Numbers 34 – 36; Luke 4

Numbers 34 - 36

Israel's Borders

34 The Lord told Moses 2 to tell the people of Israel that their land in Canaan would have the following borders:

3 The southern border will be the Zin Desert and the northwest part of Edom. This border will begin at the south end of the Dead Sea. 4 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. 5 It will run along the Egyptian Gorge and end at the Mediterranean Sea.

6 The western border will be the Mediterranean Sea.

7 The northern border will begin at the Mediterranean, then continue eastward to Mount Hor.[a] 8 After that, it will run to Lebo-Hamath and across to Zedad, which is the northern edge of your land. 9 From Zedad, the border will continue east to Ziphron and end at Hazar-Enan.

10 The eastern border will begin at Hazar-Enan in the north, then run south to Shepham, 11 and on down to Riblah on the east side of Ain. From there, it will go south to the eastern hills of Lake Galilee,[b] 12 then follow the Jordan River down to the north end of the Dead Sea.

The land within those four borders will belong to you.

13  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. 14 The tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh have already been given their land 15 across from Jericho, east of the Jordan River.”

The Leaders Who Will Divide the Land

16 The Lord said to Moses, 17 “Eleazar the priest and Joshua son of Nun will divide the land for the Israelites. 18 One leader from each tribe will help them, 19-28 and here is the list of their names:

Caleb son of Jephunneh

from Judah,

Shemuel son of Ammihud

from Simeon,

Elidad son of Chislon

from Benjamin,

Bukki son of Jogli

from Dan,

Hanniel son of Ephod

from Manasseh,

Kemuel son of Shiphtan

from Ephraim,

Elizaphan son of Parnach

from Zebulun,

Paltiel son of Azzan

from Issachar,

Ahihud son of Shelomi

from Asher,

and Pedahel son of Ammihud

from Naphtali.”

29 These are the men the Lord commanded to help Eleazar and Joshua divide the land for the Israelites.

The Towns for the Levites

35  While the people of Israel were still camped in the lowlands of Moab across the Jordan River from Jericho, the Lord told Moses 2 to say to them:

When you receive your tribal lands, you must give towns and pastures to the Levi tribe. 3 That way, the Levites will have towns to live in and pastures for their animals. 4-5 The pasture around each of these towns must be in the shape of a square, with the town itself in the center. The pasture is to measure 900 meters on each side, with 450 meters of land outside each of the town walls. This will be the Levites' pastureland.

6 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 42 other towns, 7 so they will have a total of 48 towns with their surrounding pastures.

8 Since the towns for the Levites must come from Israel's own tribal lands, the larger tribes will give more towns than the smaller ones.

The Safe Towns

(Deuteronomy 19.1-13; Joshua 20.1-9)

9  The Lord then told Moses 10 to tell the people of Israel:

After you have crossed the Jordan River and are settled in Canaan, 11 choose Safe Towns, where a person who has accidentally killed someone can run for protection. 12 If the victim's relatives think it was murder, they might try to take revenge.[c] Anyone accused of murder can run to one of these Safe Towns for protection and not be killed before a trial is held.

13 There are to be six of these Safe Towns, 14 three on each side of the Jordan River. 15 They will be places of protection for anyone who lives in Israel and accidentally kills someone.

Laws about Murder and Accidental Killing

The Lord said:

16-18 Suppose you hit someone with a piece of iron or a large stone or a dangerous wooden tool. If that person dies, then you are a murderer and must be put to death 19 by one of the victim's relatives. He will take revenge[d]for his relative's death as soon as he finds you.

20-21 Or suppose you get angry and kill someone by pushing or hitting or by throwing something. You are a murderer and must be put to death by one of the victim's relatives.

22-24 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. 25 If they decide that you are innocent, you will be protected from the victim's relative and sent to stay in one of the Safe Towns until the high priest dies. 26 But if you ever leave the Safe Town 27 and are killed by the victim's relative, he cannot be punished for killing you. 28 You must stay inside the town until the high priest dies; only then can you go back home.

29 The community of Israel must always obey these laws.

30  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. 31 You cannot give someone money to escape the death penalty; you must pay with your own life! 32 And if you have been proven innocent of murder and are living in a Safe Town, you cannot pay to go back home; you must stay there until the high priest dies.

33-34 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!

The Laws about Married Women and Land

36 One day the family leaders from the Gilead clan of the Manasseh tribe went to Moses and the other family leaders of Israel 2  and said, “Sir, the Lord has said that he will show[e] what land each tribe will receive as their own. And the Lord has commanded you to give the daughters of our relative Zelophehad[f] the land that he would have received. 3 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. 4 Even when land is returned to its original owner in the Year of Celebration,[g] we will not get back Zelophehad's land—it will belong to the tribe into which his daughters married.”

5 So Moses told the people that the Lord had said:

These men from the Manasseh tribe are right. 6 I will allow Zelophehad's daughters to marry anyone, as long as those men belong to one of the clans of the Manasseh tribe.

7 Tribal land must not be given to another tribe—it will remain the property of the tribe that received it. 8-9 In the future, any daughter who inherits land must marry someone from her own tribe. Israel's tribal land is never to be passed from one tribe to another.

10-11 Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah the daughters of Zelophehad obeyed the Lord and married their uncles' sons 12 and remained part of the Manasseh tribe. So their land stayed in their father's clan.

13 These are the laws that the Lord gave to Moses and the Israelites while they were camped in the lowlands of Moab across the Jordan River from Jericho.