The Appointed Boundaries of Canaan

34 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Command the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into ^(A)the land of Canaan, this is the land that shall fall to you as an inheritance—the land of Canaan to its boundaries. ^3 (B)Your southern border shall be from the Wilderness of Zin along the border of Edom; then your southern border shall extend eastward to the end of ^(C)the Salt Sea; ⁴ your border shall turn from the southern side of ^(D)the Ascent of Akrabbim, continue to Zin, and be on the south of ^(E)Kadesh Barnea; then it shall go on to ^(F)Hazar Addar, and continue to Azmon; ⁵ the border shall turn from Azmon ^(G)to the Brook of Egypt, and it shall end at the Sea.

⁶ ‘As for the ^(H)western border, you shall have the Great Sea for a border; this shall be your western border.

⁷ ‘And this shall be your northern border: From the Great Sea you shall mark out your border line to ^(I)Mount Hor; ⁸ from Mount Hor you shall mark out your border ^(J)to the entrance of Hamath; then the direction of the border shall be toward ^(K)Zedad; ⁹ the border shall proceed to Ziphron, and it shall end at ^(L)Hazar Enan. This shall be your northern border.

¹⁰ ‘You shall mark out your eastern border from Hazar Enan to Shepham; ¹¹ the border shall go down from Shepham ^(M)to Riblah on the east side of Ain; the border shall go down and reach to the eastern ^[a]side of the Sea ^(N)of Chinnereth; ¹² the border shall go down along the Jordan, and it shall end at ^(O)the Salt Sea. This shall be your land with its surrounding boundaries.’ ”

¹³ Then Moses commanded the children of Israel, saying: ^(P)“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 (Q)For the tribe of the children of Reuben according to the house of their fathers, and the tribe of the children of Gad according to the house of their fathers, have received their inheritance; and the half-tribe of Manasseh has received its inheritance. ¹⁵ The two tribes and the half-tribe have received their inheritance on this side of the Jordan, across from Jericho eastward, toward the sunrise.”

The Leaders Appointed to Divide the Land

¹⁶ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁷ “These are the names of the men who shall divide the land among you as an inheritance: ^(R)Eleazar the priest and Joshua the son of Nun. ¹⁸ And you shall take one ^(S)leader of every tribe to divide the land for the inheritance. ¹⁹ These are the names of the men: from the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh; ²⁰ from the tribe of the children of Simeon, Shemuel the son of Ammihud; ²¹ from the tribe of Benjamin, Elidad the son of Chislon; ²² a leader from the tribe of the children of Dan, Bukki the son of Jogli; ²³ from the sons of Joseph: a leader from the tribe of the children of Manasseh, Hanniel the son of Ephod, ²⁴ and a leader from the tribe of the children of Ephraim, Kemuel the son of Shiphtan; ²⁵ a leader from the tribe of the children of Zebulun, Elizaphan the son of Parnach; ²⁶ a leader from the tribe of the children of Issachar, Paltiel the son of Azzan; ²⁷ a leader from the tribe of the children of Asher, Ahihud the son of Shelomi; ²⁸ and a leader from the tribe of the children of Naphtali, Pedahel the son of Ammihud.”

²⁹ These are the ones the Lord commanded to ^[b]divide the inheritance among the children of Israel in the land of Canaan.

Cities for the Levites

35 And the Lord spoke to Moses in ^(T)the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho, saying: ^2 (U)“Command the children of Israel that they give the Levites cities to dwell in from the inheritance of their possession, and you shall also give the Levites ^(V)common-land around the cities. ³ They shall have the cities to dwell in; and their common-land shall be for their cattle, for their herds, and for all their animals. ⁴ The common-land of the cities which you will give the Levites shall extend from the wall of the city outward a thousand cubits all around. ⁵ And you shall measure outside the city on the east side two thousand cubits, on the south side two thousand cubits, on the west side two thousand cubits, and on the north side two thousand cubits. The city shall be in the middle. This shall belong to them as common-land for the cities.

