“Take a census of the whole Israelite community by their clans and families, listing every man by name, one by one.

These were the men appointed from the community, the leaders of their ancestral tribes. They were the heads of the clans of Israel.

and they called the whole community together on the first day of the second month. The people registered their ancestry by their clans and families, and the men twenty years old or more were listed by name, one by one,

The Levites, however, are to set up their tents around the tabernacle of the covenant law so that my wrath will not fall on the Israelite community. The Levites are to be responsible for the care of the tabernacle of the covenant law.”

They are to perform duties for him and for the whole community at the tent of meeting by doing the work of the tabernacle.

The Numbering of the Levite Clans

Moses, Aaron and the leaders of the community counted the Kohathites by their clans and families.

Bring the Levites to the front of the tent of meeting and assemble the whole Israelite community.

Moses, Aaron and the whole Israelite community did with the Levites just as the Lord commanded Moses.

“Make two trumpets of hammered silver, and use them for calling the community together and for having the camps set out.

When both are sounded, the whole community is to assemble before you at the entrance to the tent of meeting.

Report on the Exploration

They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land.

The People Rebel

That night all the members of the community raised their voices and wept aloud.

“How long will this wicked community grumble against me? I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites.

I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will surely do these things to this whole wicked community, which has banded together against me. They will meet their end in this wilderness; here they will die.”

So the men Moses had sent to explore the land, who returned and made the whole community grumble against him by spreading a bad report about it—

The community is to have the same rules for you and for the foreigner residing among you; this is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. You and the foreigner shall be the same before the Lord:

Offerings for Unintentional Sins

“‘Now if you as a community unintentionally fail to keep any of these commands the Lord gave Moses—

and if this is done unintentionally without the community being aware of it, then the whole community is to offer a young bull for a burnt offering as an aroma pleasing to the Lord, along with its prescribed grain offering and drink offering, and a male goat for a sin offering.

The priest is to make atonement for the whole Israelite community, and they will be forgiven, for it was not intentional and they have presented to the Lord for their wrong a food offering and a sin offering.

The whole Israelite community and the foreigners residing among them will be forgiven, because all the people were involved in the unintentional wrong.

and rose up against Moses. With them were 250 Israelite men, well-known community leaders who had been appointed members of the council.

They came as a group to oppose Moses and Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the Lord’s assembly?”

Isn’t it enough for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the rest of the Israelite community and brought you near himself to do the work at the Lord’s tabernacle and to stand before the community and minister to them?

They went down alive into the realm of the dead, with everything they owned; the earth closed over them, and they perished and were gone from the community.

The next day the whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. “You have killed the Lord’s people,” they said.