Deuteronomy 30 - 36
30 THEN MOSES SPOKE to the heads of the Israelite tribes and said, This is
the LORD's command: When a man makes a vow to the LORD or swears
an oath and so puts himself under a binding obligation, he must nit break
his word. Every word he has spoken, he must make good. When a woman,
still young and living in her father's house, makes a vow to the LORD or
puts herself under a binding obligation, if her father hears of it and keeps
silence, then any such vow or obligation shall be valid. But if her father
disallows it when he hears of it, none of her vows or obligations shall be
valid; the LORD will absolve her, because her father has disallowed it. If
the woman is married when she is under a vow or a binding obligation
rashly uttered, then if her husband hears of it and keeps silence when he
hears, her vow or obligation by which she has bound herself shall be valid.
If, however, her husband disallows it when he hears of it and repudiates
the vow which she has taken upon herself or the rash utterance with which
she has bound herself, then the LORD will absolve her. Every vow by which
a widow or a divorced woman has bound herself shall be valid. But if it is
in her husband's house that a woman makes a vow or puts herself under a
binding obligation by an oath, and her husband, hearing of it, keeps silence
and does not disallow it, then every vow and obligation under which she
has put herself shall be valid; but if her husband clearly repudiates them
when he hears of them, then nothing that she has uttered, whether vow or
obligation, shall be valid. Her husband has repudiated them, and the LORD
will absolve her.
The husband can confirm or repudiate any vow or oath by which a
woman binds herself to mortification. If he maintains silence day after day,
he thereby confirms every vow or obligation under which she has put her-
self: he confirms them, because he kept silence at the time when he heard
them. If he repudiates them some time after he has heard them, he shall be
responsible for her default.
Such are the decrees which the LORD gave to Moses concerning a husband
and wife and a father and his daughter, still young and living in her
father's house.
31 THE LORD SPOKE TO MOSES and said, 'You are to exact vengeance for
Israel on the Midianites and then you will be gathered to your father's kin.'
Then Moses spoke to the people in these words: 'Let some men among
you be drafted for active service. They shall fall upon Midian and exact
vengeance in the LORD's name. You shall send out a thousand men from
each of the tribes of Israel.' So the men were called up from the clans of
Israel, a thousand from each tribe, twelve thousand in all, drafted for active
service. Moses sent out this force, a thousand from each tribe, with
Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest, who was in charge of the holy vessels
and of the trumpets to give the signal for the battle cry. They made war
on Midian as the LORD had commanded Moses, and slew all the men. In
addition to those slain in battle they killed the kings of Midian——Evi,
Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian——and they put to
death also Balaam son of Beor. The Israelites took captive the Midianite
women and their dependants, and carried off all their beasts, their flocks,
and their property. They burns all their cities, in which they had settled,
and all their encampments. They took all the spoil and plunder, both
man and beast, and brought them——captives, plunder , and spoil——to Moses
and Eleazar the priest and to all the community of the Israelites, to the
camp in the lowlands of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.
Moses and Eleazar the priest and all the leaders of the community went
to meet them outside the camp. Moses spoke angrily to the officers of the
army, the commanders of units of a thousand and of a hundred, who were
returning from the campaign: 'Have you spared all the women?' he said.
'Remember, it was they who, on Balaam's departure, set about seducing
the Israelites into disloyalty to the LORD that day at Peor, so that the
plague struck the community of the LORD. Now kill every male dependant,
and kill every woman who has had intercourse with a man, but spare for
yourselves every woman among them who has not had intercourse. You
yourselves, every one of you who has taken life and every one who has
touched the dead, must remain outside the camp for seven days. Purify
yourselves and your captives on the third day and on the seventh day, and
purify also every piece of clothing, every article made of skin, everything
woven of goat's hair, and everything made of wood.'
Eleazar the priest said to the soldiers returning from battle, 'This is a
law and statute which the LORD has ordained through Moses. Anything
which will stand fire, whether gold, silver, copper, iron, tin, or lead, you
shall pass through the fire and then it will be clean. Other things shall be
purified by the water of ritual purification; whatever cannot stand fire shall
be passed through the water. On the seventh day you shall wash your
clothes, and then be clean; after this you may re-enter the camp.'
The LORD spoke to Moses and said, 'Count all that has been captured,
man or beast, you and Eleazar the priest and the heads of families in the
community, and divide it equally between the fighting men who went on
the campaign and the whole community. You shall levy a tax for the LORD:
from the combatants it shall be one out of every five hundred, whether
men, cattle, asses, or sheep, to be taken out of their share and given to
Eleazar the priest as a contribution for the LORD. Out of the share of the
Israelites it shall be one out of every fifty taken, whether man or beast,
cattle, asses, or sheep, to be given to the Levites who are in charge of the
LORD's Tabernacle.'
