Beginning
The Work of the Priests and Levites
18 The Lord said to Aaron, “You, your sons, and your ·family [father’s house] are now responsible for any wrongs done against the Holy Place; you and your sons are responsible for any wrongs done against the priests. 2 Bring with you your ·fellow [brother] Levites from your tribe, and they will ·help [join; C the name Levi means “joined”] you and your sons serve in the Tent of the ·Agreement [Testimony; Treaty; Covenant; Ex. 25:10]. 3 They are under your control, to do all the work that needs to be done in the Tent. But they must not go near the things in the Holy Place or near the altar. If they do, both you and they will die. 4 They will join you in taking care of the Meeting Tent. They must do the work at the Tent, and no ·one else [stranger; outsider] may come near you.
5 “You must take care of the Holy Place and the altar so that I won’t become angry with the ·Israelites [L sons/T children of Israel] again. 6 I myself chose your ·fellow [brother] Levites from among the ·Israelites [L sons/T children of Israel] as a gift given for you to the Lord, to work at the Meeting Tent. 7 But only you and your sons may ·serve as priests [L guard the priesthood]. Only you may serve at the altar or go behind the curtain. I am giving you this gift of serving as a priest, and ·anyone else [any stranger/outsider] who comes near the Holy Place will be put to death.”
8 Then the Lord said to Aaron, “I myself make you responsible for the offerings given to me. All the holy offerings that the ·Israelites [L sons/T children of Israel] give to me, I give to you and your sons as your share, your ·continual [perpetual] portion. 9 Your share of the ·holy offerings [L holy of the holy things] is that part which is not burned. When the people bring me gifts as ·most holy offerings [L holy of the holy things], whether they are ·grain [L gift; tribute; Lev. 2:1] or ·sin [or purification; Lev. 4:3] or ·penalty [guilt; reparation; Lev. 5:14—6:7] offerings, they will be set apart for you and your sons. 10 You must eat the offering in ·a most holy place [L the holy of holy places]. Any male may eat it, but you must respect it as holy.
11 “I also give you the offerings the ·Israelites [L sons/T children of Israel] present to me. I give these to you and your sons and daughters as your ·continual [perpetual] share. Anyone in your ·family [L house] who is clean [C in a ritual sense] may eat it.
12 “And I give you all the best olive oil and all the best new wine and grain. This is what ·the Israelites [L they] give to me, the Lord, from the first crops they harvest. 13 When they bring to the Lord all the first things they harvest, they will be yours. Anyone in your ·family [L house] who is clean [C in a ritual sense] may eat these things.
14 “Everything in Israel that is ·given to the Lord [devoted; C set aside for God] is yours. 15 The ·first one born [L one that opens the womb] to any family, whether people or animals, will be offered to the Lord. And that will be yours. But you must ·make a payment for [ransom; redeem] every firstborn child and every firstborn animal that is unclean [C in a ritual sense]. 16 When they are one month old, you ·must make a payment for [ransom; redeem] them of ·two ounces [L five shekels, that is twenty gerahs] of silver, as set by the Holy Place measure [3:40–50; Ex. 13:2, 11–16].
17 “But you must not ·make a payment for [ransom; redeem] the firstborn ox or sheep or goat. Those animals are holy. ·Sprinkle [Dash] their blood on the altar and ·burn [turn into smoke] their fat as an offering made by fire. The smell is pleasing to the Lord. 18 But the meat will be yours, just as the breast that is presented and the right thigh will be yours. 19 Anything the ·Israelites [L sons/T children of Israel] present as holy gifts I, the Lord, give to you, your sons and daughters as your ·continual [perpetual] portion. This is a lasting ·agreement [treaty; covenant] of salt [C representing perpetual agreement because salt can survive fire; Lev. 2:13] before the Lord for you and your children forever.”
20 The Lord also said to Aaron, “You will not inherit any of the land, and you will not own any land among the other people [Gen. 49:5–7]. I will be yours. Out of all the ·Israelites [L sons/T children of Israel], only you will inherit me.
21 “When the people of Israel give me a ·tenth [T tithe] of what they make, I will give that tenth to the ·Levites [L sons of Levi; Lev. 27:30–32; Deut. 12:17–19; 14:22–29]. This is their payment for the work they do serving at the Meeting Tent. 22 But the other ·Israelites [L sons/T children of Israel] must never go near the Meeting Tent, or they will die for their sin. 23 Only the Levites should work in the Meeting Tent and be responsible for any sins against it. This is a ·rule from now on [perpetual statute/ordinance/requirement throughout your generations]. The Levites will not inherit any land among the other ·Israelites [L sons/T children of Israel], 24 but when the ·Israelites [L sons/T children of Israel] give a ·tenth [T tithe] of everything they make to me, I will give that ·tenth [T tithe] to the Levites as a reward. That is why I said about the Levites: ‘They will not inherit any land among the ·Israelites [L sons/T children of Israel].’”
