The Daily Audio Bible

⁵² The Lord said to Moses: ⁵³ “To these the land shall be divided for inheritance according to the number of names. ⁵⁴ To a large tribe you shall give a large inheritance, and to a small tribe you shall give a small inheritance; every tribe shall be given its inheritance according to its numbers. ⁵⁵ But the land shall be divided by lot; according to the names of the tribes of their fathers they shall inherit. ⁵⁶ Their inheritance shall be divided according to lot between the larger and the smaller.”

⁵⁷ These are the Levites as numbered according to their families: of Gershon, the family of the Gershonites; of Kohath, the family of the Ko′hathites; of Merar′i, the family of the Merar′ites. ⁵⁸ These are the families of Levi: the family of the Libnites, the family of the He′bronites, the family of the Mahlites, the family of the Mushites, the family of the Kor′ahites. And Kohath was the father of Amram. ⁵⁹ The name of Amram’s wife was Joch′ebed the daughter of Levi, who was born to Levi in Egypt; and she bore to Amram Aaron and Moses and Miriam their sister. ⁶⁰ And to Aaron were born Nadab, Abi′hu, Elea′zar and Ith′amar. ⁶¹ But Nadab and Abi′hu died when they offered unholy fire before the Lord. ⁶² And those numbered of them were twenty-three thousand, every male from a month old and upward; for they were not numbered among the people of Israel, because there was no inheritance given to them among the people of Israel.

⁶³ These were those numbered by Moses and Elea′zar the priest, who numbered the people of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho. ⁶⁴ But among these there was not a man of those numbered by Moses and Aaron the priest, who had numbered the people of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai. ⁶⁵ For the Lord had said of them, “They shall die in the wilderness.” There was not left a man of them, except Caleb the son of Jephun′neh and Joshua the son of Nun.

The Daughters of Zelophehad

27 Then drew near the daughters of Zeloph′ehad the son of Hepher, son of Gilead, son of Machir, son of Manas′seh, from the families of Manas′seh the son of Joseph. The names of his daughters were: Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. ² And they stood before Moses, and before Elea′zar the priest, and before the leaders and all the congregation, at the door of the tent of meeting, saying, ³ “Our father died in the wilderness; he was not among the company of those who gathered themselves together against the Lord in the company of Korah, but died for his own sin; and he had no sons. ⁴ Why should the name of our father be taken away from his family, because he had no son? Give to us a possession among our father’s brethren.”

⁵ Moses brought their case before the Lord. ⁶ And the Lord said to Moses, ⁷ “The daughters of Zeloph′ehad are right; you shall give them possession of an inheritance among their father’s brethren and cause the inheritance of their father to pass to them. ⁸ And you shall say to the people of Israel, ‘If a man dies, and has no son, then you shall cause his inheritance to pass to his daughter. ⁹ And if he has no daughter, then you shall give his inheritance to his brothers. ¹⁰ And if he has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to his father’s brothers. ¹¹ And if his father has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to his kinsman that is next to him of his family, and he shall possess it. And it shall be to the people of Israel a statute and ordinance, as the Lord commanded Moses.’”

Joshua Appointed Moses’ Successor

¹² The Lord said to Moses, “Go up into this mountain of Ab′arim, and see the land which I have given to the people of Israel. ¹³ And when you have seen it, you also shall be gathered to your people, as your brother Aaron was gathered, ¹⁴ because you rebelled against my word in the wilderness of Zin during the strife of the congregation, to sanctify me at the waters before their eyes.” (These are the waters of Mer′ibah of Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.) ¹⁵ Moses said to the Lord, ¹⁶ “Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation, ¹⁷ who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in; that the congregation of the Lord may not be as sheep which have no shepherd.” ¹⁸ And the Lord said to Moses, “Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay your hand upon him; ¹⁹ cause him to stand before Elea′zar the priest and all the congregation, and you shall commission him in their sight. ²⁰ You shall invest him with some of your authority, that all the congregation of the people of Israel may obey. ²¹ And he shall stand before Elea′zar the priest, who shall inquire for him by the judgment of the Urim before the Lord; at his word they shall go out, and at his word they shall come in, both he and all the people of Israel with him, the whole congregation.” ²² And Moses did as the Lord commanded him; he took Joshua and caused him to stand before Elea′zar the priest and the whole congregation, ²³ and he laid his hands upon him, and commissioned him as the Lord directed through Moses.

