Add parallel Print Page Options

These presented themselves to Eleazar the priest, to Joshua, son of Nun, and to the leaders, saying, “The Lord commanded Moses to give us a heritage among our relatives.” So in accordance with the command of the Lord a heritage was given them among their father’s relatives.

Read full chapter

Chapter 21

Levitical Cities. The heads of the Levite families[a] approached Eleazar the priest, Joshua, son of Nun, and the heads of families of the other tribes of the Israelites(A)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 21:1 The order to establish special cities for the Levites is given in Nm 35:1–8. The forty-eight cities listed here were hardly the exclusive possession of the Levites; at least the more important of them, such as Hebron, Shechem, and Ramoth in Gilead, were certainly peopled for the most part by the tribe in whose territory they were situated. But in all these cities the Levites had special property rights which they did not possess in other cities; cf. Lv 25:32–34.

19 Have him stand before Eleazar the priest and the whole community, and commission him in their sight. 20 Invest him with some of your own power, that the whole Israelite community may obey him. 21 He shall present himself to Eleazar the priest, who will seek for him the decision of the Urim[a] in the Lord’s presence; and as it directs, Joshua, all the Israelites with him, and the whole community will go out for battle; and as it directs, they will come in.

22 Moses did as the Lord had commanded him. Taking Joshua and having him stand before Eleazar the priest and the whole community,

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 27:21 The Urim: certain sacred objects which Israelite priests employed to discern the divine will, probably by obtaining a positive or negative answer to a given question. The full expression was “the Urim and Thummim”; cf. Ex 28:30; Lv 8:8; Dt 33:8; Ezr 2:63; Neh 7:65. Joshua ordinarily did not receive direct revelations from God as Moses had received them.

17 These are the names of the men who shall apportion the land among you: Eleazar the priest, and Joshua, son of Nun; 18 (A)and you will designate one leader from each of the tribes to apportion the land.

Read full chapter