And here you, a brood of sinners, stand in your fathers’ place adding even more to the Lord’s burning anger against Israel.

Then they approached him and said, “We want to build sheepfolds here for our livestock and cities for our dependents.

But we will arm ourselves and be ready to go ahead of the Israelites until we have brought them into their place. Meanwhile, our dependents will remain in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land.

We will not return to our homes until each of the Israelites has taken possession of his inheritance.

Yet we will not have an inheritance with them across the Jordan and beyond, because our inheritance will be across the Jordan to the east.”

Moses replied to them, “If you do this—if you arm yourselves for battle before the Lord,

and the land is subdued before the Lord—afterward you may return and be free from obligation to the Lord and to Israel. And this land will belong to you as a possession before the Lord.

But if you don’t do this, you will certainly sin against the Lord; be sure your sin will catch up with you.

Build cities for your dependents and folds for your flocks, but do what you have promised.”

The Gadites and Reubenites answered Moses, “Your servants will do just as my lord commands.

but your servants are equipped for war before the Lord and will go across to the battle as my lord orders.”

So Moses gave orders about them to Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the family leaders of the Israelite tribes.

Moses told them, “If the Gadites and Reubenites cross the Jordan with you, every man in battle formation before the Lord, and the land is subdued before you, you are to give them the land of Gilead as a possession.

But if they don’t go across with you in battle formation, they must accept land in Canaan with you.”

The Gadites and Reubenites replied, “What the Lord has spoken to your servants is what we will do.

as well as Nebo and Baal-meon (whose names were changed), and Sibmah. They gave names to the cities they rebuilt.

The descendants of Machir son of Manasseh went to Gilead, captured it, and drove out the Amorites who were there.

So Moses gave Gilead to the clan of Machir son of Manasseh, and they settled in it.

They departed from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the month. On the day after the Passover the Israelites went out triumphantly in the sight of all the Egyptians.

They departed from Etham and turned back to Pi-hahiroth, which faces Baal-zephon, and they camped before Migdol.

They departed from Pi-hahiroth and crossed through the middle of the sea into the wilderness. They took a three-day journey into the Wilderness of Etham and camped at Marah.

They departed from Marah and came to Elim. There were 12 springs of water and 70 date palms at Elim, so they camped there.

They departed from Alush and camped at Rephidim, where there was no water for the people to drink.

At the Lord’s command, Aaron the priest climbed Mount Hor and died there on the first day of the fifth month in the fortieth year after the Israelites went out of the land of Egypt.

They camped by the Jordan from Beth-jeshimoth to the Acacia Meadow on the plains of Moab.

The Lord spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho,

You are to take possession of the land and settle in it because I have given you the land to possess.

You are to receive the land as an inheritance by lot according to your clans. Increase the inheritance for a large clan and decrease it for a small one. Whatever place the lot indicates for someone will be his. You will receive an inheritance according to your ancestral tribes.

But if you don’t drive out the inhabitants of the land before you, those you allow to remain will become thorns in your eyes and in your sides; they will harass you in the land where you will live.

And what I had planned to do to them, I will do to you.”

The Lord spoke to Moses,

“Command the Israelites and say to them: When you enter the land of Canaan, it will be allotted to you as an inheritance with these borders:

Your border will turn south of the Ascent of Akrabbim, proceed to Zin, and end south of Kadesh-barnea. It will go to Hazar-addar and proceed to Azmon.

The border will turn from Azmon to the Brook of Egypt, where it will end at the Mediterranean Sea.

This will be your northern border: From the Mediterranean Sea draw a line to Mount Hor;

from Mount Hor draw a line to the entrance of Hamath, and the border will reach Zedad.

Then the border will go to Ziphron and end at Hazar-enan. This will be your northern border.

For your eastern border, draw a line from Hazar-enan to Shepham.

The border will go down from Shepham to Riblah east of Ain. It will continue down and reach the eastern slope of the Sea of Chinnereth.

Then the border will go down to the Jordan and end at the Dead Sea. This will be your land defined by its borders on all sides.”

So Moses commanded the Israelites, “This is the land you are to receive by lot as an inheritance, which the Lord commanded to be given to the nine and a half tribes.

For the tribe of the Reubenites and the tribe of the Gadites have received their inheritance according to their ancestral houses, and half the tribe of Manasseh has received its inheritance.

The two and a half tribes have received their inheritance across the Jordan from Jericho, eastward toward the sunrise.”

The Lord spoke to Moses,

“These are the names of the men who are to distribute the land as an inheritance for you: Eleazar the priest and Joshua son of Nun.

Take one leader from each tribe to distribute the land.

These are the ones the Lord commanded to distribute the inheritance to the Israelites in the land of Canaan.

The Lord again spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho:

“Command the Israelites to give cities out of their hereditary property for the Levites to live in and pastureland around the cities.

The cities will be for them to live in, and their pasturelands will be for their herds, flocks, and all their other animals.

The pasturelands of the cities you are to give the Levites will extend from the city wall 500 yards on every side.

Measure 1,000 yards outside the city for the east side, 1,000 yards for the south side, 1,000 yards for the west side, and 1,000 yards for the north side, with the city in the center. This will belong to them as pasturelands for the cities.

“The cities you give the Levites will include six cities of refuge, which you must provide so that the one who kills someone may flee there; in addition to these, give 42 other cities.

Of the cities that you give from the Israelites’ territory, you should take more from a larger tribe and less from a smaller one. Each tribe is to give some of its cities to the Levites in proportion to the inheritance it receives.”

The Lord said to Moses,

“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan,

designate cities to serve as cities of refuge for you, so that a person who kills someone unintentionally may flee there.

You will have the cities as a refuge from the avenger, so that the one who kills someone will not die until he stands trial before the assembly.

Select three cities across the Jordan and three cities in the land of Canaan to be cities of refuge.

“If anyone strikes a person with an iron object and death results, he is a murderer; the murderer must be put to death.

If a man has in his hand a stone capable of causing death and strikes another person and he dies, the murderer must be put to death.

If a man has in his hand a wooden object capable of causing death and strikes another person and he dies, the murderer must be put to death.

The avenger of blood himself is to kill the murderer; when he finds him, he is to kill him.

or if in hostility he strikes him with his hand and he dies, the one who struck him must be put to death; he is a murderer. The avenger of blood is to kill the murderer when he finds him.

or without looking drops a stone that could kill a person and he dies, but he was not his enemy and wasn’t trying to harm him,

the assembly is to judge between the slayer and the avenger of blood according to these ordinances.

The assembly is to protect the one who kills someone from the hand of the avenger of blood. Then the assembly will return him to the city of refuge he fled to, and he must live there until the death of the high priest who was anointed with the holy oil.

“If the one who kills someone ever goes outside the border of the city of refuge he fled to,

for the one who killed a person was supposed to live in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest. Only after the death of the high priest may the one who has killed a person return to the land he possesses.

“If anyone kills a person, the murderer is to be put to death based on the word of witnesses. But no one is to be put to death based on the testimony of one witness.

You are not to accept a ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of killing someone; he must be put to death.

Neither should you accept a ransom for the person who flees to his city of refuge, allowing him to return and live in the land before the death of the high priest.

“Do not defile the land where you are, for bloodshed defiles the land, and there can be no atonement for the land because of the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of the person who shed it.

Do not make the land unclean where you live and where I reside; for I, Yahweh, reside among the Israelites.”

They said, “Yahweh commanded my lord to give the land as an inheritance by lot to the Israelites. My lord was further commanded by Yahweh to give our brother Zelophehad’s inheritance to his daughters.

If they marry any of the men from the other Israelite tribes, their inheritance will be taken away from our fathers’ inheritance and added to that of the tribe into which they marry. Therefore, part of our allotted inheritance would be taken away.

When the Jubilee comes for the Israelites, their inheritance will be added to that of the tribe into which they marry, and their inheritance will be taken away from the inheritance of our ancestral tribe.”

An inheritance belonging to the Israelites must not transfer from tribe to tribe, because each of the Israelites is to retain the inheritance of his ancestral tribe.

No inheritance is to transfer from one tribe to another, because each of the Israelite tribes is to retain its inheritance.”

These are the words Moses spoke to all Israel across the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Di-zahab.

It is an eleven-day journey from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea by way of Mount Seir.

In the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first of the month, Moses told the Israelites everything the Lord had commanded him to say to them.

Across the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses began to explain this law, saying:

“The Lord our God spoke to us at Horeb: ‘You have stayed at this mountain long enough.

Resume your journey and go to the hill country of the Amorites and their neighbors in the Arabah, the hill country, the Judean foothills, the Negev and the sea coast—to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon as far as the Euphrates River.

See, I have set the land before you. Enter and take possession of the land the Lord swore to give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their future descendants.’

“I said to you at that time: I can’t bear the responsibility for you on my own.

“You replied to me, ‘What you propose to do is good.’

Do not show partiality when deciding a case; listen to small and great alike. Do not be intimidated by anyone, for judgment belongs to God. Bring me any case too difficult for you, and I will hear it.

At that time I commanded you about all the things you were to do.

“We then set out from Horeb and went across all the great and terrible wilderness you saw on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, just as the Lord our God had commanded us. When we reached Kadesh-barnea,

I said to you: You have reached the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us.

See, the Lord your God has set the land before you. Go up and take possession of it as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has told you. Do not be afraid or discouraged.

“Then all of you approached me and said, ‘Let’s send men ahead of us, so that they may explore the land for us and bring us back a report about the route we should go up and the cities we will come to.’

The plan seemed good to me, so I selected 12 men from among you, one man for each tribe.

They left and went up into the hill country and came to the Valley of Eshcol, scouting the land.

They took some of the fruit from the land in their hands, carried it down to us, and brought us back a report: ‘The land the Lord our God is giving us is good.’

“But you were not willing to go up, rebelling against the command of the Lord your God.

You grumbled in your tents and said, ‘The Lord brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites so they would destroy us, because He hated us.

Where can we go? Our brothers have discouraged us, saying: The people are larger and taller than we are; the cities are large, fortified to the heavens. We also saw the descendants of the Anakim there.’