Beginning

Chapter 8

The Lampstand. ¹ The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to Aaron and say to him, ‘When you set up the lamps, the seven lamps are to shine to the front of the lampstand.’ ” ³ Aaron did this. He set up the lamps so that they faced forward on the lampstand, just as the Lord had commanded Moses. ⁴ This is how the lampstand was made: it was made from hammered gold from its base to its blossoms. The lampstand was made according to the pattern that the Lord had shown to Moses.

Purifying the Levites. ⁵ The Lord said to Moses, ⁶ “Separate the Levites from the other people of Israel and purify them.^{[a] 7} Do the following to purify them: Sprinkle the water of expiation upon them, and have them shave their entire body and wash their clothes. This will purify them. ⁸ Let them take a young bull and its cereal offering of fine flour mixed with oil. You shall also take another young bull for a sin offering. ⁹ You shall present the Levites before the tent of meeting. You shall also gather together the whole assembly of the people of Israel. ¹⁰ You shall present the Levites before the Lord, and all the people of Israel will lay their hands upon the Levites.^{[b] 11} Then Aaron will present the Levites to the Lord as a wave offering of the people of Israel so that they may carry out the work of the Lord. ¹² The Levites will lay their hands upon the heads of the young bulls. You will offer one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering to the Lord to make atonement for the Levites.

¹³ “You shall have the Levites stand before Aaron and his sons to present them as a wave offering to the Lord. ¹⁴ Thus you will separate the Levites from the people of Israel, and the Levites will be mine. ¹⁵ After this the Levites can go in and serve the needs of the tent of meeting, when you have purified them and offered them as a wave offering. ¹⁶ They are to be wholly dedicated to me from among the people of Israel. I have reserved them for myself as a substitute for all those who open the womb, the firstborn of the people of Israel. ¹⁷ All the firstborn of the people of Israel belong to me, both human and animal. I sanctified them to myself on the day that I killed every firstborn in the land of Egypt. ¹⁸ But I have taken the Levites as a substitute for all the firstborn of the people of Israel. ¹⁹ I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and his sons from among the people of Israel, to perform the work of the people of Israel in the tent of meeting and to make atonement for the people of Israel, so that no plague may come upon the people of Israel when the people of Israel approach near the sanctuary.”

²⁰ So Moses and Aaron and all the assembly of the people of Israel did to the Levites what God had commanded Moses concerning the Levites, that is what the people of Israel did to them. ²¹ The Levites purified themselves and washed their clothes. Aaron presented them as a wave offering to the Lord, and made atonement for them to purify them. ²² Then the Levites went in and performed the work of the tent of meeting under the authority of Aaron and his sons. They did to the Levites the things that the Lord had commanded Moses concerning them.

²³ The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²⁴ “The Levites will go in to perform the work of the tent of meeting from the age of twenty-five years old. ²⁵ Then, when they are fifty years old, they will stop performing that service. They will work no more. ²⁶ They may assist their brothers in carrying out the duties of the tent of meeting, but they themselves are not to perform that work. This is how you will establish the responsibilities of the Levites.”

Chapter 9

Observing the Passover. ¹ The Lord spoke to Moses in the Sinai Desert in the first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt. He said, ² “Let the people of Israel celebrate the Passover at its appointed time. ³ You will celebrate it at its appointed time, on the fourteenth day of this month, at sunset. You will observe it in accordance with all its statutes; you shall follow all of its ordinances.” ⁴ So Moses told the people of Israel that they should observe the Passover. ⁵ They celebrated Passover on the sunset of the fourteenth day of the month in the Sinai Desert. The people of Israel did everything that the Lord had commanded Moses.

⁶ Now there were some men who had become unclean by touching a dead body, and they could not observe the Passover on that day. They came to Moses and Aaron on that day ⁷ and they said, “We are unclean because we touched a dead person’s body. Why are we prohibited from presenting an offering to the Lord at its appointed time with the rest of the people of Israel?”

⁸ Moses said to them, “Stand here, and I will listen to what the Lord commands concerning your situation.” ⁹ The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁰ “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, ‘If any of you or your descendants is unclean because that person comes into contact with a dead body or he is on a journey and is far away, that person shall still observe^[c] the Passover of the Lord. ¹¹ You will celebrate it the fourteenth day of the second month, you will eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. ¹² You shall not leave any leftovers until the morning, nor shall you break any of its bones. You will observe it according to the ordinances of the Passover of the Lord.

¹³ “ ‘But if some person is ritually clean and is not off on a journey and that person refuses to observe the Passover, let that person be cut off from among his people. He did not bring his offerings at the appointed time, so he will bear his sin.

