DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR SUNDAY FEBRUARY 19:
DAILY BIBLE READING
NOTE: CONGRATULATIONS to all who are still hanging with us in the "Daily Bible
Reading." Leviticus and Numbers are two of the most difficult books to get
through. Today is the last 3 chapters in Numbers. You are going to be glad
you didn't quit!!!
Numbers 34-36New King James Version (NKJV)
The Appointed Boundaries of Canaan
34 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Command the children of Israel,
and say to them: ‘When you come into the land of Canaan, this is the land that
shall fall to you as an inheritance—the land of Canaan to its boundaries. 3
Your southern border shall be from the Wilderness of Zin along the border of
Edom; then your southern border shall extend eastward to the end of the Salt
Sea; 4 your border shall turn from the southern side of the Ascent of
Akrabbim, continue to Zin, and be on the south of Kadesh Barnea; then it shall
go on to Hazar Addar, and continue to Azmon; 5 the border shall turn from
Azmon to the Brook of Egypt, and it shall end at the Sea.
6 ‘As for the western border, you shall have the Great Sea for a border; this
shall be your western border.
7 ‘And this shall be your northern border: From the Great Sea you shall mark
out your border line to Mount Hor; 8 from Mount Hor you shall mark out your
border to the entrance of Hamath; then the direction of the border shall be
toward Zedad; 9 the border shall proceed to Ziphron, and it shall end at Hazar
Enan. This shall be your northern border.
10 ‘You shall mark out your eastern border from Hazar Enan to Shepham; 11 the
border shall go down from Shepham to Riblah on the east side of Ain; the border
shall go down and reach to the eastern side of the Sea of Chinnereth; 12 the
border shall go down along the Jordan, and it shall end at the Salt Sea. This
shall be your land with its surrounding boundaries.’”
13 Then Moses commanded the children of Israel, saying: “This is the land which
you shall inherit by lot, which the Lord has commanded to give to the nine
tribes and to the half-tribe. 14 For the tribe of the children of Reuben
according to the house of their fathers, and the tribe of the children of Gad
according to the house of their fathers, have received their inheritance; and
the half-tribe of Manasseh has received its inheritance. 15 The two tribes and
the half-tribe have received their inheritance on this side of the Jordan,
across from Jericho eastward, toward the sunrise.”
The Leaders Appointed to Divide the Land
16 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 17 “These are the names of the men who
shall divide the land among you as an inheritance: Eleazar the priest and
Joshua the son of Nun. 18 And you shall take one leader of every tribe to
divide the land for the inheritance. 19 These are the names of the men: from
the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh; 20 from the tribe of the
children of Simeon, Shemuel the son of Ammihud; 21 from the tribe of Benjamin,
Elidad the son of Chislon; 22 a leader from the tribe of the children of Dan,
Bukki the son of Jogli; 23 from the sons of Joseph: a leader from the tribe of
the children of Manasseh, Hanniel the son of Ephod, 24 and a leader from the
tribe of the children of Ephraim, Kemuel the son of Shiphtan; 25 a leader from
the tribe of the children of Zebulun, Elizaphan the son of Parnach; 26 a
leader from the tribe of the children of Issachar, Paltiel the son of Azzan;
27 a leader from the tribe of the children of Asher, Ahihud the son of Shelomi;
28 and a leader from the tribe of the children of Naphtali, Pedahel the son of
Ammihud.”
29 These are the ones the Lord commanded to divide the inheritance among the
children of Israel in the land of Canaan.
Cities for the Levites
35 And the Lord spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from
Jericho, saying: 2 “Command the children of Israel that they give the Levites
cities to dwell in from the inheritance of their possession, and you shall also
give the Levites common-land around the cities. 3 They shall have the cities
to dwell in; and their common-land shall be for their cattle, for their herds,
and for all their animals. 4 The common-land of the cities which you will give
the Levites shall extend from the wall of the city outward a thousand cubits
all around. 5 And you shall measure outside the city on the east side two
thousand cubits, on the south side two thousand cubits, on the west side two
thousand cubits, and on the north side two thousand cubits. The city shall be
in the middle. This shall belong to them as common-land for the cities.
6 “Now among the cities which you will give to the Levites you shall appoint
six cities of refuge, to which a manslayer may flee. And to these you shall add
forty-two cities. 7 So all the cities you will give to the Levites shall be
forty-eight; these you shall give with their common-land. 8 And the cities
which you will give shall be from the possession of the children of Israel;
from the larger tribe you shall give many, from the smaller you shall give few.
Each shall give some of its cities to the Levites, in proportion to the
inheritance that each receives.”
