8 South of Yehudah’s land will be an area that the entire nation will give to me—you Israelis will set it apart for special use. The temple will be in the middle of the area that’s thirteen kilometres wide and as long as the other land allocations.

9 The special area that you Israelis will give to Yahweh will be thirteen kilometres long and five kilometres wide. 10 This special area will be allocated to the priests: you’ll assign them an area of land measuring thirteen kilometres on the northern and southern sides, and five kilometres on the western and eastern sides. Yahweh’s temple will be in the middle of that special area. 11 The temple area will be for the priests, Tsadok’s descendants, who are dedicated to serving me. (They’re the ones who served me faithfully and didn’t turn away from me like the Levites and the others did.) 12 The priests’ allocation will be a portion of that very sacred land, extending to the Levites’ border. 13 The land assigned to the Levites will be the same size as the land that the priests will receive. (So together, these two portions of land will be thirteen kilometres long and about ten kilometres wide.) 14 They mustn’t sell or barter it—none of this best part of Yisrael’s land must ever be used for any other purpose, because it’s all sacred to Yahweh.

15 Another strip of land thirteen kilometres long and almost three kilometres wide will be allotted for other people living in the special area to use. They may build homes and have pasturelands there, and there’ll be a city in the middle of that area. 16 The city will be square, over two kilometres long on each side, 17 with an open area around it, within the special area, that will be about 130m wide in each direction. 18 Outside the city, there’ll be two strips that’ll extend five kilometres on each of the east and west sides, and the produce from those strips will be food for the people working in the city. 19 Those who come from the various tribes to work in the city may also work in this farmland. 20 That entire special area, including the land given for Yahweh’s use and the city, will be a square that’s thirteen kilometres long on each side.

21 The tracts of land to the east and to the west of Yahweh’s area and the city will belong to the leader. One area will extend thirteen kilometres east to Yisrael’s eastern boundary, and the other will extend thirteen kilometres west to the Mediterranean Sea. Yahweh’s area, which contains the temple, will be in the middle. 22 The area that belongs to the leader (that surrounds the Levites’ property and the city in the middle of it) will be between the tribe of Yehudah to the north and the tribe of Benyamin to the south.

23 South of Yahweh’s area, each of the other tribes will receive one section of land that extends from the eastern boundary of Yisrael west all the way to the Mediterranean Sea.

Just south of Yahweh’s area will be territory for the tribe of Benyamin. 24 South of Benyamin’s land will be the land for the tribe of Shimeon. 25 South of Shimeon’s land will be the land for the tribe of Yissakar. 26 South of Yissakar’s land will be the land for the tribe of Zevulun. 27 South of Zevulun’s land will be the land for the tribe of Gad. 28 Gad’s southern boundary will extend from Tamar south to the waters of Merivah-Kadesh, and farther west to the brook of Egypt, and then on to the Mediterranean Sea.

29 That describes the territory you’ll allocate to Yisrael’s tribes to become their permanent inheritance. That’s the master Yahweh’s declaration.