Daily Offerings

28 The Lord said to Moses, ² “Command the people of Israel, and say to them, ‘My offering, my food for my offerings by fire, my pleasing odor, you shall take heed to offer to me in its due season.’ ³ And you shall say to them, This is the offering by fire which you shall offer to the Lord: two male lambs a year old without blemish, day by day, as a continual offering. ⁴ The one lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the other lamb you shall offer in the evening; ⁵ also a tenth of an ephah of fine flour for a cereal offering, mixed with a fourth of a hin of beaten oil. ⁶ It is a continual burnt offering, which was ordained at Mount Sinai for a pleasing odor, an offering by fire to the Lord. ⁷ Its drink offering shall be a fourth of a hin for each lamb; in the holy place you shall pour out a drink offering of strong drink to the Lord. ⁸ The other lamb you shall offer in the evening; like the cereal offering of the morning, and like its drink offering, you shall offer it as an offering by fire, a pleasing odor to the Lord.

Sabbath Offerings

⁹ “On the sabbath day two male lambs a year old without blemish, and two tenths of an ephah of fine flour for a cereal offering, mixed with oil, and its drink offering: ¹⁰ this is the burnt offering of every sabbath, besides the continual burnt offering and its drink offering.

Monthly Offerings

¹¹ “At the beginnings of your months you shall offer a burnt offering to the Lord: two young bulls, one ram, seven male lambs a year old without blemish; ¹² also three tenths of an ephah of fine flour for a cereal offering, mixed with oil, for each bull; and two tenths of fine flour for a cereal offering, mixed with oil, for the one ram; ¹³ and a tenth of fine flour mixed with oil as a cereal offering for every lamb; for a burnt offering of pleasing odor, an offering by fire to the Lord. ¹⁴ Their drink offerings shall be half a hin of wine for a bull, a third of a hin for a ram, and a fourth of a hin for a lamb; this is the burnt offering of each month throughout the months of the year. ¹⁵ Also one male goat for a sin offering to the Lord; it shall be offered besides the continual burnt offering and its drink offering.

The Proclamation of John the Baptist

3 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tibe′ri-us Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Iturae′a and Trachoni′tis, and Lysa′ni-as tetrarch of Abile′ne, ² in the high-priesthood of Annas and Ca′iaphas,^[a] the word of God came to John the son of Zechari′ah in the wilderness; ³ and he went into all the region about the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. ⁴ As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,

⁷ He said therefore to the multitudes that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers!^[b] Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? ⁸ Bear fruits that befit repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. ⁹ Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

¹⁰ And the multitudes asked him, “What then shall we do?” ¹¹ And he answered them, “He who has two coats, let him share with him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise.” ¹² Tax collectors also came to be baptized, and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” ¹³ And he said to them, “Collect no more than is appointed you.” ¹⁴ Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Rob no one by violence or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.”

¹⁵ As the people were in expectation, and all men questioned in their hearts concerning John, whether perhaps he were the Christ, ¹⁶ John answered them all, “I baptize you with water; but he who is mightier than I is coming, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. ¹⁷ His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into his granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

¹⁸ So, with many other exhortations, he preached good news to the people. ¹⁹ But Herod the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Hero′di-as, his brother’s wife, and for all the evil things that Herod had done, ²⁰ added this to them all, that he shut up John in prison.

The Baptism of Jesus

²¹ Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, ²² and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form, as a dove, and a voice came from heaven, “Thou art my beloved Son;^[c] with thee I am well pleased.”^[d]

Assurance of God’s Protection

To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Psalm of David.