2019-12-11

Numbers 34:16-35:8


For your eastern boundary you shall draw a line from Hazar-enan to Shepham. From Shepham the boundary shall descend to Riblah on the east side of Ain; from there the boundary shall continue downward and abut on the eastern slopes of the Sea of Chinnereth. The boundary shall then descend along the Jordan and terminate at the Dead Sea. That shall be your land as defined by its boundaries on all sides. Moses instructed the Israelites, saying: This is the land you are to receive by lot as your hereditary portion, which the Lord has commanded to be given to the nine and a half tribes. For the Reubenite tribe by its ancestral houses, the Gadite tribe by its ancestral houses, and the half-tribe of Manasseh have already received their portions: those two and a half tribes have received their portions across the Jordan, opposite Jericho, on the east, the orient side. The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: These are the names of the men through whom the land shall be apportioned for you: Eleazar the priest and Joshua son of Nun. And you shall also take a chieftain from each tribe through whom the land shall be apportioned. These are the names of the men: from the tribe of Judah: Caleb son of Jephunneh. From the Simeonite tribe: Samuel son of Ammihud. From the tribe of Benjamin: Elidad son of Chislon. From the Danite tribe: a chieftain, Bukki son of Jogli. For the descendants of Joseph: from the Manassite tribe: a chieftain, Hanniel son of Ephod; and from the Ephraimite tribe: a chieftain, Kemuel son of Shiphtan. From the Zebulunite tribe: a chieftain, Elizaphan son of Parnach. From the Issacharite tribe: a chieftain, Paltiel son of Azzan. From the Asherite tribe: a chieftain, Ahihud son of Shelomi. From the Naphtalite tribe: a chieftain, Pedahel son of Ammihud. It was these whom the Lord designated to allot portions to the Israelites in the land of Canaan. The Lord spoke to Moses in the steppes of Moab at the Jordan near Jericho, saying: Instruct the Israelite people to assign, out of the holdings apportioned to them, towns for the Levites to dwell in; you shall also assign to the Levites pasture land around their towns. The towns shall be theirs to dwell in, and the pasture shall be for the cattle they own and all their other beasts. The town pasture that you are to assign to the Levites shall extend a thousand cubits outside the town wall all around. You shall measure off two thousand cubits outside the town on the east side, two thousand on the south side, two thousand on the west side, and two thousand on the north side, with the town in the center. That shall be the pasture for their towns. The towns that you assign to the Levites shall comprise the six cities of refuge that you are to designate for a manslayer to flee to, to which you shall add forty-two towns. Thus the total of the towns that you assign to the Levites shall be forty-eight towns, with their pasture. In assigning towns from the holdings of the Israelites, take more from the larger groups and less from the smaller, so that each assigns towns to the Levites in proportion to the share it receives.
Search the Torah


Close Ad