Moses and Eleazar the priest did as the LORD had commanded Moses.
These were the spoils, over and above the plunder taken by the fighting
men: six hundred and seventy-five thousand sheep, seventy-two thousand
cattle, sixty-one thousand asses; and of persons, thirty-two thousand girls
who had had no intercourse with a man.
The half-share of those who took part in the campaign was thus three
hundred and thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep, the tax for the
LORD from these being six hundred and seventy-five; thirty-six thousand
cattle, the tax being seventy-two; thirty thousand five hundred asses, the
tax being sixty one; and sixteen thousand persons, the tax being thirty-
two. Moses gave Eleazar the priest the tax levied for the LORD, as the LORD
had commanded him.
The share of the community, being the half-share for the Israelites
which Moses divided off from that of the combatants, was three hundred
and thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep, thirty-six thousand cattle,
thirty thousand five hundred asses, and sixteen thousand persons. Moses
took one out of every fifty, whether man or beast, from the half-share of the
Israelites, and gave it to the Levites who were in charge of the LORD's
Tabernacle, as the LORD had commanded him.
Then the officers who had commanded the forces on the campaign, the
commanders of units of a thousand and of a hundred, came to Moses and
said to him, 'Sir, we have checked the roll of the fighting men who were
under our command, and not one of them is missing. So we have brought
the gold ornaments, the armlets, bracelets, finger-rings, earrings, and
pendants that each man has found, to offer them before the LORD as a
ransom for our lives.'
Moses and Eleazar the priest received this gold from the commanders
of units of a thousand and of a hundred, all of it craftsman's work, and the
gold thus levied as a contribution to the LORD weighed sixteen thousand
seven hundred and fifty shekels; for every man in the army had taken
plunder. So Moses and Eleazar the priest received the gold from the com-
manders of units of a thousand and of a hundred, and brought it to the
Tent of the Presence that the LORD might remember Israel.
32 Now the Reubenites and the Gadites had large and very numerous
flocks, and when they saw that the land of Jazer and Gilead was good
grazing country, they came and said to Moses and Eleazar the priest and
the leaders of the community, 'Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon,
Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo, and Beon, the region which the LORD has subdued
before the advance of the Israelite community, is grazing country, and our
flocks are our livelihood. If', they said, 'we have found favour with you,
sir, then let this country be given to us as our possession, and do not make
us cross at the Jordan.' Moses replied to the Gadites and the Reubenites,
'Are your kinsmen to go into battle while you stay here? How dare you dis-
courage the Israelites from crossing over to the land which the LORD has
given them? This is what your fathers did when I sent them out from
Kadesh-barnea to view the land. They went up as far as the gorge of
Eshcol and viewed the land, and on their return so discouraged the Israel-
ites that they would not enter the land which the LORD had given them.
The LORD became angry that day, and he solemnly swore: "Because they
have not followed me with their whole heart, none of the men who came
out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upwards, shall see the land which
I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." This meant all except
Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua son of Nun, who fol-
lowed the LORD with their whole heart. The LORD became angry with
Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness for forty years until
that whole generation was dead which had done what was wrong in his
eyes. And now you are following in your fathers' footsteps, a fresh brood
of sinful men to fire the LORD's anger once more against Israel; for if you
refuse to follow him, he will again abandon this whole people in the wilder-
ness and you will be the cause of their destruction.'
Presently they came forward with this offer: 'We will build folds for our
sheep here and towns for our dependents. Then we can be drafted as a
fighting force to go at the head of the Israelites until we have brought them
to the lands that will be theirs. Meanwhile our dependents can live in the
walled towns, safe from the people of the country. We will not return
until every Israelite is settled in possession of his patrimony; we will claim
no share of the land with them over the Jordan and beyond, because our
patrimony has already been allotted to us east of the Jordan.' Moses
answered, 'If you stand by your promise, if in the presence of the LORD
you are drafted for battle, and the whole draft crosses the Jordan in front of
the LORD and remains there until the LORD has driven out his enemies, and
the land falls before him, then you may come back and be quit of your
obligation to the LORD and to Israel; and this land shall be your possession
in the sight of the LORD. But I warn you, if you fail to do all this, you will
have sinned against the LORD, and your sin will find you out. So build
towns for your dependants and folds for your sheep; but carry out your
promise.'
