from Mount Hor you shall mark it out to the entrance of Hamath, and the end of the boundary shall be at Zedad; ⁹ then the boundary shall extend to Ziphron, and its end shall be at Hazar-enan; this shall be your northern boundary.

¹⁰ “You shall mark out your eastern boundary from Hazar-enan to Shepham; ¹¹ and 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; ¹² and 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.”

¹³ Moses 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; ¹⁴ for 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; ¹⁵ the two tribes and the half-tribe have received their inheritance beyond the Jordan at Jericho eastward, toward the sunrise.”

Tribal Leaders

¹⁶ The 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. ¹⁸ You shall take one leader of every tribe, to divide the land for inheritance. ¹⁹ These are the names of the men: Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephun′neh. ²⁰ Of the tribe of the sons of Simeon, Shem′uel the son of Ammi′hud. ²¹ Of the tribe of Benjamin, Eli′dad the son of Chislon. ²² Of the tribe of the sons of Dan a leader, Bukki the son of Jogli. ²³ Of the sons of Joseph: of the tribe of the sons of Manas′seh a leader, Han′niel the son of Ephod. ²⁴ And of the tribe of the sons of E′phraim a leader, Kem′uel the son of Shiphtan. ²⁵ Of the tribe of the sons of Zeb′ulun a leader, Eli-za′phan the son of Parnach. ²⁶ Of the tribe of the sons of Is′sachar a leader, Pal′tiel the son of Azzan. ²⁷ And of the tribe of the sons of Asher a leader, Ahi′hud the son of Shelo′mi. ²⁸ Of the tribe of the sons of Naph′tali a leader, Pedah′el the son of Ammi′hud. ²⁹ These are the men whom the Lord commanded to divide the inheritance for the people of Israel in the land of Canaan.”

Cities for the Levites

35 The 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. ³ The 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. ⁴ The 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. ⁵ And 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. ⁶ The 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. ⁷ All the cities which you give to the Levites shall be forty-eight, with their pasture lands. ⁸ And 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.”

Cities of Refuge

⁹ And the Lord said to Moses, ¹⁰ “Say to the people of Israel, When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, ¹¹ then you shall select cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the manslayer who kills any person without intent may flee there. ¹² The cities shall be for you a refuge from the avenger, that the manslayer may not die until he stands before the congregation for judgment. ¹³ And the cities which you give shall be your six cities of refuge. ¹⁴ You shall give three cities beyond the Jordan, and three cities in the land of Canaan, to be cities of refuge. ¹⁵ These 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.

Concerning Murder and Blood Revenge

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. ¹⁷ And 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. ¹⁸ Or 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. ¹⁹ The avenger of blood shall himself put the murderer to death; when he meets him, he shall put him to death. ²⁰ And if he stabbed him from hatred, or hurled at him, lying in wait, so that he died, ²¹ or 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, ²³ or 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; ²⁴ then the congregation shall judge between the manslayer and the avenger of blood, in accordance with these ordinances; ²⁵ and 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. ²⁶ But if the manslayer shall at any time go beyond the bounds of his city of refuge to which he fled, ²⁷ and 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. ²⁸ For 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. ³⁰ If 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. ³¹ Moreover you shall accept no ransom for the life of a murderer, who is guilty of death; but he shall be put to death. ³² And 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. ³³ You 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. ³⁴ You 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.”

Supplication for Help against Enemies

A Prayer of David.

Paul in Ephesus

19 While Apol′los was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. ² And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” ³ And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.” ⁴ And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” ⁵ On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. ⁶ And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them; and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. ⁷ There were about twelve of them in all.

⁸ And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, arguing and pleading about the kingdom of God; ⁹ but when some were stubborn and disbelieved, speaking evil of the Way before the congregation, he withdrew from them, taking the disciples with him, and argued daily in the hall of Tyran′nus.^{[a] 10} This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.

The Sons of Sceva

¹¹ And God did extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, ¹² so that handkerchiefs or aprons were carried away from his body to the sick, and diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. ¹³ Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to pronounce the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.” ¹⁴ Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. ¹⁵ But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?” ¹⁶ And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, mastered all of them, and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. ¹⁷ And this became known to all residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks; and fear fell upon them all; and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. ¹⁸ Many also of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. ¹⁹ And a number of those who practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all; and they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. ²⁰ So the word of the Lord grew and prevailed mightily.