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Numbers 35

The Towns for the Levites

   When you receive your tribal lands, you must give towns and pastures to the Levi tribe. ³That way, the Levites will have towns to live in and pastures for their animals. ^4-5The pasture around each of these towns must be in the shape of a square, with the town itself in the center. The pasture is to measure three thousand feet on each side, with fifteen hundred feet of land outside each of the town walls. This will be the Levites' pastureland.

    ⁶Six of the towns you give them will be Safe Towns where a person who has accidentally killed someone can run for protection. But you will also give the Levites forty-two other towns, ⁷so they will have a total of forty-eight towns with their surrounding pastures.

    ⁸Since the towns for the Levites must come from Israel's own tribal lands, the larger tribes will give more towns than the smaller ones.

The Safe Towns

(Deuteronomy 19.1-13; Joshua 20.1-9)

   After you have crossed the Jordan River and are settled in Canaan, ¹¹choose Safe Towns, where a person who has accidentally killed someone can run for protection. ¹²If the victim's relatives think it was murder, they might try to take revenge. ^[a] Anyone accused of murder can run to one of these Safe Towns for protection and not be killed before a trial is held. ¹³There are to be six of these Safe Towns, ¹⁴three on each side of the Jordan River. ¹⁵They will be places of protection for anyone who lives in Israel and accidentally kills someone.

Laws about Murder and Accidental Killing

The LORD said:

    ^20-21Or suppose you get angry and kill someone by pushing or hitting or by throwing something. You are a murderer and must be put to death by one of the victim's relatives.

    ^22-24But if you are not angry and accidentally kill someone in any of these ways, the townspeople must hold a trial and decide if you are guilty. ²⁵If they decide that you are innocent, you will be protected from the victim's relative and sent to stay in one of the Safe Towns until the high priest dies. ²⁶But if you ever leave the Safe Town ²⁷and are killed by the victim's relative, he cannot be punished for killing you. ²⁸You must stay inside the town until the high priest dies; only then can you go back home.

    ²⁹The community of Israel must always obey these laws.

    ³⁰Death is the penalty for murder. But no one accused of murder can be put to death unless there are at least two witnesses to the crime. ³¹You cannot give someone money to escape the death penalty; you must pay with your own life! ³²And if you have been proven innocent of murder and are living in a Safe Town, you cannot pay to go back home; you must stay there until the high priest dies.

    ^33-34I, the LORD, live among you people of Israel, so your land must be kept pure. But when a murder takes place, blood pollutes the land, and it becomes unclean. If that happens, the murderer must be put to death, so the land will be clean again. Keep murder out of Israel!

Numbers 36

The Laws about Married Women and Land

    ⁵So Moses told the people that the LORD had said:

   These men from the Manasseh tribe are right. ⁶I will allow Zelophehad's daughters to marry anyone, as long as those men belong to one of the clans of the Manasseh tribe.

    ⁷Tribal land must not be given to another tribe--it will remain the property of the tribe that received it. ^8-9In the future, any daughter who inherits land must marry someone from her own tribe. Israel's tribal land is never to be passed from one tribe to another.

    ^10-11Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah the daughters of Zelophehad obeyed the LORD and married their uncles' sons ¹²and remained part of the Manasseh tribe. So their land stayed in their father's clan.

    ¹³These are the laws that the LORD gave to Moses and the Israelites while they were camped in the lowlands of Moab across the Jordan River from Jericho.

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Mark 10

Teaching about Divorce

(Matthew 19.1-12; Luke 16.18)

    ²Some Pharisees wanted to test Jesus. So they came up to him and asked if it was right for a man to divorce his wife. ³Jesus asked them, "What does the Law of Moses say about that?"

    ⁴They answered, "Moses allows a man to write out divorce papers and send his wife away."

    ⁵Jesus replied, "Moses gave you this law because you are so heartless. ⁶But in the beginning God made a man and a woman. ⁷That's why a man leaves his father and mother and gets married. ⁸He becomes like one person with his wife. Then they are no longer two people, but one. ⁹And no one should separate a couple that God has joined together."

    ¹⁰When Jesus and his disciples were back in the house, they asked him about what he had said. ¹¹He told them, "A man who divorces his wife and marries someone else is unfaithful to his wife. ¹²A woman who divorces her husband ^[a] and marries again is also unfaithful."

Jesus Blesses Little Children

(Matthew 19.13-15; Luke 18.15-17)

    ¹⁴When Jesus saw this, he became angry and said, "Let the children come to me! Don't try to stop them. People who are like these little children belong to the kingdom of God. ^{[b] 15}I promise you that you cannot get into God's kingdom, unless you accept it the way a child does." ¹⁶Then Jesus took the children in his arms and blessed them by placing his hands on them.

A Rich Man

(Matthew 19.16-30; Luke 18.18-30)

    ¹⁸Jesus replied, "Why do you call me good? Only God is good. ¹⁹You know the commandments. `Do not murder. Be faithful in marriage. Do not steal. Do not tell lies about others. Do not cheat. Respect your father and mother.' "

    ²⁰The man answered, "Teacher, I have obeyed all these commandments since I was a young man."

    ²¹Jesus looked closely at the man. He liked him and said, "There's one thing you still need to do. Go sell everything you own. Give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven. Then come with me."

    ²²When the man heard Jesus say this, he went away gloomy and sad because he was very rich.

    ²³Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "It's hard for rich people to get into God's kingdom!" ²⁴The disciples were shocked to hear this. So Jesus told them again, "It's terribly hard ^[c] to get into God's kingdom! ²⁵In fact, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to get into God's kingdom."

    ²⁶Jesus' disciples were even more amazed. They asked each other, "How can anyone ever be saved?"

    ²⁷Jesus looked at them and said, "There are some things that people cannot do, but God can do anything."

    ²⁸Peter replied, "Remember, we left everything to be your followers!"

    ²⁹Jesus told him:

   You can be sure that anyone who gives up home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or land for me and for the good news ³⁰will be rewarded. In this world they will be given a hundred times as many houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and pieces of land, though they will also be mistreated. And in the world to come, they will have eternal life. ³¹But many who are now first will be last, and many who are now last will be first.