Parashat Chukat

Red Heifer and Cleansing Water

19 Adonai spoke to Moses and Aaron saying, ² “This is the statute of the Torah which Adonai commanded saying: Speak to Bnei-Yisrael that they bring to you a flawless red heifer on which there is no blemish and on which has never been a yoke. ³ Give her to Eleazar the kohen. He will take her outside the camp and slaughter her in his presence. ⁴ Then Eleazar the kohen is to take some of the blood on his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the Tent of Meeting.

⁵ “While watching, he is to burn the heifer, her hide, flesh, blood and refuse. ⁶ The kohen is to take some cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet wool, and cast them into the midst of the burning heifer.

⁷ “Afterward, the kohen is to wash his clothes and bathe his flesh with the water, and afterward he may come back into the camp. Still the kohen will be unclean until evening. ⁸ Also the one burning it is to wash his clothes and bathe his flesh with the water, and he will be unclean until evening.

⁹ “A clean man is to gather up the ashes of the heifer and put them in a clean place outside the camp. They are to be for the community of Bnei-Yisrael to use as water of purification from sin.

¹⁰ “The one who gathers the heifer’s ashes is also to wash his clothes as well as be unclean until evening. It will be a permanent statute for Bnei-Yisrael and for the outsider living among them.

¹¹ “Whoever touches any dead body will be unclean for seven days. ¹² He is to purify himself on the third day and on the seventh day. Then he will be clean. But if he does not purify himself on the third and seventh days, he will not be clean. ¹³ Anyone touching the dead body of any man, who does not purify himself, defiles Adonai’s Tabernacle, and that person will be cut off from Israel. Because the cleansing water was not sprinkled on him, he is unclean and his uncleanness will remain on him.

¹⁴ “This is the Torah for whenever a person dies in a tent. Anyone entering the tent or anyone inside the tent will be unclean seven days. ¹⁵ Any open container not having a lid fastened on it will also be unclean. ¹⁶ Anyone out in the open field who touches a dead body, whether killed by a sword or was killed by a natural cause, or touches a human bone or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.

¹⁷ “For the unclean one, they are to take some of the ash of the burnt purification offering, and pour some fresh water into a jar. ¹⁸ Then a clean person will take some hyssop, dip it into the water, and, sprinkle it on the tent, all of the furnishings, and the people who were there, as well as the one touching the bone, the one killed, the corpse or the grave.

¹⁹ The clean person will sprinkle the unclean one on the third and seventh days. He is to purify himself on the seventh day, and on the seventh day he is to wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and at evening he will be clean.

²⁰ However, that man who is unclean but does not purify himself will be cut off from the community. He has defiled the Sanctuary of Adonai, since the cleansing water was not sprinkled on him. He is unclean. ²¹ This will be a permanent ordinance for them. The one sprinkling the cleansing water is also to wash his clothes, and anyone touching the cleansing water will be unclean until evening. ²² Anything touched by an unclean person becomes unclean, and anyone touching it will be unclean until evening.”

Water from the Rock

20 In the first month, the entire community of Bnei-Yisrael arrived at the wilderness of Zin. The people stayed at Kadesh. There Miriam died and was buried.

² Now there was no water for the community, so they assembled against Moses and Aaron. ³ The people quarreled with Moses saying, “If only we had died when our brothers died before Adonai! ⁴ Now why have you brought the community of Adonai into this wilderness, for us and our livestock to die here? ⁵ Why have you brought us from Egypt to bring us to this evil place—a place without grain, fig, grapevine or pomegranate—and there’s no water to drink!”

⁶ So Moses and Aaron went from before the assembly to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting and fell on their faces.

Then the glory of Adonai appeared to them. ⁷ Adonai spoke to Moses saying, ⁸ “Take the staff and gather the assembly, you and your brother Aaron. Speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will give out its water.^[a] You will bring out water from the rock, and you will give the community something to drink, along with their livestock.”

⁹ So Moses took the staff from before the presence of Adonai, just as He had commanded him.

¹⁰ Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly in front of the rock. He said, “Listen now, you rebels! Must we bring you water from this rock?”

¹¹ Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with the staff. Water gushed out and the community and its livestock drank.

¹² But Adonai said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in Me so as to esteem Me as holy in the eyes of Bnei-Yisrael, therefore you will not bring this assembly into the land that I have given to them.”

¹³ These are the waters of Meribah where Bnei-Yisrael contended with Moses, and where Adonai showed Himself holy among them.

Edom Denies Passage

¹⁴ Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom. “Thus says your brother, Israel:

‘You know all the hardship that came on us. ¹⁵ Our forefathers went down to Egypt, so we lived there for a very long time. The Egyptians mistreated us, and our fathers. ¹⁶ But we cried out to Adonai, He heard our cry, sent an angel and brought us out of Egypt. See now, we are at Kadesh, a town on the frontier of your territory. ¹⁷ Permit us to pass through your territory. We will not cross through any field or vineyard or drink water of any well. But we will travel on the king’s highway. We will not deviate to the right or left until we will have passed through your territory.’”

