Numbers 35-36

Contemporary English Version

The Towns for the Levites

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

When you receive your tribal lands, you must give towns and pastures to the Levi tribe. ³That way, the Levites will have towns to live in and pastures for their animals. ^4-5The 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.

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

⁸Since 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^(B) The Lord then told Moses ¹⁰to tell the people of Israel:

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

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

Laws about Murder and Accidental Killing

The Lord said:

^16-18Suppose 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 ¹⁹by one of the victim's relatives. He will take revenge^[b]for his relative's death as soon as he finds you.

^20-21Or 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.

^22-24But 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. ²⁵If 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. ²⁶But if you ever leave the Safe Town ²⁷and are killed by the victim's relative, he cannot be punished for killing you. ²⁸You must stay inside the town until the high priest dies; only then can you go back home.

²⁹The community of Israel must always obey these laws.

³⁰^(C) 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. ³¹You cannot give someone money to escape the death penalty; you must pay with your own life! ³²And 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.

^33-34I, 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^(D) and said, “Sir, the Lord has said that he will show^[c] what land each tribe will receive as their own. And the Lord has commanded you to give the daughters of our relative Zelophehad^[d] the land that he would have received. ³But 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. ⁴Even when land is returned to its original owner in the Year of Celebration,^[e] we will not get back Zelophehad's land—it will belong to the tribe into which his daughters married.”

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

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

⁷Tribal land must not be given to another tribe—it will remain the property of the tribe that received it. ^8-9In 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.

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

¹³These 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.

Footnotes

35.12 the victim's relatives … revenge: At this time in Israel's history, the clan would appoint the closest male relative to find and kill a person who had killed a member of their clan.
35.19 the victim's relatives … revenge: See the note at 35.12.
36.2 that he will show: See the note at 26.55,56.
36.2 Zelophehad: See also 26.28-34; 27.1-11.
36.4 Year of Celebration: This was a sacred year for Israel, traditionally called the “Year of Jubilee.” During this year, all property had to go back to its original owner. But here, the property was not sold; it became part of the other tribe's land when the daughter who owned it married into that tribe. So the property could not be returned even during this year.