Old/New Testament

Cities for the Levites

35 Adonai spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho saying, ² “Command Bnei-Yisrael to give to the Levites from the inheritance of their possessions cities in which to live. They are also to give the Levites pasturelands around the cities. ³ Thus they will have cities to live in and pastures for their cattle, flocks and all their livestock. ⁴ The pastures you give the Levites will extend out from the walls around the cities for 1,000 cubits. ⁵ You are to measure outside the cities 2,000 cubits on the east side, 2,000 cubits on the south side, on the west side 2,000 cubits, and on the north side 2,000 cubits. These are to be pasturelands for the cities.

⁶ “Six of the cities you give the Levites are to be cities of refuge, to which anyone who kills anyone may flee. Besides these, you are to give the Levites 42 more cities. ⁷ In all, you are to give the Levites 48 cities with their pastures. ⁸ The cities that you are to give to the Levites from the possession of Bnei-Yisrael should be proportionate to the inheritance of each tribe—give many from the one who has many and few from the one who has few.”

⁹ Adonai spoke to Moses saying, ¹⁰ “Speak to Bnei-Yisrael saying: When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, ¹¹ You are to select cities which will be cities of refuge, to which one might flee if he has killed someone by accident. ¹² They are to be cities for refuge from the avenger, so the manslayer may not die before standing trial before the assembly. ¹³ The six cities you designate are to be your cities of refuge. ¹⁴ Designate three cities on this side of the Jordan and three in the land of Canaan as cities of refuge.

¹⁵ “These six cities of refuge are to be for Bnei-Yisrael as well as for the outsider and the visitor in their midst, for anyone killing a person by accident. ¹⁶ Now if the manslayer strikes someone with an iron object so that he dies, he is a murderer and the murderer must die. ¹⁷ If anyone has a stone in his hand that could be deadly and strikes anyone with it so that he dies, he is a murderer and the murderer must die. ¹⁸ Or if someone has a wooden object that could kill and strikes anyone so that he dies, he is a murderer and the murderer must be put to death. ¹⁹ The blood avenger himself may put the murderer to death. When he finds him, he is to kill him.

²⁰ “If anyone pushes someone maliciously, or throws anything at him with deadly intent, ²¹ or with hostility hits him with his fist so that he dies, the one hitting him is a murderer. The blood avenger may put the murderer to death when he finds him. ²² But if he pushes him suddenly or throws an object at him with no intent, ²³ or without seeing him should drop a stone on him resulting in his death, but he was not his enemy and intended him no harm, ²⁴ the assembly must judge between the manslayer and the avenger of blood according to these regulations. ²⁵ The assembly must protect the manslayer from the avenger of blood. The assembly should send him back to the city of refuge to which he had fled and he is to remain there until the death of the kohen gadol who was anointed with the holy oil.

²⁶ “But if the manslayer should go outside the city limit of his city of refuge to which he had fled, ²⁷ and should the blood avenger find him outside the city limits of the refuge city, the blood avenger may put him to death without being guilty of his blood. ²⁸ The manslayer must stay within the limits of his city of refuge until the kohen gadol dies, and after the death of the kohen gadol, the manslayer may return to his property.

²⁹ “These are to be statutes of justice for your generations in all your dwelling places. ³⁰ Everyone killing anyone shall be put to death as a murderer only on the testimony of more than one witness. No one is to be put to death on the testimony of only one witness.

³¹ “You are not to accept ransom for the life of a murderer. He deserves to die and he is to die. ³² Do not receive a ransom for one who has fled to his city of refuge, allowing him to return to his land before the kohen gadol’s death. ³³ You are not to pollute the land in which you are. Blood pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for land polluted by bloodshed except by the blood of the one who sheds it. ³⁴ You are not to defile the land where you live, where I dwell, for I dwell among Bnei-Yisrael.”

Further Ruling About Daughters’ Inheritance

36 The heads of the ancestral family of the children of Gilead son of Machir son of Manasseh, from the sons of Joseph, came and spoke before Moses and before the princes of the chiefs of the fathers of Bnei-Yisrael. ² They said, “My lord, Adonai commanded to give the land by lot as an inheritance to Bnei-Yisrael. My lord was also commanded by Adonai to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad to his daughters.

