Israel

The people of Isra'el moved on from Ram'ses and camped at Sukkot.

At ADONAI's order Aharon the cohen went up on Mount Hor, and he died there on the first day of the fifth month of the fortieth year after the people of Isra'el had left the land of Egypt.

The Kena'ani king of 'Arad, who lived in the Negev in the land of Kena'an, had heard that the people of Isra'el were coming;

to tell the people of Isra'el, "When you cross the Yarden into the land of Kena'an,

to give this order to the people of Isra'el: "When you enter the land of Kena'an, it will become your land to pass on as an inheritance, the land of Kena'an as defined by these borders.

Moshe gave this order to the people of Isra'el: "This is the land in which you will receive inheritances by lot, which ADONAI has ordered to give to the nine tribes and the half-tribe.

These are the ones whom ADONAI ordered to divide the inheritance among the people of Isra'el in the land of Kena'an.

"Order the people of Isra'el to give to the L'vi'im cities to live in from the heritage they will possess, and you are also to give the L'vi'im some of the open land surrounding the cities.

As to the cities you will give from those the people of Isra'el possess, from the many you will take many, and from the few you will take few - each tribe will contribute from its cities to the L'vi'im in accordance with the size of its inheritance."

"Tell the people of Isra'el, 'When you cross the Yarden into the land of Kena'an,

These six cities will serve as refuge for the people of Isra'el, as well as for the foreigner and resident alien with them; so that anyone who kills someone by mistake may flee there.

No, you are not to defile the land in which you live and in which I live; for I, ADONAI, live among the people of Isra'el.'"

The leaders of the clans of the family of the descendants of Gil'ad, the son of Machir, the son of M'nasheh, of the families of the descendants of Yosef, approached and addressed Moshe and the leaders, the heads of the clans of the people of Isra'el.

They said, "ADONAI ordered my lord to give by lot the land to be inherited by the people of Isra'el, and my lord was ordered by ADONAI to give the inheritance of our kinsman Tz'lof'chad to his daughters.

But if they get married to anyone belonging to another of the tribes of the people of Isra'el, then their inheritance will be taken away from the inheritance of our ancestors and be added to the inheritance of the tribe they will then belong to; thus it will be taken away from the sum total of our inheritance.

And when the yovel of the people of Isra'el comes, their inheritance will be added to the land possessed by the tribe they will then belong to and be subtracted from the inheritance belonging to the tribe of our ancestors."

Moshe gave this order to the people of Isra'el, in keeping with the word of ADONAI : "The tribe of the descendants of Yosef is right in what it says.

In this way no inheritance of the people of Isra'el will move from one tribe to another; for each of the people of Isra'el is to hold on to the land for inheritance belonging to his father's tribe.

Every daughter who possesses an inheritance in any tribe of the people of Isra'el is to become the wife of someone from the family of her father's tribe, so that every one of the people of Isra'el will stay in possession of his ancestors' inheritance.

Thus no inheritance will move from one tribe to another, for each of the tribes of the people of Isra'el will hold on to its own inheritance."

These are the mitzvot and rulings which ADONAI gave through Moshe to the people of Isra'el in the plains of Mo'av by the Yarden, across from Yericho. 4 1-2

On the first day of the eleventh month of the fortieth year, Moshe spoke to the people of Isra'el, reviewing everything ADONAI had ordered him to tell them.

I have set the land before you! Go in, and take possession of the land ADONAI swore to give to your ancestors Avraham, Yitz'chak and Ya'akov, and their descendants after them.'

"At that time I gave you this order: 'ADONAI your God has given you this land to possess. But all of you who are fit to fight must cross over, armed, ahead of your brothers the people of Isra'el.

This is the Torah which Moshe placed before the people of Isra'el -