Aaron’s Staff Buds

17 ^[a]Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to the sons of Israel, and obtain from them a staff for each father’s household: twelve staffs, from all their leaders for their fathers’ households. You shall write each man’s name on his staff, ³ and write Aaron’s name on the staff of Levi; for there is to be one staff for the head of each of their fathers’ households. ⁴ You shall then leave them in the tent of meeting in front of ^(A)the testimony, where I meet with you. ⁵ And it will come about that the staff of ^(B)the man whom I choose will sprout. So I will relieve Myself of the grumblings of the sons of Israel, who are grumbling against you.” ⁶ So Moses spoke to the sons of Israel, and all their leaders gave him a staff, one for each leader, for their fathers’ households, twelve staffs in all, with the staff of Aaron among their staffs. ⁷ Then Moses left the staffs before the Lord in ^(C)the tent of the testimony.

⁸ Now on the next day Moses went into the tent of the testimony; and behold, ^(D)Aaron’s staff for the house of Levi had sprouted and produced buds and bloomed with blossoms, and it yielded ripe almonds. ⁹ Moses then brought out all the staffs from the presence of the Lord to all the sons of Israel; and they looked, and each man took his staff. ¹⁰ But the Lord said to Moses, “Put the staff of Aaron ^(E)back in front of the testimony ^[b]to be kept as a sign against the ^[c](F)rebels, so that you may put an end to their grumblings against Me and they do not die.” ¹¹ Moses did so; just as the Lord had commanded him, so he did.

¹² Then the sons of Israel spoke to Moses, saying, “^(G)Behold, we are passing away, we are perishing, we are all perishing! ^13 (H)Everyone who comes near, who comes near to the tabernacle of the Lord, must die. Are we to perish completely?”

Duties of Levites

18 So the Lord said to Aaron, “You, your sons, and your father’s household with you shall ^(I)bear the guilt ^[d]in connection with the sanctuary, and you and your sons with you shall bear the guilt ^[e]in connection with your priesthood. ² But also bring your brothers with you, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, so that they may ^(J)join you and serve you, while you and your sons with you are before the tent of the testimony. ³ And they shall perform duties for you and the duties of the whole tent, but ^(K)they shall not come near the furnishings of the sanctuary and ^(L)the altar, or both they and you will die. ⁴ They shall join you and perform the duties of the tent of meeting, for all the service of the tent; but ^[f]an unauthorized person shall not come near you. ⁵ So you shall perform the ^(M)duties of the sanctuary and the duties of the altar, ^(N)so that there will no longer be wrath on the sons of Israel. ⁶ Behold, I Myself ^(O)have taken your ^[g]fellow Levites from among the sons of Israel; they are ^(P)a gift to you, ^[h]dedicated to the Lord, to perform the service for the tent of meeting. ⁷ But you and your sons with you shall ^(Q)attend to your priesthood for everything that concerns the altar and inside the veil, and you are to perform service. I am giving you the priesthood as ^(R)a ^[i]service that is a gift, and ^(S)the ^[j]unauthorized person who comes near shall be put to death.”

The Priests’ Portion

⁸ Then the Lord spoke to Aaron, “Now behold, I Myself have put you in charge of My ^[k](T)offerings, all the holy gifts of the sons of Israel I have given to you as a portion and to your sons as a permanent allotment. ⁹ This shall be yours from the most holy gifts reserved from the fire; every offering of theirs, namely ^(U)every grain offering, every ^(V)sin offering, and every guilt offering, with which they shall make restitution to Me, shall be most holy for you and for your sons. ¹⁰ As the most holy gifts you shall eat it; every male shall eat it. It shall be holy to you. ¹¹ This also is yours, ^(W)the offering of their gift, that is, all the wave offerings of the sons of Israel; I have ^(X)given them to you and to your sons and daughters with you as a permanent allotment. Everyone of your household who is clean may eat it. ^12 (Y)All the ^[l]best of the fresh oil and all the ^[m]best of the fresh wine and of the grain, the first fruits of what they give to the Lord, I have given them to you. ^13 (Z)The first ripe fruits of all that is in their land, which they bring to the Lord, shall be yours; everyone of your household who is clean may eat it. ^14 (AA)Everything banned from secular use in Israel shall be yours. ^15 [n](AB)Every firstborn of the womb of all flesh, whether human or animal, which they offer to the Lord, shall be yours; however you must redeem the human firstborn, and the firstborn of unclean animals you shall redeem. ¹⁶ As to ^[o]their redemption price, from a month old you shall redeem them, by your assessment, five ^[p]shekels in silver by the ^[q]shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs. ¹⁷ But ^(AC)the firstborn of an ox, the firstborn of a sheep, or the firstborn of a goat, you shall not redeem; they are holy. ^(AD)You shall sprinkle their blood on the altar and offer up their fat in smoke as an offering by fire, for a soothing aroma to the Lord. ¹⁸ However, their ^[r]meat shall be yours; it shall be yours like the ^(AE)breast of a wave offering and like the right thigh. ^19 (AF)All the offerings of the holy gifts, which the sons of Israel offer to the Lord, I have given to you and your sons and your daughters with you, as a permanent allotment. It is ^(AG)a permanent covenant of salt before the Lord to you and your ^[s]descendants with you.” ²⁰ Then the Lord said to Aaron, “^(AH)You shall have no inheritance in their land nor own any portion among them; ^(AI)I am your portion and your inheritance among the sons of Israel.

