Day 138 of 365

¹The Lord spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying,

²"Command the children of Israel that they give to the Levites of the inheritance of their possession cities to dwell in; and you shall give suburbs for the cities around them to the Levites.

³The cities shall they have to dwell in; and their suburbs shall be for their livestock, and for their substance, and for all their animals.

⁴"The suburbs of the cities, which you shall give to the Levites, shall be from the wall of the city and outward one thousand cubits around it.

⁵You shall measure outside of the city for the east side two thousand cubits, and for the south side two thousand cubits, and for the west side two thousand cubits, and for the north side two thousand cubits, the city being in the midst. This shall be to them the suburbs of the cities.

⁶"The cities which you shall give to the Levites, they shall be the six cities of refuge, which you shall give for the manslayer to flee to: and besides them you shall give forty-two cities.

⁷All the cities which you shall give to the Levites shall be forty-eight cities together with their suburbs.

⁸Concerning the cities which you shall give of the possession of the children of Israel, from the many you shall take many; and from the few you shall take few: everyone according to his inheritance which he inherits shall give of his cities to the Levites."

⁹The Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

¹⁰"Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, 'When you pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan,

¹¹then you shall appoint you cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the manslayer who kills any person unwittingly may flee there.

¹²The cities shall be to you for refuge from the avenger, that the manslayer not die, until he stands before the congregation for judgment.

¹³The cities which you shall give shall be for you six cities of refuge.

¹⁴You shall give three cities beyond the Jordan, and you shall give three cities in the land of Canaan; they shall be cities of refuge.

¹⁵For the children of Israel, and for the stranger and for the foreigner living among them, shall these six cities be for refuge; that everyone who kills any person unwittingly may flee there.

¹⁶"'But if he struck him with an instrument of iron, so that he died, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death.

¹⁷If he struck him with a stone in the hand, by which a man may die, and he died, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death.

¹⁸Or if he struck him with a weapon of wood in the hand, by which a man may die, and he died, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death.

¹⁹The avenger of blood shall himself put the murderer to death: when he meets him, he shall put him to death.

²⁰If he thrust him of hatred, or hurled at him, lying in wait, so that he died,

²¹or in enmity struck him with his hand, so that he died; he who struck him shall surely be put to death; he is a murderer: the avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death, when he meets him.

²²"'But if he thrust him suddenly without enmity, or hurled on him anything without lying in wait,

²³or with any stone, by which a man may die, not seeing him, and cast it on him, so that he died, and he was not his enemy, neither sought his harm;

²⁴then the congregation shall judge between the striker and the avenger of blood according to these ordinances;

²⁵and the congregation shall deliver the manslayer out of the hand of the avenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to his city of refuge, where he was fled: and he shall dwell therein until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the holy oil.

²⁶"'But if the manslayer shall at any time go beyond the border of his city of refuge, where he flees,

²⁷and the avenger of blood find him outside of the border of his city of refuge, and the avenger of blood kill the manslayer; he shall not be guilty of blood,

²⁸because he should have remained in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest: but after the death of the high priest the manslayer shall return into the land of his possession.

²⁹"'These things shall be for a statute and ordinance to you throughout your generations in all your dwellings.

³⁰"'Whoever kills any person, the murderer shall be slain at the mouth of witnesses: but one witness shall not testify against any person that he die.

³¹"'Moreover you shall take no ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death; but he shall surely be put to death.

³²"'You shall take no ransom for him who is fled to his city of refuge, that he may come again to dwell in the land, until the death of the priest.

³³"'So you shall not pollute the land in which you are: for blood, it pollutes the land; and no expiation can be made for the land for the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him who shed it.

³⁴You shall not defile the land which you inhabit, in the midst of which I dwell: for I, the Lord, dwell in the midst of the children of Israel.'"

¹The heads of the fathers' households of the family of the children of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of the sons of Joseph, came near, and spoke before Moses, and before the princes, the heads of the fathers' households of the children of Israel:

²and they said, "The Lord commanded my lord to give the land for inheritance by lot to the children of Israel: and my lord was commanded by the Lord to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother to his daughters.

³If they are married to any of the sons of the other tribes of the children of Israel, then will their inheritance be taken away from the inheritance of our fathers, and will be added to the inheritance of the tribe whereunto they shall belong: so will it be taken away from the lot of our inheritance.

⁴When the jubilee of the children of Israel shall be, then will their inheritance be added to the inheritance of the tribe whereunto they shall belong: so will their inheritance be taken away from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers."

⁵Moses commanded the children of Israel according to the word of the Lord, saying, "The tribe of the sons of Joseph speaks right.

⁶This is the thing which the Lord does command concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, saying, Let them be married to whom they think best; only into the family of the tribe of their father shall they be married.

⁷So shall no inheritance of the children of Israel remove from tribe to tribe; for the children of Israel shall all keep the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers.

⁸Every daughter who possesses an inheritance in any tribe of the children of Israel shall be wife to one of the family of the tribe of her father, that the children of Israel may possess every man the inheritance of his fathers.

⁹So shall no inheritance remove from one tribe to another tribe; for the tribes of the children of Israel shall each keep his own inheritance."

¹⁰The daughters of Zelophehad did as the Lord commanded Moses:

¹¹for Mahlah, Tirzah, and Hoglah, and Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were married to their father's brothers' sons.

¹²They were married into the families of the sons of Manasseh the son of Joseph; and their inheritance remained in the tribe of the family of their father.

¹³These are the commandments and the ordinances which the Lord commanded by Moses to the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.

¹These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah over against Suph, between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahab.

²It is eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea.

³It happened in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spoke to the children of Israel, according to all that the Lord had given him in commandment to them;

⁴after he had struck Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth, at Edrei.

⁵Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, began Moses to declare this law, saying,

⁶"The Lord our God spoke to us in Horeb, saying, You have lived long enough in this mountain:

⁷turn, and take your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites, and to all the places near there, in the Arabah, in the hill country, and in the lowland, and in the Negev, and by the sea coast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.

⁸Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their seed after them."

⁹I spoke to you at that time, saying, "I am not able to bear you myself alone:

¹⁰The Lord your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are this day as the stars of the sky for multitude.

¹¹The Lord, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are, and bless you, as he has promised you!

¹²How can I myself alone bear your encumbrance, and your burden, and your strife?

¹³Take wise men of understanding and well known according to your tribes, and I will make them heads over you."

¹⁴You answered me, and said, "The thing which you have spoken is good to do."

¹⁵So I took the heads of your tribes, wise men, and known, and made them heads over you, captains of thousands, and captains of hundreds, and captains of fifties, and captains of tens, and officers, according to your tribes.

¹⁶I commanded your judges at that time, saying, "Hear cases between your brothers, and judge righteously between a man and his brother, and the foreigner who is living with him.

¹⁷You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike; you shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God's. The case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it."

¹⁸I commanded you at that time all the things which you should do.

¹⁹We traveled from Horeb, and went through all that great and terrible wilderness which you saw, by the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as the Lord our God commanded us; and we came to Kadesh Barnea.

²⁰I said to you, "You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God gives to us.

²¹Behold, the Lord your God has set the land before you: go up, take possession, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has spoken to you; do not be afraid, neither be dismayed."

²²You came near to me everyone of you, and said, "Let us send men before us, that they may search the land for us, and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up, and the cities to which we shall come."

²³The thing pleased me well; and I took twelve men of you, one man for every tribe:

²⁴and they turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the valley of Eshcol, and spied it out.

²⁵They took of the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought it down to us, and brought us word again, and said, "It is a good land which the Lord our God gives to us."

²⁶Yet you wouldn't go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God:

²⁷and you murmured in your tents, and said, "Because the Lord hated us, he has brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.

²⁸Where are we going up? Our brothers have made our heart to melt, saying, 'The people are greater and taller than we; the cities are great and fortified up to the sky; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakim there.'"

²⁹Then I said to you, "Do not dread, neither be afraid of them.

³⁰The Lord your God who goes before you, he will fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes,

³¹and in the wilderness, where you have seen how that the Lord your God bore you, as a man does bear his son, in all the way that you went, until you came to this place."

³²Yet in this thing you did not believe the Lord your God,

³³who went before you in the way, to seek you out a place to pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to show you by what way you should go, and in the cloud by day.

³⁴The Lord heard the voice of your words, and was angry, and swore, saying,

³⁵"Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land, which I swore to give to your fathers,

³⁶except Caleb the son of Jephunneh: he shall see it; and to him will I give the land that he has trodden on, and to his children, because he has wholly followed the Lord."

³⁷Also the Lord was angry with me for your sakes, saying, "You also shall not go in there:

³⁸Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall go in there: encourage you him; for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.

