Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Today we finished our fifth book of the Bible. We are almost 20% of the way

through and most of the toughest stuff is behind us. You've come so far and I

bet you've learned so much. I know I have. I'm excited to start

Deuteronomy with you tomorrow, but let's wrap up numbers first. As you know, the Levites

don't get to inherit any land. However, they do need a place to live and a place to keep

their stuff. So God's plan for this is to have each tribe donate a little bit of the perimeter

of their land for the Levites. 48 villages in total. This land not only housed the Levites, but also

had six portions devoted to being cities of refuge. Before we get into what those are,

let's back up a little bit.

In today's reading God sets out standards for what constitutes being a murderer versus being

a manslayer.

And that involves weighing the motives of the killer.

That's a tough thing to do, since we can't see people's hearts like God can.

So God establishes a few things that tend to reveal motives.

Was this person known to hate the person they killed?

Did he use a tool that would be certain to cause death?

If so, then the Avenger of Blood was supposed to avenge the murder, provided there were two

witnesses to the murder in question. The Avenger of Blood was a role

given to the closest male relative. It was his job to put the murderer to death.

One problem that might arise from this, as you can imagine,

is that the closest male relative might still want to seek revenge

...