The Gadites and Reubenites answered Moses, 'Sir, we are your servants
and will do as you command. Our dependants and wives, our flocks and
all our beasts shall remain here in the cities of Gilead; but we, all who have
been drafted for active service with the LORD, will cross the river and fight,
according to your command.'
Accordingly Moses gave these instructions to Eleazar the priest and
Joshua son of Nun and to the heads of the families in the Israelite tribes:
'If the Gadites and Reubenites, all who have been drafted for battle before
the LORD, cross the Jordan with you, and if the land falls into your hands,
then you shall give them Gilead for their possession. But if, thus drafted,
they fail to cross with you, then they shall acquire land alongside you in
Canaan.' The Gadites and Reubenites said in response, 'Sir, the LORD
has spoken, and we will obey. Once we have been drafted, we will cross
over before the LORD into Canaan; then we shall have our patrimony here
beyond the Jordan.'
So the Gadites, the Reubenites, and half the tribe of Manasseh son
of Joseph, Moses gave the kingdoms of Sihon king of the Amorites and
Og king of Bashan, the whole land with its towns and the country round
them. The Gadites built Dibon, Ataroth, Aroer, Atroth-shophan, Jazer,
Jogbehah, Beth-nimrah, and Beth-haran, all of them walled towns with
folds for their sheep. The Reubenites built Heshbon, Elealeh, Kiriathaim,
Nebo, Baal-meon (whose name was changed), and Sibmah; these were the
names they gave to the towns they built. The sons of Machir son of Manas-
seh invaded Gilead, took it and drove out the Amorite inhabitants; Moses
then assigned Gilead to Machir son of Manasseh, and he made his home
their. Jair son of Manasseh attacked and took the tent-villages of Ham
and called them Havvoth-jair. Nobah attacked and took Kenath and its
villages and gave it his own name, Nobah.
33 THESE ARE THE STAGES in the journey of the Israelites, when they were
led by Moses and Aaron in their tribal hosts out of Egypt. Moses recorded
their starting-points stage by stage as the LORD commanded him. These
are their stages from one starting point to the next:
The Israelites left Rameses on the fifteenth day of the first month, the
day after Passover; they marched out defiantly in full view of all the
Egyptians, while the Egyptians were burying all the first-born struck down
by the LORD as a judgement on their gods.
The Israelites left Rameses and encamped at Succoth.
They left Succoth and encamped at Etham on the edge of the wilderness.
They left Etham, turned back near Pi-harhiroth on the east of Baal-
zephon, and encamped before Migdol.
They left Pi-hahiroth, passed through the Sea into the wilderness,
marched for three days through the wilderness of Etham, and encamped
at Marah.
They left Marah and came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of
water and seventy palm-trees, and encamped there.
They left Elim and encamped by the Red Sea.
They left the Red Sea and encamped in the wilderness of Sin.
They left the wilderness of Sin and encamped at Dophkah.
They left Dophkah and encamped at Alush.
They left Alush and encamped at Rephidim, where there was no water
for the people to drink.
The left Rephidim and encamped in the wilderness of Sinai.
They left the wilderness of Sinai and encamped at Kibroth-hattaavah.
They left Kibroth-hattaavah and encamped at Hazeroth.
They left Hazeroth and encamped at Rithmah.
They left Rithmah and encamped at Rimmon-parez.
They left Rimmon-parez and encamped at Libnah.
They left Libnah and encamped at Rissah.
They left Rissah and encamped at Kehelathah.
They left Kehelathah and encamped at Mount Shapher.
They left Mount Shapher and encamped at Haradah.
They left Haradah and encamped at Makeloth.
They left Makeloth and encamped at Tahath.
They left Tahath and encamped at Mithcah.
They left Mithcah and encamped at Hashmonah.
They left Hashmonah and encamped at Moseroth.
They left Moseroth and encamped at Bene-jaakan
They left Bene-jaakan and encamped at Hor-haggidgad.
They left Hor-haggigad and encamped at Jotbathah.
They left Jotbathah and encamped at Ezion-geber.
They left Ezion-geber and encamped in the wilderness of Zin, that is of
Kadesh.
They left Kadesh and encamped on Mount Hor on the frontier of Edom.
Aaron the priest went up Mount Hor at the command of the LORD and
there he died, on the first day of the fifth month in the fortieth year after
the Israelites came out of Egypt; he was a hundred and twenty-three years
old when he died there.
The Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the Canaanite Negeb, heard
that the Israelites were coming.
They left Mount Hor and encamped at Zalmonah.
They left Zalmonah and encamped at Punon.
They left Punon and encamped at Oboth.
They left Oboth and encamped at Iye-abarim on the frontier of Moab.
