 21 When the Canaanites of the Kingdom of Arad, who occupied the south, heard that Israel was coming by the road of the Atharim, they fought with Israel and took some of them prisoners. Then Israel waved a vow to the ever-living and said, If you will give this people to my hand, then I will destroy their towns! And the ever-living listened to the voice of Israel and gave them the Canaanites, so they destroyed them and their towns, and named the district Destruction. Then they marched from the peak of the Highlands towards the Sea of Weeds and skirted the land of Edom. But the retreat depressed the spirit of the people, so the people spoke against God and against Moses. Why have you brought us up from the Mitsarayim to die in a desert where there is neither bread nor water and our spirits depressed by this vile food? The Lord therefore sent to the people inflammatory serpents who stung the people, and a great number of the people of Israel died. Then the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned because we have spoken against the ever-living and against you. Pray to Jehovah that he may send the serpents away from us. So Moses prayed on account of the people. Then the ever-living said to Moses, Make for yourself a fiery serpent and put it up as a standard, and it shall be that when any one is stung he can look upon it and live. Then Moses made a serpent of brass and set it up as a standard, and when any one was stung by a serpent and looked upon that serpent of brass he lived. The children of Israel afterwards marched and encamped in Aboth. Then they marched to I.E. on the Fords, in the desert which is facing Moab, away from the rising sun. From there they marched and encamped at the Brook of Arad. From there they marched and encamped at the Fort of Arnon which is in the desert that extends as a boundary for the Amorites. For the Arnon was the boundary between Moab and the Amorites, as it is said in The Book of the Wars of the Lord. At Suf he was parched and the gorges of Arnon, the cliffs that leaned down from the dwellings of Ar and sloped to the boundary of Moab, and from there to the Well. This is the Well where the Everliving said to Moses, Let the people rest and provide them water. Then Israel sang this song. Spring up well to refresh us, dug by rejoicing princes, by the people's chiefs and ruler, a refreshing gift in the desert, and a gift from the rivers of God, from the rivers of God in the hills, from the heights it passed to the valley, to Moab's plain from the peak of Pisca, and clothed the face of the waist. Then Israel sent ambassadors to Sihon, king of the Amorites, saying, I wish to pass through your country, I will not extend into the farms and vineyards, I will not drink water from the wells, and I will march on the traveler's highway only until I have passed over your boundaries. But Sihon would not allow Israel to pass over his borders, so Sihon collected all his forces and advanced to attack Israel in the desert. When he arrived at Yatz, he fought with Israel, but Israel defeated him by the sword, and seized the country from the Arnan as far as the Jabak from the Sons of Ammon. For that is the boundary of the Amorites. The Israelites also captured all the cities. Israel occupied all the villages of the Amorites, with Heshban and all its villages. For Heshban was the capital of Sihon, the king of the Amorites, for formerly he had a war with the king of Moab, and took the whole of his country from his possession as far as the Arnan. Therefore the poets say, Bring straw to Heshban and build a city for Sihon. For a fire coming from Heshban, a flame from the palace of Sihon, has burnt up our of Moab, going up to the cliffs of Arnan. Alas for you Moab, the people of Qimosh, your sons are given to flight, and your girls as slaves to Sihon, the Amorite king, and the archers destroy from Heshban to Daibon, and waste from Naaf as far as to Mithba. Moses then sent infantry to Aizur, who captured it and its villages, and they drove out the Amorites who were there. Then they turned and ascended by the road from Heshban, when Og, king of Bashan, advanced to attack them, he and all his forces in the battle of Edriai. But the everliving said to Moses, Fear him not, for I will give him into your hand, him and all his people and his country, and you shall do to him as you did to Sihon, king of the Amorites, who resided in Heshban. They consequently defeated him and his sons, and all his forces, until there was not a detachment left to him, and they seized his country. CHAPTER XXII Then the children of Israel marched and encamped again at the fords of Moab, at the ford of the torrent opposite Jericho. When Belak the son of Ziphor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites, Moab was greatly terrified at the presence of the people, for they were many, and Moab was startled at the sight of the children of Israel. Therefore Moab said to the judges of Midian, Now this crowd is licking up all round about us like a bollock licks up the grass of the field! So Belak the son of Ziphor, the king of Moab, was terrified. Consequently he sent ambassadors to Balaam the son of Bior, of Pithor, which is by the river of the land of the sons of Amor, to invite him, saying, A nation has come up from the Mitsarayim and covers the face of the country, and it occupies my borders. So now I pray you to come and curse this people for me, for it is stronger than mine, so that I may be able to defeat and drive it from the country, for I know that whoever you bless is lucky, and whoever you curse is unfortunate. The princes of Moab consequently went with the princes of Midian, with presence in their hands, and came to Balaam and gave him the message of Belak, and he replied, Stay here tonight, and I will return to you the answer that the ever-living dictates to me. So the princes of Moab stayed with Balaam. But a divine messenger came to Balaam and asked, Who are these men with you? And Balaam replied, Belak the son of Ziphor, king of Moab, has sent to me. There is a people that has come from Mitsarayim and it covers the face of the country. Now come, curse it for me, so that I may be able to fight with and drive it away. Then the messenger replied to Balaam, You must not go with them, nor curse this people, for it is blessed. Balaam therefore arose in the morning and said to the princes of Balaam, Return to your own country, for the ever-living refuses to allow me to go with you. So the princes of Moab arose and went to Balaam and said, Balaam refused to come with us. However Balaam proceeded to send again more princes and of higher rank than the former, and they came to Balaam and said to him, Balaam the son of Ziphor says thus, Do not refuse, I pray you to come to me, for I will honor you very greatly, and whatever you demand of me I will do, only come I entreat you to curse this people for me. But Balaam replied and said, If Balaak would give to me his palace full of silver and gold, I should not be able to pass beyond the command of the ever-living God to do little or much. But yet rest yourselves, I beg here tonight, and I will learn what the ever-living may say again to me. A divine messenger then came to Balaam at night and said to him, If these men invite you, arise, go with them, but you shall execute the command that I shall command you. Therefore Balaam arose at daybreak and saddled his ass and went with the princes of Moab. But God was angry because he went and placed a messenger of the ever-living in the path to oppose him as he rode on his ass, and the two youths with him and the ass saw the messenger of Jehovah stationed in the path with a drawn sword in his hand. So the ass turned out of the path and went on to the field. But Balaam struck the ass to turn her into the path. Then the messenger of Jehovah placed himself in the hollow path of a vineyard with a wall on both sides. But the ass saw the messenger of Jehovah and she pressed against the wall and squeezed the leg of Balaam against the wall and refused to go forward. Then the messenger of Jehovah passed on and stationed himself in a narrow place where there was no room to turn to the right or to the left. But the ass saw the messenger of Jehovah and crouched down under Balaam. And Balaam was furious and struck the ass with his stick. Then the ever-living opened the mouth of the ass, and she said to Balaam, What have I done to you that you have struck me these three times? But Balaam answered the ass, Because you have vexed me. I wish there were a sword handy to me that I might kill you on the spot. The ass, however, replied to Balaam, Am I not your own ass, upon whom you have ridden from the day I was yours? Have I been accustomed to do this to you? And he answered, No. Then Jehovah opened the eyes of Balaam and he also saw the messenger of the ever-living standing in the path with a drawn sword in his hand, and he bowed and made reverence before him. But the messenger of the ever-living said to him, Why have you struck your ass these three times? I was sent to oppose you, for your conduct is perverse before me. And the ass saw me and turned from my face these three times. If she had not turned away from me, I should most certainly have struck and slain you, but yet preserved her alive. Then Balaam said to the messenger of Jehovah, I have sinned, but I did not know that you stood to meet me in the path, yet now if I am wrong in your sight I will return home. The messenger of the ever-living, however, replied to Balaam, Go with these men, but accept the words that I shall command you, utter nothing. So Balaam went with the princes of Balaak. When Balaak heard that Balaam was coming he went out to meet him to Ar of Moab, which is on the banks of the Arnan where his border ends. And Balaak said to Balaam, Did I not send you to invite you? Why did you not come to me? Am I not quite able to honor you? But Balaam answered Balaak, Although I have come to you, I am not now able to speak a word except what the ever-living puts into my mouth, that I must utter. Then Balaam walked with Balaak and they went into the palace gardens where Balaak sacrificed an ox and a sheep and sent them to Balaam and to the princes who were with him. But in the morning Balaak took Balaam and ascended the tower of Baal and showed from there the whole mass of the people. CHAPTER XXIII Then Balaam said to Balaak, Build for me here seven alters and prepare for me here seven bullocks and seven rams. Balaak accordingly did, as Balaam said, and Balaak and Balaam offered up a bullock and a ram on each altar. Then Balaam said to Balaak, Stand here by your offerings and I will go yonder to meet the ever-living to inquire and whatever he may show me I will report to you. So he went to a cliff where Balaam met God and said to him, I have built seven alters and offered a bullock and a ram on each altar. The ever-living then put a speech into the mouth of Balaam and said, Return to Balaak and say thus! So he returned to Balaak, who stood by his offerings, he and all the princes of Moab, and he there began his poem, and said, From a ram, Balaak Moab's king brought me, From the hills of the east I have come. Curse for me Jacob, Insult for me Israel. How can I curse whom God has not cursed? How can I insult whom Jehovah insults not? Whom I see from the top of the rocks, And from the hills I survey him, A people dwelling alone and not mixed up with the nations. Who can number the dust of Jacob? Who can count Israel's increase? Let my life die the death of the righteous. Let my last days be like to this. Then Balaak exclaimed to Balaam, What have you done for me? I instructed you to curse my enemies, And yet you have blessed them! But he answered and said, Was it not what the ever-living put into my mouth? I was obliged to speak it. Balaak, however, answered him, Come then with me to another place where you can look and only see a part of the encampment, and not survey the whole, and curse them from there. So he took him to the field of towers at the top of Pisca, and built seven altars, and offered a bullock and a ram on each altar. Then he said to Balaak, Stand here by the offerings and I will go yonder. Then the ever-living met Balaam and put a speech in his mouth, and said, Return to Balaak and say thus. So he went to him and found him standing by his offerings and the princes of Moab with him, and Balaak asked him, What does the ever-living command? Then he began his poem, and said, Stand up, Balaak, and here. Listen intently, son of Tsifor. God is not a man to lie, or a son of man to change his purpose. He has said, and will he not do, and spoken, will he not perform? Blessing, he ordered me to bless, and I cannot reverse it. He perceived no fault in Jacob, and saw not in Israel wrong. The living God is with him, and a kingly cheer is his. God brought him up from Mitzar, he is like to a mighty bull. There is no chain for Jacob, for Israel no subjector. In time they will say of Jacob in Israel what wonder is God has done. See the people, how it advances, like a lion it rears and stands. It lies not down till the prey is devoured, and its thirst is quenched in blood. Balaak then exclaimed to Balaam, Alas, cursing you have not cursed, but blessing you have blessed! But Balaam responded and said to Balaak, Did I not tell you this, saying, All that the ever-living commands to me I must do? And Balaak answered to Balaam, Come now, I will take you to another place. Perhaps it may be right in the eyes of the gods, and they may curse for me from there. So Balaak took Balaam to the top of the gorge of Par, to the cliff opposite the desert. There Balaam said to Balaak, Build for me here seven altars, and prepare for me seven bullocks and seven rams. And Balaak did as Balaam told him, and offered a bullock and a ram on each altar. CHAPTER XXIV But Balaam saw that it was good in the eyes of the ever-living to bless Israel. Therefore he went not, as at the other times, to call upon snakes, but turned his face towards the wilderness, and seeing Israel encamped by tribes, and seeing the spirit of the ever-living above them. He began his poem, and said, Balaam the son of Bior says, And the man with opened eyes declares, Who heard the speaking god dictate, who saw the almighty life, Entranced but yet with opened eyes. How lovely Jacob are your halls! What tents are yours, O Israel? They wave like rivers, Like watered gardens, like groves the Lord has planted, Like cedars beside the brooks, Dewdrops hang from his leaves, And his seed has plenty of water. His king shall be greater than Agag, and his dominions exalted. God brought him from Mitzar, what a mighty bull he is! He devours opposing nations, grinds their bones, and crushes the splinters. He shall couch his paws like a lion, like a tiger, who dare arouse him, Who blesses you, myself will bless, and I will curse your cursor. Balaak then became furious with Balaam, and struck his hands together, and Balaak exclaimed at Balaam, I invited you to curse my enemy, and yet you have blessed him these three times. So now be off by yourself to your own country. I said I would ennoble you, but however the Lord keeps you from honors. Balaam however replied to Balaak, Did I not also inform the ambassadors whom you sent to me, that if Balaak should give me his palace full of silver and gold, I should not be able to pass beyond the command of the ever-living to do good or bad? Whatever the ever-living commands me I must speak, and as I am going to my country I will inform you what this people will do to your people hereafter. Then he began his poem, and said, Balaam the son of Bior says, and the man with opened eyes declares, who heard the speaking God proclaims, who knows the intention of the highest, who saw the almighty in a trance, who fell when his eyes were opened. I shall see him, but not now, I behold him, but not near. He brings a star from Jacob, and from Israel wields a staff that breaks the sides of Moab, and destroys his war-like sons. And he will seize upon Edom, and possess his enemy Seer. For Israel forms his host, and Jacob's son comes down, and cuts off escape from the fort. Then he turned towards Amalek, and continued his poem, and said, Amalek was the first of the nations, but his posterity shall be destroyed. Next he looked towards the Kenai, and continued his poem, and said, You place and fix your house in the rock, yet the flame shall rage on the wall of your home. And concluding his poem, he exclaimed, Alas, who can stand against God, for he strikes with a crushing hand, then woe to Asur, and woe to Heber, for they also at last shall fail. Then Balaam arose, and went, and returned to his own country, and Balaak also went away. CHAPTER XXV But Israel remained at the Acacia Woods, and the people polluted themselves by fornication with the women of Moab, who invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods. So the people ate, and worshiped their gods, and Israel joined itself to Baal Pior. Therefore the everliving was angry with Israel, and the Lord said to Moses, Seize the whole of the chiefs of the people, and hang them before the everliving in open sunlight, so that the burning anger of the Lord may be turned from Israel! Consequently Moses said to the rulers of Israel, Each of you slay the men who have joined themselves to Baal Pior! They prince of the children of Israel went and brought to his brothers a Midianitis in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the Parliament of the children of Israel, while they were weeping at the door of the Hall of Assembly. When Phineas, the son of Aliezer, the son of Aaron, the priest saw it, he arose from among the Parliament, and took a javelin in his hand, and went after the Israelite to his tent, and stabbed both the man of Israel and the woman through their bodies, and arrested the plague upon the children of Israel. But those who died from the plague were twenty-four thousand. Then the everliving spoke to Moses, commanding, Phineas, the son of Aliezer, the son of Aaron, the priest, has turned death away from the children of Israel, by the zeal with which he was zealous for me among them. Therefore I command to give to him the bond of peace, and he and his heirs after him shall have an enduring priesthood, because he was zealous for his God, therefore he shall expiate for the children of Israel. But the name of the Israelite, who was killed when the Midianitis was killed, was Zimri, the son of Salwa, an ancestral prince of the house of Simeon, and the name of the Midianitis was Kospai, the daughter of Zour, chief of a tribe of an ancestral house of Midian. The everliving spoke to Moses, commanding, assail the Midianites and cut them off from you, for they troubled you by their plots, which they contrived against you in the affair of Kospai, the daughter of a prince of Midian, their sister, who was slain at the time of the plague about the pure matter, when the plague was ended. The end of chapters twenty-one through twenty-five of the book of Numbers, recording by Mark Penfold. Chapters twenty-six through thirty-one of the book of Numbers, from the Holy Bible in modern English. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, recording by Mark Penfold. The Holy Bible in modern English, translated by Farrar Fenton. The book of Numbers, chapters twenty-six through thirty-one. Chapter twenty-six. The everliving afterwards also commanded to Moses and to Ali-Azer the son of Aaron the priest, saying, Take a census of all the families of the children of Israel, from the age of twenty years and upwards, by the houses of their ancestors, all in Israel capable of army service. Consequently Moses commanded Ali-Azer the priest, while they were at the fords of Moab, by the torrent near Jericho, saying, From the age of twenty years and upwards, as the everliving commanded to Moses, when the children of Israel were brought up from the land of Mitzar. Rubin was first born son of Israel. Of Rubin, Canak. From him were the families of the Canakites. From Thelua, the families of the Theluaites. From Hezron the families of the Hezronites. From Karmai the families of the Karmites. These were the families of the Rubinites, and there were enrolled forty-three thousand seven hundred and thirty. And the son of Thelua was Eliab. And the sons of Eliab, Nemuel and Dathan and Abiram. From him came Dathan and Abiram, who excited the parliament that revolted against Moses and Aaron in the revolt of Korah, when they rebelled against the everliving. But the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them and Korah into death, with all those persons, to the number of one hundred and fifty men who had joined them. But the son of Korah did not die. The sons of Simeon by their families were, From Namuel the families of the Namuelites. From Jamin the families of the Jaminites. From Jaqin the families of the Jaqinites. From Zarak the families of the Zarakites. From Shaul the families of the Shaulites. This were the families of the Simeonites, twenty-two thousand two hundred. The sons of Gad by their families were, From Ziphon the families of the Ziphonites. From Kagai the families of the Kagites. From Shunai the families of the Shunites. From Asni the families of the Asnites. From Arai the families of the Araites. From Arad the families of the Aradites. These were the families of the sons of Gad. There were enrolled of them forty-thousand five hundred. The sons of Judah, Ar and Onan. But Ar and Onan died in the land of Canaan. These, however, were the sons of Judah by their families. From Shela the families of the Shelaites. From Feret the families of the Feretites. From Zarak the families of the Zarakites. From Zarak the families of the Zarakites. And there were of the sons of Feretites. From Katsran the families of the Katsranites. From Kamal the families of the Kamalites. These were the families of Judah who were enrolled, seventy-six thousand five hundred. The sons of Issachar by their families were, From Thola the families of the Tholites. From Fua the families of the Fuites. From Yashub the families of the Yashubites. From Shimran the families of the Shimranites. These were the families of Issachar with an enrollment of sixty-four thousand three hundred. The sons of Zebulon by their families were, From Sored the families of the Soredites. From Alon the families of the Alonites. From Yaqlal the families of the Yaqlalites. These were the families of the Zebulonites with an enrollment of sixty-thousand five hundred. The sons of Joseph by the families of Manasseh and Ephraim were, The sons of Manasseh. From Makir the families of the Makirites. But Makir begat Gilad. From Gilad were the families of the Giladites. These were the sons of Gilad. From Aizar the families of the Aizarites. From Kilag the families of the Kilagites. From Asriel the families of the Asrielites. From Shechem the families of the Shechemites. From Shamida the families of the Shamidaites. From Kefair the families of the Kefairites. From Tsilavkad the son of Kifir. There were no sons but only daughters. And the names of the daughters of Tsilavkad were Maklal and Noah, Kaglal, Milqar and Thirtsa. These were the families of Manasseh enrolled, fifty-two thousand and seven hundred. These were the sons of Ephraim by their families. From Chuthlak were the families of the Chuthakites. From Bekair the families of the Bekairites. From Thakan the families of the Thakanites. And these were the sons of Chuthlak. From Aran the families of the Aranites. These were the families of the sons of Ephraim by enrollment thirty-two thousand five hundred. These were the sons of Joseph by their families. The sons of Benjamin by their families were from Bola the families of the Bolites. From Ashbel the families of the Ashbelites. From Akkirm the families of the Akkirmites. From Shifafam the families of the Shifafamites. From Kofam the families of the Kofamites. And there were sons of Bola, Arad and Naaman. From Arad the families of the Aradites. From Naaman the families of the Naamanites. These were the sons of Benjamin by their families by enrollment forty-five thousand six hundred. These were the sons of Dan by their families. From Schucham the families of the Shuckamites. These were the families of Dan by their families. All the families of the Shuckamites by enrollment were 64,400. The sons of Asher by their families were, from Imna, the families of the Imnites, from Ishua, the families of the Ishuites, from Berea, the families of the Berea Heights, from the sons of Berea, from Keber, the families of the Keberites, from Malkiel, the families of the Malkielites, and the name of the daughter of Asher was Sarak. These were the families of the sons of Asher by enrollment, 50,400. The sons of Naftali by their families were, from Yaxal, the families of the Yaxalites, from Gunai, the families of the Gunites, from Itsrai, the families of the Itsrites, from Shilam, the families of the Shilamites. These were the families of Naftali by their families, by enrollment, 45,400. These were enrolled of the sons of Israel, 601,730. The ever-living afterwards spoke to Moses and said, �You shall divide the country into estates for them according to the number of the names. To the more numerous you shall increase the portions, and to the lesser lessen the portions. Each, according to the enrollment, shall be given their possessions. You shall distribute the portions of land by lots, they shall inherit by the names of the tribes of their fathers.� These also were the chiefs of Levi by their families, from Gershan, the families of the Gershanites, from Kehath, the families of the Kehathites, from Merari, the families of the Merarites. These are the families of the Levites, the family of Libnai, the family of Kabanai, the family of Maklai, the family of Mushai, the family of Karakai, and Kehath begat Amram, and the name of Amram�s wife was Yokabad, a descendant of Levi who was born to Levi in Midsar, and she bore to Amram, Aaron, and Moses, and Miriam, their sister. And there were born to Aaron, Nadab and Abihuah, and Aliezer and Ephemar, but Nadab and Abihuah died in presenting strange fire in the presence of the ever-living. Their enrollment was twenty-three thousand, all males from a month old and upwards, but they were not numbered among the children of Israel, for no portion was given to them among the children of Israel. This was the census taken by Moses and Aliezer the priest, when they enumerated the sons of Israel at the Fords of Moab near the torrent by Jericho. But among these there was not one who had been enrolled by Moses and Aaron the priest, when they enumerated the children of Israel in the desert of Sinai, for the ever-living had said, �They should die in the desert, and there should not remain a man of them, except Kaleb, the son of Jeffana, and Joshua, the son of Noon.� Chapter Twenty-Seven On one occasion the daughters of Zilophakad, the son of Kafer, the son of Mechir, the son of Manasseh, the son of Joseph, and the names of these girls were Makla, Noah, and Kaghla, and Mika, and Thirza, approached and placed themselves before Moses, and Aliezer the priest and the princes, and all the parliament at the opening of the assembly, saying, �Our father died in the desert, for he was among the Confederacy who revolted against the ever-living with the associates of Korah, and he died for his sin, and he had no sons. Why should the name of our father be taken from among his family because he had not a son? Give us an inheritance among the brothers of our father.� Moses therefore presented it for decision before the ever-living, and Jehovah commanded Moses, saying, �What the daughters of Zilophakad have asked of you, grant, give them a share to inherit amongst the brothers of their father, and assign the inheritance of their father to them. You shall also command the children of Israel that, when a man dies and has not a son, you shall assign his estate to his daughters. But if he has no daughter, you shall assign his estate to his brother. But if he has no brother, then you shall give his estate to his father, or to his next of kin of his own family, and he shall possess it, and this shall be an institution of justice which the ever-living commands to Moses.� Then the ever-living said to Moses, �Assend this hill by the Fords, and survey the country which I have given to the children of Israel. When you have seen it, you shall be added to your fathers, yourself, as Aaron your brother was added, because you rebelled openly in the wilderness of Tsin when the parliament rebelled in not sanctifying me at the waters in their site, at the waters of strife in the wilderness of Tsin.� And Moses replied to the ever-living and said, �A point a man, living God of the breath of all flesh, over the assembly, who may go out before them and come in before them, and who can lead them out and bring them back, so that the assembly of the ever-living may not be like sheep without a shepherd.� The ever-living replied to Moses, �Take to yourself Joshua the son of Noon, a man who has spirit in him, and strike your hand upon him, and place him before Alliezer the priest, and before all the parliament, and appoint him in their site, and put your majesty upon him, so that all the representatives of the children of Israel may listen to him. Thus let him stand in the presence of Alliezer the priest, who shall inquire for him by the decision of the Urim, in the presence of Jehovah. At his command they shall come in, and at his command they shall go out, and all the children of Israel with him, and all their parliament.� Moses therefore did as the ever-living ordered him, and took Joshua and stationed him before Alliezer the priest, and before the parliament, and struck his hand upon him, and he was appointed as the Lord commanded to Moses. Chapter 28 Then the ever-living spoke to Moses and said, �Command the children of Israel and say to them, you shall take care to present to me the shoe-bread as an acceptable offering at the proper times. Also give them this order about the offering which they are to make to the ever-living of the two perfect lambs of a year old daily as a perpetual burnt offering. They shall offer one lamb at daybreak, and offer the second in the afternoon, with the tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a quarter of a hin of beaten oil, sacrifices such as were made constantly at Mount Sinai for a delightful offering to the ever-living, with a drink offering of a quarter of a hin for each lamb to pour as a drink offering to Jehovah, and sacrifice the second lamb in the afternoon as a grateful pleasant perfume to the ever-living. But upon the Sabbath day, two perfect lambs of a year old with two tenths of fine flour mixed with the oil and the drink offering, that shall be the burnt offering for the Sabbath as well as the perpetual burnt offerings with their drink offerings. And on the first of the month you shall present as a burnt offering to the ever-living, two bollocks from the fold, and one ram with seven perfect he lambs of a year old, and three tenths of fine flour mixed with oil as a food offering for a bollock, and two tenths of fine flour mixed with oil as a food offering with a single ram, and a tenth of an ashron of fine flour mixed with oil to one lamb, as a sacrifice of pleasant scent to the ever-living, and their drink offerings shall be half a hin for a bollock, and a third of a hin of wine for the ram, and a quarter of a hin of wine for a lamb. This shall be the burnt offering month by month for every month of the year, with one ram of the goats for a sin offering to the ever-living. It shall be offered along with the perpetual burnt offering and the drink offering. In the first month also, on the fourteenth day of the month, is the Passover of the ever-living. And on the fifteenth day of this month shall be a festival of seven days when biscuits shall be eaten. On the first day proclaim a holy rest. You shall do no laboring work, but present as a sweet burnt offering to the ever-living, two bollocks from the herd, and a ram, and seven lambs of a year old. Perfect ones shall be chosen, with a food offering of three tenths of fine flour mixed with oil for each bollock, and two tenths offered with the ram. A single tenth shall be offered with each lamb of the seven lambs. One he goat also for a sin offering to expiate for you. You shall offer these beside the sacrifice at daybreak which is offered continually. Do the same daily for seven days, offering bread as a sweet delightful perfume to the ever-living. It must be offered besides the perpetual burnt offering and drink offering. Proclaim also that the seventh day shall be holy to you. You shall do no laboring work in it. And upon the day of first fruits you shall present a bread offering from the land to the ever-living, when a holiday shall be proclaimed as a rest for you. You shall not do any laboring work in it, but present as a burnt offering delightful to the ever-living, two bollocks from the herd, and a ram with seven lambs of a year old, and as a bread offering three tenths of fine flour mixed with oil for each bollock, and two tenths with a ram, with a tenth of an asheron for each lamb of the seven lambs, and a he-goat to expiate for you. Beside perpetual sacrifices and the bread offerings you offer daily, there shall be these with their drink offerings. Chapter 29 And in the seventh month you shall proclaim the first of the month holy to the ever-living. You shall do no servile work. Make it your day of rejoicing to the Lord, and offer as a burnt offering delightful to the ever-living a bollock from the fold, a ram, and seven perfect lambs of a year old, and as a bread offering three tenths of fine flour mixed with oil for the bollock, two tenths with the ram, and one tenth with each one of the seven lambs, and a ram of the goats as a sin offering to expiate for you. Beside the burnt offerings of the month and the food offerings and the perpetual sacrifices and their bread offerings and drink offerings as decreed for a pleasant scent to the ever-living. And you shall proclaim the tenth of the seventh month holy to the ever-living, when you shall lower your lives and do no work, but offer in burnt offerings to the ever-living as a sweet perfume, a bollock from the herd, a ram, seven perfect lambs of a year old, and as a bread offering three tenths of fine flour mixed with oil for the bollock, two tenths for the ram, the tenth of an asheron for each one of the seven lambs, with a ram of the goats as a sin offering. Beside the sin offerings of expiation and the perpetual sacrifices and the food offerings and drink offerings. And you shall also proclaim the fifteenth day of the seventh month holy to you, you shall not do any labouring work in it, but feast a festival to the ever-living for seven days. Then you shall present as a burnt offering of delightful scent to Jehovah, thirteen bollocks, two rams, fourteen he-lams for a year old, they shall be perfect, with their food offerings of three tenths of fine flour mixed with oil to each bollock of the thirteen bollocks, two tenths to each ram of the two rams, and a tenth of an asheron to each of the lambs of the fourteen lambs, with a he goat as a sin offering beside the perpetual food offerings and drink offerings. And upon the second day, twelve perfect bollocks from the herd, two rams, fourteen lambs of a year old, with bread offerings and drink offerings for the bollocks, for the rams and for the lambs by the rule as decreed, with a ram of the goats as a sin offering beside the perpetual sacrifices with their bread and drink offerings. And upon the third day, twelve perfect bollocks, two rams, fourteen lambs of a year old, with bread and drink offerings with the bollocks, rams and lambs according to the rule decreed, and a goat for a sin offering beside the perpetual sacrifices and their bread and drink offerings. And upon the fourth day, ten perfect bollocks, two rams, fourteen lambs of a year old, with bread and drink offerings according to the rule decreed, and a he goat for a sin offering beside the perpetual sacrifices with their bread and drink offerings. And upon the fifth day, nine perfect bollocks, two rams, fourteen lambs of a year old, with bread and drink offerings for the bollocks, for the rams and for the lambs according to the rule decreed, and a he goat for a sin offering beside the perpetual sacrifices with their bread and drink offerings. And upon the sixth day, eight perfect bullocks, two rams, fourteen lambs of a year old with bread and drink offerings for the bullocks for the rams and for the lambs according to the rule decreed, with a he goat for a sin offering beside the perpetual sacrifices with their bread and drink offerings. And upon the seventh day, seven perfect bollocks, two rams, fourteen lambs of a year old, with bread and drink offerings for the bollocks, the rams and lambs according to the rule decreed, and a he-goat for a sin offering beside the perpetual sacrifices with their bread and drink offerings. And upon the eighth day you shall have a festival, you shall do no servile work, but present as a sacrifice of delightful scent to the ever-living, a perfect bollock, a ram and seven lambs of a year old, with bread and drink offerings for the bollock, for the ram and for the lambs according to the rule decreed, with a he-goat for a sin offering beside the perpetual sacrifices with their bread and drink offerings. You shall sacrifice these to the ever-living in your festival beside your vows and free well offerings with your sacrifices and your bread and drink offerings and your thank offering. CHAPTER 30 Moses consequently reported to the children of Israel all that the ever-living commanded to Moses. Then Moses addressed the chiefs of the tribes of the children of Israel, saying, This is the thing that the ever-living commands. A person who vows a vow to Jehovah, or swears an oath to bind his soul, shall not repudiate his word, but perform all that has come out of his mouth. And a woman who has vowed a vow to the ever-living, but who is yet in the house of her father in her youth, when her father hears of her vow and the bond with which she has bound her soul, and her father is silent upon it, then every vow shall stand, and every bond shall stand with which she has bound her soul. But if her father comes to forbid her at the time he hears of any vow or bond with which she has bound her soul, it shall not stand, and Jehovah will release her because her father forbids it. But if she has a husband and she takes a vow upon her or rashly utters from her lips what might bind her soul, when her husband hears of it, if he keeps silent to her at the time he hears, then the vow and bond with which she has bound her soul shall stand. But if at the time her husband hears of it, he prohibits it, then the vow which she has vowed upon herself, and the rash utterance of her lips by which she has bound her soul shall be unrolled, and the ever-living will release it. But the vow of a widow or a divorced woman, all that they bind upon their souls shall stand upon them. Yet if the mistress of a house binds a bond upon her soul with an oath, if when her husband hears of it he keeps silent to her, not forbidding it, then every vow and every bond which she has bound upon her soul shall stand. But if at the time her husband hears it, he annulls them, all that came out of her lips as a vow or a bond upon her soul shall not stand. Her husband has annulled it, and the ever-living will release it. Every vow and every oath binding to afflict the soul, her husband may confirm, and her husband may annull. But if her husband keeps silent to her from day to day, then he confirms them, for he was silent to her at the time he heard. But if he annulls them after having heard of them, then he takes away any blame. These are the laws that the ever-living commanded to Moses about husband and wife and about father and young girl in the house of her father. CHAPTER XXXI The ever-living spoke to Moses and said, Arouse the children of Israel against the Midianites after you have enumerated your people. Moses therefore spoke to the people, saying, Select from yourselves officers for a war with the Midianites, for the Lord has ordered an advance against Midian of a thousand from each tribe from all the tribes of Israel to go upon an expedition. So they masked from the tribes of Israel by a thousand from each tribe, twelve thousand chosen for the war, and Moses sent the thousand from each tribe to the war, with Thineas the son of Alias or the priest, and the sacred furniture and the gongs in his possession to encourage them. These made war against Midian as the ever-living commanded Moses and slew every leader. They also slew the kings of Midian in the slaughter, Eir and Rechem and Sur and Kur and Raba the five kings of Midian, and also slew Balaam the son of Bior with the sword. Then the children of Israel took possession of the women of Midian, with their children and all the cattle, and all their property and all their people as booty, with all the villages which they inhabited, and burnt all their furniture with fire and carried off all the plunder and all the spoil from the field and from the person. Then they brought the captives to Moses and Alias or the priest and to the parliament of the children of Israel, along with the plunder and the booty, to the camp at the fords of Moab which was beside the torrent near Jericho. Then Moses and Alias or the priest, with all the princes of the parliament, went out to meet them outside the camp. But Moses was angry with the officers of the army, the colonels of regiments and captains of companies, who returned with the army from the war, and Moses asked them, Why have you kept the women alive? What were they to the children of Israel under the advice of Balaam? They seduced them to desert the ever-living in the affair of Pior, and they brought a pestilence upon the congregation of Jehovah. Now therefore, kill every male child and every woman who has known man sexually, kill. But let every young girl who has not known a man sexually live for yourselves. Also pitch your tents outside the camp for seven days, all who have killed a person or been wounded in battle. You must be cleansed from defilement at the sixth day, and on the seventh day, you and your prisoners and all your clothing and every article of leather and all fabrics of hair and every article of wood shall be cleansed. Then Alliezer the Priest said to the commanders of the army who came from the war, This is the constitutional law which the ever-living has commanded to Moses. All the gold and the silver and the brass and the iron, the tin and the lead, all things which can resist fire, you shall put through the fire to purify them. But everything that is not able to endure fire shall be cleansed by passing through water, by washing in water. You shall also wash your clothes on the seventh day and purify yourselves, and afterwards you may enter the camp. The ever-living also spoke to Moses and said, You and Alliezer and the princes of the fathers of the parliament, take an account of the booty of the prisoners, both of the men and of the cattle, and divide the booty among the captors of the brigade who brought it from the campaign and among all their people. But take off a tax from them for the ever-living from the soldiers who actually went into battle, one head from five hundred of the men and of the cattle and of the asses and of the sheep. You shall take it from their share and give it to Alliezer the priest as a tax for the ever-living. But from the share for the children of Israel you shall take one from every fifty of the men of the cattle and of the asses and of the sheep and from all the animals, and give them to the Levites who form the guard of the sanctuary of the ever-living. Moses and Alliezer therefore did as Jehovah commanded to Moses, and the prize, beside the plunder that the people plundered in the army, was of sheep six hundred and seventy-five thousand, and of cattle seventy-two thousand, and of asses sixty-one thousand, and of persons with the girls who had not known man sexually, all the human individuals were thirty-two thousand. But the half of the booty that came to the army was, from the number of sheep three hundred and thirty-seven thousand and five hundred, and the tax of the lord from the sheep was six hundred and seventy-five, and of cattle thirty-six thousand, and the tax to the lord seventy-two, and of asses thirty-thousand and five hundred, and the tax for the lord was sixty-one, and of human beings sixteen thousand, and the tax for the ever-living thirty-two persons. And Moses gave the taxes which were the lords as a raised offering to Alliezer the priest as the ever-living commanded to Moses. But the portion of the children of Israel which Moses took from the soldiers and which was the share of the parliament was of sheep three hundred and thirty-seven thousand and five hundred, and of cattle thirty-six thousand, and of asses thirty-thousand five hundred, and of human beings sixteen thousand. Moses also took from this share of the children of Israel one from every fifty, both of the men and of the beasts, and gave them to the Levites of the guard who guarded the sanctuary of the ever-living as the lord commanded to Moses. Then the officers of the regiments of the army, the kernels of regiments and the captains of companies, presented themselves to Moses and said to Moses, Your servants were promoted to be the chief commanders in the campaign which is in our hand, and not a man of us is missing. Therefore we present this gift to the ever-living, each from what he has found of articles of gold, anklets, and bracelets, seals, earrings, and beads, to expiate for our persons before the ever-living for our lives. Moses and Alliés are the priests, therefore, accepted from them all these articles made of gold, and the weight of the gold presented to the ever-living by the kernels of the regiments and the captains of companies was sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty shekels, for the commanders in the army had each plundered for themselves. So Moses and Alliés are the priests, accepted the gold from the commanders of regiments and companies, and brought it into the hall of assembly as a remembrance from the children of Israel, before Jehovah. The end of chapters twenty-six through thirty-one of the Book of Numbers. Recording by Mark Penfold. Chapters thirty-two through thirty-six of the Book of Numbers, from the Holy Bible in modern English. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Mark Penfold. The Holy Bible in modern English, translated by Farrar Fenton. The Book of Numbers. Chapters thirty-two through thirty-six. Chapter thirty-two. But the number of cattle belonging to the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad was very numerous, and they saw that the district of Yazair and the district of Gilad were places for cattle. So the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben came to Moses and Alias are the priests and the princes of the parliament to say, Ataroff and Diban and Nimrah and Qashban and Alayla and Shibma and Nibo and Ban. The country that the ever-living has conquered before the commonwealth of Israel is a place for cattle, and your servants possess cattle. And they continued, If then your servants have found favour in your eyes, give this district to your servants to possess, and we will not pass over the Jordan. But Moses said to the sons of Gad and to the sons of Reuben, Your brothers are going over the Jordan, and would you stay here? Why should you discourage the hearts of the children of Israel from passing to the country which the ever-living has given to them? Your fathers did the same when I sent them from Qadash Barnea to survey the country when they proceeded to the brook of Ashkal and examined the country and discouraged the hearts of the children of Israel so that they would not go to the land which the ever-living had given them, and the anger of Jehovah burnt at that time, and he declared, saying, The men who come up out of the Mitsarayim from twenty years old and upwards shall not see the country which I promised to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, for they are not sincerely following me, except Calab, the son of Jafuna, the Kenazite, and Joshua, the son of Noon, who sincerely followed the ever-living. The anger of Jehovah consequently burnt against Israel, and they wandered forty years in the wilderness until all that generation who had done wrong in the sight of the ever-living had died. And now you arise in the place of your fathers to continue the burning anger of the Lord against Israel, for you are turning back from him, and will cause him to retain them in the wilderness and consume all this people. But they pressed upon him and said, We will build foals to guard our sheep and cities for our children, but we ourselves are ready for action, and will advance ardently before the children of Israel to their districts wherever they may go. But our children can rest in the fortified towns guarded from the inhabitants of the country. We will not return to our homes until the children of Israel have each been put into possession of his estate, and we will not inherit over the Jordan, nor westward, but our possessions shall be to the west of the fords of the Jordan. Then Moses replied to them, If you will do this, if you will be ready for action before the ever-living in the war, and pass fully armed over the Jordan before the ever-living until his enemies are driven from before him, then when the country is subdued to Jehovah, you may return, and this district shall be given you from the ever-living and from Israel, and this country shall be yours to possess it in the presence of the Lord. But if you will not do so, then you will sin against the ever-living, and you know the punishment for sin that will meet you. You can build towns for your children and foals for your flocks and return when you have done so. The sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben replied to Moses saying, Your servants will do as our Lord commands. Our children, wives, and cattle shall be here in the cities of Gilad, but Your servants will pass over fully equipped for war with the army of the ever-living as Your Lordship has said. Then Moses convoked Ali Azar the priest, and Joshua the son of noon, and the chief fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel, and Moses said to them, If the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben pass over the Jordan fully equipped for the war of the ever-living and subdue their country before you, then you shall give them the land of Gilad for a possession, but if they do not go over ready for action, then they shall only inherit in the land of Canaan. The sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben answered, saying, Your servants will do what the ever-living has said. We will pass over fully equipped before the ever-living to the land of Canaan, and we will possess our inheritance on this side of the Jordan. So Moses gave to the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, the son of Joseph, the kingdoms of Sihon, king of the Emirates, and the kingdoms of Ag, king of Bashan, the land and its towns with the surrounding country of the villages. So the sons of Gad built Daiban, and Atarath, and Arar, and Atarath Shufan, and Jazer, and Igbaka, and Beth Minra, and Beth Horan, fortified towns with folds for sheep. And the sons of Reuben built Qashban, and Alayla, Keryathayim, and Afbanu, and Afbal-Mayan, changing its name, and Sibhmah, and they called Bethmoth Shimoth. These were the towns they built. Then the sons of Makir, the son of Manasseh, marched to Gilad and captured it, and drove out the Emirates who were in it. So Moses gave Gilad to Makir, the descendant of Manasseh, and he occupied it. Then Ya'er, the son of Manasseh, marched and captured some forts, and called them the forts of Ya'er. Then Novak, marched and captured Kenef, and its villages, and named it Novak, after his own name. Chapter 33 These are the marches of the children of Israel who came under the direction of Moses and Aaron from the land of the Mitsorayim by their armies. For Moses registered their advance by marches, by instructions from the ever-living, and these are the marches they advanced by. They marched first from Ranasees in the first month upon the fifteenth day of the first month. After the morning of the Passover, the children of Israel advanced with a high hand in the sight of all Mitsorayim, whilst the Mitsorites were burying those whom Jehovah had killed among them, all their firstborn. And Jehovah also executed justice upon their gods. So the children of Israel marched from Ranasees and pitched their tents at Skouf. Then they marched from Skouf and pitched at Athim, which is on the border of the desert. Then they marched from Athim and pitched and occupied the mouth of Hakaroth, which is opposite Bel Zafan, and pitched before the fortress. Then they marched from Hakaroth and passed over through the sea to the desert, and advanced in that direction three days to the desert of Athim and pitched at Mara. Then they marched from Mara and came to Elam. And there were at Elam twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, so they pitched there. Then they returned from Elam and pitched at the Sea of Suf. Then they marched from the Sea of Suf and pitched in the desert of Zin. Then they marched from the desert of Zin and pitched at Dahfaka. Then they marched from Dahfaka and pitched in Alush. Then they marched from Alush and pitched in Refadim, but there was no water there for the people to drink. Then they marched from Refadim and pitched in the desert of Sinai. Then they marched from the desert of Sinai and pitched in Kabroth HaFava. Then they marched from Kibroth HaFava and pitched in Katsaroth. Then they marched from Katsaroth and pitched in Rithma. Then they marched from Rithma and pitched in Rimon Farts. Then they marched from Rimon Farts and pitched in Libna. Then they marched from Libna and pitched in Risa. Then they marched from Risa and pitched in Kalatha. Then they marched from Kalatha and pitched at Mount Shafir. Then they marched from Mount Shafir and pitched in Karada. Then they marched from Karada and pitched in Makloth. Then they marched from Makloth and pitched in Thak'af. Then they marched from Thak'af and pitched in Tharak. Then they marched from Tharak and pitched in Mithaka. Then they marched from Mithaka and pitched in Kashmona. Then they marched from Kashmona and pitched in Mosoroth. Then they marched from Mosoroth and pitched in among the Beniyakan. Then they marched from the Beniyakan and pitched in the Vale of Gad-Gad. Then they marched from the Vale of Gad-Gad, and encamped in Yat-Bafa. Then they marched from Yat-Bafa and encamped in Abarona. Then they marched from Abarona and encamped in Azzin Gaber. Then they marched from Azzin Gaber and encamped in the desert of Sin. Then they marched from Qadesh and encamped at the Peek Hill, on the borders of the land of Moab, and Aaron the priest ascended the Peek Hill by the order of the ever-living, and died there, in the fortieth year from the coming of the children of Israel out of Mitzar, on the first of the fifth month. And Aaron was a hundred and twenty-three years old at his death on the Peek Hill. When the Canaanite king of Arad heard that the children of Israel were advancing by the south country, he occupied the Peek Hill. So they marched from the Peek Hill and encamped at Salmona. Then they marched from Salmona and encamped at Phonan. Then they marched from Phonan and encamped at Abof. Then they marched from Abof and encamped at Avi, at the passes, on the border of Moab. Then they marched from Avi and encamped at Dibongad. Then they marched from Dibongad and encamped at Almon. Then they marched from Almon by Deblafim and encamped at the hills of the passes opposite to Nebo. Then they marched from the hills of the passes and encamped at the fords of Moab on the Jordan. they extended along the Jordan from Beth Yeshemoth to the Acacia Meadows upon the Fords of Moab. There the ever-living spoke to Moses at the Fords of Moab, opposite Jericho, commanding, �Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, Now you are about to pass over the Jordan to the land of Canaan, you shall drive out all the possessors of that country before you, and destroy them and their towers, and destroy all those bronze idols, and destroy all their high places, and seize the country, for I have given the land to you to possess, but you shall divide the land by lots to your families. To the large you shall increase the portions, and to the small you shall lessen the portions. Whatever lot falls to any one shall be his, and a portion to him in the tribe of his fathers. But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land who occupy it, the remainder of them will be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and a torment to you in the land where you reside, and I will do to you as I intended to do to them.