Study Desk

Now behold, as the LORD promised, He has kept me alive these forty-five years since He spoke this word to Moses, while Israel wandered in the wilderness. So here I am today, eighty-five years old,

still as strong today as I was the day Moses sent me out. As my strength was then, so it is now for war, for going out, and for coming in.

So Othniel son of Caleb's brother Kenaz took it, and Caleb gave his daughter Acsah to him in marriage.

"Give me a blessing," she replied. "Since you have given me land in the Negev, give me also springs of water." So Caleb gave her the upper and lower springs.

But the descendants of Judah could not drive out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem. So to this day the Jebusites live there among the descendants of Judah.

So Ephraim and Manasseh, the sons of Joseph, received their inheritance.

But they did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer. So the Canaanites dwell among the Ephraimites to this day, but they are forced laborers.

So this allotment was for the rest of the descendants of Manasseh-the clans of Abiezer, Helek, Asriel, Shechem, Hepher, and Shemida. These are the other male descendants of the clans of Manasseh son of Joseph.

They approached Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the leaders, and said, "The LORD commanded Moses to give us an inheritance among our brothers." So Joshua gave them an inheritance among their father's brothers, in keeping with the command of the LORD.

Joshua answered them, "If you have so many people that the hill country of Ephraim is too small for you, go to the forest and clear for yourself an area in the land of the Perizzites and the Rephaim."

So Joshua said to the house of Joseph-to Ephraim and Manasseh-"You have many people and great strength. You shall not have just one allotment,

So Joshua said to the Israelites, "How long will you put off entering and possessing the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you?

So the men departed and went throughout the land, mapping it city by city into seven portions. Then they returned with the document to Joshua at the camp in Shiloh.

The inheritance of the Simeonites was taken from the territory of Judah, because the share for Judah's descendants was too large for them. So the Simeonites received an inheritance within Judah's portion.

(Later, when the territory of the Danites was lost to them, they went up and fought against Leshem, captured it, and struck it down with the sword. So they took possession of Leshem, settled there, and renamed it after their father Dan.)

These were the inheritances that Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the heads of the families distributed by lot to the tribes of Israel at Shiloh before the LORD at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. So they finished dividing up the land.

so that anyone who kills another unintentionally or accidentally may flee there. These will be your refuge from the avenger of blood.

So they set apart Kedesh in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali, Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the hill country of Judah.

These are the cities appointed for all the Israelites and foreigners among them, so that anyone who kills a person unintentionally may flee there and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood prior to standing trial before the assembly.

So by the command of the LORD, the Israelites gave the Levites these cities and their pasturelands out of their own inheritance: