²⁶ And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, ²⁷ “How long shall ^(A)this wicked congregation grumble against me? ^(B)I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against me. ²⁸ Say to them, ^(C)‘As I live, declares the Lord, ^(D)what you have said in my hearing I will do to you: ^29 (E)your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and ^(F)of all your number, listed in the census ^(G)from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me, ³⁰ not one shall come into the land where I ^(H)swore that I would make you dwell, ^(I)except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. ^31 (J)But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that ^(K)you have rejected. ³² But as for you, ^(L)your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. ³³ And your children ^(M)shall be shepherds in the wilderness ^(N)forty years and shall ^(O)suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. ^34 (P)According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, ^(Q)forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.’ ^35 (R)I, the Lord, have spoken. Surely this will I do to all ^(S)this wicked congregation who are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die.”

The Waters of Meribah

^2 (A)Now there was no water for the congregation. ^(B)And they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. ³ And the people ^(C)quarreled with Moses and said, “Would that we had perished ^(D)when our brothers perished 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 ^(E)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 entrance of the tent of meeting and ^(F)fell on their faces. ^(G)And the glory of the Lord appeared to them, ⁷ and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ^8 (H)“Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So ^(I)you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.” ⁹ And Moses took the staff ^(J)from before the Lord, as he commanded him.

Moses Strikes the Rock

¹⁰ Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, ^(K)“Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” ¹¹ And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, ^(L)and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock. ¹² And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because ^(M)you did not believe in me, ^(N)to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.” ^13 (O)These are the waters of Meribah,^[a] where the people of Israel quarreled with the Lord, and through them he showed himself holy.

Baal Worship at Peor

25 While Israel lived in ^(A)Shittim, ^(B)the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. ^2 (C)These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. ³ So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. ⁴ And the Lord said to Moses, ^(D)“Take all the chiefs of the people and ^(E)hang^[a] them in the sun before the Lord, ^(F)that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel.” ⁵ And Moses said to ^(G)the judges of Israel, ^(H)“Each of you kill those of his men who have yoked themselves to Baal of Peor.”

⁶ And behold, one of the people of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman to his family, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the people of Israel, while they were ^(I)weeping in the entrance of the tent of meeting. ^7 (J)When Phinehas ^(K)the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose and left the congregation and took a spear in his hand ⁸ and went after the man of Israel into the chamber and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. Thus the plague on the people of Israel was stopped. ⁹ Nevertheless, ^(L)those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand.

The Zeal of Phinehas

¹⁰ And the Lord said to Moses, ¹¹ “Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned back my wrath from the people of Israel, in that he ^(M)was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I did not consume the people of Israel in ^(N)my jealousy. ¹² Therefore say, ^(O)‘Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace, ¹³ and it shall be to him and to ^(P)his descendants after him the covenant of ^(Q)a perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the people of Israel.’”