� Chapter 34 The ever-living also spoke to Moses to say, �Command the children of Israel and say to them, Now you are come to the land of Canaan, the land which has fallen to you to inherit, the land of Canaan with her surroundings, and they shall be yours on the south side from the wilderness of Tzinn on the borders of Idam. These are your borders south. From the end of the salt sea eastward, and along from there your boundary towards the south shall be from the ascent of Akrabim and across to Tzinn, then turn up from the south to Kadesh Barnea and proceed to the castle of Adar, and pass over to Atsinar. Then the boundary turning from Atsman towards the river of Mitzar shall proceed to the west, and your boundary shall be the sea, the great sea. That shall be your boundary on the west. And this shall be your boundary on the north. You shall mark out from the great sea at the hill of hills. From the hill of hills you shall mark out to the pass of Kamaf, and take a line to the borders of Tzada. Then your northern boundary shall start and proceed to Katsareinan. That shall be your border to the north. Then you shall mark your eastern boundary from Katsareinan to Shafna, and the frontier shall run from Shafna with Riblah on the east to Ayin, where the line shall descend and extend to the eastern shoulder of the lake of Kinarov. Thence the frontier shall run by the Jordan and extend to the salt sea. This shall be your country with its surrounding bounds. Therefore Moses commanded the children of Israel, saying, This is the country which you shall divide by lot, which the ever-living has commanded to give to the nine and a half tribes, because the tribe of Rubin have taken for their ancestors house, and the tribe of the sons of Gad for their ancestors house, with the house of Ephraim and the half-tribe of Manasseh have taken their share. These two tribes and the half-tribe have taken their shares before the Jordan opposite Jericho. The ever-living also spoke to Moses, commanding, These two men shall divide the land for you, Aliezer the priest and Joshua the son of Nun, with one prince from each of the tribes who shall superintend the division of the land. And these are the names of the men. From the tribe of Judah, Calab, the son of Jafuna. From the tribe of the sons of Simeon, Shamuel, the son of Amayhud. From the tribe of Benjamin, Alidad, the son of Kislon. From the tribe of the sons of Dan, Prince Bukai, the son of Iglai. From the sons of Joseph, from the tribe of the sons of Manasseh, Prince Canayal, the son of Aphod. From the tribe of the sons of Ephraim, Prince Camual, the son of Shiftan. From the tribe of the sons of Zebulun, Prince Alazifan, the son of Padnok. From the tribe of the sons of Issachar, Prince Faltiel, the son of Azan. From the tribe of the sons of Asher, Akaihud, the son of Shalmai. From the tribe of the sons of Naftali, Prince Fidal, the son of Amayhud. The ever-living commands these to divide the land of Canaan to the children of Israel. CHAPTER 35 The ever-living spoke to Moses at the fords of Moab by the Jordan opposite Jericho, saying, command the children of Israel that they must give to the Levites as a heritable portion, towns for residents, with pastures around those towns, for the Levites, and the towns shall be for their residents, and the pastures for their cattle and their animals. The pastures which you are to give to the Levites outside the walls of the towns shall be a space of two thousand cubits. You shall thus measure from the outside wall of the towns, on the eastern side, two thousand cubits, and on the south side, two thousand cubits, and on the west side, two thousand cubits, and on the north side, two thousand cubits, with the town in the center. These shall be the pasture lands of those towns. You shall also assign to the Levites these towns, six cities of refuge to be provided for manslayers, and beside them provide forty-two cities a total of forty-eight. All these towns shall be assigned to the Levites, being for them and their pastureage. But the towns that you assign from the children of Israel shall be according to their numbers, large, and according to their funus, small, each according to the extent of the district which they inherit shall give towns to the Levites. According to their shares, they shall assign equivalent towns to the Levites. The ever-living also spoke to Moses, commanding, Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, You are now about to pass over the Jordan to the land of Canaan. Therefore appoint for yourselves cities of refuge that manslayers who have cut off a life by accident may fly to them. And they shall be your cities of refuge from the avenger so that the fugitive may not be killed until he has stood in the presence of a jury for trial. Therefore shall you appoint six cities of refuge for yourselves. You shall appoint three of the cities on this side, the Jordan, and three cities in the land of Canaan to be cities of refuge for the children of Israel and for foreigners residing among you. These three cities shall be cities of refuge for everyone who has cut off a life by accident. Thus if he strikes any with an instrument of iron, and he dies, he is a manslayer. The manslayer would be killed. Or if he throws a stone which wounds mortally, and the wounded dies, he is a manslayer. The manslayer would be killed. Or strikes with an instrument of wood a deadly blow, and the wounded dies from it. He is a manslayer. The manslayer would be killed. The avenger would kill the wounded. He would kill the wounded when found. Would kill him. But if from hatred he stabs or shoots at one from a hiding place, and kills, or from hatred strikes with his hand and kills. He shall be killed who has struck the wound. The avenger of blood shall kill the wounded when he finds him. But if, undesignedly, not from enmity one stabs or shoots another with any instrument, not treacherously, or kills with a stone, not having seen, or it falls upon a person who dies, whom he did not hate and did not seek to injure. Then the jury shall judge between the accused and the avenger according to these rules, and the jury shall deliver the accused from the hand of the avenger. But the jury shall assign him to the city of refuge to which he shall go, and stay there until the death of the high priest, who has been consecrated with the oil of consecration. But if the manslayer goes beyond the boundaries of the city of refuge to which he has fled, and the avenger of blood meets him outside the bounds of the city of refuge, then the avenger of blood may kill the slayer without blood being upon himself. For he ought to have remained in the city of refuge until the death of the high priest. But after the death of the high priest, the manslayer may reside in his own district. These shall be constitutional laws to your descendants in all your residences. Whoever cuts off a life, the slayer shall be slain on the evidence of two witnesses, but upon the evidence of one you shall not condemn a person to death, and you shall not take any ransom for a life, the manslayer whom mortally injures shall die a death. You shall also not accept a ransom from the refugee to a city of refuge to return to rest in the country until the death of the priest, so that you may not corrupt the land you reside in. For blood pollutes the land, and the land will not cover the blood that is shed upon it, for the life is in the blood. Consequently you shall not defile the land you dwell in, amidst which I encamp, for I the ever living encamp in the midst of the children of Israel. The ancestral chiefs of the family of the sons of Gilad, the son of Makir, the son of Manasseh of the family of the son of Joseph, came before Moses and the presence of the princes, the ancestral chiefs of the children of Israel, and said, The ever living commanded our prince to apportion the land by lot to the children of Israel, and the prince was commanded by the ever living to give the share of Zalafa had our brother to his daughters. But they may take any one of the sons of the tribes of Israel for a husband, and carry away their shares from the shares of our families, and thus lessen the portions of the tribe to which they belong, and take away from our allotted share. And when the jubilee comes to the children of Israel, then that portion will be added to the portion of the tribe to which they have gone, and the share of the tribe of their fathers will lose their shares. Finally Moses commanded the children of Israel by instruction from the ever living, saying, The argument of the sons of the tribe of Joseph is fair. This is the order of the ever living to the daughters of Zalafa had. They may decide to be wives to anyone who is good in their eyes, but their husband shall be only from a family of their fathers tribe, so that the portions of the children of Israel may not be removed from tribe to tribe. For all the portions of the ancestral houses of the children of Israel shall be kept together. Therefore any daughter inheriting an estate in any of the tribes of the children of Israel shall become the wife of one from her father's tribe, so that the children of Israel may each inherit the share of his father. For no estate shall change from tribe to tribe. After each portion has been allotted, it shall be kept in the same tribe of the children of Israel. The daughters of Zalafa had accordingly did as the ever living commanded to Moses, and the daughters of Zalafa had, Maklah, Tirzah, Kaglah, and Milka and Noah, were given as wives to the sons of their uncles, of the family of the sons of Manasseh, the son of Joseph, they were their wives. Thus their portions remained in the tribe of Manasseh, their father. These were the commands and the institutions which the ever living ordained through the medium of Moses to the children of Israel at the Fords of Moab by the Jordan beyond Jericho. The end of chapters 32 through 36, and the end of the Book of Numbers, Recording by Mark Penfold. Chapters 1 through 5 of the Book of Deuteronomy from the Holy Bible in Modern English. The following are the speeches which Moses addressed to all the children of Israel before the passage over the Jordan in the desert extending from Suf between Paran and Thoffel and Laban and Katsaroth and Yab. It was during the fortieth year in the eleventh month upon the first of the month, Moses related to the children of Israel all that the ever living had commanded him for them. After he had defeated Sihon, king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og, king of Bashan, who lived at Ashtaroth in Ederai, on this side of the Ford of the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses began to publish the law, and said, Our ever living God spoke to us in Horab saying, You have remained long enough on this mountain, turn and march and proceed with all your camps to the highlands of the Amorites and all their neighbors in the drylands of the hills, and thence to the plains and desert along the shore of the sea of the land of Canaan and from Lebanon as far as the great river Freight. Attend, I have opened the country to you, go and seize the land which the ever living promised to give to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, and give it to them and to their posterity after them. But I told you all at that time, I myself could not support you alone, and now your ever living God has increased you, and see, you are today like the stars of the sky at number, and the ever living the God of your fathers will add to you beyond this a thousand times and will bless you as he promised. How can I alone bear your troubling and carry your contensions? Go, choose for yourselves, skillful, clear-sighted, and educated men to control you, and I will appoint them your chiefs. When you answered me, what you have said is good, what you have said, do it. I therefore chose