Episode 69: The End of Numbers

(Numbers 32-36)

The children of Gad and Reuben

32 ¹ The Reubenites and Gadites had lots of cattle.

^2-5 They came to Moses and said,

Since the country God smote is a good land for cattle and we have lots of cattle, we'd like to stay here on the east side of the Jordan.

⁶ Moses said to them

So when the Israelites go to war, you're going to just sit here?

^8-9 You are being like the ten spies that God killed.

¹¹God was angry at the ten spies and he swore, saying,

No man over twenty will see the promised land, except for Caleb and Joshua.

¹⁵ You're going to anger God and he'll kill us all.

^16-18 They answered Moses, saying,

No, we'll go with the other tribes to take the land of Canaan. And we won't return home until it is taken.

²⁹ Moses said to them,

If your men will fight with us when we go to war on the other side of the Jordan, you can stay here and posses the land of Gilead.

³¹ The Reubenites and Gadites said to Moses,

³² Okay. We'll live on this side of the Jordan, but fight with you on the other side whenever you need us.

The journeys of the children of Israel

33 A recap of the 40 years of wandering after leaving Egypt (33:1-49)

God's instructions for conquering Canaan

⁵⁰ God said to Moses,

⁵¹ When you pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, drive out all the inhabitants.

⁵² Destroy all their pictures, images, and high places.

⁵³ After you remove the inhabitants, the land shall be yours.

⁵⁴ Divide the land by lot.

⁵⁵ If you don't kill all the Canaanites, I will make them pricks in your eyes and thorns in your sides. ⁵⁶ They will vex you where you live and I will do to you what I planned to do to them.

34 The boundaries of Israel and a list of tribal princes (34:1-29)

35 Suburbs for Levites (35:1-5)

Cities of refuge

⁶ Establish six cities of refuge, three on one side of the Jordan River and three on the other.

¹⁵ Whoever kills someone accidentally can flee to one of these cities.

Murderers and revengers of blood

^16-18 A person who kills someone with an iron instrument, or by throwing a stone, or with a wooden weapon, is a murderer and must be killed. ¹⁹ The revenger of blood must kill the murderer when he meets him.

²² But if someone kills another person by accident, ²⁴ then the congregation will decide between the killer and the revenger of blood.

²⁵ If the congregation decides in the killer's favor, they shall send him to the nearest city of refuge, where he'll live until the high priest dies. ²⁶ But if the slayer leaves the city and is outside the city of refuge, the revenger of blood can kill him, without being guilty of blood. ²⁷ Because the slayer should have gone to the city of refuge and stayed there until the high priest died.

²⁹ These rules about murderers, slayers, and revengers of blood are a statute forever.

³⁰ Whoever kills someone must be put to death -- if there is more than one witness to the murder.

³³ The land can't be cleansed of the blood that is shed except by the blood of the person who shed it. ³⁴ So don't defile the land that you inhabit, because I dwell there.

The daughters of Zelophehad (revisited)

36 ¹ The leaders of the tribe of Manasseh came to Moses and said,

² God commanded you to give the inheritance of Zelophehad to his daughters.

³ But what if they marry sons from a different tribe than their father's?

⁵ Moses said,

The sons of the tribe of Joseph are right.

^6-7 This is what God commands about the daughters of Zelophehad:

⁷ The daughters can marry whoever they like, as long as they marry someone in their father's tribe. That way the inheritance stays in their father's tribe.

¹⁰ So that's what the daughters of Zelophehad did.

¹¹ They each married one of their cousins on their father's side of the family.

¹³ These are the commandments and judgments that God gave to Moses in the plains of Moab near Jericho.