Numbers 35–36

1Again the LORD spoke to Moses on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho:

2“Command the Israelites to give, from the inheritance they will possess, cities for the Levites to live in and pasturelands around the cities.

3The cities will be for them to live in, and the pasturelands will be for their herds, their flocks, and all their other livestock.

4The pasturelands around the cities you are to give the Levites will extend a thousand cubits from the wall on every side.

5You are also to measure two thousand cubits outside the city on the east, two thousand on the south, two thousand on the west, and two thousand on the north, with the city in the center. These areas will serve as larger pasturelands for the cities.

6Six of the cities you give the Levites are to be appointed as cities of refuge, to which a manslayer may flee. In addition to these, give the Levites forty-two other cities.

7The total number of cities you give the Levites will be forty-eight, with their corresponding pasturelands.

8The cities that you apportion from the territory of the Israelites should be given to the Levites in proportion to the inheritance of each tribe: more from a larger tribe and less from a smaller one.”

9Then the LORD said to Moses,

10“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan,

11designate cities to serve as your cities of refuge, so that a person who kills someone unintentionally may flee there.

12You are to have these cities as a refuge from the avenger, so that the manslayer will not die until he stands trial before the assembly.

13The cities you select will be your six cities of refuge.

14Select three cities across the Jordan and three in the land of Canaan as cities of refuge.

15These six cities will serve as a refuge for the Israelites and for the foreigner or stranger among them, so that anyone who kills a person unintentionally may flee there.

16If, however, anyone strikes a person with an iron object and kills him, he is a murderer; the murderer must surely be put to death.

17Or if anyone has in his hand a stone of deadly size, and he strikes and kills another, he is a murderer; the murderer must surely be put to death.

18If anyone has in his hand a deadly object of wood, and he strikes and kills another, he is a murderer; the murderer must surely be put to death.

19The avenger of blood is to put the murderer to death; when he finds him, he is to kill him.

20Likewise, if anyone maliciously pushes another or intentionally throws an object at him and kills him,

21or if in hostility he strikes him with his hand and he dies, the one who struck him must surely be put to death; he is a murderer. When the avenger of blood finds the murderer, he is to kill him.

22But if anyone pushes a person suddenly, without hostility, or throws an object at him unintentionally,

23or without looking drops a heavy stone that kills him, but he was not an enemy and did not intend to harm him,

24then the congregation must judge between the slayer and the avenger of blood according to these ordinances.

25The assembly is to protect the manslayer from the hand of the avenger of blood. Then the assembly will return him to the city of refuge to which he fled, and he must live there until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the holy oil.

26But if the manslayer ever goes outside the limits of the city of refuge to which he fled

27and the avenger of blood finds him outside of his city of refuge and kills him, then the avenger will not be guilty of bloodshed,

28because the manslayer must remain in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest. Only after the death of the high priest may he return to the land he owns.

29This will be a statutory ordinance for you for the generations to come, wherever you live.

30If anyone kills a person, the murderer is to be put to death on the testimony of the witnesses. But no one is to be put to death based on the testimony of a lone witness.

31You are not to accept a ransom for the life of a murderer who deserves to die; he must surely be put to death.

32Nor should you accept a ransom for the person who flees to a city of refuge and allow him to return and live on his own land before the death of the high priest.

33Do not pollute the land where you live, for bloodshed pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land on which the blood is shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it.

34Do not defile the land where you live and where I dwell. For I, the LORD, dwell among the Israelites.”

1Now the family heads of the clan of Gilead son of Machir son of Manasseh, one of the clans of Joseph, approached Moses and the leaders who were the heads of the Israelite families and addressed them,

2saying, “When the LORD commanded my lord to give the land as an inheritance to the Israelites by lot, He also commanded him to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad to his daughters.

3But if they marry any of the men from the other tribes of Israel, their inheritance will be withdrawn from the portion of our fathers and added to the tribe into which they marry. So our allotted inheritance would be taken away.

4And when the Jubilee for the Israelites comes, their inheritance will be added to the tribe into which they marry and taken away from the tribe of our fathers.”

5So at the word of the LORD, Moses commanded the Israelites: “The tribe of the sons of Joseph speaks correctly.

6This is what the LORD has commanded concerning the daughters of Zelophehad: They may marry anyone they please, provided they marry within a clan of the tribe of their father.

7No inheritance in Israel may be transferred from tribe to tribe, because each of the Israelites is to retain the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers.

8Every daughter who possesses an inheritance from any Israelite tribe must marry within a clan of the tribe of her father, so that every Israelite will possess the inheritance of his fathers.

9No inheritance may be transferred from one tribe to another, for each tribe of Israel must retain its inheritance.”

10So the daughters of Zelophehad did as the LORD had commanded Moses.

11Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were married to cousins on their father’s side.

12They married within the clans of the descendants of Manasseh son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained within the tribe of their father’s clan.

13These are the commandments and ordinances that the LORD gave the Israelites through Moses on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho.