Numbers 33:50-56

Instructions for Occupying Canaan

50 The Lord spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan [across from] Jericho,
51 "Tell the Israelites: When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan,
52 you must drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you, destroy all their stone images[a] and cast images,[b] and demolish all their high places.
53 You are to take possession of the land and settle in it because I have given you the land[c] to possess.
54 You are to receive the land as an inheritance by lot according to your clans. Increase the inheritance for a large clan and decrease it for a small one. Whatever place the lot indicates for someone will be his. You will receive an inheritance according to your ancestral tribes.
55 But if you don't drive out the inhabitants of the land before you, those you allow to remain will become thorns in your eyes and in your sides; they will harass you in the land where you will live.
56 And what I had planned to do to them, I will do to you."[d]

Numbers 33:50-56 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO NUMBERS 33

This chapter gives an account of the journeys of the people of Israel, from their first coming out of Egypt, to their arrival in the plains of Moab by Jordan, and the names of the various stations where they rested are given, Nu 33:1-49 and they are ordered, when they passed over Jordan, to drive out the Canaanites, destroy their idols, and divide the land among their families in their several tribes, Nu 33:50-54 or otherwise it is threatened the Canaanites should be troublesome and vexatious to them, even those that remained; and it might be expected God would do to the Israelites as he thought to do to those nations, Nu 33:55,56.

Footnotes 4

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