They left Iyim and encamped at Dibon-gad.
They left Dibon-gad and encamped at Almon-diblathaim.
They left Almon-diblathaim and encamped in the mountains of Abarim
east of Nebo.
They left the mountains of Abarim and encamped in the lowlands of
Moab by the Jordan near Jericho. Their camp beside the Jordan extended
from Beth-jeshimon to Abel-shittim in the lowlands of Moab. In the
lowlands of Moab by the Jordan near Jericho the LORD spoke to Moses and
said, Speak to the Israelites in these words: You will soon be crossing the
Jordan to enter Canaan. You must drive out all its inhabitants as you
advance, destroy all their carved figures and their images of cast metal,
and lay their hill-shrines in ruins. You must take possession of the land
and settle there, for to you I have given the land to occupy. You must divide
it by lot among your families, each taking its own territory, the larger family
a large territory and the small family a small. It shall be assigned to them
according to the fall of the lot, each tribe and family taking its own territory.
If you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land as you advance, any
whom you leave in possession will become like a barbed hook in your eye
and a thorn in your side. They shall continually dispute your possession
of the land, and what I meant to do to them I will do to you.
34 The LORD spoke to Moses and said, Give these instructions to the
Israelites: Soon you will be entering Canaan. This is the land assigned to
you as a perpetual patrimony, the land of Canaan thus defined by its
frontiers. Your southern border shall start from the wilderness of Zin,
where it marches with Edom, and run southwards from the end of the
Dead Sea on its eastern side. It shall then turn from the south up the ascent
of Akrabbim and pass by Zin, and its southern limit shall be Kadesh-
barnea. It shall proceed from Hazar-addar to Azmon and from Azmon turn
towards the Torrent of Egypt, and its limit shall be the sea. Your western
frontier shall be the Great Sea and the seaboard; this shall be your frontier
to the west. This shall be your northern frontier: you shall draw a line from
the Great Sea to Mount Hor and from Mount Hor to Lebo-hamath, and
the limit of the frontier shall be Zedad. From there it shall run to Ziphron,
and its limit shall be Hazar-enan; this shall be your frontier to the north.
To the east you shall draw a line from Hazar-enan to Shepham; it shall run
down from Shepham to Riblah east of Ain, continuing until it strikes the
ridge east of the sea of Kinnereth. The frontier shall then run down to the
Jordan and its limit shall be the Dead Sea. The land defined by these
frontiers shall be your land.
Moses gave these instructions to the Israelites: This is the land which
you shall assign by lot, each taking your own territory; it is the land which
the LORD has ordered to be given to nine tribes and a half tribe. For the
Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh have already
occupied their territories, family by family. These two and a half tribes
have received their territory here beyond the Jordan, east of Jericho,
towards the sunrise.
The LORD spoke to Moses and said, These are the men who shall assign
the land for you: Eleazar the priest and Joshua son of Nun. You shall also
take one chief from each tribe to assign the land. These are their names:
from the tribe of Judah: Caleb son of Jephunneh;
from the tribe of Simeon: Samuel son of Ammihud;
from the tribe of Benjamin: Elidad son of Kislon;
from the tribe of Dan: the chief Bukki son of Jogli;
from the Josephites: from Manasseh, the chief Hanniel son of Ephod;
and from Ephraim, the chief Kemuel son of Shiphtan;
from Zebulun: the chief Elizaphan son of Parnach;
from Issachar: the chief Paltiel son of Azzan;
from Asher: the chief Ahihud son of Shelomi;
from Naphtali: the chief Pedahel son of Ammihud.
These were the men whom the LORD appointed to assign the territories
in the land of Canaan.
35 THE LORD SPOKE TO MOSES in the lowlands of Moab by the Jordan near
Jericho and said: Tell the Israelites to set aside towns in their patrimony
as homes for the Levites, and give them also the common land surrounding
the towns. They shall live in towns, and keep their beasts, their herds,
and all their livestock on the common land. The land of the towns which
you give the Levites shall extend from the centre of the town outwards for
a thousand cubits in each direction. Starting from the town the eastern
boundary shall measure two thousand cubits, the southern two thousand,
the western two thousand, and the northern two thousand, when the town
in the centre. They shall have this as the common land adjoining their
towns.
When you give the Levites their towns, six of them shall be cities of
refuge, in which the homicide may take sanctuary; and you shall give them
forty-two other towns. The total number of towns to be given to the
Levites, each with its common land, is forty-eight. When you set aside
these towns out of the territory of the Israelites, you shall allot more from
the larger tribe and less from the smaller; each tribe shall give towns to the
Levites in proportion to the patrimony assigned to it.
