From the Israelites' half-share you are to take one portion out of fifty of the people, the cattle, the donkeys, and the sheep -- from every kind of animal -- and you are to give them to the Levites, who are responsible for the care of the Lord's tabernacle."

The half-portion of those who went to war numbered 337,500 sheep;

So Moses gave the tribute, which was the Lord's raised offering, to Eleazar the priest, as the Lord commanded Moses.

there were 337,500 sheep from the portion belonging to the community,

From the Israelites' share Moses took one of every fifty people and animals and gave them to the Levites who were responsible for the care of the Lord's tabernacle, just as the Lord commanded Moses.

and said to him, "Your servants have taken a count of the men who were in the battle, who were under our authority, and not one is missing.

So we have brought as an offering for the Lord what each man found: gold ornaments, armlets, bracelets, signet rings, earrings, and necklaces, to make atonement for ourselves before the Lord."

All the gold of the offering they offered up to the Lord from the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds weighed 16,750 shekels.

So they said, "If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants for our inheritance. Do not have us cross the Jordan River."

Moses said to the Gadites and the Reubenites, "Must your brothers go to war while you remain here?

Why do you frustrate the intent of the Israelites to cross over into the land which the Lord has given them?

Your fathers did the same thing when I sent them from Kadesh Barnea to see the land.

When they went up to the Eshcol Valley and saw the land, they frustrated the intent of the Israelites so that they did not enter the land that the Lord had given them.

So the anger of the Lord was kindled that day, and he swore,

Because they have not followed me wholeheartedly, not one of the men twenty years old and upward who came from Egypt will see the land that I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,

Now look, you are standing in your fathers' place, a brood of sinners, to increase still further the fierce wrath of the Lord against the Israelites.

Then they came very close to him and said, "We will build sheep folds here for our flocks and cities for our families,

but we will maintain ourselves in armed readiness and go before the Israelites until whenever we have brought them to their place. Our descendants will be living in fortified towns as a protection against the inhabitants of the land.

We will not return to our homes until every Israelite has his inheritance.

For we will not accept any inheritance on the other side of the Jordan River and beyond, because our inheritance has come to us on this eastern side of the Jordan."

Then Moses replied, "If you will do this thing, and if you will arm yourselves for battle before the Lord,

and the land is subdued before the Lord, then afterward you may return and be free of your obligation to the Lord and to Israel. This land will then be your possession in the Lord's sight.

"But if you do not do this, then look, you will have sinned against the Lord. And know that your sin will find you out.

So build cities for your descendants and pens for your sheep, but do what you have said you would do."

So the Gadites and the Reubenites replied to Moses, "Your servants will do as my lord commands.

but your servants will cross over, every man armed for war, to do battle in the Lord's presence, just as my lord says."

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

Moses said to them: "If the Gadites and the Reubenites cross the Jordan with you, each one equipped for battle in the Lord's presence, and you conquer the land, then you must allot them the territory of Gilead as their possession.

But if they do not cross over with you armed, they must receive possessions among you in Canaan."

Then the Gadites and the Reubenites answered, "Your servants will do what the Lord has spoken.

So Moses gave to the Gadites, the Reubenites, and to half the tribe of Manasseh son of Joseph the realm of King Sihon of the Amorites, and the realm of King Og of Bashan, the entire land with its cities and the territory surrounding them.

The descendants of Machir son of Manasseh went to Gilead, took it, and dispossessed the Amorites who were in it.

So Moses gave Gilead to Machir, son of Manasseh, and he lived there.

Moses recorded their departures according to their journeys, by the commandment of the Lord; now these are their journeys according to their departures.

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

They traveled from Etham, and turned again to Pi-hahiroth, which is before Baal-Zephon; and they camped before Migdal.

They traveled from Marah and came to Elim; in Elim there are twelve fountains of water and seventy palm trees, so they camped there.

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

Aaron the priest ascended Mount Hor at the command of the Lord, and he died there in the fortieth year after the Israelites had come out of the land of Egypt on the first day of the fifth month.

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

"Speak to the Israelites and tell them, 'When you have crossed the Jordan into the land of Canaan,

You must dispossess the inhabitants of the land and live in it, for I have given you the land to possess it.

