The Torah lists the journeys of the Children of Israel from the time of the Exodus until the present, when they are about to enter the Land of Israel.
G-d instructs the Jews that when they enter Canaan they shall drive out all the inhabitants and remove any idols and temples that they find there. If they do not drive out all the present inhabitants, those inhabitants will become thorns in the side of Israel, and G-d will do to the Jews that which they should have done to the Canaanites.
G-d instructs Moshe as to the borders of the Land of Israel. This land should be divided up amongst nine and a half of the tribes since the tribes of Reuven, Gad and half of Menashe had already received their inheritance on the other side of the Jordan River. Elazar and Yehoshua will oversee the allotment of land. G-d lists a leader from each tribe to help apportion the Land of Israel to that tribe.
G-d instructs Moshe to set up forty-two Levitical cities. In addition there are to be six cities of refuge which will also be given to the Levi’im. A person who commits manslaughter should flee to one of the cities of refuge, and must remain there until the death of the current High Priest. After that time he may return to his home. If he remains outside the city of refuge, or leaves it, the relatives of the deceased may kill him without trial. Anyone who commits premeditated murder should be put to death by the Sanhedrin. Even if he escapes to a city of refuge, he must be taken out of there to stand trial.
The leaders of the tribe of Menashe complain to Moshe that when the daughters of Tzelophchod marry, their ancestral land will pass on to the tribe of their husband, and will not remain part of Menashe’s inheritance. G-d therefore commands that these five women may only marry someone from their own tribe, in order that their land should not pass to another tribe.
These are the commandments and ordinances that G-d commanded through Moshe to the Children of Israel in the Plains of Moav.
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