You must divide the land by lot for an inheritance among your families. To a larger group you must give a larger inheritance, and to a smaller group you must give a smaller inheritance. Everyone's inheritance must be in the place where his lot falls. You must inherit according to your ancestral tribes.

You must take one leader from every tribe to assist in allocating the land as an inheritance.

"Instruct the Israelites to give the Levites towns to live in from the inheritance the Israelites will possess. You must also give the Levites grazing land around the towns.

The grazing lands around the towns that you will give to the Levites must extend to a distance of 500 yards from the town wall.

"You must measure from outside the wall of the town on the east 1,000 yards, and on the south side 1,000 yards, and on the west side 1,000 yards, and on the north side 1,000 yards, with the town in the middle. This territory must belong to them as grazing land for the towns.

Now from these towns that you will give to the Levites you must select six towns of refuge to which a person who has killed someone may flee. And you must give them forty-two other towns.

"So the total of the towns you will give the Levites is forty-eight. You must give these together with their grazing lands.

The towns you will give must be from the possession of the Israelites. From the larger tribes you must give more; and from the smaller tribes fewer. Each must contribute some of its own towns to the Levites in proportion to the inheritance allocated to each.

you must then designate some towns as towns of refuge for you, to which a person who has killed someone unintentionally may flee.

And they must stand as your towns of refuge from the avenger in order that the killer may not die until he has stood trial before the community.

These towns that you must give shall be your six towns for refuge.

"You must give three towns on this side of the Jordan, and you must give three towns in the land of Canaan; they must be towns of refuge.

"But if he hits someone with an iron tool so that he dies, he is a murderer. The murderer must surely be put to death.

If he strikes him by throwing a stone large enough that he could die, and he dies, he is a murderer. The murderer must surely be put to death.

Or if he strikes him with a wooden hand weapon so that he could die, and he dies, he is a murderer. The murderer must surely be put to death.

The avenger of blood himself must kill the murderer; when he meets him, he must kill him.

or with enmity he strikes him with his hand and he dies, the one who struck him must surely be put to death, for he is a murderer. The avenger of blood must kill the murderer when he meets him.

then the community must judge between the slayer and the avenger of blood according to these decisions.

The community must deliver the slayer out of the hand of the avenger of blood, and the community must restore him to the town of refuge to which he fled, and he must live there until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the consecrated oil.

because he must live in the city of his refuge until the death of the high priest. But after the death of the high priest the killer will return to the land of his property.

So these things must be a statutory ordinance for you throughout your generations, in all the places where you live.

"Whoever kills any person, the murderer must be put to death by the testimony of witnesses; but one witness cannot testify against any person to cause him to be put to death.

And ye shall accept no ransom for the life of him that slayeth, if he have unlawfully caused death, - but he, must surely be put to death.

And you must not accept a ransom for anyone who has fled to a town of refuge, to allow him to return home and live on his own land before the death of the high priest.

"You must not pollute the land where you live, for blood defiles the land, and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed there, except by the blood of the person who shed it.

thou must not then make unclean the land wherein, ye, are dwelling, in the midst of which, I, have my habitation; for, I, - Yahweh, am making my habitation in the midst of the sons of Israel.

This is what the Lord has commanded concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, saying, ‘Let them marry whom they wish; only they must marry within the family of the tribe of their father.’

In this way the inheritance of the Israelites will not be transferred from tribe to tribe. But every one of the Israelites must retain the ancestral heritage.

And every daughter who possesses an inheritance from any of the tribes of the Israelites must become the wife of a man from any family in her father's tribe, so that every Israelite may retain the inheritance of his fathers.

No inheritance may pass from tribe to tribe. But every one of the tribes of the Israelites must retain its inheritance."