אֵת

…you must drive out before you all the inhabitants of the land, destroy all their carved images and cast idols, and demolish all their high places.

You are to take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given you the land to possess.

And you are to divide the land by lot according to your clans. Give a larger inheritance to a larger clan and a smaller inheritance to a smaller one. Whatever falls to each one by lot will be his. You will receive an inheritance according to the tribes of your fathers.

But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land before you, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides; they will harass you in the land where you settle.

“Command the Israelites and say to them: When you enter the land of Canaan, it will be allotted to you as an inheritance with these boundaries:

So Moses commanded the Israelites, “Apportion this land by lot as an inheritance. The LORD has commanded that it be given to the nine and a half tribes.

“These are the names of the men who are to assign the land as an inheritance for you: Eleazar the priest and Joshua son of Nun.

Appoint one leader from each tribe to distribute the land.

These are the ones whom the LORD commanded to apportion the inheritance to the Israelites in the land of Canaan.

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

You 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.

Six 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.

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

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

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

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

…or 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.

The 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.

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

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

If 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.

Do 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.

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

…saying, “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.

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

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

In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses proclaimed to the Israelites all that the LORD had commanded him concerning them.

This was after he had defeated Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and then at Edrei had defeated Og king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth.

On the east side of the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses began to explain this law, saying: