One Year Bible.

The Boundaries of Canaan

¹Then the LORD said to Moses, ²“Command the Israelites and say to them: When you enter the land of Canaan, it will be allotted to you as an inheritance with these boundaries:

³Your southern border will extend from the Wilderness of Zin along the border of Edom. On the east, your southern border will run from the end of the Salt Sea, ⁴cross south of the Ascent of Akrabbim, continue to Zin, and go south of Kadesh-barnea. Then it will go on to Hazar-addar and proceed to Azmon, ⁵where it will turn from Azmon, join the Brook of Egypt, and end at the Sea.

⁶Your western border will be the coastline of the Great Sea; this will be your boundary on the west.

⁷Your northern border will run from the Great Sea directly to Mount Hor, ⁸and from Mount Hor to Lebo-hamath, then extend to Zedad, ⁹continue to Ziphron, and end at Hazar-enan. This will be your boundary on the north.

¹⁰And your eastern border will run straight from Hazar-enan to Shepham, ¹¹then go down from Shepham to Riblah on the east side of Ain and continue along the slopes east of the Sea of Chinnereth. ¹²Then the border will go down along the Jordan and end at the Salt Sea.

This will be your land, defined by its borders on all sides.”

¹³So Moses commanded the Israelites, “Apportion this land by lot as an inheritance. The LORD has commanded that it be given to the nine and a half tribes. ¹⁴For the tribes of the Reubenites and Gadites, along with the half-tribe of Manasseh, have already received their inheritance. ¹⁵These two and a half tribes have received their inheritance across the Jordan from Jericho, toward the sunrise.”

Leaders to Divide the Land

¹⁶Then the LORD said to Moses, ¹⁷“These are the names of the men who are to assign the land as an inheritance for you: Eleazar the priest and Joshua son of Nun. ¹⁸Appoint one leader from each tribe to distribute the land. ¹⁹These are their names:

Caleb son of Jephunneh from the tribe of Judah;

²⁰Shemuel son of Ammihud from the tribe of Simeon;

²¹Elidad son of Chislon from the tribe of Benjamin;

²²Bukki son of Jogli, a leader from the tribe of Dan;

²³Hanniel son of Ephod, a leader from the tribe of Manasseh son of Joseph;

²⁴Kemuel son of Shiphtan, a leader from the tribe of Ephraim;

²⁵Eli-zaphan son of Parnach, a leader from the tribe of Zebulun;

²⁶Paltiel son of Azzan, a leader from the tribe of Issachar;

²⁷Ahihud son of Shelomi, a leader from the tribe of Asher;

²⁸and Pedahel son of Ammihud, a leader from the tribe of Naphtali.”

²⁹These are the ones whom the LORD commanded to apportion the inheritance to the Israelites in the land of Canaan.

Forty-Eight Cities for the Levites

¹Again the LORD spoke to Moses on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho: ²“Command the Israelites to give, from the inheritance they will possess, cities for the Levites to live in and pasturelands around the cities. ³The cities will be for them to live in, and the pasturelands will be for their herds, their flocks, and all their other livestock.

⁴The pasturelands around the cities you are to give the Levites will extend a thousand cubits from the wall on every side. ⁵You are also to measure two thousand cubits outside the city on the east, two thousand on the south, two thousand on the west, and two thousand on the north, with the city in the center. These areas will serve as larger pasturelands for the cities.

⁶Six of the cities you give the Levites are to be appointed as cities of refuge, to which a manslayer may flee. In addition to these, give the Levites forty-two other cities. ⁷The total number of cities you give the Levites will be forty-eight, with their corresponding pasturelands. ⁸The cities that you apportion from the territory of the Israelites should be given to the Levites in proportion to the inheritance of each tribe: more from a larger tribe and less from a smaller one.”

Six Cities of Refuge

⁹Then the LORD said to Moses, ¹⁰“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, ¹¹designate cities to serve as your cities of refuge, so that a person who kills someone unintentionally may flee there. ¹²You are to have these cities as a refuge from the avenger, so that the manslayer will not die until he stands trial before the assembly.

¹³The cities you select will be your six cities of refuge. ¹⁴Select three cities across the Jordan and three in the land of Canaan as cities of refuge. ¹⁵These six cities will serve as a refuge for the Israelites and for the foreigner or stranger among them, so that anyone who kills a person unintentionally may flee there.

¹⁶If, however, anyone strikes a person with an iron object and kills him, he is a murderer; the murderer must surely be put to death. ¹⁷Or if anyone has in his hand a stone of deadly size, and he strikes and kills another, he is a murderer; the murderer must surely be put to death. ¹⁸If anyone has in his hand a deadly object of wood, and he strikes and kills another, he is a murderer; the murderer must surely be put to death.

¹⁹The avenger of blood is to put the murderer to death; when he finds him, he is to kill him.

²⁰Likewise, if anyone maliciously pushes another or intentionally throws an object at him and kills him, ²¹or if in hostility he strikes him with his hand and he dies, the one who struck him must surely be put to death; he is a murderer. When the avenger of blood finds the murderer, he is to kill him.

²²But if anyone pushes a person suddenly, without hostility, or throws an object at him unintentionally, ²³or without looking drops a heavy stone that kills him, but he was not an enemy and did not intend to harm him, ²⁴then the congregation must judge between the slayer and the avenger of blood according to these ordinances. ²⁵The assembly is to protect the manslayer from the hand of the avenger of blood. Then the assembly will return him to the city of refuge to which he fled, and he must live there until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the holy oil.

