Numbers 12:1-19:20

English Standard Version

Miriam and Aaron Oppose Moses

12 Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman. ²And they said, “Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? ^(A)Has he not spoken through us also?” And ^(B)the Lord heard it. ³Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth. ⁴And suddenly the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron and Miriam, “Come out, you three, to the tent of meeting.” And the three of them came out. ⁵And ^(C)the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the tent and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forward. ⁶And he said, “Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him ^(D)in a vision; I speak with him ^(E)in a dream. ⁷Not so with ^(F)my servant Moses. ^(G)He is faithful in all my house. ⁸With him I speak ^(H)mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in ^(I)riddles, and he beholds ^(J)the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” ⁹And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, and he departed.

¹⁰When the cloud removed from over the tent, behold, ^(K)Miriam was ^(L)leprous,^[a] like snow. And Aaron turned toward Miriam, and behold, she was leprous. ¹¹And Aaron said to Moses, “Oh, my lord, ^(M)do not punish us^[b] because we have done foolishly and have sinned. ¹²Let her not be as one dead, whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes out of his mother's womb.” ¹³And Moses cried to the Lord, “O God, please heal her—please.” ¹⁴But the Lord said to Moses, “If her father had but ^(N)spit in her face, should she not be shamed seven days? Let her be ^(O)shut outside the camp seven days, and after that she may be brought in again.” ¹⁵So Miriam ^(P)was shut outside the camp seven days, and the people did not set out on the march till Miriam was brought in again. ¹⁶After that the people set out from ^(Q)Hazeroth, and camped in ^(R)the wilderness of Paran.

Spies Sent into Canaan

13 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²^(S)“Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a chief among them.” ³So Moses sent them from ^(T)the wilderness of Paran, according to the command of the Lord, all of them men who were heads of the people of Israel. ⁴And these were their names: From the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur; ⁵from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori; ⁶^(U)from the tribe of Judah, ^(V)Caleb the son of Jephunneh; ⁷from the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph; ⁸from the tribe of Ephraim, ^(W)Hoshea the son of Nun; ⁹from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu; ¹⁰from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi; ¹¹from the tribe of Joseph (that is, from the tribe of Manasseh), Gaddi the son of Susi; ¹²from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli; ¹³from the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael; ¹⁴from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi; ¹⁵from the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi. ¹⁶These were the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called ^(X)Hoshea the son of Nun Joshua.

¹⁷Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said to them, “Go up into ^(Y)the Negeb and go up into ^(Z)the hill country, ¹⁸and see what the land is, and whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, ¹⁹and whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad, and whether the cities that they dwell in are camps or strongholds, ²⁰and whether the land is ^(AA)rich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not. ^(AB)Be of good courage and bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes.

²¹So they went up and spied out the land ^(AC)from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, ^(AD)near Lebo-hamath. ²²They went up into ^(AE)the Negeb and came to ^(AF)Hebron. ^(AG)Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the ^(AH)descendants of Anak, were there. (^(AI)Hebron was built seven years before ^(AJ)Zoan in Egypt.) ²³And ^(AK)they came to the Valley of Eshcol and cut down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a pole between two of them; they also brought some pomegranates and figs. ²⁴That place was called the Valley of Eshcol,^[c] because of the cluster that the people of Israel cut down from there.

Report of the Spies

²⁵At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land. ²⁶And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at ^(AL)Kadesh. They brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. ²⁷And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us. It ^(AM)flows with milk and honey, ^(AN)and this is its fruit. ²⁸^(AO)However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. ²⁹^(AP)The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. ^(AQ)And the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.”

³⁰But ^(AR)Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” ³¹^(AS)Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.” ³²So ^(AT)they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and ^(AU)all the people that we saw in it are of great height. ³³And there we saw the ^(AV)Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the ^(AW)Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves ^(AX)like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”

The People Rebel

14 Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people ^(AY)wept that night. ²And all the people of Israel ^(AZ)grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or ^(BA)would that we had died in this wilderness! ³Why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? ^(BB)Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” ⁴And they said to one another, ^(BC)“Let us choose a leader and ^(BD)go back to Egypt.”

⁵Then ^(BE)Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the people of Israel. ⁶^(BF)And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes ⁷and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, ^(BG)“The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. ⁸If ^(BH)the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, ^(BI)a land that flows with milk and honey. ⁹Only ^(BJ)do not rebel against the Lord. And ^(BK)do not fear the people of the land, for ^(BL)they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.” ¹⁰^(BM)Then all the congregation said to stone them with stones. But ^(BN)the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the people of Israel.

¹¹And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people ^(BO)despise me? And how long will they not ^(BP)believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? ¹²I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I ^(BQ)will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”

Moses Intercedes for the People

¹³But ^(BR)Moses said to the Lord, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for you brought up this people in your might from among them, ¹⁴and they will tell the inhabitants of this land. ^(BS)They have heard that you, O Lord, are in the midst of this people. For you, O Lord, are seen face to face, and ^(BT)your cloud stands over them and you go before them, in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. ¹⁵Now if you kill this people as one man, then the nations who have heard your fame will say, ¹⁶‘It is because the Lord ^(BU)was not able to bring this people into the land that he swore to give to them that he has killed them in the wilderness.’ ¹⁷And now, please let the power of the Lord be great as you have promised, saying, ¹⁸^(BV)‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, ^(BW)visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.’ ¹⁹Please ^(BX)pardon the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just ^(BY)as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt until now.”

God Promises Judgment

²⁰Then the Lord said, “I have pardoned, ^(BZ)according to your word. ²¹But truly, as I live, and as all ^(CA)the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, ²²^(CB)none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ^(CC)ten times and have not obeyed my voice, ²³^(CD)shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it. ²⁴But my servant ^(CE)Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has ^(CF)followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it. ²⁵^(CG)Now, since the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valleys, ^(CH)turn tomorrow and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.”

²⁶And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, ²⁷“How long shall ^(CI)this wicked congregation grumble against me? ^(CJ)I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against me. ²⁸Say to them, ^(CK)‘As I live, declares the Lord, ^(CL)what you have said in my hearing I will do to you: ²⁹^(CM)your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and ^(CN)of all your number, listed in the census ^(CO)from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me, ³⁰not one shall come into the land where I ^(CP)swore that I would make you dwell, ^(CQ)except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. ³¹^(CR)But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that ^(CS)you have rejected. ³²But as for you, ^(CT)your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. ³³And your children ^(CU)shall be shepherds in the wilderness ^(CV)forty years and shall ^(CW)suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. ³⁴^(CX)According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, ^(CY)forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.’ ³⁵^(CZ)I, the Lord, have spoken. Surely this will I do to all ^(DA)this wicked congregation who are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die.”

³⁶^(DB)And the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing up a bad report about the land— ³⁷the men who brought up a bad report of the land—^(DC)died by plague before the Lord. ³⁸Of those men who went to spy out the land, ^(DD)only Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive.

Israel Defeated in Battle

³⁹When Moses told these words to all the people of Israel, the people ^(DE)mourned greatly. ⁴⁰And they rose early in the morning and went up to the heights of the hill country, saying, ^(DF)“Here we are. We will go up to the place that the Lord has promised, for we have sinned.” ⁴¹^(DG)But Moses said, “Why now are you transgressing the command of the Lord, when that will not succeed? ⁴²^(DH)Do not go up, ^(DI)for the Lord is not among you, lest you be struck down before your enemies. ⁴³For there ^(DJ)the Amalekites and the Canaanites are facing you, and you shall fall by the sword. Because you have turned back from following the Lord, the Lord will not be with you.” ⁴⁴^(DK)But they presumed to go up to the heights of the hill country, although neither ^(DL)the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed out of the camp. ⁴⁵Then ^(DM)the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and defeated them and pursued them, even to ^(DN)Hormah.

Laws About Sacrifices

15 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²“Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, ^(DO)When you come into the land you are to inhabit, which I am giving you, ³and ^(DP)you offer to the Lord from the herd or from the flock a food offering^[d] or a burnt offering or a sacrifice, ^(DQ)to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering or ^(DR)at your appointed feasts, to make a ^(DS)pleasing aroma to the Lord, ⁴then ^(DT)he who brings his offering shall offer to the Lord ^(DU)a grain offering of a tenth of an ephah^[e] of fine flour, ^(DV)mixed with a quarter of a hin^[f] of oil; ⁵and you shall offer with the burnt offering, or for the sacrifice, a quarter of a hin of ^(DW)wine for the drink offering for each lamb. ⁶^(DX)Or for a ram, you shall offer for a grain offering two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a third of a hin of oil. ⁷And for the drink offering you shall offer a third of a hin of wine, a ^(DY)pleasing aroma to the Lord. ⁸And when you offer a bull as a burnt offering or sacrifice, to ^(DZ)fulfill a vow or for ^(EA)peace offerings to the Lord, ⁹then one shall offer ^(EB)with the bull a grain offering of three tenths of an ephah of fine flour, mixed with half a hin of oil. ¹⁰And you shall offer for the drink offering half a hin of wine, as a food offering, a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

¹¹^(EC)“Thus it shall be done for each bull or ram, or for each lamb or young goat. ¹²As many as you offer, so shall you do with each one, as many as there are. ¹³Every native Israelite shall do these things in this way, in offering a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. ¹⁴And if a stranger is sojourning with you, or anyone is living permanently among you, and he wishes to offer a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the Lord, he shall do as you do. ¹⁵For the assembly, ^(ED)there shall be one statute for you and for the stranger who sojourns with you, a statute forever throughout your generations. You and the sojourner shall be alike before the Lord. ¹⁶One law and one rule shall be for you and for the stranger who sojourns with you.”

¹⁷The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁸^(EE)“Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land to which I bring you ¹⁹and when you eat of ^(EF)the bread of the land, you shall present a contribution to the Lord. ²⁰^(EG)Of the first of your dough you shall present a loaf as a contribution; like a ^(EH)contribution from the threshing floor, so shall you present it. ²¹^(EI)Some of the first of your dough you shall give to the Lord as a contribution throughout your generations.

Laws About Unintentional Sins

²²^(EJ)“But if you sin unintentionally,^[g] and do not observe all these commandments that the Lord has spoken to Moses, ²³all that the Lord has commanded you by Moses, from the day that the Lord gave commandment, and onward throughout your generations, ²⁴then if it was done unintentionally ^(EK)without the knowledge of the congregation, all the congregation shall offer one bull from the herd for a burnt offering, a pleasing aroma to the Lord, ^(EL)with its grain offering and its drink offering, according to the rule, and ^(EM)one male goat for a sin offering. ²⁵^(EN)And the priest shall make atonement for all the congregation of the people of Israel, and they shall be forgiven, because it was a mistake, and they have brought their offering, a food offering to the Lord, and their sin offering before the Lord for their mistake. ²⁶And all the congregation of the people of Israel shall be forgiven, and the stranger who sojourns among them, because the whole population was involved in the mistake.

²⁷^(EO)“If one person sins unintentionally, he shall offer a female goat a year old for a sin offering. ²⁸^(EP)And the priest shall make atonement before the Lord for the person who makes a mistake, when he sins unintentionally, to make atonement for him, and he shall be forgiven. ²⁹^(EQ)You shall have one law for him who does anything unintentionally, for him who is native among the people of Israel and for the stranger who sojourns among them. ³⁰^(ER)But the person who does anything with a high hand, whether he is native or a sojourner, reviles the Lord, and that person shall be cut off from among his people. ³¹Because he has ^(ES)despised the word of the Lord and has broken his commandment, that person shall be utterly cut off; his iniquity shall be on him.”

A Sabbathbreaker Executed

³²While the people of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man ^(ET)gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. ³³And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation. ³⁴^(EU)They put him in custody, because it had not been made clear what should be done to him. ³⁵And the Lord said to Moses, ^(EV)“The man shall be put to death; all the congregation shall ^(EW)stone him with stones outside the camp.” ³⁶And all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones, as the Lord commanded Moses.

Tassels on Garments

³⁷The Lord said to Moses, ³⁸“Speak to the people of Israel, and tell them to ^(EX)make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner. ³⁹And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord, to do them, ^(EY)not to follow^[h] after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined ^(EZ)to whore after. ⁴⁰So you shall remember and do all my commandments, and be ^(FA)holy to your God. ⁴¹^(FB)I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I am the Lord your God.”

Korah's Rebellion

16 Now ^(FC)Korah the son of Izhar, son of Kohath, son of Levi, and ^(FD)Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men. ²And they rose up before Moses, with a number of the people of Israel, 250 chiefs of the congregation, chosen from the assembly, well-known men. ³^(FE)They assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said to them, ^(FF)“You have gone too far! For ^(FG)all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?” ⁴When Moses heard it, ^(FH)he fell on his face, ⁵and he said to Korah and all his company, “In the morning the Lord will show ^(FI)who is his,^[i] and who is ^(FJ)holy, and will bring him near to him. The one ^(FK)whom he chooses he will ^(FL)bring near to him. ⁶Do this: take ^(FM)censers, Korah and all his company; ⁷put fire in them and put incense on them before the Lord tomorrow, and the man whom the Lord chooses shall be the holy one. ^(FN)You have gone too far, sons of Levi!” ⁸And Moses said to Korah, “Hear now, you sons of Levi: ⁹is it ^(FO)too small a thing for you that the God of Israel has ^(FP)separated you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to himself, to do service in the tabernacle of the Lord and to stand before the congregation to minister to them, ¹⁰and that he has brought you near him, and all your brothers the sons of Levi with you? And would you seek the priesthood also? ¹¹Therefore it is against the Lord that you and all your company have gathered together. What is ^(FQ)Aaron that you grumble against him?”

¹²And Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, and they said, “We will not come up. ¹³Is it ^(FR)a small thing that you have brought us up out of ^(FS)a land flowing with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, that you must also ^(FT)make yourself a prince over us? ¹⁴Moreover, you have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, nor given us inheritance of fields and vineyards. Will you put out the eyes of these men? We will not come up.” ¹⁵And Moses was very angry and said to the Lord, ^(FU)“Do not respect their offering. ^(FV)I have not taken one donkey from them, and I have not harmed one of them.”

¹⁶And Moses said to Korah, “Be present, you and all your company, ^(FW)before the Lord, you and they, and Aaron, tomorrow. ¹⁷And ^(FX)let every one of you take his censer and put incense on it, and every one of you bring before the Lord his censer, ^(FY)250 censers; you also, and Aaron, each his censer.” ¹⁸So every man took his censer and put fire in them and laid incense on them and stood at the entrance of the tent of meeting with Moses and Aaron. ¹⁹Then Korah assembled all the congregation against them at the entrance of the tent of meeting. ^(FZ)And the glory of the Lord appeared to all the congregation.

²⁰And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, ²¹^(GA)“Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them ^(GB)in a moment.” ²²And they ^(GC)fell on their faces and said, “O God, ^(GD)the God of the spirits of all flesh, ^(GE)shall one man sin, and will you be angry with all the congregation?” ²³And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²⁴“Say to the congregation, Get away from the dwelling of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.”

²⁵Then Moses rose and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the elders of Israel followed him. ²⁶And he spoke to the congregation, saying, ^(GF)“Depart, please, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest you be swept away with all their sins.” ²⁷So they got away from the dwelling of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. And Dathan and Abiram came out and stood ^(GG)at the door of their tents, together with their wives, their sons, and their little ones. ²⁸And Moses said, “Hereby you shall know that the Lord has sent me to do all these works, and that it has not been ^(GH)of my own accord. ²⁹If these men die as all men die, or if they are visited by the fate of all mankind, ^(GI)then the Lord has not sent me. ³⁰But if the Lord creates something new, and ^(GJ)the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them, and they ^(GK)go down alive into Sheol, then you shall know that these men have despised the Lord.”

