Psalm 52 - Numbers 35 - Numbers 36

Psalm 52

1> Why do you boast of mischief, mighty man? God's loving kindness endures continually.

2Your tongue plots destruction, Like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.

3You love evil more than good, Lying rather than speaking the truth. Selah.

4You love all devouring words, You deceitful tongue.

5God will likewise destroy you forever. He will take you up, and pluck you out of your tent, And root you out of the land of the living. Selah.

6The righteous also will see it, and fear, And laugh at him, saying,

7"Behold, this is the man who didn't make God his strength, But trusted in the abundance of his riches, And strengthened himself in his wickedness."

8But as for me, I am like a green olive tree in God's house. I trust in God's loving kindness forever and ever.

9I will give you thanks forever, because you have done it. I will hope in your name, for it is good, In the presence of your saints.

The Wilderness

Numbers 35

1Yahweh spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying, 2Command the children of Israel that they give to the Levites of the inheritance of their possession cities to dwell in; and suburbs for the cities round about them shall you give to the Levites. 3The cities shall they have to dwell in; and their suburbs shall be for their cattle, and for their substance, and for all their animals. 4The suburbs of the cities, which you shall give to the Levites, shall be from the wall of the city and outward one thousand cubits round about. 5You shall measure outside of the city for the east side two thousand cubits, and for the south side two thousand cubits, and for the west side two thousand cubits, and for the north side two thousand cubits, the city being in the midst. This shall be to them the suburbs of the cities. 6The cities which you shall give to the Levites, they shall be the six cities of refuge, which you shall give for the manslayer to flee to: and besides them you shall give forty-two cities. 7All the cities which you shall give to the Levites shall be forty-eight cities; them [shall you give] with their suburbs. 8Concerning the cities which you shall give of the possession of the children of Israel, from the many you shall take many; and from the few you shall take few: everyone according to his inheritance which he inherits shall give of his cities to the Levites. 9Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 10Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, When you pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, 11then you shall appoint you cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the manslayer who kills any person unwittingly may flee there. 12The cities shall be to you for refuge from the avenger, that the manslayer not die, until he stands before the congregation for judgment. 13The cities which you shall give shall be for you six cities of refuge. 14You shall give three cities beyond the Jordan, and three cities shall you give in the land of Canaan; they shall be cities of refuge. 15For the children of Israel, and for the stranger and for the foreigner living among them, shall these six cities be for refuge; that everyone who kills any person unwittingly may flee there. 16But if he struck him with an instrument of iron, so that he died, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death. 17If he struck him with a stone in the hand, by which a man may die, and he died, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death. 18Or if he struck him with a weapon of wood in the hand, by which a man may die, and he died, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death. 19The avenger of blood shall himself put the murderer to death: when he meets him, he shall put him to death. 20If he thrust him of hatred, or hurled at him, lying in wait, so that he died, 21or in enmity struck him with his hand, so that he died; he who struck him shall surely be put to death; he is a murderer: the avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death, when he meets him. 22But if he thrust him suddenly without enmity, or hurled on him anything without lying in wait, 23or with any stone, by which a man may die, not seeing him, and cast it on him, so that he died, and he was not his enemy, neither sought his harm; 24then the congregation shall judge between the striker and the avenger of blood according to these ordinances; 25and the congregation shall deliver the manslayer out of the hand of the avenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to his city of refuge, where he was fled: and he shall dwell therein until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the holy oil. 26But if the manslayer shall at any time go beyond the border of his city of refuge, where he flees, 27and the avenger of blood find him outside of the border of his city of refuge, and the avenger of blood kill the manslayer; he shall not be guilty of blood, 28because he should have remained in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest: but after the death of the high priest the manslayer shall return into the land of his possession. 29These things shall be for a statute [and] ordinance to you throughout your generations in all your dwellings. 30Whoever kills any person, the murderer shall be slain at the mouth of witnesses: but one witness shall not testify against any person that he die. 31Moreover you shall take no ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death; but he shall surely be put to death. 32You shall take no ransom for him who is fled to his city of refuge, that he may come again to dwell in the land, until the death of the priest. 33So you shall not pollute the land in which you are: for blood, it pollutes the land; and no expiation can be made for the land for the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him who shed it. 34You shall not defile the land which you inhabit, in the midst of which I dwell: for I, Yahweh, dwell in the midst of the children of Israel.

Numbers 36

1The heads of the fathers' [houses] of the family of the children of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of the sons of Joseph, came near, and spoke before Moses, and before the princes, the heads of the fathers' [houses] of the children of Israel: 2and they said, Yahweh commanded my lord to give the land for inheritance by lot to the children of Israel: and my lord was commanded by Yahweh to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother to his daughters. 3If they be married to any of the sons of the [other] tribes of the children of Israel, then will their inheritance be taken away from the inheritance of our fathers, and will be added to the inheritance of the tribe whereunto they shall belong: so will it be taken away from the lot of our inheritance. 4When the jubilee of the children of Israel shall be, then will their inheritance be added to the inheritance of the tribe whereunto they shall belong: so will their inheritance be taken away from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers. 5Moses commanded the children of Israel according to the word of Yahweh, saying, The tribe of the sons of Joseph speaks right. 6This is the thing which Yahweh does command concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, saying, Let them be married to whom they think best; only into the family of the tribe of their father shall they be married. 7So shall no inheritance of the children of Israel remove from tribe to tribe; for the children of Israel shall cleave everyone to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers. 8Every daughter, who possesses an inheritance in any tribe of the children of Israel, shall be wife to one of the family of the tribe of her father, that the children of Israel may possess every man the inheritance of his fathers. 9So shall no inheritance remove from one tribe to another tribe; for the tribes of the children of Israel shall cleave everyone to his own inheritance. 10Even as Yahweh commanded Moses, so did the daughters of Zelophehad: 11for Mahlah, Tirzah, and Hoglah, and Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were married to their father's brothers' sons. 12They were married into the families of the sons of Manasseh the son of Joseph; and their inheritance remained in the tribe of the family of their father. 13These are the commandments and the ordinances which Yahweh commanded by Moses to the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.