159 passages · Kingdom
Abram, seventy-five, leaves with Sarai and Lot. At Shechem the Lord promises the land to his offspring, and Abram builds altars there and near Bethel.
After Lot leaves, God tells Abram to look in every direction, promising all the land to him and his offspring forever, as numerous as the dust. Abram moves to Hebron and builds an altar.
God says he brought Abram to give him the land. When Abram asks how he will know, God has him prepare animals, which Abram cuts in halves and guards from birds of prey.
Abraham, calling himself a foreigner, asks for burial land. The Hittites respond respectfully, and he asks them to approach Ephron for the cave of Machpelah at full price.
Ephron publicly offers the field and cave as a gift, but Abraham insists on paying. Ephron names four hundred shekels, and Abraham weighs out the silver.
The field and cave are formally transferred to Abraham before the Hittites, and he buries Sarah there. It becomes his first owned piece of the promised land.
Joseph objects that Manasseh is the firstborn, but Jacob insists Ephraim will be greater. He assures Joseph that God will bring the family back to Canaan and gives him a portion of land.
The narrator notes the twelve tribes and Jacob's blessings. Jacob then instructs his sons to bury him in the cave of Machpelah with Abraham and Isaac, and he dies.
God promises to send terror and the hornet ahead of them and drive nations out little by little. He sets borders for the land and warns Israel not to make covenants with them or their gods.
God promises wonders and driving out the peoples of Canaan. He commands Israel not to make treaties with them, to destroy their altars, and to worship no other god or make molten idols.
When the Israelites are in Canaan and the LORD puts mildew in a house, the owner tells the priest. The priest has the house emptied and inspected, and closes it for seven days. Contaminated stones and plaster are removed, and a house where it keeps spreading is torn down.
The LORD warns that the nations he is driving out defiled the land through these acts, and the land will vomit out the Israelites if they do the same. They must keep his charge and avoid these customs.
When the Israelites plant fruit trees in the land, they are to treat the fruit as forbidden for three years and dedicate the fourth-year fruit to the LORD. In the fifth year they may eat it.
The Israelites are to keep all the LORD's statutes so the land does not vomit them out. They are to be holy because he has set them apart. Mediums and spiritists are to be put to death.
Once in the land, Israelites must bring a sheaf of the first grain to the priest, who waves it before the LORD with a lamb and other offerings. No new grain may be eaten until this is done.
Once in the land, Israel is to farm for six years and let the land rest completely in the seventh. What grows on its own may be eaten by everyone, including servants and animals.
After seven cycles of seven years, the fiftieth year is announced with a horn on the Day of Atonement. Liberty is proclaimed and each family returns to its property.
Land belongs to God and cannot be sold permanently, so a poor Israelite's relative may redeem it, and it returns at Jubilee. Houses in walled cities are treated differently, and Levite property is always redeemable.
When someone makes a special vow involving a person's value, the payment is set by age and sex in sanctuary shekels. A person too poor to pay may have the priest set a lower amount.
A field given to God is valued by the seed it needs and by the years left until Jubilee, and the owner may redeem it by adding a fifth. If not redeemed, it becomes the priests' property at Jubilee.
The LORD tells Moses to send one leader from each tribe to explore Canaan. The twelve are named, and Moses renames Hoshea as Joshua.
Moses tells them what to look for, and they travel through the land to Hebron and the Valley of Eshcol, where they cut a huge cluster of grapes.
After forty days the spies return to Kadesh. They show the fruit and say the land is rich, but its people are strong and its cities are large.
God says the adults who grumbled will die in the wilderness and their children will enter the land after forty years. The spies who gave the bad report die by plague.
God gives Moses rules for the grain and wine offered with animal sacrifices once Israel is in the land, and states the same rules apply to foreigners.
When Israel eats the food of the land, they are to give the first of their dough as an offering to the LORD.
God tells Aaron the priests receive no land, since God Himself is their portion. The Levites likewise get no land but receive Israel's tithes in return for their service.
Israel travels stage by stage toward Moab, quoting the Book of the Wars of the LORD. At Beer they sing a song celebrating the well that leaders dug, before continuing to the valley below Pisgah.
Israel asks Sihon for passage along the King's Highway. Sihon refuses and attacks, but Israel defeats him and settles in his cities, including Heshbon.
Israel takes villages near Jazer and moves up to Bashan, where King Og meets them at Edrei. God tells Moses not to fear, and Israel destroys Og's army and takes his land.