as the chiefs of your tribes, skillful and educated men, and gave them to you as your chiefs, kernels of regiments and captains of companies and captains of fifties and captains of tens, with magistrates for your tribes. I also ordered your judges at that time, saying, Listen between your brothers and decide just judgments between Amanda and his brother and the foreigners among you. Do not regard social station in deciding whether low or high. Listen not in fear of the station of a man, for justice belongs to God himself, but any matter that is too difficult for you bring to me, and I will hear it. I instructed you also at that time as to what things you ought to do. Then we marched from Horab and proceeded through all that great and terrible desert which you saw on the way to the hills of the Emirates when our ever-living God commanded us to advance to Qadash Barnea, where I said, You are now arrived at the hills of the Emirates which our ever-living God has given us. Look, your ever-living God has provided the country before you to possess. Go up, seize it as the ever-living God of your fathers commands you, fear not, nor be terrified. But all of you approached me asking to send men before you to examine the country and to report to you about the road by which you could go up to it and about the cities that you were to go to. And the request seemed good in my opinion, and I appointed twelve princes, one from each tribe, and they turned and went up to the hills and descended to the veil of Eshkol and slandered it. But they took into their hands some of the produce of the country and came back to us and reported the matter, saying, It is a beautiful country that our ever-living God has given us. But you are not willing to go up and rebelled against the order of your ever-living God and murmured in your tents and exclaimed, Because the ever-living hated us, he brought us out of the land of the Mitsarayim and would give us into the hands of the Emirates to destroy us, alas for our advance. Our brothers have depressed our hearts by saying they are a people finer and taller than us. Their cities are large and fortified up to the skies, and we also saw the sons of Anak there. But I replied to you, Be not terrified, nor fear them. Your ever-living God who goes before you, he will fight for you in the way he did in your sight among the Mitsarayim. And in the desert where you saw how the ever-living carried you as a woman carries her child, along all the way that you went until he brought you to this spot. But on that occasion you are not relying upon your ever-living God, who marched before you in the journey to choose your encampments as a fire at night to show the way you should go, and as a cloud by day. And the ever-living heard the sound of your words and was angry and swore saying, This vile generation shall never see the beautiful land which I promised to give to their fathers, Only Calab, the son of Jafuna, shall see it. And I will give to him and his sons the country which he traveled through, for he went up confidently following the ever-living. The ever-living was also angry with me on account of you and said, You shall not go there. Joshua, the son of Nun, your lieutenant shall go. Encourage him, for he shall put Israel into possession. But your infants whom you said would be captured, and your sons who today know neither good nor evil, they shall go there, and I will give it to them, and they shall possess it. But you turn back and march to the desert towards the sea of Suf. Then you were grieved and replied, We have sinned against the ever-living. We will now go up and conquer according to all that the ever-living God commanded. And each one of you put on arms and went up to the hill. But the ever-living said to me, Order them, go not up and fight not, for I am not with you, therefore you will fly before your enemies. So I spoke to you, but you would not hear, and you rebelled against the order of the ever-living, and were insolent and went up to the hill. And the Amorites who occupied the hill advanced against you, and drove you like bees would do, and routed you like a tempest to the valley. So you returned and wept before the ever-living, but the ever-living would not hear your voice nor listened. Consequently you were detained at Kadesh for many days, you remained there a long time. Until you turned back and marched to the desert towards the sea of Suf, as the ever-living commanded me, and wandered about the hills of Sayir a long time. At last the ever-living said to me, You have wandered about this hill enough, turn to the north. And command the people saying to them, Pass over the borders of your brothers, the sons of Esau who dwell in Sayir. But they will be afraid of you, so carefully guard yourselves, and injure them not, for I will not give you a foot's space of their country, because I have given Mount Sayir to Esau as a possession. You must buy food from them with money and eat it, and also purchase water from them for money and drink it. For your ever-living God has blessed you in every work of your hand, whilst you traveled this great desert these forty years. Your ever-living God has been with you, and you have wanted for nothing. You consequently passed by your brothers, the sons of Esau, who occupy Sayir by the road of the Arabah to Aalof, and at Zion Gabar, where you turned off and traversed the road of the desert of Moab. There the ever-living said to me, do not trouble Moab, but keep yourselves from fighting. Turn, for I have not granted you this country, because I have given R to the sons of Lot as a possession. Then you arose and passed the veil of Yared, and at the passage of the veil of Yared, including the period of the march from Qadesh-Barnea until the time you crossed the veil of Yared, was thirty-eight years, until all the generation of fighting men belonging to the camp were dead as the ever-living threatened them. For the hand of the ever-living was against them to destroy them out of the camp until they perished, and when all the fighting men had died from among the people, then the ever-living spoke to me and said, Now cross over today the boundaries of Moab at R, but when you approach the sons of Amon, neither distress nor hurt them, for I will not give the country of the sons of Amon to you to possess, for I have given it to the sons of Lot as a possession. Rise, march, and cross the river Arnan. See, I have given you Sihon, King of Hashban, the Amorite, and his country to break, assail, and defeated in war. I have broken him this day, putting the dread and fear of you upon the face of the nations, under every sky, who may hear the reports about you. They tremble and faint before you. Then I sent ambassadors from the desert of the east to Sihon, King of Hashban, with proposals of peace, and said, I wish to pass across your country by the king's highway. I will not march many days or deviate. You shall sell food for money, and I will eat it, and pay money for the water you give, and I drink it. I only wish to pass over on my feet. Due to me as the sons of Esau did who dwell in Seir, and the Moabites who inhabit Ar, until I have crossed the Jordan to the land which our ever-living God has given us. But Sihon, King of Hashban, was not willing you should cross over him, for your ever-living God had stupefied his mind, and emboldened his heart, that by it he might give him into your hand, as he has now done. The ever-living God also said, See, I have begun to give up Sihon and his country before you. Seize it, take his land for a possession. Then Sihon advanced to meet us, he and all his force to fight at Jehaz. But our ever-living God delivered him to us, and struck him and his son and all his forces, and at that time we captured all his towns, and devoted all his cities, nor allowed the men, women, or children to escape. Beside the cattle we seized for ourselves, and the plunder of the cities which we captured, from Aroar on the banks of the Arnan, and the towns in the valley, and as far as Gilad, there was not a city that was too strong for us. Our ever-living God delivered the whole to our approach, the whole extent of the country of the Ammonites, all along the veil of Jabak, with the towns of the Highlands, and all that our ever-living God commanded. Chapter 3 Then we turned and went up towards Bashan, and Ag, King of Bashan, advanced to meet us with all his forces to fight at Adarai. Then the ever-living said to me, Fear him not, for I have given him into your power with all his forces and his country, and you shall do to him as you did to Sihon, King of the Amorites, who lived in Hashban. So our ever-living God also subjected to us Ag, King of Bashan, and all his forces, until not a remnant remained to him. We also captured all his towns in the same campaign, there was not a city we did not take, from the sixty towns in the district of Argob, to the capital of Ag in Bashan, all which towns were fortified with high walls, gates and bars, beside a great many towns of the parasites. We devoted them as we did to Sihon, King of Hashban, we devoted every city, men, women and children, and all the cattle and plunder of those towns we seized for ourselves. We thus took in the same campaign their country from the possession of the two kings of the Amorites, which are this side of the Jordan extending from the Vale of Arnan to the Hill of Hermon, all the towns of the Uplands and all Gilad and all Bashan to Salka and Adorai, towns of the dominions of Ag in Bashan. These countries you conquered in that campaign, extending from Aroir which is on the river Arnan, and the half of Mount Gilad was given to the Rubinites and Gadites, but the remainder of Gilad and all Bashan with the dominions of Ag, I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh, all the plain of Argob and all Bashan which is called the land of Arafayim. Yaair, the son of Manasseh, took all the district of Argob as far as the borders of the Geshurites and the Makathites, and he called them after his own name, Yaair's towns, but I gave Gilad to Makir. To the Rubinites and Gadites I also gave a part of Gilad. To the middle of the Veil of Arnan, the valley as a boundary as far as Jabak, with its valley to the border of the Amonites, and the plain of the Jordan as a boundary from Keneroth as far as the sea of the plain, the Dead Sea, down to the hill foot of Piska from the east. But I commanded you at that time, saying, Your ever-living God has given you this country to possess, but you must march fully equipped in the front of your brothers, the children of Israel, with all your forces. However the women and children and cattle, for I know you have many cattle, may remain in the cities which I have given you until the ever-living has settled your brothers like yourselves, and they are also in possession of the country which their ever-living God will give to them beyond the Jordan, then you may each return. I also commanded Joshua at that time, saying, Your eyes have seen all that your ever-living God has done to these two kings. The ever-living will do the same to all the kingdoms which are over there. Fear them not, for your ever-living God will fight for you. And at that time I implored the ever-living, saying, All mighty Lord, you have now begun to show to your servant your grandeur and your strong hand what power in heaven or on earth can do as you have done with your might. Let me, I pray, go over and see this beautiful country that is beyond the Jordan, those beautiful hills