³¹^(GL)And as soon as he had finished speaking all these words, the ground under them split apart. ³²And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and ^(GM)all the people who belonged to Korah and all their goods. ³³So they and all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol, and the earth closed over them, and ^(GN)they perished from the midst of the assembly. ³⁴And all Israel who were around them fled at their cry, for they said, “Lest the earth swallow us up!” ³⁵And ^(GO)fire came out from the Lord and consumed ^(GP)the 250 men offering the incense.

³⁶^[j] Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ³⁷“Tell Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest to take up the censers out of the blaze. Then scatter the fire far and wide, for they have become holy. ³⁸As for the censers of ^(GQ)these men who have sinned at the cost of their lives, let them be made into hammered plates as a covering for the altar, for they offered them before the Lord, and they became holy. ^(GR)Thus they shall be a sign to the people of Israel.” ³⁹So Eleazar the priest took the bronze censers, which those who were burned had offered, and they were hammered out as a covering for the altar, ⁴⁰to be a reminder to the people of Israel, so ^(GS)that no outsider, who is not of the descendants of Aaron, should draw near to burn incense before the Lord, lest he become like Korah and his company—as the Lord said to him through Moses.

⁴¹But on the next day all the congregation of the people of Israel ^(GT)grumbled against Moses and against Aaron, saying, “You have killed the people of the Lord.” ⁴²And when the congregation had assembled against Moses and against Aaron, they turned toward the tent of meeting. And behold, ^(GU)the cloud covered it, and ^(GV)the glory of the Lord appeared. ⁴³And Moses and Aaron came to the front of the tent of meeting, ⁴⁴and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ⁴⁵^(GW)“Get away from the midst of this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment.” ^(GX)And they fell on their faces. ⁴⁶And Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer, and put fire on it from off the altar and lay incense on it and carry it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them, for ^(GY)wrath has gone out from the Lord; the plague has begun.” ⁴⁷So Aaron took it as Moses said and ran into the midst of the assembly. And behold, the plague had already begun among the people. And he put on the incense and made atonement for the people. ⁴⁸And he stood between the dead and the living, and ^(GZ)the plague was stopped. ⁴⁹Now those who died in the plague were 14,700, ^(HA)besides those who died in the affair of Korah. ⁵⁰And Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance of the tent of meeting, when the plague was stopped.

Aaron's Staff Buds

17 ^[k] The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²^(HB)“Speak to the people of Israel, and get from them staffs, one for each fathers' house, from all their chiefs according to their fathers' houses, twelve staffs. Write each man's name on his staff, ³and write Aaron's name on the staff of Levi. For there shall be one staff for the head of each fathers' house. ⁴Then you shall deposit them in the tent of meeting before the testimony, ^(HC)where I meet with you. ⁵And the staff of the man ^(HD)whom I choose shall sprout. Thus I will make to cease from me ^(HE)the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against you.” ⁶Moses spoke to the people of Israel. And all their chiefs gave him staffs, one for each chief, according to their fathers' houses, twelve staffs. And the staff of Aaron was among their staffs. ⁷And Moses deposited the staffs before the Lord in ^(HF)the tent of the testimony.

⁸On the next day Moses went into the tent of the testimony, and behold, the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted and put forth buds and produced blossoms, and it bore ripe almonds. ⁹Then Moses brought out all the staffs from before the Lord to all the people of Israel. And they looked, and each man took his staff. ¹⁰And the Lord said to Moses, “Put back ^(HG)the staff of Aaron before the testimony, to be kept ^(HH)as a sign for the rebels, ^(HI)that you may make an end of their grumblings against me, lest they die.” ¹¹Thus did Moses; as the Lord commanded him, so he did.

