because they had too many possessions to be able to stay together and the land where they had settled ¹  was not able to support them because of their livestock.

Jacob and all his descendants took their livestock and the possessions they had acquired in the land of Canaan, and they went to Egypt. ¹ 

So Joseph settled his father and his brothers. He gave them territory ¹  in the land of Egypt, in the best region of the land, the land of Rameses, ²  just as Pharaoh had commanded.

Joseph said to the people, “Since I have bought you and your land today for Pharaoh, here is seed for you. Cultivate ¹  the land.

His sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, near Mamre. This is the field Abraham purchased as a burial plot from Ephron the Hittite.

I will bring you to the land I swore to give ¹  to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob – and I will give it to you ²  as a possession. I am the Lord!’”

But the Lord will distinguish ¹  between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, and nothing ²  will die of all that the Israelites have.”’” ³ 

And now, if you will diligently listen to me ¹  and keep ²  my covenant, then you will be my ³  special possession ⁴  out of all the nations, for all the earth is mine,

If his master gave ¹  him a wife, and she bore sons or daughters, the wife and the children will belong to her master, and he will go out by himself.

or has found something lost and denies it and swears falsely ¹  concerning any one of the things that someone might do to sin ²  –

You may buy it from your fellow citizen according to the number of years since ¹  the last jubilee; he may sell it to you according to the years of produce that are left. ² 

“‘If your brother becomes impoverished with regard to you so that he sells himself to you, you must not subject him to slave service. ¹ 

“‘As for your male and female slaves ¹  who may belong to you – you may buy male and female slaves from the nations all around you. ² 

“‘If what is vowed is a kind of animal from which an offering may be presented ¹  to the Lord, anything which he gives to the Lord from this kind of animal ²  will be holy.

He must not replace or exchange it, good for bad or bad for good, and if he does indeed exchange one animal for another animal, then both the original animal ¹  and its substitute will be holy.

So they said, “If we have found favor in your sight, ¹  let this land be given to your servants for our inheritance. Do not have us cross ²  the Jordan River.” ³ 

We will cross armed in the Lord’s presence into the land of Canaan, and then the possession of our inheritance that we inherit will be ours on this side of the Jordan River.” ¹ 

“Instruct the Israelites to give ¹  the Levites towns to live in from the inheritance the Israelites ²  will possess. You must also give the Levites grazing land around the towns.

And you must not accept a ransom for anyone who has fled to a town of refuge, to allow him to return home and live on his own land before the death of the high priest. ¹ 

In this way the inheritance of the Israelites will not be transferred ¹  from tribe to tribe. But every one of the Israelites must retain the ancestral heritage.