The Bible (Old and New Testaments)

From which they shall come to Emath, as far as the borders of Sedada:

And the limits shall go as far as Zephrona, and the village of Enan. These shall be the borders on the north side.

From thence they shall mark out the grounds towards the east side from the village of Enan unto Sephama.

And from Sephama the bounds shall go down to Rebla over against the fountain of Daphnis: from thence they shall come eastward to the sea of Cenereth,

And shall reach as far as the Jordan, and at the last shall be closed in by the most salt sea. This shall be your land with its borders round about.

And Moses commanded the children of Israel, saying: This shall be the land which you shall possess by lot, and which the Lord hath commanded to be given to the nine tribes, and to the half tribe.

For the tribe of the children of Ruben by their families, and the tribe of the children of Gad according to the number of their kindreds, and half of the tribe of Manasses,

That is, two tribes and a half, have received their portion beyond the Jordan over against Jericho at the east side.

And the Lord said to Moses:

These are the names of the men, that shall divide the land unto you: Eleazar the priest, and Josue the son of Nun,

And one prince of every tribe,

Whose names are these: Of the tribe of Juda, Caleb the son of Jephone.

Of the tribe of Simeon, Samuel the son of Ammiud.

Of the tribe of Benjamin, Elidad the son of Chaselon.

Of the tribe of the children of Dan, Bocci the son of Jogli.

Of the children of Joseph of the tribe of Manasses, Hanniel the son of Ephod.

Of the tribe of Ephraim, Camuel the son of Sephtan.

Of the tribe of Zabulon, Elisaphan the son of Pharnach.

Of the tribe of Issachar, Phaltiel the prince, the son of Ozan.

Of the tribe of Aser, Ahiud the son of Salomi.

Of the tribe of Nephtali: Phedael the son of Ammiud.

These are they Whom the Lord hath commanded to divide the land of Chanaan to the children of Israel.

And the Lord spoke these things also to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, over against Jericho:

Command the children of Israel that they give to the Levites out of their possessions,

Cities to dwell in, and their suburbs round about: that they may abide in the towns, and the suburbs may be for them cattle and beasts:

Which suburbs shall reach from the walls of the cities outward, a thousand paces on every side:

Toward the east shall be two thousand cubits: and toward the south in like manner shall be two thousand cubits: toward the sea also, which looketh to the west, shall be the same extent: and the north side shall be bounded with the like limits. And the cities shall be in the midst, and the suburbs without.

And among the cities, which you shall give to the Levites, six shall be separated for refuge to fugitives, that he who hath shed blood may flee to them: and besides these there shall be other forty-two cities,

That is, in all forty-eight with their suburbs.

And of these cities which shall be given out of the possessions of the children of Israel, from them that have more, more shall be taken: and from them that have less, fewer. Each shall give towns to the Levites according to the extent of their inheritance.

The Lord said to Moses:

Speak to the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them: When you shall have passed over the Jordan into the land of Chanaan,

Determine what cities shall be for the refuge of fugitives, who have shed blood against their will.

And when the fugitive shall be in them, the kinsman of him that is slain may not have power to kill him, until he stand before the multitude, and his cause be judged.

And of those cities, that are separated for the refuge of fugitives,

Three shall be beyond the Jordan, and three in the land of Chanaan,

As well for the children of Israel as for strangers and sojourners, that he may flee to them, who hath shed blood against his will.

If any man strike with iron, and he die that was struck: he shall be guilty of murder, and he himself shall die.

If he throw a stone, and he that is struck die: he shall be punished in the same manner.

If he that is struck with wood die: he shall be revenged by the blood of him that struck him.

The kinsman of him that was slain, shall kill the murderer: as soon as he apprehendeth him, he shall kill him.

If through hatred any one push a man, or fling any thing at him with ill design:

Or being his enemy, strike him with his hand, and he die: the striker shall be guilty of murder: the kinsman of him that was slain as soon as he findeth him, shall kill him.

But if by chance medley, and without hatred,

And enmity, he do any of these things,

And this be proved in the hearing of the people, and the cause be debated between him that struck, and the next of kin:

The innocent shall be delivered from the hand of the revenger, and shall be brought back by sentence into the city, to which he had fled, and he shall abide there until the death of the high priest, that is anointed with the holy oil.

If the murderer be found without the limits of the cities that are appointed for the banished,

And be struck by him that is the avenger of blood: he shall not be guilty that killed him.

For the fugitive ought to have stayed in the city until the death of the high priest: and after he is dead, then shall the manslayer return to his own country.

These things shall be perpetual, and for an ordinance in all your dwellings.

The murderer shall be punished by witnesses: none shall be condemned upon the evidence of one man.

You shall not take money of him that is guilty of blood, but he shall die forthwith.

The banished and fugitives before the death of the high priest may by no means return into their own cities.

Defile not the land of your habitation, which is stained with the blood of the innocent: neither can it otherwise be expiated, but by his blood that hath shed the blood of another.