³⁹Moreover your little ones, whom you said should be a prey, and your children, who this day have no knowledge of good or evil, they shall go in there, and to them will I give it, and they shall possess it.

⁴⁰But as for you, turn, and take your journey into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea."

⁴¹Then you answered and said to me, "We have sinned against the Lord, we will go up and fight, according to all that the Lord our God commanded us." Every man of you put on his weapons of war, and presumed to go up into the hill country.

⁴²The Lord said to me, "Tell them, 'Do not go up, neither fight; for I am not among you; lest you be struck before your enemies.'"

⁴³So I spoke to you, and you did not listen; but you rebelled against the commandment of the Lord, and were presumptuous, and went up into the hill country.

⁴⁴The Amorites, who lived in that hill country, came out against you, and chased you, as bees do, and beat you down in Seir, even to Hormah.

⁴⁵You returned and wept before the Lord; but the Lord did not listen to your voice, nor gave ear to you.

⁴⁶So you stayed in Kadesh many days, according to the days that you remained.

¹I will give you thanks with my whole heart. Before the angels, I will sing praises to you.

²I will bow down toward your holy temple, and give thanks to your Name for your loving kindness and for your truth; for you have exalted your Name and your Word above all.

³In the day that I called, you answered me. You encouraged me with strength in my soul.

⁴All the kings of the earth will give you thanks, Lord, for they have heard the words of your mouth.

⁵Yes, they will sing of the ways of the Lord; for great is the Lord's glory.

⁶For though the Lord is high, yet he looks after the lowly; but the proud, he knows from afar.

⁷Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you will revive me. You will stretch forth your hand against the wrath of my enemies. Your right hand will save me.

⁸The Lord will fulfill that which concerns me; your loving kindness, Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the works of your own hands.

¹Every wise woman builds her house, but the foolish one tears it down with her own hands.

²He who walks in his uprightness fears the Lord, but he who is perverse in his ways despises him.

³The fool's talk brings a rod to his back, but the lips of the wise protect them.

⁴Where no oxen are, the crib is clean, but much increase is by the strength of the ox.

⁵A truthful witness will not lie, but a false witness pours out lies.

⁶A scoffer seeks wisdom, and doesn't find it, but knowledge comes easily to a discerning person.

⁷Stay away from a foolish man, for you won't find knowledge on his lips.

⁸The wisdom of the prudent is to think about his way, but the folly of fools is deceit.

⁹Fools mock at making atonement for sins, but among the upright there is good will.

¹⁰The heart knows its own bitterness and joy; he will not share these with a stranger.

¹¹The house of the wicked will be overthrown, but the tent of the upright will flourish.

¹²There is a way which seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.

¹³Even in laughter the heart may be sorrowful, and mirth may end in heaviness.

¹⁴The unfaithful will be repaid for his own ways; likewise a good man will be rewarded for his ways.

¹⁵A simple man believes everything, but the prudent man carefully considers his ways.

¹⁶A wise man fears, and shuns evil, but the fool is hotheaded and reckless.

¹⁷He who is quick to become angry will commit folly, and a crafty man is hated.

¹⁸The simple inherit folly, but the prudent are crowned with knowledge.

¹⁹The evil bow down before the good, and the wicked at the gates of the righteous.

²⁰The poor person is shunned even by his own neighbor, but the rich person has many friends.

²¹He who despises his neighbor sins, but blessed is he who has pity on the poor.

²²Do they not go astray who plot evil? But love and faithfulness belong to those who plan good.

²³In all hard work there is profit, but the talk of the lips leads only to poverty.

²⁴The crown of the wise is their riches, but the folly of fools crowns them with folly.

²⁵A truthful witness saves souls, but a false witness is deceitful.

²⁶In the fear of the Lord is a secure fortress, and he will be a refuge for his children.

²⁷The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, turning people from the snares of death.

²⁸In the multitude of people is the king's glory, but in the lack of people is the destruction of the prince.

²⁹He who is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a quick temper displays folly.

³⁰The life of the body is a heart at peace, but envy rots the bones.

³¹He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for his Maker, but he who is kind to the needy honors him.

³²The wicked is brought down in his calamity, but in death, the righteous has a refuge.

³³Wisdom rests in the heart of one who has understanding, and is even made known in the inward part of fools.

³⁴Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.

³⁵The king's favor is toward a servant who deals wisely, but his wrath is toward one who causes shame.