¹⁸ But Edom said to him, “You may not pass through me—or I will march out against you with the sword.”

¹⁹ Bnei-Yisrael then said to him, “We will travel on the main road, and if we or our livestock even drink any of your water, we will pay its price. It’s nothing, just to pass through on foot!”

²⁰ He answered, “You may not pass through!” Yet Edom came out to oppose them with a large and well-armed people. ²¹ Since Edom refused to permit Israel to cross through her territory, Israel turned away from them.

Aaron Gathered To His People

²² The entirety of the community of Bnei-Yisrael set out from Kadesh and came to Mount Hor.

²³ Now at Mount Hor, near the Edomite border, Adonai said to Moses and Aaron, ²⁴ “Aaron will be gathered to his people. He will not enter the land, which I have given to Bnei-Yisrael, because you rebelled against My command at the waters of Meribah. ²⁵ Take Aaron and his son Eleazar, and take them up Mount Hor. ²⁶ Remove Aaron’s garments and put them on his son Eleazar, and Aaron will be gathered up and will die there.”

²⁷ Moses did as Adonai commanded. They ascended Mount Hor before the eyes of the whole community. ²⁸ Moses removed Aaron’s garments and placed them on Eleazar his son. Aaron died there at the top of the mountain. Then Moses and Eleazar descended the mountain.

²⁹ When they saw that Aaron had died, the entire community mourned Aaron 30 days.

Nehushtan: Snake on a Pole

21 When the Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming along the road to Atharim, he attacked Israel and captured some of them. ² Then Israel vowed to Adonai and stated, “If you deliver this people into our hand, we will put their cities under the ban of destruction!” ³ Adonai listened to Israel’s plea and delivered up the Canaanites. They put them and their cities under the ban of destruction. So the name of the place was called Hormah.

⁴ They travelled from Mount Hor along the route to the Sea of Reeds in order to go around the land of Edom. The spirit of the people became impatient along the way.

⁵ The people spoke against God and Moses: “Why have you brought us from Egypt to die in the wilderness, because there is no bread, no water, and our very spirits detest the despicable food? ⁶ So Adonai sent poisonous serpents among the people,^[b] and they bit the people and many of the people of Israel died.

⁷ The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against Adonai and you! Pray to Adonai for us, that He may take away the snakes!” So Moses prayed for the people.

⁸ Adonai said to Moses, “Make yourself a fiery snake and put it on a pole. Whenever anyone who has been bitten will look at it, he will live.”^[c]

⁹ So Moses made a bronze snake and put it on a pole, and it happened that whenever a snake bit anyone and he looked at the bronze snake, he lived.

Journey to Moab

¹⁰ Bnei-Yisrael moved on and encamped at Oboth. ¹¹ Then they set out from Oboth and camped in Ije-abarim, in the wilderness facing Moab toward the sunrise. ¹² From there they set out and camped in the Wadi Zered. ¹³ They set out from there and camped along the Arnon, which is in the wilderness extending into Amorite territory. The Arnon is also the border between Moab and the Amorites. ¹⁴ Therefore, it is said in the Book of the Wars of Adonai, “...Vaheb in Suphah and the wadis of the Arnon, ¹⁵ and the slope of the wadis that leads to the site of Ar and lie along the border of Moab—” ¹⁶ And from there—on to Beer.

This is the well where Adonai said to Moses, “Gather the people and I will give them water.”

¹⁷ Then Israel sang this song,

From the wilderness they went on to Mattanah. ¹⁹ From Mattanah they went on to Nahaliel, and from Nahaliel to Bamoth, ²⁰ and from Bamoth to the valley in the field of Moab where the peak of Pisgah overlooks the wasteland.

Defeat of Sihon and Og

²¹ Israel sent messengers to King Sihon of the Amorites saying, ²² “Permit us to pass through your land. We will not turn aside into field or vineyard nor drink water from the wells. We will travel on the king’s highway until we will have passed through your territory.”

²³ But Sihon would not let Israel pass through his territory. Instead, Sihon called out his entire army and marched out into the desert to oppose Israel. When he came to Jahaz, he fought against Israel. ²⁴ But Israel struck him by the sword’s edge and conquered his land from Arnon to Jabbok as far as the Ammonites, because the border of the sons of Ammon was fortified.

²⁵ Israel conquered all these cities and occupied all the Amorite cities, Heshbon and all its towns. ²⁶ Heshbon was the city of King Sihon of the Amorites, who had fought with the former king of Moab and had taken from his control all the land as far as the Arnon. ²⁷ Therefore the poets say,

³¹ So Israel was living in the land of the Amorites. ³² After Moses sent spies to Jazer, they captured her towns and drove out the Amorites who were there.

