Numbers 33:50-56

50 While they were camped near the Jordan River on the plains of Moab opposite Jericho, the LORD said to Moses,

51 “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel: When you cross the Jordan River into the land of Canaan,

52 you must drive out all the people living there. You must destroy all their carved and molten images and demolish all their pagan shrines.

53 Take possession of the land and settle in it, because I have given it to you to occupy.

54 You must distribute the land among the clans by sacred lot and in proportion to their size. A larger portion of land will be allotted to each of the larger clans, and a smaller portion will be allotted to each of the smaller clans. The decision of the sacred lot is final. In this way, the portions of land will be divided among your ancestral tribes.

55 But if you fail to drive out the people who live in the land, those who remain will be like splinters in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will harass you in the land where you live.

56 And I will do to you what I had planned to do to them.”

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.