These are the statutes that the LORD commanded Moses concerning a man and his wife and concerning a father and his young daughter while she still lives in her father's house.

"Look! These women were the same ones who were counseled by Balaam to cause the Israelis to commit a grievous sin against the LORD at Peor. As a result, that plague infected the LORD's community.

Furthermore, you are to purify every garment that is, everything made of leather, goat's hair, or containing wood."

Eleazar the priest told the soldiers who had gone to battle, "This is the ordinance of the law that the LORD commanded Moses

or anything else that can survive a refiner's fire: You are to pass it through fire, after which it will be clean. Then it is to be purified with the water of impurity. Everything that cannot survive a refiner's fire is to be washed in water.

"Take an inventory of the booty that was taken in the battle, both of humans and of animals. Then you, Eleazar the priest, and the leaders of the fathers of the community

The goods confiscated in excess of the war implements that the warriors had gathered included 675,000 sheep,

From half of the share of the Israelis that Moses had set aside from the soldiers,

Then Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold from them and everything that was fashioned into jewels.

The gold for the raised offering that they brought to the LORD totaled 16,750 shekels,

Now, the descendants of Reuben and descendants of Gad happened to be joint owners of a very large herd of cattle. When they observed that Jazer and Gilead were good grazing lands for cattle,

the land that the LORD defeated in the sight of the community of Israel is perfect for cattle and your servants have cattle.

"Why would you discourage the Israelis from crossing over to the land that the LORD has given them?

That's what your ancestors did when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to explore the land.

When they arrived in the Eshcol Valley and saw the land, they discouraged the Israelis from entering the land that the LORD had given them.

That's why the LORD's anger flared up that day and he promised by an oath that

"Not one of the men who went up from Egypt, from 20 years old and above, will see the land that I promised to give to their ancestors, that is, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because none of them followed me wholeheartedly,

"The LORD's anger had flared up against Israel so that he made them wander in the wilderness for 40 years until that whole generation, who committed evil in the eyes of the LORD, had died.

"If you do this," Moses replied to them, "that is, if you equip yourselves for war in the LORD's presence

"But if you won't do so, look out! You will be sinning against the LORD. Be certain of this, that your sin will catch up to you!

but every soldier that we've equipped for battle will cross the Jordan River in the presence of the LORD, as our master has spoken."

telling them, "If the descendants of Gad and descendants of Reuben cross over the Jordan River with you, that is, all of their soldiers who've been equipped for battle in the LORD's presence, so that the land is subjugated right before your eyes, then you are to give them the land of Gilead as their possession.

Nebo, Baal-meon (after having changed their names), and Sibmah. The cities that they rebuilt were renamed.

That's why Moses gave Gilead to Manasseh's son Machir, who lived there at the time.

They departed from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of that first month. The day after the Passover, the Israelis came out confidently, and all the Egyptians watched them leave,

"Tell the Israelis that when they have crossed the Jordan River to the land of Canaan,

You are to divide the land among yourselves by lot according to your families. The larger the families are in number, the larger their inheritance is to be. The fewer the families are in number, the lesser their inheritance is to be. To whomever the lot falls, that inheritance goes to him. Divide it according to your ancestral tribes.

The grazing lands that you are to reserve for use by the descendants of Levi are to extend 1,000 cubits from the walls of the town.

You are to set aside six towns of refuge from the towns that you will be giving to the descendants of Levi, where someone who kills a human being may run for shelter. In addition, give them 42 other towns.

The total number of towns that you are to give to the descendants of Levi is to be 48 towns, including grazing lands surrounding these towns.

You are to apportion the towns that you will be giving the Israelis according to the relative size of the tribe. Take a larger portion from those larger in number and a lesser portion from those fewer in number. Each is to set aside towns for the descendants of Levi proportional to the size of their inheritance that they receive."

"Tell the Israelis that when they have crossed the Jordan River into the land of Canaan,

they are to designate some towns of refuge so that anyone who kills someone inadvertently may flee there.

that is, places of refuge for the Israelis, the resident alien, and any travelers among them. Anyone who kills a person inadvertently may flee there."

"Whoever uses an iron implement to kill someone is to be adjudged a murderer, and that murderer is certainly to be put to death.

Furthermore, whoever uses a stone implement to kill someone is to be adjudged a murderer, and that murderer is certainly to be put to death.

Also, whoever uses a wooden implement to kill someone with it is to be adjudged a murderer, and that murderer is certainly to be put to death.

If the killer shoved his victim out of hatred, or hurled something at him while waiting in ambush so that he died,

or if he struck him with his hand out of hatred so that he died, then the killer is certainly to be put to death for murder. The avenger of blood is to put him to death when he meets him."

or if he hit him with a stone carelessly so that he was fatally injured, though he isn't his enemy and he wasn't seeking to commit evil against him,

You are not to pollute the land where you live, because blood defiles the land, and the land cannot atone for blood that has been spilled on it, except through the blood of the one who spilled it.

so that the inheritance of the Israelis won't be turned over from one tribe to another. Each one has an inheritance from his own father's tribe that the Israelis are to maintain.

That way, their inheritance won't be turned over from one tribe to another, because the Israelis are each to maintain their ancestral inheritances."

They married into families of the descendants of Manasseh, that is, Joseph's descendants, so that their inheritance remained within the tribe of their ancestor's family.

These were the commands and the ordinances that the LORD issued to the Israelis through Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan River in Jericho.