¹²And the people of Israel said to Moses, “Behold, we perish, we are undone, we are all undone. ¹³^(HJ)Everyone who comes near, who comes near to the tabernacle of the Lord, shall die. Are we all to perish?”

Duties of Priests and Levites

18 So the Lord said to Aaron, “You and your sons and your father's house with you shall ^(HK)bear iniquity connected with the sanctuary, ^(HL)and you and your sons with you shall bear iniquity connected with your priesthood. ²And with you bring your brothers also, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, that they may ^(HM)join you and ^(HN)minister to you while you and your sons with you are before the tent of the testimony. ³They shall keep guard over you and ^(HO)over the whole tent, ^(HP)but shall not come near to the vessels of the sanctuary or to the altar ^(HQ)lest they, and you, die. ⁴They shall join you and keep guard over the tent of meeting for all the service of the tent, ^(HR)and no outsider shall come near you. ⁵And you shall ^(HS)keep guard over the sanctuary and over the altar, ^(HT)that there may never again be wrath on the people of Israel. ⁶^(HU)And behold, I have taken your brothers the Levites from among the people of Israel. ^(HV)They are a gift to you, given to the Lord, to do the service of the tent of meeting. ⁷And ^(HW)you and your sons with you shall guard your priesthood for all that concerns the altar and ^(HX)that is within the veil; and you shall serve. I give your priesthood as a gift,^[l] and ^(HY)any outsider who comes near shall be put to death.”

⁸Then the Lord spoke to Aaron, “Behold, ^(HZ)I have given you charge of the contributions made to me, all the consecrated things of the people of Israel. I have given them to you ^(IA)as a portion and to your sons as a perpetual due. ⁹This shall be yours of the most holy things, reserved from the fire: every offering of theirs, every grain offering of theirs and every ^(IB)sin offering of theirs and every ^(IC)guilt offering of theirs, which they render to me, shall be most holy to you and to your sons. ¹⁰In a most holy place shall you eat it. Every male may eat it; it is holy to you. ¹¹This also is yours: the contribution of their gift, all the ^(ID)wave offerings of the people of Israel. I have given them to ^(IE)you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a perpetual due. ^(IF)Everyone who is clean in your house may eat it. ¹²^(IG)All the best of the oil and all the best of the wine and of the grain, ^(IH)the firstfruits of what they give to the Lord, I give to you. ¹³The first ripe fruits of all that is in their land, ^(II)which they bring to the Lord, shall be yours. ^(IJ)Everyone who is clean in your house may eat it. ¹⁴^(IK)Every devoted thing in Israel shall be yours. ¹⁵^(IL)Everything that opens the womb of all flesh, whether man or beast, which they offer to the Lord, shall be yours. Nevertheless, ^(IM)the firstborn of man you shall redeem, and the firstborn of unclean animals you shall redeem. ¹⁶And their redemption price ^(IN)(at a month old you shall redeem them) you shall fix at five shekels^[m] in silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, ^(IO)which is twenty gerahs. ¹⁷^(IP)But the firstborn of a cow, or the firstborn of a sheep, or the firstborn of a goat, you shall not redeem; they are holy. You shall sprinkle their blood on the altar and shall burn their fat as a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. ¹⁸But their flesh shall be yours, as ^(IQ)the breast that is waved and as the right thigh are yours. ¹⁹^(IR)All the holy contributions that the people of Israel present to the Lord I give to you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a perpetual due. ^(IS)It is a covenant of salt forever before the Lord for you and for your offspring with you.” ²⁰And the Lord said to Aaron, “You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any portion among them. ^(IT)I am your portion and your inheritance among the people of Israel.

²¹^(IU)“To the Levites I have given every tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service that they do, their service in the tent of meeting, ²²^(IV)so that the people of Israel do not come near the tent of meeting, ^(IW)lest they bear sin and die. ²³But ^(IX)the Levites shall do the service of the tent of meeting, ^(IY)and they shall bear their iniquity. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations, and among the people of Israel they shall have no inheritance. ²⁴For the tithe of the people of Israel, which ^(IZ)they present as a contribution to the Lord, I have given to the Levites for an inheritance. Therefore I have said of them that they shall have no inheritance ^(JA)among the people of Israel.”

²⁵And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²⁶“Moreover, you shall speak and say to the Levites, ‘When you take from the people of Israel the tithe that I have given you from them for your inheritance, then you shall present a contribution from it to the Lord, ^(JB)a tithe of the tithe. ²⁷^(JC)And your contribution shall be counted to you as though it were the grain of the threshing floor, and as the fullness of the winepress. ²⁸So you shall also present a contribution to the Lord from all your tithes, which you receive from the people of Israel. And from it you shall give the Lord's contribution to Aaron the priest. ²⁹Out of all the gifts to you, you shall present every contribution due to the Lord; from each its best part is to be dedicated.’ ³⁰Therefore you shall say to them, ‘When you have offered from it the best of it, ^(JD)then the rest shall be counted to the Levites as produce of the threshing floor, and as produce of the winepress. ³¹And you may eat it in any place, you and your households, for it is ^(JE)your reward in return for your service in the tent of meeting. ³²And you shall ^(JF)bear no sin by reason of it, when you have contributed the best of it. But you shall not ^(JG)profane the holy things of the people of Israel, lest you die.’”

Laws for Purification

19 Now the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, ²“This is the statute of the law that the Lord has commanded: Tell the people of Israel to bring you a red heifer without defect, in which there is no blemish, ^(JH)and on which a yoke has never come. ³And you shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and ^(JI)it shall be taken outside the camp and slaughtered before him. ⁴And Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger, and ^(JJ)sprinkle some of its blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times. ⁵And the heifer shall be burned in his sight. ^(JK)Its skin, its flesh, and its blood, with its dung, shall be burned. ⁶And the priest shall take ^(JL)cedarwood and hyssop and scarlet yarn, and throw them into the fire burning the heifer. ⁷Then the priest ^(JM)shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp. But the priest shall be unclean until evening. ⁸^(JN)The one who burns the heifer ^(JO)shall wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water and shall be unclean until evening. ⁹And a man who is clean shall gather up ^(JP)the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a ^(JQ)clean place. And they shall be kept for the water for ^(JR)impurity for the congregation of the people of Israel; it is a sin offering. ¹⁰And the one who gathers the ashes of the heifer ^(JS)shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. And this shall be a perpetual statute for the people of Israel, and for the stranger who sojourns among them.

¹¹^(JT)“Whoever touches the dead body of any person shall be unclean seven days. ¹²He ^(JU)shall cleanse himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day, and so be clean. But if he does not cleanse himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not become clean. ¹³Whoever touches a dead person, the body of anyone who has died, and does not cleanse himself, ^(JV)defiles the tabernacle of the Lord, ^(JW)and that person shall be cut off from Israel; because the water for impurity was not thrown on him, he shall be unclean. His uncleanness is still on him.

¹⁴“This is the law when someone dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent shall be unclean seven days. ¹⁵And every ^(JX)open vessel that has no cover fastened on it is unclean. ¹⁶^(JY)Whoever in the open field touches someone who was killed with a sword or who died naturally, or touches a human bone or a ^(JZ)grave, shall be unclean seven days. ¹⁷For the unclean they shall take ^(KA)some ashes of the burnt sin offering, and fresh^[n] water shall be added in a vessel. ¹⁸Then a clean person shall take ^(KB)hyssop and dip it in the water and sprinkle it on the tent and on all the furnishings and on the persons who were there and on whoever touched the bone, or the slain or the dead or the grave. ¹⁹And the clean person shall sprinkle it on the unclean ^(KC)on the third day and on the seventh day. ^(KD)Thus on the seventh day he shall cleanse him, and he shall ^(KE)wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and at evening he shall be clean.

²⁰“If the man who is unclean does not cleanse himself, ^(KF)that person shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly, since he has defiled the sanctuary of the Lord. Because the water for impurity has not been thrown on him, he is unclean.