³³ Then they turned and went up the road to the Bashan. Og, king of the Bashan, went out to confront them, he and all his people, in battle at Edrei.

³⁴ Adonai said to Moses, “Do not fear him. I have given him with all his people and his land into your hand. You are to do to him just as you did to Sihon, the Amorite king who was living in Heshbon.”

³⁵ So they struck him and his sons and his entire army until no survivor was left to him, and they possessed his land.

A Donkey Rebukes Balaam

22 Then Bnei-Yisrael set out and camped in the plains of Moab alongside the Jordan across from Jericho.

Jephthah’s Valor and Vow

11 Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor^[a], but he was son of a prostitute, while Gilead was Jephthah’s father. ² But Gilead’s wife bore him sons, and when the wife’s sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out and said to him, “You won’t inherit in our father’s house, for you are a son of another woman.” ³ Then Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob. Some worthless fellows joined with Jephthah and went out with him.

⁴ Now it came about after a while that the children of Ammon fought with Israel. ⁵ When the children of Ammon made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to fetch Jephthah from the land of Tob. ⁶ They said to Jephthah, “Come and be our chief, so we may fight the children of Ammon.”

⁷ Jephthah then said to the elders of Gilead, “Didn’t you hate me and drive me out of my father’s house? So why are you coming to me now that you’re in trouble?”

⁸ “Here is why we’re now turning to you,” the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah. “Come with us, fight the children of Ammon, and then you will become head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”

⁹ So Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “If you take me back home to fight the children of Ammon, and Adonai gives them over to me, I should become your head!”

¹⁰ The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “Let Adonai be witness between us if we don’t do as you say.” ¹¹ Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and chief over them, after Jephthah repeated all his terms before Adonai at Mizpah.

¹² Then Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon saying, “What have you to do with me, that you have come to me to make war on my land?”

¹³ The king of the children of Ammon answered the messengers of Jephthah, “Because Israel took away my land, when they came up from Egypt, from the Arnon to the Jabbok as far as the Jordan. Now therefore, return them peaceably.”

¹⁴ But Jephthah sent messengers again to the king of the children of Ammon, ¹⁵ and said to him, “Thus says Jephthah, ‘Israel did not take away the land of Moab or the land of the children of Ammon. ¹⁶ For upon departing from Egypt, Israel traveled through the wilderness to the Sea of Reeds and came to Kadesh, ¹⁷ then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom saying, “Please, let me pass through your land,” but the king of Edom would not consent. Similarly he sent word to the king of Moab, but he would not consent. So Israel, after staying at Kadesh, ¹⁸ traveled through the wilderness, around the land of Edom and the land of Moab, came to the east side of the land of Moab and they camped on the other side of the Arnon. But they did not enter the territory of Moab, for the Arnon was the border of Moab. ¹⁹ Then Israel sent messengers to King Sihon of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon, and Israel said to him, “Please, let us pass through your land to my place.” ²⁰ But Sihon did not trust Israel to pass through his territory. So Sihon gathered all his troops, camped in Jahaz and fought against Israel. ²¹ But Adonai God of Israel gave Sihon and all his troops into the hand of Israel, and they defeated them. So Israel took possession of all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that country. ²² Thus they possessed all the territory of the Amorites, from the Arnon as far as the Jabbok, and from the wilderness as far as the Jordan. ²³ So now Adonai God of Israel dispossessed the Amorites from before His people Israel. So should you possess their land? ²⁴ Don’t you possess what Chemosh your god gives you to possess? Likewise, whatever Adonai our God has dispossessed from before us, this we will possess. ²⁵ Besides, are you any better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever strive against Israel, or did he ever fight against them? ²⁶ While Israel was living in Heshbon and its villages, in Aroer and its villages, and in all the cities on both sides of the Arnon for 300 years, why didn’t you try to recover them all that time? ²⁷ So I myself have not transgressed against you, yet you are doing me harm by waging war against me. May Adonai, the Judge, judge today between Bnei-Yisrael and the children of Ammon.’”

²⁸ However, the king of the children of Ammon paid no attention to the words of Jephthah that he sent him. ²⁹ Then the Ruach Adonai came upon Jephthah, so he marched through Gilead and Manasseh, and passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he crossed over to the children of Ammon. ³⁰ Then Jephthah vowed a vow to Adonai and said, “If You will indeed give the children of Ammon into my hand, ³¹ then it will be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return safely from the children of Ammon, it will be Adonai’s, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering.”

³² So Jephthah crossed over to the children of Ammon to fight against them, and Adonai gave them into his hand. ³³ So he utterly defeated them from Aroer until you come to Minnith—20 towns—and as far as Abel-cheramim. So the children of Ammon were subdued before Bnei-Yisrael.