Immerse: Beginnings Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 265
26:52–27:3
N u mbers
253
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Divide the land among the tribes, and
distribute the grants of land in proportion to the tribes’ populations, as
indicated by the number of names on the list. Give the larger tribes more
land and the smaller tribes less land, each group receiving a grant in proportion to the size of its population. But you must assign the land by lot,
and give land to each ancestral tribe according to the number of names on
the list. Each grant of land must be assigned by lot among the larger and
smaller tribal groups.”
This is the record of the Levites who were counted according to their
clans:
The Gershonite clan, named after their ancestor Gershon.
The Kohathite clan, named after their ancestor Kohath.
The Merarite clan, named after their ancestor Merari.
The Libnites, the Hebronites, the Mahlites, the Mushites, and the Korah
ites were all subclans of the Levites.
Now Kohath was the ancestor of Amram, and Amram’s wife was named
Jochebed. She also was a descendant of Levi, born among the Levites in
the land of Egypt. Amram and Jochebed became the parents of Aaron,
Moses, and their sister, Miriam. To Aaron were born Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. But Nadab and Abihu died when they burned before the
Lord the wrong kind of fire, different than he had commanded.
The men from the Levite clans who were one month old or older numbered 23,000. But the Levites were not included in the registration of the
rest of the people of Israel because they were not given an allotment of
land when it was divided among the Israelites.
So these are the results of the registration of the people of Israel as conducted by Moses and Eleazar the priest on the plains of Moab beside the
Jordan River, across from Jericho. Not one person on this list had been
among those listed in the previous registration taken by Moses and Aaron
in the wilderness of Sinai. For the Lord had said of them, “They will all
die in the wilderness.” Not one of them survived except Caleb son of Je
phunneh and Joshua son of Nun.
One day a petition was presented by the daughters of Zelophehad—
ahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. Their father, Zelophehad, was
M
a descendant of Hepher son of Gilead, son of Makir, son of Manasseh,
son of Joseph. These women stood before Moses, Eleazar the priest, the
tribal leaders, and the entire community at the entrance of the Tabernacle.
“Our father died in the wilderness,” they said. “He was not among Korah’s