Cities of Refuge
9 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 10 “Speak to the children of Israel,
and say to them: ‘When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, 11 then
you shall appoint cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the manslayer who
kills any person accidentally may flee there. 12 They shall be cities of
refuge for you from the avenger, that the manslayer may not die until he stands
before the congregation in judgment. 13 And of the cities which you give, you
shall have six cities of refuge. 14 You shall appoint three cities on this
side of the Jordan, and three cities you shall appoint in the land of Canaan,
which will be cities of refuge. 15 These six cities shall be for refuge for
the children of Israel, for the stranger, and for the sojourner among them,
that anyone who kills a person accidentally may flee there.
16 ‘But if he strikes him with an iron implement, so that he dies, he is a
murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death. 17 And if he strikes him
with a stone in the hand, by which one could die, and he does die, he is a
murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death. 18 Or if he strikes him
with a wooden hand weapon, by which one could die, and he does die, he is a
murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death. 19 The avenger of blood
himself shall put the murderer to death; when he meets him, he shall put him to
death. 20 If he pushes him out of hatred or, while lying in wait, hurls
something at him so that he dies, 21 or in enmity he strikes him with his hand
so that he dies, the one who struck him shall surely be put to death. He is a
murderer. The avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death when he meets
him.
22 ‘However, if he pushes him suddenly without enmity, or throws anything at
him without lying in wait, 23 or uses a stone, by which a man could die,
throwing it at him without seeing him, so that he dies, while he was not his
enemy or seeking his harm, 24 then the congregation shall judge between the
manslayer and the avenger of blood according to these judgments. 25 So the
congregation shall deliver the manslayer from the hand of the avenger of blood,
and the congregation shall return him to the city of refuge where he had fled,
and he shall remain there until the death of the high priest who was anointed
with the holy oil. 26 But if the manslayer at any time goes outside the limits
of the city of refuge where he fled, 27 and the avenger of blood finds him
outside the limits of his city of refuge, and the avenger of blood kills the
manslayer, he shall not be guilty of blood, 28 because he should have remained
in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest. But after the death
of the high priest the manslayer may return to the land of his possession.
29 ‘And these things shall be a statute of judgment to you throughout your
generations in all your dwellings. 30 Whoever kills a person, the murderer
shall be put to death on the testimony of witnesses; but one witness is not
sufficient testimony against a person for the death penalty. 31 Moreover you
shall take no ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death, but he
shall surely be put to death. 32 And you shall take no ransom for him who has
fled to his city of refuge, that he may return to dwell in the land before the
death of the priest. 33 So you shall not pollute the land where you are; for
blood defiles the land, and no atonement can be made for the land, for the
blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it. 34 Therefore
do not defile the land which you inhabit, in the midst of which I dwell; for I
the Lord dwell among the children of Israel.’”
Marriage of Female Heirs
36 Now the chief fathers of the families of the children of Gilead the son of
Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of the sons of Joseph, came near
and spoke before Moses and before the leaders, the chief fathers of the
children of Israel. 2 And they said: “The Lord commanded my lord Moses to give
the land as an inheritance by lot to the children of Israel, and my lord was
commanded by the Lord to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad to his
daughters. 3 Now if they are married to any of the sons of the other tribes of
the children of Israel, then their inheritance will be taken from the
inheritance of our fathers, and it will be added to the inheritance of the
tribe into which they marry; so it will be taken from the lot of our
inheritance. 4 And when the Jubilee of the children of Israel comes, then
their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they
marry; so their inheritance will be taken away from the inheritance of the
tribe of our fathers.”
5 Then Moses commanded the children of Israel according to the word of the
Lord, saying: “What the tribe of the sons of Joseph speaks is right. 6 This is
what the Lord commands concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, saying, ‘Let
them marry whom they think best, but they may marry only within the family of
their father’s tribe.’ 7 So the inheritance of the children of Israel shall
not change hands from tribe to tribe, for every one of the children of Israel
shall keep the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers. 8 And every daughter
who possesses an inheritance in any tribe of the children of Israel shall be
the wife of one of the family of her father’s tribe, so that the children of
Israel each may possess the inheritance of his fathers. 9 Thus no inheritance
shall change hands from one tribe to another, but every tribe of the children
of Israel shall keep its own inheritance.”
10 Just as the Lord commanded Moses, so did the daughters of Zelophehad; 11
for Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were
married to the sons of their father’s brothers. 12 They were married into the
families of the children of Manasseh the son of Joseph, and their inheritance
remained in the tribe of their father’s family.
13 These are the commandments and the judgments which the Lord commanded the
children of Israel by the hand of Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan,
across from Jericho.
New King James Version (NKJV)
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas
Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
