Old/New Testament
Towns for the Levites
35 The Lord spoke to Moses in Moab, beside the Jordan River. Jericho was on the other side of the river. 2 The Lord said, ‘Tell the people this. They must give some of their land to the Levites. Then the Levites can build towns to live in. They will also have the land round the towns for their animals.
3 The Levites must have towns to live in and land for their cows and all their animals. 4 The fields that you give to them for their animals must reach 500 metres from the walls of each town. 5 You must also measure 1,000 metres outside the town on each side, the east side, the south side, the west side and the north side. So the town will be in the centre. Those fields of grass will belong to them for each of their towns.
The safe cities
6 Six of the Levites' towns must be safe places. If anyone kills another person, he can run there to be safe. The Levites must also have another 42 towns. 7 In that way, the Levites will have 48 towns and land for their animals. 8 Each of the Israelite tribes must give to the Levites towns from their own land. The larger tribes will give more towns. The smaller tribes will give fewer towns. That is because the larger tribes have received more land than the smaller tribes.’
9 The Lord said to Moses, 10 ‘Tell the Israelites to do this when they cross the Jordan River and they go into Canaan. 11 They must choose some towns to be safe places. If anyone kills another person but he did not mean to, he can run there to be safe. 12 Those towns will be places where the killer can be safe from the dead person's relative.[a] The killer will not die before the people in the town have judged him. 13 You must choose six towns to be safe places. 14 Three towns must be in Canaan and three towns must be on the other side of the Jordan River. 15 Those six towns will be safe places for Israelites and for foreign people who live among them. Anyone who has killed another person may run to one of these towns and be safe there. But they will only be safe if they did not mean to kill the other person.
16 Murderers are different. You must kill a murderer. Maybe someone hits another person with a heavy iron tool. If the person dies, the murderer must also die. 17 Someone might hit another person with a big stone. If the person dies, the man is a murderer. He must die. 18 A man might hit a person with a dangerous weapon made from wood. If the person dies, the man is a murderer. He must die. 19 The dead person's relative himself must kill the murderer when he meets him.
20 These are other examples of murder: A man might push another person hard because he hates him. A man might throw something at another person to hurt him. 21 Or a man might hit someone with his hand because he hates him. If the person dies as a result, you must kill the murderer. The dead person's relative must kill the murderer when he meets him.
22 But when a man kills another person, it might be a mistake. For example, he might push someone very hard, or he might throw something at another person. If he did not hate the other person, then it might be a mistake. 23 Or he might drop a heavy stone on someone when he had not seen them. If he did not hate the other person, perhaps he did not mean to hurt him. 24 If that happens, the people must judge who is right. They must choose between the killer and the dead person's relative. They must use those rules to decide if the man is a murderer. 25 If the man is a killer but not a murderer, the people must keep him safe from the dead person's relative. They must send him back to the safe city that he ran to. He will live there safely until the death of the leader of God's priests.
26 But one day, the killer might go outside the border of the safe city that he ran to. 27 If he does that, the dead person's relative might find him outside the safe city. Then, if the dead person's relative kills him, the relative will not be guilty of murder. 28 That is because the killer should have stayed in his safe city until the death of the leader of the priests. But after the leader of the priests dies, the killer may return to his own home.
29 Wherever you and your descendants live, these are the rules that you must obey for all future time.
30 Before you kill a murderer, people must agree that they saw him kill someone. But if only one person saw what happened, that is not enough for you to kill him.
31 You must not accept money to pay for the life of a murderer. If he is guilty of murder, you must kill him.
32 Also, you must not accept money from a killer who has run to a safe city. You must not let him return to his own home until the leader of the priests has died.
33 Murder causes the land where you live to become unclean. You have to make it clean again. You must kill anyone who murders another person. That is the only way to make the land clean again. 34 You must not make the land where you live become unclean. It is the land where I also live. That is because I, the Lord, live among the Israelites.’
A family's land may belong to women
36 The leaders of the families in Gilead's clan went to Moses and to the other leaders of the Israelites' clans. (Gilead was the descendant of Makir, who was the descendant of Manasseh. Manasseh was Joseph's son.) 2 [b] They said, ‘The Lord told you, sir, that you should decide which parts of the land to give to each Israelite family. You used special stones to do that. The Lord told you to give Zelophehad's land to his daughters. Zelophehad was in our clan. 3 But if his daughters marry, the land will then belong to their husbands. If they marry men from other tribes, the land will no longer belong to us, the tribe of Manasseh. 4 Even when the Jubilee year comes, the land will not return to our tribe. It will belong to the tribes of the men that Zelophehad's daughters have married.’