25 The Lord said to Moses, 26 “Speak to the Levites and tell them: ‘You will receive a ·tenth [T tithe] of everything the ·Israelites [L sons/T children of Israel] make, which I will give to you. But you must give a ·tenth of that [L tenth of a tenth; T tithe of a tithe] back to the Lord. 27 I will accept your offering just as much as I accept the offerings from others, who give ·new grain [L the grain of the threshing floor] or ·new wine [L the fullness of the winepress]. 28 In this way you will present an offering to the Lord as the other ·Israelites [L sons/T children of Israel] do. When you receive a ·tenth [T tithe] from the ·Israelites [L sons/T children of Israel], you will give a ·tenth [tithe] of that to Aaron, the priest, as the Lord’s share. 29 Choose the best and holiest part from what you are given as the portion you must give to the Lord.’
30 “Say to the Levites: ‘When you present the best, it will be accepted as much as the ·grain [L product of the threshing floor] and ·wine [L product of the wine press] from the other people. 31 You and your ·families [L house] may eat all that is left anywhere, because it is your pay for your work in the Meeting Tent. 32 And if you always give the best part to the Lord, you will never be guilty. If you do not ·sin against [profane] the holy offerings of the ·Israelites [L sons/T children of Israel], you will not die.’”
The Offering for Cleansing
19 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 2 “These are the ·teachings [statutes; ordinances; requirements] that the Lord commanded. Tell the ·Israelites [L sons/T children of Israel] to get a young red ·cow [T heifer] that does not have ·anything wrong with it [L a defect and is without a blemish] and that has never ·been worked [L worn a yoke]. 3 Give the ·cow [T heifer] to Eleazar the priest; he will take it outside the camp and ·kill [slaughter] it in his presence. 4 Then Eleazar the priest must put some of its blood on his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the Meeting Tent. 5 The whole ·cow [T heifer] must be burned while he watches; the skin, the meat, the blood, and ·the intestines [L its dung] must all be burned. 6 Then the priest must take a cedar stick, a hyssop branch, and a red string [C the redness of the heifer and these objects probably represent blood] and throw them onto the burning ·cow [T heifer]. 7 After the priest has washed himself and his clothes with water, he may come back into the camp, but he will be unclean [C in a ritual sense] until evening. 8 The man who burns the ·cow [T heifer] must wash himself and his clothes in water; he will be unclean until evening.
9 “Then someone who is clean [C in a ritual sense] will collect the ashes from the ·cow [T heifer] and put them in a clean place outside the camp. The ·Israelites [L community/congregation/assembly of the sons/T children of Israel] will keep these ashes to use in the cleansing water, in a ·special ceremony to cleanse away sin [L sin offering; or purification offering; Lev. 4:3]. 10 The man who collected the ·cow’s [T heifer’s] ashes must wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. This is a lasting ·rule [statute; ordinance; requirement] ·for the Israelites [L in their midst] and for the ·foreigners [resident aliens] among them.
11 “Those who touch a dead person’s body will be unclean [C in a ritual sense] for seven days. 12 They must ·wash themselves with the cleansing [purify themselves with the] water on the third day and on the seventh day; then they will be clean. But if they do not ·wash themselves [purify themselves] on the third day and the seventh day, they cannot be clean. 13 If those who touch a dead person’s body ·stay unclean [do not purify themselves] and go to the Lord’s ·Holy Tent [Tabernacle], it becomes unclean; they must be cut off from Israel. If the cleansing water is not sprinkled on them, they are unclean and will stay unclean.
14 “This is the ·teaching [instruction; law] about someone who dies in a tent: Anyone in the tent or anyone who enters it will be unclean [C in a ritual sense] for seven days. 15 And every open jar or pot without a cover becomes unclean. 16 If anyone is ·outside [L in the open field] and touches someone who was killed by a sword or who died [C a natural death], or if anyone touches a human bone or a grave, that person will be unclean for seven days.
17 “So you must use the ashes from the burnt sin [or purification; Lev. 4:3] offering to make that person clean [C in a ritual sense] again. Pour ·fresh [running; L living] water over the ashes into a jar. 18 A clean person must take a hyssop branch and dip it into the water, and then he must sprinkle it over the tent and all its objects. He must also sprinkle the people who were there, as well as anyone who touched a bone, or the body of someone who was killed, or a dead person, or a grave. 19 The person who is clean must sprinkle this water on the unclean people on the third day and on the seventh day. On the seventh day they will ·become clean [be purified]. They must wash their clothes and take a bath, and they will be clean that evening. 20 If any who are unclean do not become ·clean [purified], they must be cut off from the ·community [assembly; crowd]. Since they were not sprinkled with the cleansing water, they stay unclean, and they could make the Lord’s ·Holy Tent [Tabernacle] unclean. 21 This is a lasting ·rule [statute; ordinance; requirement]. Those who sprinkle the cleansing water must also wash their clothes, and anyone who touches the water will be unclean until evening. 22 Anything an unclean person touches becomes unclean, and whoever touches it will be unclean until evening.”
