Study Desk

But if they break their promise, they will receive land on the other side of the Jordan, like the rest of the tribes."

We will cross the Jordan River, ready to fight for the Lord in Canaan. But the land we will inherit as our own will be on this side of the river."

It will go west from there, but will turn southward to include Scorpion Pass, the village of Zin, and the town of Kadesh-Barnea. From there, the border will continue to Hazar-Addar and on to Azmon.

Then Moses told the people, "You will receive the land inside these borders. It will be yours, but the Lord has commanded you to divide it among the nine and a half tribes.

Six of the towns you give them will be Safe Towns where a person who has accidentally killed someone can run for protection. But you will also give the Levites forty-two other towns,

But if you are not angry and accidentally kill someone in any of these ways, the townspeople must hold a trial and decide if you are guilty.

But if you ever leave the Safe Town

Death is the penalty for murder. But no one accused of murder can be put to death unless there are at least two witnesses to the crime.

I, the Lord , live among you people of Israel, so your land must be kept pure. But when a murder takes place, blood pollutes the land, and it becomes unclean. If that happens, the murderer must be put to death, so the land will be clean again. Keep murder out of Israel!

But if they marry men from other tribes of Israel, the land they receive will become part of that tribe's inheritance and will no longer belong to us.

But I cannot take care of all your problems and settle all your arguments alone.

Moses said to Israel: The Lord had commanded us to leave Mount Sinai and go to the hill country that belonged to the Amorites, so we started out into the huge desert. You remember how frightening it was, but soon we were at Kadesh-Barnea,

and I told you, "We have reached the hill country. It belongs to the Amorites now, but the Lord our God is giving it to us. He is the same God our ancestors worshiped, and he has told us to go in and take this land, so don't hesitate and be afraid."

But you still would not trust the Lord ,

Then the Lord spoke to you again: People of Israel, you said that your innocent young children would be taken prisoner in the battle for the land. But someday I will let them go into the land, and with my help they will conquer it and live there.

Then you told me, "We disobeyed the Lord our God, but now we want to obey him. We will go into the hill country and fight, just as he told us to do." So you picked up your weapons, thinking it would be easy to take over the hill country.

But the Lord said, "Moses, warn them not to go into the hill country. I won't help them fight, and their enemies will defeat them."

I told you what the Lord had said, but you paid no attention. You disobeyed him and went into the hill country anyway. You thought you were so great!

But when the Amorites in the hill country attacked from their towns, you ran from them as you would run from a swarm of bees. The Amorites chased your troops into Seir as far as Hormah, killing them as they went.

Then you came back to the place of worship at Kadesh-Barnea and wept, but the Lord would not listen to your prayers.