⁶ “Now among the cities which you will give to the Levites you shall appoint ^(W)six cities of refuge, to which a manslayer may flee. And to these you shall add forty-two cities. ⁷ So all the cities you will give to the Levites shall be ^(X)forty-eight; these you shall give with their common-land. ⁸ And the cities which you will give shall be ^(Y)from the possession of the children of Israel; ^(Z)from the larger tribe you shall give many, from the smaller you shall give few. Each shall give some of its cities to the Levites, in proportion to the inheritance that each receives.”

Cities of Refuge^(AA)

⁹ Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁰ “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ^(AB)‘When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, ¹¹ then ^(AC)you shall appoint cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the manslayer who kills any person accidentally may flee there. ^12 (AD)They shall be cities of refuge for you from the avenger, that the manslayer may not die until he stands before the congregation in judgment. ¹³ And of the cities which you give, you shall have ^(AE)six cities of refuge. ^14 (AF)You shall appoint three cities on this side of the Jordan, and three cities you shall appoint in the land of Canaan, which will be cities of refuge. ¹⁵ These six cities shall be for refuge for the children of Israel, ^(AG)for the stranger, and for the sojourner among them, that anyone who kills a person accidentally may flee there.

^16 (AH)‘But if he strikes him with an iron implement, so that he dies, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death. ¹⁷ And if he strikes him with a stone in the hand, by which one could die, and he does die, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death. ¹⁸ Or if he strikes him with a wooden hand weapon, by which one could die, and he does die, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death. ^19 (AI)The^[c] avenger of blood himself shall put the murderer to death; when he meets him, he shall put him to death. ^20 (AJ)If he pushes him out of hatred or, ^(AK)while lying in wait, hurls something at him so that he dies, ²¹ or in enmity he strikes him with his hand so that he dies, the one who struck him shall surely be put to death. He is a murderer. The avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death when he meets him.

²² ‘However, if he pushes him suddenly ^(AL)without enmity, or throws anything at him without lying in wait, ²³ or uses a stone, by which a man could die, throwing it at him without seeing him, so that he dies, while he was not his enemy or seeking his harm, ²⁴ then ^(AM)the congregation shall judge between the manslayer and the avenger of blood according to these judgments. ²⁵ So the congregation shall deliver the manslayer from the hand of the avenger of blood, and the congregation shall return him to the city of refuge where he had fled, and ^(AN)he shall remain there until the death of the high priest ^(AO)who was anointed with the holy oil. ²⁶ But if the manslayer at any time goes outside the limits of the city of refuge where he fled, ²⁷ and the avenger of blood finds him outside the limits of his city of refuge, and the avenger of blood kills the manslayer, he shall not be guilty of ^[d]blood, ²⁸ because he should have remained 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 ^(AP)a statute of judgment to you throughout your generations in all your dwellings. ³⁰ Whoever kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death on the ^(AQ)testimony of witnesses; but one witness is not sufficient testimony against a person for the death penalty. ³¹ Moreover you shall take no ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death, but he shall surely be put to death. ³² And you shall take 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 priest. ³³ So you shall not pollute the land where you are; for blood ^(AR)defiles the land, and no ^[e]atonement can be made for the land, for the blood that is shed on it, except ^(AS)by the blood of him who shed it. ³⁴ Therefore ^(AT)do not defile the land which you inhabit, in the midst of which I dwell; for ^(AU)I the Lord dwell among the children of Israel.’ ”

Marriage of Female Heirs

36 Now the chief fathers of the families of the ^(AV)children of Gilead the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of the sons of Joseph, came near and ^(AW)spoke before Moses and before the leaders, the chief fathers of the children of Israel. ² And they said: ^(AX)“The Lord commanded my lord Moses to give the land as an inheritance by lot to the children of Israel, and ^(AY)my lord was commanded by the Lord to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad to his daughters. ³ Now if they are married to any of the sons of the other tribes of the children of Israel, then their inheritance will be ^(AZ)taken from the inheritance of our fathers, and it will be added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry; so it will be taken from the lot of our inheritance. ⁴ And when ^(BA)the Jubilee of the children of Israel comes, then their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry; so their inheritance will be taken away from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers.”

⁵ Then Moses commanded the children of Israel according to the word of the Lord, saying: ^(BB)“What the tribe of the sons of Joseph speaks is right. ⁶ This is what the Lord commands concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, saying, ‘Let them ^[f]marry whom they think best, ^(BC)but they may marry only within the family of their father’s tribe.’ ⁷ So the inheritance of the children of Israel shall not change hands from tribe to tribe, for every one of the children of Israel shall ^(BD)keep the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers. ⁸ And ^(BE)every daughter who possesses an inheritance in any tribe of the children of Israel shall be the wife of one of the family of her father’s tribe, so that the children of Israel each may possess the inheritance of his fathers. ⁹ Thus no inheritance shall change hands from one tribe to another, but every tribe of the children of Israel shall keep its own inheritance.”

¹⁰ Just as the Lord commanded Moses, so did the daughters of Zelophehad; ^11 (BF)for Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were married to the sons of their father’s brothers. ¹² They were married into the families of the children of Manasseh the son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained in the tribe of their father’s family.

¹³ These are the commandments and the judgments which the Lord commanded the children of Israel by the hand of Moses ^(BG)in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, across from Jericho.

The Previous Command to Enter Canaan

1 These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel ^(A)on this side of the Jordan in the wilderness, in the ^[a]plain opposite ^[b]Suph, between Paran, Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab. ² It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by way of Mount Seir ^(B)to Kadesh Barnea. ³ Now it came to pass ^(C)in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spoke to the children of Israel according to all that the Lord had given him as commandments to them, ^4 (D)after he had killed Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who dwelt at Ashtaroth ^(E)in^[c] Edrei.

⁵ On this side of the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses began to explain this law, saying, ⁶ “The Lord our God spoke to us ^(F)in Horeb, saying: ‘You have dwelt long ^(G)enough at this mountain. ⁷ Turn and take your journey, and go to the mountains of the Amorites, to all the neighboring places in the ^[d]plain, in the mountains and in the lowland, in the South and on the seacoast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the River Euphrates. ⁸ See, I have set the land before you; go in and possess the land which the Lord ^[e]swore to your fathers—to ^(H)Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—to give to them and their descendants after them.’

Tribal Leaders Appointed^(I)

⁹ “And ^(J)I spoke to you at that time, saying: ‘I ^[f]alone am not able to bear you. ¹⁰ The Lord your God has multiplied you, ^(K)and here you are today, as the stars of heaven in multitude. ^11 (L)May the Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times more numerous than you are, and bless you ^(M)as He has promised you! ^12 (N)How can I alone bear your problems and your burdens and your complaints? ¹³ Choose wise, understanding, and knowledgeable men from among your tribes, and I will make them ^[g]heads over you.’ ¹⁴ And you answered me and said, ‘The thing which you have told us to do is good.’ ¹⁵ So I took ^(O)the heads of your tribes, wise and knowledgeable men, and ^[h]made them heads over you, leaders of thousands, leaders of hundreds, leaders of fifties, leaders of tens, and officers for your tribes.

¹⁶ “Then I commanded your judges at that time, saying, ‘Hear the cases between your brethren, and ^(P)judge righteously between a man and his ^(Q)brother or the stranger who is with him. ^17 (R)You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small as well as the great; you shall not be afraid in any man’s presence, for ^(S)the judgment is God’s. The case that is too hard for you, ^(T)bring to me, and I will hear it.’ ¹⁸ And I commanded you at that time all the things which you should do.

Israel’s Refusal to Enter the Land^(U)

¹⁹ “So we departed from Horeb, ^(V)and went through all that great and terrible wilderness which you saw on the way to the mountains of the Amorites, as the Lord our God had commanded us. Then ^(W)we came to Kadesh Barnea. ²⁰ And I said to you, ‘You have come to the mountains of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us. ²¹ Look, the Lord your God has set the land before you; go up and possess it, as the Lord God of your fathers has spoken to you; ^(X)do not fear or be discouraged.’

²² “And every one of you came near to me and said, ‘Let us send men before us, and let them search out the land for us, and bring back word to us of the way by which we should go up, and of the cities into which we shall come.’