Moses Disobeys God
20 In the first month all the ·people [L sons; T children] of Israel, the community [congregation; assembly] arrived at the ·Desert [Wilderness] of Zin, and they stayed at Kadesh. There Miriam [C Moses’ sister; Ex. 15:20–21; Num. 12:1–13] died and was buried. 2 There was no water for the ·people [community; congregation; assembly], so they ·came together [assembled] against Moses and Aaron. 3 They ·argued with [contended with; brought a case against] Moses and said, “We should have died in front of the Lord as our brothers did. 4 Why did you bring the Lord’s ·people [community; congregation; assembly] into this ·desert [wilderness]? Are we and our animals to die here? 5 Why did you bring us from Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain, figs, grapevines, or pomegranates, and there’s no water to drink!”
6 So Moses and Aaron left the ·people [community; congregation; assembly] and went to the entrance of the Meeting Tent. There they ·bowed facedown [L fell on their faces], and the glory of the Lord [C his manifest presence] appeared to them. 7 The Lord said to Moses, 8 “Take your ·walking stick [staff], and you and your brother Aaron should gather the ·people [community; congregation; assembly]. Speak to that rock in front of them so that its water will flow from it. When you bring the water out from that rock, give it to the ·people [community; congregation; assembly] and their animals.”
9 So Moses took the ·stick [staff] from in front of the Lord, as he had said. 10 Moses and Aaron ·gathered [assembled] the ·people [community; congregation; assembly] in front of the rock, and Moses said, “Now listen to me, you ·who turn against God [L rebels]! Do you want us [C rather than God] to bring water out of this rock?” 11 Then Moses lifted his hand and hit the rock twice with his ·stick [staff; C he was supposed to speak to it, 20:8]. Water began pouring out, and the ·people [community; congregation; assembly] and their animals drank it.
12 But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not ·believe [trust] me, and because you did not ·honor me as holy [show my holiness] before the ·people [L sons/T children of Israel], you will not lead ·them [L this community; congregation; assembly] into the land I will give them [20:22–29; Deut. 34:1–12].”
13 These are the waters of Meribah [C “Argument”], where the ·Israelites [L sons/T children of Israel] ·argued with [contended with; brought a case against] the Lord and where he showed them he was holy.
Edom Will Not Let Israel Pass
14 From Kadesh, Moses sent messengers to the king of Edom. He said, “Your brothers, the Israelites, say to you: You know about all the ·troubles [hardship] we have had, 15 how our ·ancestors [fathers] went down into Egypt and we lived there for many years. The people of Egypt ·were cruel to [oppressed] us and our ·ancestors [fathers], 16 but when we cried out to the Lord, he heard ·us [L our voice] and sent us an ·angel [messenger] to bring us out of Egypt.
“Now we are here at Kadesh, a town on the edge of your ·land [boundaries]. 17 Please let us pass through your country. We will not ·touch [pass through] any fields of grain or vineyards, and will not drink water from the wells. We will travel only along the ·king’s road [King’s Highway; C a north-south international highway], not turning right or left until we have passed through your ·country [boundaries].”
18 But the king of Edom answered: “You may not pass through here. If you try, I will come and meet you with swords.”
19 The ·Israelites [L sons/T children of Israel] answered: “We will go along the ·main road [highway], and if we or our animals drink any of your water, we will pay for it. We only want to walk through. That’s all.”
20 But he answered: “You may not pass through here.”
Then the Edomites went out to meet the Israelites with a large and powerful army. 21 The Edomites refused to let them pass through their ·country [boundaries], so the Israelites turned back.
Aaron Dies
22 ·All the Israelites [L The sons/T children of Israel, all the community/assembly/congregation] moved from Kadesh to Mount Hor, 23 near the border of Edom. There the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 24 “Aaron will ·die [L be gathered to his people]. He will not enter the land that I’m giving to the ·Israelites [L sons/T children of Israel], because you both ·acted [rebelled] against my command at the waters of Meribah [20:1–13]. 25 Take Aaron and his son Eleazar up on Mount Hor, 26 and take off Aaron’s special clothes and put them on his son Eleazar. Aaron will die there; he will ·join his people [L be gathered].”
27 Moses obeyed the Lord’s command. They climbed up Mount Hor, and all the ·people [community; assembly; congregation] saw them go. 28 Moses took off Aaron’s clothes and put them on Aaron’s son Eleazar. Then Aaron died there on top of the mountain. Moses and Eleazar came back down the mountain, 29 and when all the ·people [community; assembly; congregation] learned that Aaron was dead, ·everyone in [L all the house of] Israel cried for him for thirty days.
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