Moses spent his final days doing what he had done since Sinai: giving laws. But these were different. These were the laws of a man who knew he would never cross the Jordan.
The military campaigns were finished. Sihon king of the Amorites had refused Israel passage and paid for it with his kingdom—his army shattered, his cities taken, his land divided among the tribes. Og king of Bashan followed him into defeat. Og was a giant of legendary stature; his iron bed at Rabbath measured four cubits wide and nine cubits long. But size meant nothing before Israel's God. Sixty walled cities fell. The eastern bank of the Jordan was now entirely in Israelite hands.
The tribes of Gad, Reuben, and the half-tribe of Manasseh saw the fertile grazing lands east of the Jordan and asked Moses for them as their inheritance. Moses was furious—he thought they were inventing excuses to avoid fighting alongside their brothers in Canaan. But the tribes swore they would cross the Jordan and fight until every tribe had its land. Only then would they return to their families. Moses accepted their oath.
He established cities of refuge—Bezer on the Arabian border, Ramoth in Gilead, Golan in Bashan—where any person who killed accidentally could flee from the avenger of blood and live safely until the death of the high priest (Numbers 35:25). He appointed Joshua son of Nun as his successor, both as prophet who would receive God's commands and as military commander.
Then came the case of the daughters of Zelophehad from the tribe of Manasseh. Their father had died leaving no sons. Could they inherit? Moses ruled yes—provided they married within their own tribe, so the land would not transfer between tribal boundaries (Numbers 36:6). It became a permanent statute: every inheritance must remain in the tribe to which God assigned it. These were the final ordinances of a lawgiver preparing his people for a world without him.