²¹ “To the sons of Levi, behold, I have given all the ^(AJ)tithe in Israel as an inheritance, in return for their service which they perform, the service of the tent of meeting. ²² And ^(AK)the sons of Israel shall not come near the tent of meeting again, or they will bring sin on themselves and die. ²³ Only the Levites shall perform the service of the tent of meeting, and they shall ^(AL)bear their own guilt; it shall be a permanent statute throughout your generations, and among the sons of Israel ^(AM)they shall have no inheritance. ²⁴ For the tithe of the sons of Israel, which they offer as an offering to the Lord, I have given to the Levites as an inheritance; therefore I have said concerning them, ‘^(AN)They shall have no inheritance among the sons of Israel.’”

²⁵ Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²⁶ “Moreover, you shall speak to the Levites and say to them, ‘When you take from the sons of Israel ^(AO)the tithe which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then you shall present an offering from it to the Lord, a ^(AP)tithe of the tithe. ²⁷ Your offering shall be credited to you like the grain from the threshing floor or the full produce from the wine vat. ²⁸ So you shall also present an offering to the Lord from all your tithes, which you receive from the sons of Israel; and from it you shall give the Lord’s offering to Aaron the priest. ²⁹ Out of all your gifts you shall present every offering due to the Lord, from all the ^[t]best of them, ^[u]the sacred part from them.’ ³⁰ And you shall say to them, ‘When you have ^[v]offered from it the best of it, then the rest shall be credited to the Levites like the product of the threshing floor, and like the product of the wine vat. ³¹ You may eat it anywhere, you and your households, for it is your compensation in return for your service in the tent of meeting. ³² And you will bring on yourselves no sin by reason of it when you have ^[w]offered the ^[x]best of it. But you shall not ^(AQ)profane the sacred gifts of the sons of Israel, so that you do not die.’”

Ordinance of the Red Heifer

19 Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, ² “This is the statute of the law which the Lord has commanded, saying, ‘Speak to the sons of Israel that they bring you an ^(AR)unblemished red heifer in which there is no defect and ^(AS)on which a yoke has never ^[y]been mounted. ³ And you shall give it to ^(AT)Eleazar the priest, and it shall ^(AU)be brought outside the camp and be slaughtered in his presence. ⁴ And Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and ^(AV)sprinkle some of its blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times. ⁵ Then the heifer shall be burned in his sight; ^(AW)its hide, its flesh, and its blood, with its refuse, shall be burned. ⁶ And the priest shall take ^(AX)cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet material, and throw it into the midst of the ^[z]burning heifer. ⁷ The priest ^(AY)shall then wash his clothes and bathe his ^[aa]body in water, and afterward come into the camp; but the priest will be ^[ab]unclean until evening. ⁸ The one who burns ^[ac]the heifer shall also wash his clothes in water and bathe his ^[ad]body in water, and will be unclean until evening. ⁹ Now a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and put them outside the camp in a clean place, and ^[ae]the congregation of the sons of Israel shall keep them for ^(AZ)water to remove impurity; it is ^[af]purification from sin. ¹⁰ And the one who gathers the ashes of the heifer ^(BA)shall wash his clothes and will be unclean until evening; and it shall be a permanent statute for the sons of Israel and for the stranger who resides among them.

¹¹ ‘^(BB)The one who touches the dead body of any ^[ag]person will also be unclean for seven days. ¹² That one shall ^(BC)purify himself with ^[ah]the water on the third day and on the seventh day, and then he will be clean; but if he does not purify himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not be clean. ^13 (BD)Anyone who touches a dead body, the ^[ai]body of a person who has died, and does not purify himself, ^(BE)defiles the ^[aj]tabernacle of the Lord; and that person shall be cut off from Israel. Since the water for impurity was not ^(BF)sprinkled on him, he will be unclean; his uncleanness is still on him.

