The Waters of Meribah

20 And the people of Israel, the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month, and the people stayed in Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there.

² Now there was no water for the congregation; and they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. ³ And the people contended with Moses, and said, “Would that we had died when our brethren died before the Lord! ⁴ Why have you brought the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness, that we should die here, both we and our cattle? ⁵ And why have you made us come up out of Egypt, to bring us to this evil place? It is no place for grain, or figs, or vines, or pomegranates; and there is no water to drink.” ⁶ Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the tent of meeting, and fell on their faces. And the glory of the Lord appeared to them, ⁷ and the Lord said to Moses, ⁸ “Take the rod, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water; so you shall bring water out of the rock for them; so you shall give drink to the congregation and their cattle.” ⁹ And Moses took the rod from before the Lord, as he commanded him.

¹⁰ And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?” ¹¹ And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his rod twice; and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their cattle. ¹² And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.” ¹³ These are the waters of Mer′ibah,^[a] where the people of Israel contended with the Lord, and he showed himself holy among them.

Passage through Edom Refused

¹⁴ Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom, “Thus says your brother Israel: You know all the adversity that has befallen us: ¹⁵ how our fathers went down to Egypt, and we dwelt in Egypt a long time; and the Egyptians dealt harshly with us and our fathers; ¹⁶ and when we cried to the Lord, he heard our voice, and sent an angel and brought us forth out of Egypt; and here we are in Kadesh, a city on the edge of your territory. ¹⁷ Now let us pass through your land. We will not pass through field or vineyard, neither will we drink water from a well; we will go along the King’s Highway, we will not turn aside to the right hand or to the left, until we have passed through your territory.” ¹⁸ But Edom said to him, “You shall not pass through, lest I come out with the sword against you.” ¹⁹ And the people of Israel said to him, “We will go up by the highway; and if we drink of your water, I and my cattle, then I will pay for it; let me only pass through on foot, nothing more.” ²⁰ But he said, “You shall not pass through.” And Edom came out against them with many men, and with a strong force. ²¹ Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his territory; so Israel turned away from him.

The Death of Aaron

²² And they journeyed from Kadesh, and the people of Israel, the whole congregation, came to Mount Hor. ²³ And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron at Mount Hor, on the border of the land of Edom, ²⁴ “Aaron shall be gathered to his people; for he shall not enter the land which I have given to the people of Israel, because you rebelled against my command at the waters of Mer′ibah. ²⁵ Take Aaron and Elea′zar his son, and bring them up to Mount Hor; ²⁶ and strip Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Elea′zar his son; and Aaron shall be gathered to his people, and shall die there.” ²⁷ Moses did as the Lord commanded; and they went up Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation. ²⁸ And Moses stripped Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Elea′zar his son; and Aaron died there on the top of the mountain. Then Moses and Elea′zar came down from the mountain. ²⁹ And when all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead, all the house of Israel wept for Aaron thirty days.

The Bronze Serpent

21 When the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who dwelt in the Negeb, heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim, he fought against Israel, and took some of them captive. ² And Israel vowed a vow to the Lord, and said, “If thou wilt indeed give this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities.” ³ And the Lord hearkened to the voice of Israel, and gave over the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their cities; so the name of the place was called Hormah.^[b]

⁴ From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the people became impatient on the way. ⁵ And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” ⁶ Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. ⁷ And the people came to Moses, and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. ⁸ And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and every one who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” ⁹ So Moses made a bronze serpent, and set it on a pole; and if a serpent bit any man, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.^[c]

The Journey to Moab

¹⁰ And the people of Israel set out, and encamped in Oboth. ¹¹ And they set out from Oboth, and encamped at I′ye-ab′arim, in the wilderness which is opposite Moab, toward the sunrise. ¹² From there they set out, and encamped in the Valley of Zered. ¹³ From there they set out, and encamped on the other side of the Arnon, which is in the wilderness that extends from the boundary of the Amorites; for the Arnon is the boundary of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites. ¹⁴ Wherefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of the Lord,

¹⁶ And from there they continued to Beer;^[d] that is the well of which the Lord said to Moses, “Gather the people together, and I will give them water.” ¹⁷ Then Israel sang this song:

And from the wilderness they went on to Mat′tanah, ¹⁹ and from Mat′tanah to Naha′liel, and from Naha′liel to Bamoth, ²⁰ and from Bamoth to the valley lying in the region of Moab by the top of Pisgah which looks down upon the desert.^[e]

King Sihon Defeated

²¹ Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, saying, ²² “Let me pass through your land; we will not turn aside into field or vineyard; we will not drink the water of a well; we will go by the King’s Highway, until we have passed through your territory.” ²³ But Sihon would not allow Israel to pass through his territory. He gathered all his men together, and went out against Israel to the wilderness, and came to Jahaz, and fought against Israel. ²⁴ And Israel slew him with the edge of the sword, and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as to the Ammonites; for Jazer was the boundary of the Ammonites.^{[f] 25} And Israel took all these cities, and Israel settled in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all its villages. ²⁶ For Heshbon was the city of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab and taken all his land out of his hand, as far as the Arnon. ²⁷ Therefore the ballad singers say,

King Og Defeated

³¹ Thus Israel dwelt in the land of the Amorites. ³² And Moses sent to spy out Jazer; and they took its villages, and dispossessed the Amorites that were there. ³³ Then they turned and went up by the way to Bashan; and Og the king of Bashan came out against them, he and all his people, to battle at Ed′re-i. ³⁴ But the Lord said to Moses, “Do not fear him; for I have given him into your hand, and all his people, and his land; and you shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon.” ³⁵ So they slew him, and his sons, and all his people, until there was not one survivor left to him; and they possessed his land.

Plea for Mercy for Jerusalem

A Psalm of Asaph.

The Council at Jerusalem

15 But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” ² And when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question. ³ So, being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoeni′cia and Samar′ia, reporting the conversion of the Gentiles, and they gave great joy to all the brethren. ⁴ When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them. ⁵ But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up, and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them, and to charge them to keep the law of Moses.”

⁶ The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter. ⁷ And after there had been much debate, Peter rose and said to them, “Brethren, you know that in the early days God made choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. ⁸ And God who knows the heart bore witness to them, giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us; ⁹ and he made no distinction between us and them, but cleansed their hearts by faith. ¹⁰ Now therefore why do you make trial of God by putting a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? ¹¹ But we believe that we shall be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”

¹² And all the assembly kept silence; and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. ¹³ After they finished speaking, James replied, “Brethren, listen to me. ¹⁴ Symeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. ¹⁵ And with this the words of the prophets agree, as it is written,

¹⁹ Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, ²⁰ but should write to them to abstain from the pollutions of idols and from unchastity and from what is strangled^[a] and from blood. ²¹ For from early generations Moses has had in every city those who preach him, for he is read every sabbath in the synagogues.”