Study Desk

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

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

For the tribe of Reuben’s descendants and the tribe of Gad’s descendants have received their inheritance according to their ancestral families, and half the tribe of Manasseh has received its inheritance.

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

“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.

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

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

These six cities will serve as a refuge for the Israelites and for the alien or temporary resident among them, so that anyone who kills a person unintentionally may flee there.

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.

These instructions will be a statutory ordinance for you throughout your generations wherever you live.

You are not to accept a ransom for the life of someone who is guilty of murder; 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 live, 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 dwell; for I, the Lord, reside among the Israelites.”

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.”

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

Appoint for yourselves wise, understanding, and respected men from each of your tribes, and I will make them your leaders.

“So I took the leaders of your tribes, wise and respected men, and set them over you as leaders: commanders for thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens, and officers for your tribes.

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.