¹⁴ ‘This is the law when a person dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent will be unclean for seven days. ¹⁵ And every open container, which has no cover tied down on it, will be unclean. ^16 (BG)Also, anyone who in the open field touches one who has been killed with a sword or one who has died naturally, or touches a human bone or a grave, will be unclean for seven days. ¹⁷ Then for the unclean person they shall take some of the ^[ak]ashes of the ^[al]burnt ^[am](BH)purification from sin and ^[an]running water shall be ^[ao]added to them in a container. ¹⁸ And a clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, on all the furnishings, on the persons who were there, and on the one who touched the bone or the one who was killed or the one who died naturally, or the grave. ¹⁹ Then the clean person ^(BI)shall sprinkle on the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day; and on the seventh day he shall purify him, and he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and will be clean by evening.

²⁰ ‘But the person who is unclean and does not purify himself, that person shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly, because he has ^(BJ)defiled the sanctuary of the Lord; the water for impurity has not been sprinkled on him, so he is unclean. ²¹ So it shall be a permanent statute for them. And the one ^(BK)who sprinkles the water for impurity shall wash his clothes, and the one who touches the water for impurity will be unclean until evening. ^22 (BL)Furthermore, anything that the unclean person touches will be unclean; and the person who touches it will be unclean until evening.’”

^30 (A)The ^(B)apostles *gathered together with Jesus; and they reported to Him all that they had done and taught. ³¹ And He *said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a little while.” (For there were many people coming and going, and ^(C)they did not even have time to eat.) ^32 (D)And they went away in ^(E)the boat to a secluded place by themselves.

Five Thousand Men Fed

³³ The people saw them going, and many recognized them and ran there together on foot from all the cities, and got there ahead of them. ³⁴ When Jesus went ^[a]ashore, He ^(F)saw a large crowd, and He felt compassion for them because ^(G)they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things. ³⁵ And when it was already late, His disciples came up to Him and said, “^[b]This place is secluded and it is already late; ³⁶ send them away so that they may go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves ^[c]something to eat.” ³⁷ But He answered them, “You give them something to eat!” ^(H)And they *said to Him, “Shall we go and spend two hundred ^[d](I)denarii on bread, and give it to them to eat?” ³⁸ But He *said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go look!” And when they found out, they *said, “Five, and two fish.” ³⁹ And He ordered them all to recline by groups on the green grass. ⁴⁰ They reclined in groups of hundreds and fifties. ⁴¹ And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He ^(J)blessed the food and broke the loaves and He gave them to the disciples again and again to set before them; and He divided the two fish among them all. ⁴² And they all ate and were satisfied; ⁴³ and they picked up twelve full ^(K)baskets of the broken pieces of bread, and of the fish. ⁴⁴ There were ^(L)five thousand ^[e]men who ate the loaves.

Jesus Walks on the Water

^45 (M)And immediately Jesus had His disciples get into ^(N)the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side, to ^(O)Bethsaida, while He Himself *dismissed the crowd. ⁴⁶ And after ^(P)saying goodbye to them, He left ^(Q)for the mountain to pray.

⁴⁷ When it was evening, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and He was alone on the land. ⁴⁸ Seeing them ^[f]straining at the oars—for the wind was against them—at about the ^[g](R)fourth watch of the night, He *came to them, walking on the sea; and He intended to pass by them. ⁴⁹ But when they saw Him walking on the sea, they thought that it was a ghost, and they cried out; ⁵⁰ for they all saw Him and were ^[h]terrified. But immediately He spoke with them and *said to them, “^(S)Take courage; it is I, ^(T)do not be afraid.” ⁵¹ Then He got into ^(U)the boat with them, and the wind stopped; and they were utterly astonished, ⁵² for ^(V)they ^[i]had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but ^[j]their hearts ^(W)were hardened.

Healing at Gennesaret

^53 (X)When they had crossed over they came to land at Gennesaret, and moored at the shore. ⁵⁴ And when they got out of the boat, immediately the people recognized Him, ⁵⁵ and ran about that entire country and began carrying here and there on their pallets those who were sick, ^[k]to wherever they heard He was. ⁵⁶ And wherever He entered villages, or cities, or a countryside, they were laying the sick in the marketplaces and imploring Him that they might just ^(Y)touch ^(Z)the fringe of His cloak; and all who touched it were being ^[l]healed.