And thus shall your possession be cleansed, myself abiding with you. For I am the Lord that dwell among the children of Israel.

And the princes of the families of Galaad, the son of Machir, the son of Manasses, of the stock of the children of Joseph, came and spoke to Moses before the princes of Israel, and said:

The Lord hath commanded thee, my lord, that thou shouldst divide the land by lot to the children of Israel, and that thou shouldst give to the daughters of Salphaad our brother the possession due to their father:

Now if men of another tribe take them to wives, their possession will follow them, and being transferred to another tribe, will be a diminishing of our inheritance.

And so it shall come to pass, that when the jubilee, the is, the fiftieth year of remission, is come, the distribution made by the lots shall be confounded, and the possession of the one shall pass to the others.

Moses answered the children of Israel, and said by the command of the Lord: The tribe of the children of Joseph hath spoken rightly.

And this is the law promulgated by the Lord touching the daughters of Salphaad: Let them marry to whom they will, only so that it be to men of their own tribe.

Lest the possession of the children of Israel be mingled from tribe to tribe. For all men shall marry wives of their own tribe and kindred:

And all women shall take husbands of the same tribe: that the inheritance may remain in the families.

And that the tribes be not mingled one with another, but remain so

As they were separated by the Lord. And the daughters of Salphaad did as was commanded:

And Maala, and Thersa, and Hegla, and Melcha, and Noa were married to the sons of their uncle by their father

Of the family of Manasses, who was the son of Joseph: and the possession that had been allotted to them, remained in the tribe and family of their father.

These are the commandments and judgment, which the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses to the children of Israel, in the plains of Moab upon the Jordan over against Jericho.

These are the words, which Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan, in the plain wilderness, over against the Red Sea, between Pharan and Thophel and Laban and Haseroth, where there is very much gold.

Eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir to Cadesbarne.

In the fortieth year, the eleventh month, the first day of the month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel all that the Lord had commanded him to say to them:

After that he had slain Sehon king of the Amorrhites, who dwelt in Hesebon: and Og king of Basan who abode in Astaroth, and in Edrai,

Beyond the Jordan in the land of Moab. And Moses began to expound the law, and to say:

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

Turn you, and come to the mountain of the Amorrhites, and to the other places that are next to it, the plains and the hills and the vales towards the south, and by the sea shore, the land of the Chanaanites, and of Libanus, as far as the great river Euphrates.

Behold, said he, I have delivered it to you: go in and possess it, concerning which the Lord swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that he would give it to them, and to their seed after them.

And I said to you at that time:

I alone am not able to bear you: for the Lord your God hath multiplied you, and you are this day as the stars of heaven, for multitude.

(The Lord God of your fathers add to this number many thousands, and bless you as he hath spoken.)

I alone am not able to bear your business, and the charge of you and your differences.

Let me have from among you wise and understanding men, and such whose conversation is approved among your tribes, that I may appoint them your rulers.

Then you answered me: The thing is good which thou meanest to do.

And I took out of your tribes men wise and honourable, and appointed them rulers, tribunes, and centurions, and officers over fifties, and over tens, who might teach you all things.

And I commanded them, saying: Hear them, and judge that which is just: whether he be one of your country, or a stranger.

There shall be no difference of persons, you shall hear the little as well as the great: neither shall you respect any man's person, because it is the judgment of God. And if any thing seem hard to you, refer it to me, and I will hear it.

And I commanded you all things that you were to do.

And departing from Horeb, we passed through the terrible and vast wilderness, which you saw, by the way of the mountain of the Amorrhite, as the Lord our God had commanded us. And when we were come into Cadesbarne,

I said to you: You are come to the mountain of the Amorrhite, which the Lord our God will give to us.

See the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee: go up and possess it, as the Lord our God hath spoken to thy fathers: fear not, nor be any way discouraged.

And you came all to me, and said: Let us send men who may view the land, and bring us word what way we shall go up, and to what cities we shall go.

And because the saying pleased me, I sent of you twelve men, one of every tribe:

Who, when they had set forward and had gone up to the mountains, came as far as the valley of the cluster: and having viewed the land,

Taking of the fruits thereof, to shew its fertility, they brought them to us, and said: The land is good, which the Lord our God will give us.

And you would not go up, but being incredulous to the word of the Lord our God,

You murmured in your tents, and said: The Lord hateth us, and therefore he hath brought us out of the land of Egypt, that he might deliver us into the hand of the Amorrhite, and destroy us.

Whither shall we go up? the messengers have terrified our hearts, saying: The multitude is very great, and taller than we: the cities are great, and walled up to the sky, we have seen the sons of the Enacims there.

And I said to you: Fear not, neither be ye afraid of them:

The Lord God, who is your leader, himself will fight for you, as he did in Egypt in the sight of all.

And in the wilderness (as thou hast seen) the Lord thy God hath carried thee, as a man is wont to carry his little son, all the way that you have come, until you came to this place.