³ “If they become wives of men from other tribes of Israel, their inheritance will be taken from our ancestral inheritance and added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry. So it will be deducted from the allotment of our inheritance. ⁴ When the Jubilee year comes, their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry and deducted from the inheritance of our ancestral tribe.”

⁵ Then Moses commanded Bnei-Yisrael at the mouth of Adonai, “What the tribe of the descendants of Joseph is saying is correct. ⁶ This is the word that Adonai commands for the daughters of Zelophehad saying: They may become wives to whomever they please, as long as they marry within the family of the tribe of their father. ⁷ So no inheritance may be passed from tribe to tribe among Bnei-Yisrael—each one of Bnei-Yisrael will each keep the inheritance of the tribe of his ancestors. ⁸ Every daughter receiving an inheritance in one of the tribes of Bnei-Yisrael should marry within the family of her father’s tribe, so that Bnei-Yisrael will each possess the inheritance of his fathers. ⁹ No inheritance may pass from tribe to another tribe, for each tribe of Bnei-Yisrael is to keep its inheritance.”

¹⁰ So Zelophehad’s daughters did just as Adonai commanded Moses. ¹¹ Zelophehad’s daughters—Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah and Noah—married sons of their uncles. ¹² They married within the families of the sons of Manasseh son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained within the tribe of their ancestral family.

¹³ These are the mitzvot and judgments that Adonai gave by Moses’s hand to Bnei-Yisrael, on the plains of Moab at Jericho along the Jordan.

Abide in Marriage

10 Then getting up from there, Yeshua goes to the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. Again crowds gather around Him, and, as was His custom, He began to teach them once more.

² Pharisees came up, and to test Him they began asking, “Is it permitted for a man to divorce his wife?”

³ And He replied to them, “What did Moses command you?”

⁴ The Pharisees said, “Moses permitted a man to write a bill of divorce and to put her away.”^[a]

⁵ But Yeshua said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment! ⁶ But from the beginning of creation, God ‘made them male and female. ⁷ For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, ⁸ and the two shall become one flesh.’^[b] So they are no longer two, but one flesh. ⁹ Therefore what God has joined together, let no man separate!”

¹⁰ In the house, the disciples began questioning Him about this again. ¹¹ And He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. ¹² And if she divorces her husband and marries another, she is committing adultery.”

Let the Little Ones Come!

¹³ Now people were bringing little children to Yeshua so He might touch them, but the disciples rebuked those who brought them. ¹⁴ But when Yeshua saw this, He got angry. He told them, “Let the little children come to Me! Do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. ¹⁵ Amen, I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it!” ¹⁶ And He took them in His arms and began blessing them, laying His hands on them.

The Cost of Discipleship

¹⁷ As Yeshua was setting out on His way, a man ran up to Him, fell on his knees before Him, and asked, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

¹⁸ “Why do you call Me good?” Yeshua said to him. “No one is good except One—that is God. ¹⁹ You know the commandments, ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony,’ do not cheat, ‘honor your father and mother.’”^[c]

²⁰ The man responded, “Teacher, all these I have kept since my youth!”

²¹ Looking at him, Yeshua loved him and said, “One thing you lack. Go, sell as much as you have, and give to the poor; and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.” ²² But at this statement, the man became sad and went away grieving, for he had much property.

²³ Then looking around, Yeshua says to His disciples, “How hard it will be for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” ²⁴ The disciples were amazed at His words. But Yeshua answers again and says to them, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! ²⁵ It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

²⁶ The disciples were even more astonished, saying among themselves, “Then who can be saved?”

²⁷ Looking at them, Yeshua said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God!”^[d]

²⁸ Peter began to say to Him, “Look, we’ve left everything to follow You!”

²⁹ “Amen, I tell you,” Yeshua replied, “there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or property, for My sake and for the sake of the Good News, ³⁰ who will not receive a hundred times as much now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and property, along with persecutions; and in the olam ha-ba, eternal life. ³¹ But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”