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.

But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land before you, then those whom you allow to remain will be irritants in your eyes and thorns in your side, and will cause you trouble in the land where you will be living.

And what I intended to do to them I will do to you."

Then the Lord spoke to Moses:

"Give these instructions to the Israelites, and tell them: 'When you enter Canaan, the land that has been assigned to you as an inheritance, the land of Canaan with its borders,

your southern border will extend from the wilderness of Zin along the Edomite border, and your southern border will run eastward to the extremity of the Salt Sea,

and then the border will turn from the south to the Scorpion Ascent, continue to Zin, and then its direction will be from the south to Kadesh Barnea. Then it will go to Hazar Addar and pass over to Azmon.

There the border will turn from Azmon to the Brook of Egypt, and then its direction is to the sea.

"'And this will be your northern border: From the Great Sea you will draw a line to Mount Hor;

from Mount Hor you will draw a line to Lebo Hamath, and the direction of the border will be to Zedad.

The border will continue to Ziphron, and its direction will be to Hazar Enan. This will be your northern border.

"'For your eastern border you will draw a line from Hazar Enan to Shepham.

The border will run down from Shepham to Riblah, on the east side of Ain, and the border will descend and reach the eastern side of the Sea of Chinnereth.

Then the border will continue down the Jordan River and its direction will be to the Salt Sea. This will be your land by its borders that surround it.'"

Then Moses commanded the Israelites: "This is the land which you will inherit by lot, which the Lord has commanded to be given to the nine and a half tribes,

The two and a half tribes have received their inheritance on this side of the Jordan, east of Jericho, toward the sunrise."

The Lord said to Moses:

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

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

These are the ones whom the Lord commanded to divide up the inheritance among the Israelites in the land of Canaan.

Then the Lord spoke to Moses in the Moabite plains by the Jordan near Jericho. He said:

"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.

Thus they will have towns in which to live, and their grazing lands will be for their cattle, for their possessions, and for all their animals.

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.

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.

Then the Lord spoke to Moses:

"Speak to the Israelites and tell them, 'When you cross over the Jordan River into the land of Canaan,

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.

"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.

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.

or with any stone large enough that a man could die, without seeing him, and throws it at him, and he dies, even though he was not his enemy nor sought his harm,

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.

But if the slayer at any time goes outside the boundary of the town to which he had fled,

because the slayer should have stayed in his town of refuge until the death of the high priest. But after the death of the high priest, the slayer may return to the land of his possessions.

"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.

Moreover, you must not accept a ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death; 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.

Therefore do not defile the land that you will inhabit, in which I live, for I the Lord live among the Israelites."

They said, "The Lord commanded my lord to give the land as an inheritance by lot to the Israelites; and my lord was commanded by the Lord to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad to his daughters.

Now if they should be married to one of the men from another Israelite tribe, their inheritance would be taken from the inheritance of our fathers and added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry. As a result, it will be taken from the lot of our inheritance.

And when the Jubilee of the Israelites is to take place, their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry. So their inheritance will be taken away from the inheritance of our ancestral tribe."

Then Moses gave a ruling to the Israelites by the word of the Lord: "What the tribe of the Josephites is saying is right.

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.

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

For the daughters of Zelophehad -- Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah -- were married to the sons of their uncles.

This is what Moses said to the assembly of Israel in the Transjordanian wastelands, the arid country opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Di Zahab

Now it is ordinarily an eleven-day journey from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea by way of Mount Seir.

However, it was not until the first day of the eleventh month of the fortieth year that Moses addressed the Israelites just as the Lord had instructed him to do.

So it was in the Transjordan, in Moab, that Moses began to deliver these words:

The Lord our God spoke to us at Horeb and said, "You have stayed in the area of this mountain long enough.

Get up now, resume your journey, heading for the Amorite hill country, to all its areas including the arid country, the highlands, the Shephelah, the Negev, and the coastal plain -- all of Canaan and Lebanon as far as the Great River, that is, the Euphrates.

Look! I have already given the land to you. Go, occupy the territory that I, the Lord, promised to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to their descendants."