²⁶But if the manslayer ever goes outside the limits of the city of refuge to which he fled ²⁷and the avenger of blood finds him outside of his city of refuge and kills him, then the avenger will not be guilty of bloodshed, ²⁸because the manslayer must remain in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest. Only after the death of the high priest may he return to the land he owns. ²⁹This will be a statutory ordinance for you for the generations to come, wherever you live.

³⁰If anyone kills a person, the murderer is to be put to death on the testimony of the witnesses. But no one is to be put to death based on the testimony of a lone witness.

³¹You are not to accept a ransom for the life of a murderer who deserves to die; he must surely be put to death. ³²Nor should you accept a ransom for the person who flees to a city of refuge and allow him to return and live on his own land before the death of the high priest.

³³Do not pollute the land where you live, for bloodshed pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land on which the blood is shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it. ³⁴Do not defile the land where you live and where I dwell. For I, the LORD, dwell among the Israelites.”

Zelophehad’s Daughters Marry

¹Now the family heads of the clan of Gilead son of Machir son of Manasseh, one of the clans of Joseph, approached Moses and the leaders who were the heads of the Israelite families and addressed them, ²saying, “When the LORD commanded my lord to give the land as an inheritance to the Israelites by lot, He also commanded him to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad to his daughters. ³But if they marry any of the men from the other tribes of Israel, their inheritance will be withdrawn from the portion of our fathers and added to the tribe into which they marry. So our allotted inheritance would be taken away. ⁴And when the Jubilee for the Israelites comes, their inheritance will be added to the tribe into which they marry and taken away from the tribe of our fathers.”

⁵So at the word of the LORD, Moses commanded the Israelites: “The tribe of the sons of Joseph speaks correctly. ⁶This is what the LORD has commanded concerning the daughters of Zelophehad: They may marry anyone they please, provided they marry within a clan of the tribe of their father. ⁷No inheritance in Israel may be transferred from tribe to tribe, because each of the Israelites is to retain the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers. ⁸Every daughter who possesses an inheritance from any Israelite tribe must marry within a clan of the tribe of her father, so that every Israelite will possess the inheritance of his fathers. ⁹No inheritance may be transferred from one tribe to another, for each tribe of Israel must retain its inheritance.”

¹⁰So the daughters of Zelophehad did as the LORD had commanded Moses. ¹¹Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were married to cousins on their father’s side. ¹²They married within the clans of the descendants of Manasseh son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained within the tribe of their father’s clan.

¹³These are the commandments and ordinances that the LORD gave the Israelites through Moses on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho.

Broken Bondage

¹A song. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.

Great is the LORD,

and greatly to be praised

in the city of our God,

His holy mountain.

²Beautiful in loftiness,

the joy of all the earth,

like the peaks of Zaphon is Mount Zion,

the city of the great King.

³God is in her citadels;

He has shown Himself to be a fortress.

⁴For behold, the kings assembled;

they all advanced together.

⁵They saw and were astounded;

they fled in terror.

⁶Trembling seized them there,

anguish like a woman in labor.

⁷With a wind from the east

You wrecked the ships of Tarshish.

⁸As we have heard, so we have seen

in the city of the LORD of Hosts,

in the city of our God:

God will establish her forever.

Selah

⁹Within Your temple, O God,

we contemplate Your loving devotion.

¹⁰Your name, O God, like Your praise,

reaches to the ends of the earth;

Your right hand is full of righteousness.

¹¹Mount Zion is glad,

the daughters of Judah rejoice,

on account of Your judgments.

¹²March around Zion, encircle her,

count her towers,

¹³consider her ramparts, tour her citadels,

that you may tell the next generation.

¹⁴For this God is our God forever and ever;

He will be our guide even till death.

The Beast from the Sea

¹Then I saw a beast with ten horns and seven heads rising out of the sea. There were ten royal crowns on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. ²The beast I saw was like a leopard, with the feet of a bear and the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority.

³One of the heads of the beast appeared to have been mortally wounded. But the mortal wound was healed, and the whole world marveled and followed the beast. ⁴They worshiped the dragon who had given authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can wage war against it?”

⁵The beast was given a mouth to speak arrogant and blasphemous words, and authority to act for 42 months. ⁶And the beast opened its mouth to speak blasphemies against God and to slander His name and His tabernacle — those who dwell in heaven.

⁷Then the beast was permitted to wage war against the saints and to conquer them, and it was given authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation. ⁸And all who dwell on the earth will worship the beast — all whose names have not been written from the foundation of the world in the Book of Life belonging to the Lamb who was slain.

⁹He who has an ear, let him hear:

¹⁰“If anyone is destined for captivity,

into captivity he will go;

if anyone is to die by the sword,

by the sword he must be killed.”

Here is a call for the perseverance and faith of the saints.

The Beast from the Earth

¹¹Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. This beast had two horns like a lamb, but spoke like a dragon. ¹²And this beast exercised all the authority of the first beast and caused the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose mortal wound had been healed.

¹³And the second beast performed great signs, even causing fire from heaven to come down to earth in the presence of the people. ¹⁴Because of the signs it was given to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived those who dwell on the earth, telling them to make an image to the beast that had been wounded by the sword and yet had lived. ¹⁵The second beast was permitted to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship it to be killed.

The Mark of the Beast

¹⁶And the second beast required all people, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, ¹⁷so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark — the name of the beast or the number of its name.

¹⁸Here is a call for wisdom: Let the one who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and that number is 666.