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, ^(A)and on which a yoke has never come. ³ And you shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and ^(B)it shall be taken outside the camp and slaughtered before him. ⁴ And Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger, and ^(C)sprinkle some of its blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times. ⁵ And the heifer shall be burned in his sight. ^(D)Its skin, its flesh, and its blood, with its dung, shall be burned. ⁶ And the priest shall take ^(E)cedarwood and hyssop and scarlet yarn, and throw them into the fire burning the heifer. ⁷ Then the priest ^(F)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 (G)The one who burns the heifer ^(H)shall wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water and shall be unclean until evening. ⁹ And a man who is clean shall gather up ^(I)the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a ^(J)clean place. And they shall be kept for the water for ^(K)impurity for the congregation of the people of Israel; it is a sin offering. ¹⁰ And the one who gathers the ashes of the heifer ^(L)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 (M)“Whoever touches the dead body of any person shall be unclean seven days. ¹² He ^(N)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. ¹³ Whoever touches a dead person, the body of anyone who has died, and does not cleanse himself, ^(O)defiles the tabernacle of the Lord, ^(P)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. ¹⁵ And every ^(Q)open vessel that has no cover fastened on it is unclean. ^16 (R)Whoever in the open field touches someone who was killed with a sword or who died naturally, or touches a human bone or a ^(S)grave, shall be unclean seven days. ¹⁷ For the unclean they shall take ^(T)some ashes of the burnt sin offering, and fresh^[a] water shall be added in a vessel. ¹⁸ Then a clean person shall take ^(U)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. ¹⁹ And the clean person shall sprinkle it on the unclean ^(V)on the third day and on the seventh day. ^(W)Thus on the seventh day he shall cleanse him, and he shall ^(X)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, ^(Y)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. ²¹ And it shall be a statute forever for them. The one who sprinkles the water for impurity shall wash his clothes, and the one who touches the water for impurity shall be unclean until evening. ²² And ^(Z)whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean, and anyone who touches it shall be unclean until evening.”

The Death of Miriam

20 And the people of Israel, the whole congregation, came ^(AA)into the wilderness of Zin in the first month, and the people stayed in Kadesh. And ^(AB)Miriam died there and was buried there.

The Waters of Meribah

^2 (AC)Now there was no water for the congregation. ^(AD)And they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. ³ And the people ^(AE)quarreled with Moses and said, “Would that we had perished ^(AF)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 ^(AG)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 ^(AH)fell on their faces. ^(AI)And the glory of the Lord appeared to them, ⁷ and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ^8 (AJ)“Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So ^(AK)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 ^(AL)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, ^(AM)“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, ^(AN)and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock. ¹² And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because ^(AO)you did not believe in me, ^(AP)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 (AQ)These are the waters of Meribah,^[b] where the people of Israel quarreled with the Lord, and through them he showed himself holy.

Edom Refuses Passage

^14 (AR)Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to ^(AS)the king of Edom: “Thus says ^(AT)your brother Israel: You know all the hardship that we have met: ^15 (AU)how our fathers went down to Egypt, ^(AV)and we lived in Egypt a long time. ^(AW)And the Egyptians dealt harshly with us and our fathers. ¹⁶ And ^(AX)when we cried to the Lord, he heard our voice and ^(AY)sent an angel and brought us out of Egypt. And here we are in Kadesh, a city on the edge of your territory. ^17 (AZ)Please let us pass through your land. We will not pass through field or vineyard, ^(BA)or drink water from a well. We will go along the King's Highway. We will not turn aside to the right hand or to the left until we have passed through your territory.” ¹⁸ But Edom said to him, “You shall not pass through, lest I come out with the sword against you.” ¹⁹ And the people of Israel said to him, “We will go up by the highway, ^(BB)and if we drink of your water, I and my livestock, ^(BC)then I will pay for it. Let me only pass through on foot, nothing more.” ²⁰ But he said, ^(BD)“You shall not pass through.” And Edom came out against them with a large army and with a strong force. ²¹ Thus Edom ^(BE)refused to give Israel passage through his territory, so Israel ^(BF)turned away from him.

The Death of Aaron

²² And they journeyed from ^(BG)Kadesh, and the people of Israel, the whole congregation, came to ^(BH)Mount Hor. ²³ And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron at Mount Hor, on the border of the land of Edom, ^24 (BI)“Let Aaron be gathered to his people, for he shall not enter the land that I have given to the people of Israel, because ^(BJ)you rebelled against my command at the waters of Meribah. ²⁵ Take Aaron and Eleazar his son and bring them up to Mount Hor. ²⁶ And strip Aaron of his garments and put them on Eleazar his son. And Aaron ^(BK)shall be gathered to his people and shall die there.” ²⁷ Moses did as the Lord commanded. And they went up Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation. ^28 (BL)And Moses stripped Aaron of his garments and put them on Eleazar his son. And Aaron died there ^(BM)on the top of the mountain. Then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain. ²⁹ And when all the congregation saw that Aaron had perished, ^(BN)all the house of Israel wept for Aaron thirty days.

The Lord Is My Strength and My Shield

Of David.

Jesus Heals a Man with a Demon

5 ^(A)They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes.^{[a] 2} And when Jesus^[b] had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. ^3 (B)He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, ⁴ for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. ⁵ Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. ⁶ And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and ^(C)fell down before him. ⁷ And ^(D)crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, ^(E)Son of ^(F)the Most High God? ^(G)I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” ⁸ For he was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” ⁹ And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is ^(H)Legion, for we are many.” ¹⁰ And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. ¹¹ Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, ¹² and they begged him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.” ¹³ So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.

¹⁴ The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened. ¹⁵ And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed^[c] man, the one who had had ^(I)the legion, sitting there, ^(J)clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. ¹⁶ And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs. ¹⁷ And ^(K)they began to beg Jesus^[d] to depart from their region. ¹⁸ As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. ¹⁹ And he did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and ^(L)tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” ²⁰ And he went away and began to proclaim in ^(M)the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.

Jesus Heals a Woman and Jairus's Daughter

²¹ And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him, and he was beside the sea. ^22 (N)Then came one of ^(O)the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet ²³ and implored him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and ^(P)lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.” ²⁴ And he went with him.

And a great crowd followed him and ^(Q)thronged about him. ²⁵ And there was a woman ^(R)who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, ²⁶ and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. ²⁷ She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. ²⁸ For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” ^29 (S)And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her ^(T)disease. ³⁰ And Jesus, perceiving in himself that ^(U)power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” ³¹ And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’” ³² And he looked around to see who had done it. ³³ But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. ³⁴ And he said to her, “Daughter, ^(V)your faith has made you well; ^(W)go in peace, and be healed of your ^(X)disease.”

³⁵ While he was still speaking, there came from ^(Y)the ruler's house some who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why ^(Z)trouble ^(AA)the Teacher any further?” ³⁶ But overhearing^[e] what they said, Jesus said to ^(AB)the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” ³⁷ And he allowed no one to follow him except ^(AC)Peter and James and ^(AD)John the brother of James. ³⁸ They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus^[f] saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. ³⁹ And when he had entered, he said to them, ^(AE)“Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but ^(AF)sleeping.” ⁴⁰ And they laughed at him. But he ^(AG)put them all outside and took the child's father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was. ^41 (AH)Taking her by the hand he said to her, “Talitha cumi,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, ^(AI)arise.” ⁴² And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement. ⁴³ And ^(AJ)he strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.