Now on the very threshold of the land
We're told to dispossess all we find there
Lest their corrosive influence impair
Our strict obedience to G-d's command;
The cities of the Levite too are planned,
A square within a square within a square,
So that the unwitting slayer we may spare,
But give the guilty to the avenging hand.
Our homes await us on that plighted ground,
For every tribe and family its lot
Marked out for us by G-d's surveying-string;
We see it clear, although events confound
The waiting heart, and many questions clot
Those lines: although we are still journeying.