The LORD spoke to Moses and said, Speak to the Israelites in these
words: You are crossing the Jordan to the land of Canaan. You shall
designate certain cities to be places of refuge, in which the homicide who
has killed a man by accident may take sanctuary. These cities shall be
places of refuge from the vengeance of the dead man's next-of-kin, so
that the homicide shall not be put to death without standing trial before
the community. The cities appointed as places of refuge shall be six in
number, three east of the Jordan and three in Canaan. These six cities
shall be places of refuge, so that any man who has taken life inadvertently,
whether he be Israelite, resident alien, or temporary settler, may take
sanctuary in one of them.
If the man strikes his victim with anything made of iron and he dies,
then he is a murderer: the murderer must be put to death. If a man has a
stone in his hand capable of causing death, and strikes another man
and he dies, he is a murderer: the murderer must be put to death. The dead
man's next-of kin shall put the murderer to death; he shall put him to death
because he has attacked his victim. If the homicide sets upon a man openly
of malice aforethought or aims a missile at him of set purpose and he dies,
or if in enmity he falls upon him with his bare hands and he dies, then the
assailant must be put to death; he is a murderer. His next-of-kin shall put
the murderer to death because he has attacked his victim.
If he attacks a man on the spur of the moment, not being his enemy, or
hurls a missile at him not of set purpose, or if without looking he throws a
stone capable of causing death and it hits a man, then if the man dies,
provided he was not the man's enemy and was not harming him of set
purpose, the community shall judge between the striker and the next -of-
kin according to these rules. The community shall protect the homicide
from the vengeance of the kinsman and takes him back to the city of refuge
where he has taken sanctuary. He must stay there until the death of the duly
anointed high priest. If the homicide ever goes beyond the boundaries of
the city where he has taken sanctuary, and the next-of-kin finds him outside
and kills him , then the next-of-kin shall not be guilty of murder. The
homicide must remain in the city of refuge till the death of the high priest;
after the death of the high priest he may go back to his property. These shall
be legal precedents for you for all time wherever you live.
The homicide shall be put to death as a murderer only on the testimony
of witnesses; the testimony of a single witness shall not be enough to bring
him to his death. You shall not accept payment for the life of a homicide
guilty of a capital offence; he must be put to death. You shall not accept a
payment from a man who has taken sanctuary in a city of refuge, allowing
him to go back before the death of the high priest and live at large. You shall
not defile your land by bloodshed. Blood defiles the land, and expiation
cannot be made on behalf of the land for blood shed on it except by the
blood of the man that shed it. You shall not make the land which you
inhabit unclean, the land in which I dwell; for I, the LORD dwell among the
Israelites.
36 THE HEADS OF THE FATHERS' FAMILIES OF GILEAD son of Machir,
son of Manasseh, one of the families of the sons of Joseph, approached
Moses and the chiefs, heads of families in Israel, and addressed them.
'Sir,' they said, 'the LORD commanded you to distribute the land by lot to
the Israelites, and you were also commanded to give the patrimony of our
brother Zelophehad to his daughters. Now if any of them shall be married
to a husband from another Israelite tribe, her patrimony will be last to the
patrimony of our fathers and be added to that of the tribe into which she is
married, and so part of our allotted patrimony will be lost. Then, when
the jubilee year comes round in Israel, her patrimony would be added to
the patrimony of the tribe into which she is married, and it would be
permanently lost to the patrimony of our fathers' tribe.'
So Moses, instructed by the LORD, gave the Israelites this ruling: 'The
tribe of the Sons of Joseph is right. This is the LORD's command for the
daughters of Zelophehad: They may marry whom they please, but only
within a family of their father's tribe. No patrimony in Israel shall pass from
tribe to tribe, but every Israelite shall retain his father's patrimony. Any
woman of an Israelite tribe who is an heiress may marry a man from any
family in her father's tribe. Thus the Israelites shall retain each one the
patrimony of his forefathers. No patrimony shall pass from one tribe to
another, but every tribe in Israel shall retain its own patrimony.'
The daughters of Zelophehad acted in accordance with the LORD's
command to Moses; Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah and Noah, the
daughters of Zelophehad, married sons of their father's brothers. They
married within families of the sons of Manasseh son of Joseph, and
their patrimony remained with the tribe of their father's family.
These are the commandments and the decrees which the LORD issued
to the Israelites through Moses in the lowlands of Moab by the Jordan
near Jericho.
The New English Bible (with Apocrypha)
Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, 1970
Posted Apr 16, 2019, 2:42 PM UTC
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