²³ “The plan pleased me well; so ^(Y)I took twelve of your men, one man from each tribe. ^24 (Z)And they departed and went up into the mountains, and came to the Valley of Eshcol, and spied it out. ²⁵ They also took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us; and they brought back word to us, saying, ‘It is a ^(AA)good land which the Lord our God is giving us.’

^26 (AB)“Nevertheless you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God; ²⁷ and you ^(AC)complained in your tents, and said, ‘Because the Lord ^(AD)hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. ²⁸ Where can we go up? Our brethren have ^[i]discouraged our hearts, saying, ^(AE)“The people are greater and taller than we; the cities are great and fortified up to heaven; moreover we have seen the sons of the ^(AF)Anakim there.” ’

²⁹ “Then I said to you, ‘Do not be terrified, ^(AG)or afraid of them. ^30 (AH)The Lord your God, who goes before you, He will fight for you, according to all He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, ³¹ and in the wilderness where you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a ^(AI)man carries his son, in all the way that you went until you came to this place.’ ³² Yet, for all that, ^(AJ)you did not believe the Lord your God, ^33 (AK)who went in the way before you ^(AL)to search out a place for you to pitch your tents, to show you the way you should go, in the fire by night and in the cloud by day.

The Penalty for Israel’s Rebellion^(AM)

³⁴ “And the Lord heard the sound of your words, and was angry, ^(AN)and took an oath, saying, ^35 (AO)‘Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see that good land of which I ^[j]swore to give to your fathers, ^36 (AP)except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him and his children I am giving the land on which he walked, because ^(AQ)he ^[k]wholly followed the Lord.’ ^37 (AR)The Lord was also angry with me for your sakes, saying, ‘Even you shall not go in there. ^38 (AS)Joshua the son of Nun, ^(AT)who stands before you, he shall go in there. ^(AU)Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.

^39 (AV)‘Moreover your little ones and your children, who ^(AW)you say will be victims, who today ^(AX)have no knowledge of good and evil, they shall go in there; to them I will give it, and they shall possess it. ^40 (AY)But as for you, turn and take your journey into the wilderness by the Way of the Red Sea.’

⁴¹ “Then you answered and said to me, ^(AZ)‘We have sinned against the Lord; we will go up and fight, just as the Lord our God commanded us.’ And when everyone of you had girded on his weapons of war, you were ready to go up into the mountain.

⁴² “And the Lord said to me, ‘Tell them, ^(BA)“Do not go up nor fight, for I am not among you; lest you be defeated before your enemies.” ’ ⁴³ So I spoke to you; yet you would not listen, but ^(BB)rebelled against the command of the Lord, and ^(BC)presumptuously^[l] went up into the mountain. ⁴⁴ And the Amorites who dwelt in that mountain came out against you and chased you ^(BD)as bees do, and drove you back from Seir to Hormah. ⁴⁵ Then you returned and wept before the Lord, but the Lord would not listen to your voice nor give ear to you.

^46 (BE)“So you remained in Kadesh many days, according to the days that you spent there.

The Desert Years

2 “Then we turned and ^(BF)journeyed into the wilderness of the Way of the Red Sea, ^(BG)as the Lord spoke to me, and we ^[m]skirted Mount Seir for many days.

² “And the Lord spoke to me, saying: ³ ‘You have skirted this mountain ^(BH)long enough; turn northward. ⁴ And command the people, saying, ^(BI)“You are about to pass through the territory of ^(BJ)your brethren, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. Therefore watch yourselves carefully. ⁵ Do not meddle with them, for I will not give you any of their land, no, not so much as one footstep, ^(BK)because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession. ⁶ You shall buy food from them with money, that you may eat; and you shall also buy water from them with money, that you may drink.

⁷ “For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hand. He knows your ^[n]trudging through this great wilderness. ^(BL)These forty years the Lord your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing.” ’

⁸ “And when we passed beyond our brethren, the descendants of Esau who dwell in Seir, away from the road of the plain, away from ^(BM)Elath and Ezion Geber, we ^(BN)turned and passed by way of the Wilderness of Moab. ⁹ Then the Lord said to me, ‘Do not harass Moab, nor contend with them in battle, for I will not give you any of their land as a possession, because I have given ^(BO)Ar to ^(BP)the descendants of Lot as a possession.’ ”

^10 (BQ)(The Emim had dwelt there in times past, a people as great and numerous and tall as ^(BR)the Anakim. ¹¹ They were also regarded as ^[o]giants, like the Anakim, but the Moabites call them Emim. ^12 (BS)The Horites formerly dwelt in Seir, but the descendants of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their ^[p]place, just as Israel did to the land of their possession which the Lord gave them.)

¹³ “ ‘Now rise and cross over ^(BT)the ^[q]Valley of the Zered.’ So we crossed over the Valley of the Zered. ¹⁴ And the time we took to come ^(BU)from Kadesh Barnea until we crossed over the Valley of the Zered was thirty-eight years, ^(BV)until all the generation of the men of war ^[r]was consumed from the midst of the camp, ^(BW)just as the Lord had sworn to them. ¹⁵ For indeed the hand of the Lord was against them, to destroy them from the midst of the camp until they ^[s]were consumed.

¹⁶ “So it was, when all the men of war had finally perished from among the people, ¹⁷ that the Lord spoke to me, saying: ¹⁸ ‘This day you are to cross over at Ar, the boundary of Moab. ¹⁹ And when you come near the people of Ammon, do not harass them or meddle with them, for I will not give you any of the land of the people of Ammon as a possession, because I have given it to ^(BX)the descendants of Lot as a possession.’ ”

²⁰ (That was also regarded as a land of ^[t]giants; giants formerly dwelt there. But the Ammonites call them ^(BY)Zamzummim, ^21 (BZ)a people as great and numerous and tall as the Anakim. But the Lord destroyed them before them, and they dispossessed them and dwelt in their place, ²² just as He had done for the descendants of Esau, ^(CA)who dwelt in Seir, when He destroyed ^(CB)the Horites from before them. They dispossessed them and dwelt in their place, even to this day. ²³ And ^(CC)the Avim, who dwelt in villages as far as Gaza—^(CD)the Caphtorim, who came from Caphtor, destroyed them and dwelt in their place.)

²⁴ “ ‘Rise, take your journey, and ^(CE)cross over the River Arnon. Look, I have given into your hand ^(CF)Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land. Begin ^[u]to possess it, and engage him in battle. ^25 (CG)This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the nations ^[v]under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of you, and shall ^(CH)tremble and be in anguish because of you.’

King Sihon Defeated^(CI)

²⁶ “And I ^(CJ)sent messengers from the Wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon, ^(CK)with words of peace, saying, ^27 (CL)‘Let me pass through your land; I will keep strictly to the road, and I will turn neither to the right nor to the left. ²⁸ You shall sell me food for money, that I may eat, and give me water for money, that I may drink; ^(CM)only let me pass through on foot, ^29 (CN)just as the descendants of Esau who dwell in Seir and the Moabites who dwell in Ar did for me, until I cross the Jordan to the land which the Lord our God is giving us.’

^30 (CO)“But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass through, for ^(CP)the Lord your God ^(CQ)hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that He might deliver him into your hand, as it is this day.

³¹ “And the Lord said to me, ‘See, I have begun to ^(CR)give Sihon and his land over to you. Begin to possess it, that you may inherit his land.’ ^32 (CS)Then Sihon and all his people came out against us to fight at Jahaz. ³³ And ^(CT)the Lord our God delivered him ^[w]over to us; so ^(CU)we defeated him, his sons, and all his people. ³⁴ We took all his cities at that time, and we ^(CV)utterly destroyed the men, women, and little ones of every city; we left none remaining. ³⁵ We took only the livestock as plunder for ourselves, with the spoil of the cities which we took. ^36 (CW)From Aroer, which is on the bank of the River Arnon, and from ^(CX)the city that is in the ravine, as far as Gilead, there was not one city too strong for us; ^(CY)the Lord our God delivered all to us. ³⁷ Only you did not go near the land of the people of Ammon—anywhere along the River ^(CZ)Jabbok, or to the cities of the mountains, or ^(DA)wherever the Lord our God had forbidden us.