Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel your servants, to whom you swore by yourself and told them, &#8216;I will multiply your descendants<n id="1" /> like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken about<n id="2" /> I will give to your descendants,<n id="3" /> and they will inherit it forever.&#8217;&#8221;

and said, &#8220;If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, let my Lord<n id="1" /> go among us, for we<n id="2" /> are a stiff-necked people; pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.&#8221;p>

But the Levites must perform the service<n id="1" /> of the tent of meeting, and they must bear their iniquity.<n id="2" /> It will be a perpetual ordinance throughout your generations that among the Israelites the Levites<n id="3" /> have no inheritance.<n id="4" />

But I have given<n id="1" /> to the Levites for an inheritance the tithes of the Israelites that are offered<n id="2" /> to the <sc>Lordsc> as a raised offering. That is why I said to them that among the Israelites they are to have no inheritance.&#8221;p>

<p class="bodytext">Then Moses commanded the Israelites: &#8220;This is the land which you will inherit by lot, which the <sc>Lordsc> has commanded to be given<n id="1" /> to the nine and a half tribes,

The towns you will give must be from the possession of the Israelites. From the larger tribes you must give more; and from the smaller tribes fewer. Each must contribute some of its own towns to the Levites in proportion to the inheritance allocated to each.p>

In the day he divides his inheritance<n id="1" /> he must not appoint as firstborn the son of the favorite wife in place of the other<n id="2" /> wife&#8217;s son who is actually the firstborn.

Then Moses called out to Joshua<n id="1" /> in the presence of all Israel, &#8220;Be strong and courageous, for you will accompany these people to the land that the <sc>Lordsc> promised to give their ancestors,<n id="2" /> and you will enable them to inherit it.

<p class="bodytext">These are the land assignments which Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the Israelite tribal leaders<n id="1" /> made by drawing lots in Shiloh before the <sc>Lordsc> at the entrance of the tent of meeting.<n id="2" /> So they finished dividing up the land.p>

Gilead&#8217;s wife also gave<n id="1" /> him sons. When his wife&#8217;s sons grew up, they made Jephthah leave and said to him, &#8220;You are not going to inherit any of our father&#8217;s wealth,<n id="2" /> because you are another woman&#8217;s son.&#8221;

<p class="poetry">He lifts the weak<n id="1" /> from the dust;p> <p class="poetry">he raises<n id="2" /> the poor from the ash heapp> <p class="poetry">to seat them with princesp> <p class="poetry">and to bestow on them an honored position.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">The foundations of the earth belong to the <sc>Lordsc>,p> <p class="poetry">and he has placed the world on them.p>

So now, in the sight of all Israel, the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s assembly, and in the hearing of our God, I say this:<n id="1" /> Carefully observe<n id="2" /> all the commands of the <sc>Lordsc> your God, so that you may possess this good land and may leave it as a permanent inheritance for your children after you.p>

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;I, the <sc>Lordsc>, also have something to say concerning<n id="1" /> the wicked nations who surround my land<n id="2" /> and have attacked and plundered<n id="3" /> the land that I gave to my people as a permanent possession.<n id="4" /> I say: &#8216;I will uproot the people of those nations from their lands and I will free the people of Judah who have been taken there.<n id="5" />

<p class="bodytext">Then I said,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;<sc>Lordsc>, you give me strength and protect me.p> <p class="poetry">You are the one I can run to for safety when I am in trouble.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">Nations from all over the earthp> <p class="poetry">will come to you and say,p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;Our ancestors had nothing but false gods &#8211;p> <p class="poetry">worthless idols that could not help them at all.<n id="3" />p>

<p class="poetry">Therefore, as surely as I live,&#8221; says the <sc>Lordsc> who commands armies, the God of Israel,p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;be certain that Moab will become like Sodomp> <p class="poetry">and the Ammonites like Gomorrah.p> <p class="poetry">They will be overrun by weeds,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">filled with salt pits,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">and permanently desolate.p> <p class="poetry">Those of my people who are left<n id="3" /> will plunder their belongings;<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">those who are left in Judah<n id="5" /> will take possession of their land.&#8221;p>

&#8216;for there will be a peaceful time of sowing, the vine will produce its fruit and the ground its yield, and the skies<n id="1" /> will rain down dew. Then I will allow the remnant of my people to possess all these things.