Joshua Chapter 21 to 22 : Easy-to-Read Version  | SearchSearch | Next Version | Previous Page | Next Page |

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Towns for Priests and Levites

21 The family rulers of the Levite family group went to talk to Eleazar the priest, to Joshua son of Nun, and the rulers of the other family groups of Israel. 2This happened at the town of Shiloh in the land of Canaan. The Levite rulers said to them, “The Lord gave Moses a command. He commanded that you give us towns to live in. And he commanded that you give us fields where our animals can eat.” 3So the people of Israel obeyed this command from the Lord. They gave the Levite people these towns and the land around them for their animals: 4The Kohath family were descendants of Aaron the priest from the family group of Levi. Part of the Kohath family was given 13 towns in the areas that belonged to Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin. 5The other Kohath families were given ten towns in the areas that belonged to Ephraim, Dan, and half of Manasseh. 6The people from the Gershon family were given 13 towns. These towns were in the areas that belonged to Issachar, Asher, Naphtali, and the half of Manasseh that was in Bashan. 7The people from the Merari family were given twelve towns. These twelve towns came from the areas that belonged to Reuben, Gad, and Zebulun. 8So the people of Israel gave the Levite people these towns and the fields around them, just like the Lord had told Moses. 9These are the names of the towns that were in the areas that belonged to Judah and Simeon. 10The first choice of towns was given to Levites from the Kohath family. 11They gave them Kiriath Arba (This is Hebron. It was named for a man named Arba. Arba was the father of Anak.) They also gave them some land near the town for their animals. 12But the fields and the small towns around the city of Kiriath Arba belonged to Caleb son of Jephunneh. 13So they gave the city of Hebron to Aaron’s descendants. (Hebron was a city of safety.) They also gave Aaron’s descendants the towns of Libnah, 14Jattir, Eshtemoa, 15Holon, Debir, 16Ain, Juttah, and Beth Shemesh. They also gave them some of the land near these towns for their animals. They gave nine towns to these two groups. 17They also gave Aaron’s descendants cities that belonged to the family group of Benjamin. These cities were Gibeon, Geba, 18Anathoth, and Almon. They gave them these four towns and some of the land near the towns for their animals. 19In all, they gave 13 towns to the priests. (All priests were descendants of Aaron.) They also gave them some land near each town for their animals. 20The other people from the Kohathite family were given towns that were in the areas that belonged to the family group of Ephraim. They got these towns: 21The city of Shechem from the hill country of Ephraim. (Shechem was a city of safety.) They also got Gezer, 22Kibzaim, and Beth Horon. In all, Ephraim gave them four towns and some land around each town for their animals. 23The family group of Dan gave them Eltekeh, Gibbethon, 24Aijalon, and Gath Rimmon. In all, Dan gave them four towns and some land around each town for their animals. 25Half of the family group of Manasseh gave them Taanach and Gath Rimmon. In all, this half of Manasseh gave them two towns and some land around each town for their animals. 26In all, the rest of the people from the Kohath family got ten towns and some land around each town for their animals. 27The Gershon family was also from the family group of Levi. They got these towns: Half of the family group of Manasseh gave them Golan in Bashan. (Golan was a city of safety.) Manasseh also gave them Be Eshtarah. In all, this half of Manasseh gave them two towns and some land around each town for their animals. 28The family group of Issachar gave them Kishion, Daberath, 29Jarmuth, and En Gannim. In all, Issachar gave them four towns and some land around each town for their animals. 30The family group of Asher gave them Mishal, Abdon, 31Helkath, and Rehob. In all, Asher gave them four towns and some land around each town for their animals. 32The family group of Naphtali gave them Kedesh in Galilee. (Kedesh was a city of safety.) Naphtali also gave them Hammoth Dor and Kartan. In all, Naphtali gave them three towns and some land around each town for their animals. 33In all, the Gershon family got 13 towns and some land around each town for their animals. 34The other Levite group was the Merari family. The Merari family got these towns: The family group of Zebulun gave them Jokneam, Kartah, 35Dimnah, and Nahalal. In all, Zebulun gave them four towns and some land around each town for their animals. 36The family group of Reuben gave them Bezer, Jahaz, 37Kedemoth, and Mephaath. In all, Reuben gave them four towns and some land around each town for their animals. 38The family group of Gad gave them Ramoth in Gilead. (Ramoth was a city of safety.) They also gave them Mahanaim, 39Heshbon, and Jazer. In all, Gad gave them four towns and some land around each town for their animals. 40In all, the last family of Levites, the Merari family, got twelve towns. 41So the Levites got a total of 48 towns and some land around each town for their animals. All these towns were in areas that belonged to the other family groups. 42Each of these towns had some land in it for their animals. That was true for every town. 43So the Lord kept the promise that he had made to the people of Israel. He gave the people all the land that he had promised. The people took the land and lived there. 44And the Lord allowed them to have peace on all sides of their land, just like he had promised their ancestors.* None of their enemies defeated them. The Lord allowed the people of Israel to defeat every enemy. 45The Lord kept every promise that he made to the people of Israel. There were no promises that he failed to keep. Every promise came true.

ancestors Literally, “fathers,” meaning a person’s parents, grandparents, and all the people they are descended from.