and Lebanon. But the ever-living was angry with me because of you, and would not listen to me, and the ever-living said to me, Let this be enough for you. Continue not to speak to me again about this matter. Go up to the top of Piska, and carry your eyes westward and northward and southward and eastward, and see it with your eyes, for you shall not pass over this river Jordan. Therefore command Joshua and encourage and strengthen him, for he shall go over before the people, and he shall conquer for them the country that you will survey. We were then staying in the valley near Beth Peor. Consequently now, Israel, listen to the constitutions and decrees which I will teach you to practice that you may live and go, and possess the country which the ever-living God of your fathers will give you. You shall not add to the matter that I command you, nor shall you detract from it, but keep the commands of your ever-living God as I have commanded you. Your eyes saw what the ever-living did because of Bal Peor, how the ever-living destroyed every man who went after Bal Peor among you, but you who kept fast to your ever-living God are all of you alive today. Attend to me as I teach you the constitutions and decrees which the ever living my God commands you to practice when you arrive in the country which you are going to possess and guard them and practice them, for they will make you wise and intelligent in the eyes of the peoples who hear of all these constitutions who will say, this is a wise and intelligent people, this great nation, for what nation is so great as to possess gods in its breast, as our ever-living God is to us in all we ask of him and what nation is so great possessing institutions and decrees like these laws that I put before you today. Only guard yourselves and guard your lives carefully from forgetting the events that your eyes have seen and from turning your heart away all the days of your life and teach them to your children and to your children's children. Upon the day when you stood before your ever-living God at Horeb, when the ever-living commanded me, collect the people to me, and I will let them hear what they must learn so that they may fear me all the time they live on the earth and teach their children. So you approached and stood below the hill whilst the hill burned with fire up to the heart of the skies with darkness, cloud, and gloom. There the ever-living spoke to you from the midst of the fire. You heard a voice speaking to you, but no image appearing, a voice alone, and it informed you of the covenant which he commanded you to practice, the Ten Commandments, and wrote them upon two tables of stone. But to me the ever-living ordered at that time to teach you the constitutions and decrees which you were to practice in the land into which you would pass to possess it. Therefore you must guard your minds very carefully for you did not see any shape on the day the ever-living spoke with you in Horeb from the midst of the fire, from wickedly making for yourselves a carved shape, any image or model of man or woman, or form of any beast that is upon the earth, form of any bird which flies in the sky, form of any reptile on the ground, form of any fish that is in the waters lower than the earth, or if you raise your eyes heavenward and see the sun, or the moon, or the stars, all the host of the skies, and bow to and worship them, and serve those which your ever-living god has apportioned to all the nations under all the skies, for the ever-living selected you and brought you from the iron works of the Midsarayim to be a people for himself as you are today. But the ever-living was angry with me over your affairs and swore to prevent me crossing the Jordan and to prevent me arriving at the beautiful country which your ever-living god has given to you to possess, for I must die in this country, I may not pass over the Jordan, but you will pass over and possess that beautiful land. Guard yourselves from forgetting the covenant of your ever-living god which he contracted with you, for fear you should make for yourselves a carved image contrary to the command of your ever-living god, for your ever-living god is a consuming fire, he is a jealous god. When you have begotten children and children's children and are in the country and have corrupted yourselves and make carved images and do evil in the eyes of your ever-living god, provoking him, I call to witness today the heavens and the earth to witness to you that perishing you shall perish quickly from off the land which you pass over the Jordan to possess, your time shall not be prolonged in it, but you shall certainly waste away and the ever-living will scatter you among the nations and your remnant shall die as a number among the nations where the ever-living has driven you, and you shall there serve gods made by human hands of wood and stone who cannot see or hear or eat or breathe, but if you should from there entreat your ever-living god and decide to seek him with all your heart and with all your soul, strengthen yourselves and encourage yourselves with all these events after long periods and return to your ever-living god and listen to his voice, for your ever-living god is a merciful god. He will not desert you and will not turn from you and will not forget the covenant with your fathers which he swore to them. Therefore search now the former times that were before you from the time when god constructed man upon the earth and from one extreme of the heavens to the other extreme of the heavens. Has there ever been such a great event as this, or has there been heard it's like a people who heard the voice of god speaking from amid the fire as you heard it and lived, or that god attempted to go and take for himself one nation from the breast of another nation with trials and miracles and portents and war and with a strong hand and a directing arm and great manifestations such as all those your ever-living god has made in your sight upon the Mitsurayim for you, then see and learn that the ever-living is god and accept him none. From the heavens you have heard his voice when he taught you and upon earth you have seen his great fire and heard his commands from the midst of the fire because he loved your fathers and chose their race after them and brought you by his great might to his presence from among the Mitsurayim and will drive great and more powerful nations than you before your face to bring you to to give you their country as a possession as at this day. Therefore learn today and fix it in your heart that the ever-living he is god in heaven and upon the earth and accept him there is no other. So keep his institutions and his commandments which I commanded you today that you may prosper and your children after you and then your days will be long upon the land which your ever-living god will give to you for all time. Chapter 5 Moses again assembled all Israel and said to them, Listen Israel to their constitutions and decrees which I proclaim in your hearing today both to learn them and preserve them by practicing. Our ever-living god contracted a covenant with us in Horeb. Not with our fathers did the ever-living contract that covenant but with us ourselves those in this place all of us alive today. The ever-living spoke face to face with you at the hill from the midst of the fire. I stood between the ever-living and you at that time to report to you the dictation of the ever-living for you were afraid at the presence of the fire and could not ascend to him. And he said, One, I am your ever-living god who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods in my place. Two, you shall not make for yourselves an image any likeness of what is in the heavens above or what is on the earth beneath or what is in the waters lower than the land. You shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, your ever-living god, am a jealous god punishing the sins of the parents upon their children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but I show mercy to thousands of generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. Three, you shall not take the name of your ever-living god in vain, for the ever-living will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Four, regard the Sabbath day to keep it holy as the ever-living god commanded you. You may labor six days and do all your business, but the seventh day is a rest to your ever-living god. You shall not do any business upon it. You, or your son, or your daughter, or your servant, or your handmaid, or your ox, or your ass, or any of your cattle, or your hired man who may be in your house, because your workmen and your maid-servant shall rest like yourself. Remember also that you were slaves in the land of the Mitsarayim, but your ever-living god brought you out from there with a strong hand and a directing arm. Therefore your ever-living god commanded you to make the day of rest. Five, honor your father and your mother as your ever-living god commanded you, so that your days may be lengthened, and that you may prosper upon the land which your ever-living god gives to you. Six, you shall not murder. Seven, you shall not fornicate. Eight, you shall not steal. Nine, you shall not bring up false evidence against your neighbor. Ten, you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, you shall not long for your neighbor's farm, or his slave, or his handmaid, his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor's. The ever-living dictated these commands to the whole assembly of you from the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the gloom, a great voice, and did not desist there, but wrote them upon two tables of stone, and gave them to me. But when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness and the mountain burning with fire, then all the chiefs of your tribes and your nobles approached to me and said, Now we have seen our ever-living god, his majesty and his greatness, and have heard his voice, his voice from the midst of the fire today, we have seen that God can speak with mankind and lives. Therefore now why should we die, for this great fire will consume us if we ourselves remain longer to hear the voice of our ever-living god, we shall die, for who is there of any race who has heard the voice of the living god speaking from the midst of the fire, like us, and has lived. Go yourself near and listen to all that our ever-living god says, and then report to us all that our ever-living god dictates to you, and we will listen to it and do it. And the ever-living heard the voice of your speeches when you spoke to me, and the ever-living said to me, I have heard the voice of this people speaking to you, all they have said is beautiful. What would I give if there were such a heart in them to attend to me and to keep all my commands for all time? Then there would be prosperity to them and to all their children forever. Go, tell them to return to their tents, but you stay here, and I will dictate to you all my commands and the constitutions and decrees which you must teach them to practice in the country which I will give them to possess. Therefore you must practice them as your ever-living god commanded you. You shall not turn away to the right or the left. You shall walk in every way as your ever-living god commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and lengthen your days in the country which you shall possess. The end of chapters one through five of the book of Deuteronomy. Recording by Mark Penfold.