5 The Lord gave Moses his answer. So Moses gave this command to the Israelites: ‘What Joseph's descendants are saying is right. 6 This is what the Lord has commanded about the daughters of Zelophehad: Let them marry men that they want to marry. But they must marry men from the clans of their father's tribe. 7 If they do that, each tribe will keep the land that has been given to their ancestors. None of their land will go to another tribe. 8 Any young woman who receives land when her father dies must marry a man from her father's tribe. All the Israelite tribes must obey that rule. Then every Israelite person will keep the land that belonged to his ancestors. 9 No land that belongs to any tribe will become the land of another tribe. So each tribe will keep the land that their ancestors had.’
10 The daughters of Zelophehad did what the Lord had commanded Moses. 11 Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, married sons of their father's brothers. 12 They married men from the clans of the descendants of Joseph's son, Manasseh. Because of that, their land remained with the tribe of their father's clan.
13 Those are the rules that the Lord gave to the Israelites at that time. The Lord told Moses what he should say to the people. That happened when they were beside the Jordan River in Moab, on the flat ground on the other side of the river from Jericho city.
Jesus teaches about men who send their wives away
10 Then Jesus left that place and he went to Judea. He went across to the east side of the Jordan River. Crowds of people came to him again. So he taught them, as he usually did.
2 Some Pharisees came to Jesus. They wanted to find out how he would answer their question. They asked him, ‘Can a man send his wife away, so that she is no longer his wife? Is it right for him to do that?’
3 Jesus replied with a question: ‘What did Moses say was right for you?’[a]
4 The Pharisees said, ‘Moses said that a man could write a letter to say that he and his wife are no longer married. Then the man can send the woman away.’[b]
5 Jesus said to them, ‘You did not want to obey God. That is why Moses made this rule for you. 6 But at the start, when God made the world, he made people male and female. 7 That is the reason that a man leaves his father and his mother. Then God joins him and his wife together. 8 The man and the woman become like one body. They are not two separate people any longer. They have come together as one person. 9 God has put them together to be husband and wife. So nobody should cause them to be separate.’[c]
10 When Jesus went into the house, the disciples asked him about these things again. 11 So Jesus said to them, ‘A man must not send his wife away and then marry another woman. If he does that, he has not been faithful to his wife. It is the same as if he had sex with another man's wife. 12 In the same way, a woman must not leave her husband and then marry another man. She also has done a wrong thing. It is the same as if she had sex with another woman's husband.’
Jesus prays for some children
13 People were bringing little children to Jesus. They wanted him to put his hands on each child's head. The disciples told the people that they should not do that. 14 But when Jesus saw this, he was angry. He said to them, ‘Do not stop the children. Let them come to me. People must become like these children so that God can rule their lives. That is what the kingdom of God is like. 15 I tell you this: A person must become like a little child for God to rule in his life. If he does not become like a child, he will not come into the kingdom of God.’ 16 Then Jesus took hold of the children. He put his hands on each of them and he asked God to bless them.
Jesus meets a rich man
17 While Jesus was starting on his journey, a man ran to him. He went down on his knees in front of Jesus. He said to Jesus, ‘Good teacher, what must I do so that I can live with God for ever?’
18 Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you say that I am good? Only God is good. Nobody else. 19 You know God's rules:
“Do not kill anyone.
Do not have sex with anyone who is not your wife.
Do not rob anyone.
Do not say things that are not true about people.
Do not take things that are not yours.
Love your father and your mother, and obey them.” ’
20 ‘Teacher,’ the man replied, ‘I have obeyed all these laws since I was a young man.’
21 Jesus looked at the man and Jesus loved him. Jesus said to him, ‘There is still just one thing that you must do. Go now. Sell everything that you have. Then give the money to poor people. If you do that, you will have many valuable things in heaven. Then come back and be my disciple.’
22 When the man heard that, his face became sad. He was a very rich man. Because of that, he went away and he was very sad.
23 Jesus looked round and he said to his disciples, ‘It is very difficult for rich people to let God rule in their lives.’
24 They were very surprised about Jesus' words. Jesus spoke again to them: ‘My friends, it is very difficult for anyone to let God rule in their life. 25 The hole in a needle is very small. A camel cannot go through it! But it is even more difficult than that for a rich person to let God rule in their life.’
26 Then Jesus' disciples were even more surprised. They said to each other, ‘So perhaps God will not save anyone!’
27 Jesus looked at them and he replied, ‘For people, it really is impossible. But God can do it. God can do everything.’
28 Peter said to Jesus, ‘Look! We have left everything that we had. Now we are your disciples.’
29 Jesus said, ‘I tell you this: Some people have left their homes. Or they may have left their brothers or sisters. Or they may have left their mother or their father. Or they may have left their children or their fields. They have done that because of me. And they have done it because of God's good news. 30 Now, in this world, God will give those people many more things than they have left behind, even 100 times more! Yes, they will receive houses and brothers and sisters. They will receive mothers and children and fields. As well as all this, people will be against them. But in the future world, they will live for ever with God. 31 But many people who are very important now will not be important then. And people who are not important now will become very important then.’
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