Three Family Groups Go Home

22 Then Joshua called a meeting of all the people from the family groups of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh. 2Joshua said to them, “Moses was the Lord’s servant. You obeyed all things that Moses told you to do. And also, you obeyed all of my commands. 3And all this time you have supported all the other people of Israel. You carefully obeyed all the commands that the Lord your God gave you. 4The Lord your God promised to give the people of Israel peace. And now, the Lord has kept his promise. So now you can go home. The Lord’s servant Moses gave you the land on the east side of the Jordan River. Now you can go home to that land. 5But remember—continue to obey the law that Moses gave you. You must love the Lord your God and obey his commands. You must continue to follow him and serve him the very best that you can.” 6Then Joshua said goodbye to them and they left. They went home. 7Moses had given the land of Bashan to half of the Manasseh family group. Joshua gave land on the west side of the Jordan River to the other half of the Manasseh family group. Joshua blessed them and sent them home. 8He said, “You have become very rich. You have many animals. You have gold and silver and expensive jewelry. You have many beautiful clothes. You have taken many things from your enemies. Go home and divide these things among yourselves.” 9So the people from the family groups of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh left the other people of Israel. They were at Shiloh in Canaan. They left that place and went back to Gilead. They went home to their own land—the land that Moses gave them. The Lord had commanded Moses to give them this land. 10The people of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh went to the place called Geliloth. This was near the Jordan River in the land of Canaan. At that place the people built a beautiful altar. 11But the other people of Israel that were still at Shiloh heard about the altar that these three family groups built. They heard that the altar was at the border of Canaan at the place called Geliloth. It was near the Jordan River on Israel’s side. 12All the people of Israel became very angry at these three family groups. They met together and decided to fight against them. 13So the people of Israel sent some men to talk to the people of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh. The leader of these men was Phinehas, son of Eleazar the priest. 14They also sent ten of the leaders of the family groups there. There was one man from each family group of Israel that was at Shiloh. 15So these eleven men went to Gilead. They went to talk to the people of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh. The eleven men said to them, 16“All the people of Israel ask you: Why did you do this thing against the God of Israel? Why did you turn against the Lord? Why did you build an altar for yourselves? You know that this is against God’s teachings! 17Remember what happened at Peor? We are still suffering because of that sin. Because of that great sin, God caused many of the people of Israel to become very sick. And we are still suffering because of that sickness today. 18And now you are doing the same thing! You are turning against the Lord! Will you refuse to follow the Lord? If you don’t stop what you are doing, the Lord will be angry with every person in Israel. 19“If your land is not a good enough place to worship, then come over into our land. The Lord’s Tent is in our land. You can have some of our land and live there. But don’t turn against the Lord. Don’t build another altar. We already have the altar of the Lord our God at the Meeting Tent.  20“Remember the man named Achan son of Zerah. He refused to obey the command about things that must be destroyed. That one man broke God’s law, but all the people of Israel were punished. Achan died because of his sin. But also many other people died.” 21The people from the family groups of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh answered the eleven men. They said, 22“The Lord is our God! Again we say that the Lord is our God!* And God knows why we did this thing. We want you to know also. You can judge what we did. If you believe that we have done something wrong, then you can kill us. 23If we broke God’s law, then we ask the Lord himself to punish us. 24Do you think we built this altar for burnt offerings, grain offerings and fellowship offerings? No! We did not build it for that reason. Why did we build this altar? We were afraid that in the future your people would not accept us as part of your nation. Then your people would say that we can’t worship the Lord God of Israel. 25God gave us land on the other side of the Jordan River. This means that the Jordan River separates us. We were afraid that when your children grew up and ruled your land, they would not remember that we were also your people. They would say to us, ‘You people of Reuben and Gad aren’t part of Israel!’ Then your children would make our children stop worshiping the Lord. 26“So we decided to build this altar. But we did not plan to use it for burning offerings and sacrifices. 27The real reason we wanted our altar was to show our people that we worship the same God as you. This altar will be the proof to you and to us and to all our future children that we worship the Lord. We give our sacrifices, grain offerings and fellowship offerings to the Lord. We wanted your children to grow up and know that we are also people of Israel like yourselves. 28In the future, if it happens that your children say that we do not belong to Israel, then our children can say, ‘Look! Our fathers who lived before us made an altar. That altar is exactly like the Lord’s altar {at the Holy Tent}. We do not use this altar for sacrifices—this altar is proof that we are part of Israel.’ 29“Truly, we do not want to be against the Lord. We don’t want to stop following him now. We know that the only true altar is the one that is in front of the Holy Tent. That altar belongs to the Lord our God.” 30Phinehas the priest and the leaders with him heard these things the people from Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh said. They were satisfied that these people were telling the truth. 31So Phinehas the priest said, “Now we know that the Lord is with us. And we know that you did not turn against him. We are happy that the people of Israel will not be punished by the Lord.” 32Then Phinehas and the leaders left that place and went home. They left the people of Reuben and Gad in the land of Gilead and went back to Canaan. They went back to the people of Israel and told themwhat happened. 33The people of Israel were also satisfied. They were happy and thanked God. They decided not to go and fight against the people of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh. They decided not to destroy the land where those people live. 34The people of Reuben, and Gad gave the altar a name. They called it, “Proof That We Believe the Lord is God.”

The Lord … is our God Or, “YAHWEH is the true God! YAHWEH is the true God!” Literally, “EL ELOHIM YAHWEH! EL ELOHIM YAHWEH.”

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