¹⁴ “ ‘If a foreigner^[d] dwelling among you wants to observe the Passover of the Lord, let him do so according to the ordinances of the Passover and according to its ceremonies. There is one set of ordinances for those who are foreigners and for those who were born in the land.’ ”

¹⁵ Journeying by the Cloud. Now on the day that the tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of meeting. From evening until morning it appeared in the form of fire. ¹⁶ The cloud covered it by day and fire by night. ¹⁷ Whenever the cloud was lifted up from the tabernacle, the people of Israel would journey out. The people of Israel would then settle and pitch their tent in the place where the cloud would descend.

¹⁸ The people of Israel would journey at the command of the Lord, and they would camp at the command of the Lord. As long as the cloud hovered over the tabernacle, they would stay where they were. ¹⁹ Even when the cloud hovered over the tabernacle for several days, the people of Israel would observe the command of the Lord and they would not journey out. ²⁰ At times the cloud would hover over the tabernacle for a few days. They stayed where they were in accordance with the command of the Lord, and they journeyed out in accordance with the command of the Lord. ²¹ Other times, the cloud would hover from evening until morning, and then the cloud would be lifted up in the morning. They would then journey out. Whether it was by day or by night that the cloud lifted off, it was then that they would journey out. ²² Whether it was two days or a month or a year that the cloud hovered over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would remain where they were. When it was lifted up, then they would journey out. ²³ At the command of the Lord, they stayed where they were and at the command of the Lord they journeyed out. They observed the bidding of the Lord,^[e] in accordance with the commands of the Lord received through Moses.

Chapter 10

Sounding the Trumpets. ¹ The Lord said to Moses, ² “Make two trumpets for yourself. Make them from hammered silver. Use them for summoning the assembly and for breaking camp. ³ When they are sounded, the whole assembly will gather before you at the entrance to the tent of meeting. ⁴ If only one is sounded, the leaders, the heads of the clans of Israel, are to assemble before you. ⁵ When the advance is sounded, the camps that lie on the east side will set out. ⁶ With the second blast of the trumpet, the camps that lie to the south side will set out. The trumpet blast will signal their setting out. ⁷ To gather together the assembly, sound the trumpets but not with the same signal.

⁸ “The sons of Aaron, the priests, will sound the trumpets. This is to be an everlasting ordinance throughout all your generations. ⁹ When you go into battle against an enemy who is oppressing you in your own land, sound a blast on the trumpets. Then you will be remembered by the Lord, your God, and you will be saved. ¹⁰ Also, at times of rejoicing, your solemn feasts and your new moon celebrations, you are to sound the trumpets over the burnt offerings and the peace offerings. They will be a memorial for you to your God. I am the Lord, your God.”

Forty Years in the Wilderness^[f]

¹¹ Departure from Sinai.^[g]On the twentieth day of the second month of the second year, the cloud was lifted up from the tabernacle of the Testimony. ¹² The people of Israel set out from the Sinai Desert and traveled until the cloud came to rest in the Desert of Paran.^[h]

¹³ They set out this first time in accord with the command of the Lord received through Moses. ¹⁴ The standard of the camp of the tribe of Judah went out first by their companies. Nahshon, the son of Amminadab, was leader of its company. ¹⁵ Nethanel, the son of Zuar, was the leader of the company of the tribe of Issachar. ¹⁶ Eliab, the son of Helon, was the leader of the company of the tribe of Zebulun. ¹⁷ The tabernacle was then taken down, and the Gershonites and the Merarites who carried the tabernacle set out. ¹⁸ The standard of the camp of the tribe of Reuben set forth next. Elizur, the son of Shedeur, was the leader of its company. ¹⁹ Shelumiel, the son of Zurishaddai, was the leader of the company of the tribe of Simeon. ²⁰ Eliasaph, the son of Reuel, was the leader of the company of the tribe of Gad. ²¹ Then the Kohathites set forth carrying the sanctuary. The tabernacle was to be set up when they arrived. ²² The standard of the camp of the tribe of Ephraim came next. Elishama, the son of Ammihud, was the leader of its company. ²³ Gamaliel, the son of Pedahzur, was the leader of the company of the tribe of Manasseh. ²⁴ Abidan, the son of Gideoni, was the leader of the company of the tribe of Benjamin.

²⁵ Finally, behind all of the other camps, the standard of the camp of the tribe of Dan set out. Ahiezer, the son of Ammishaddai, was the leader of its company. ²⁶ Pagiel, the son of Ochran, was the leader of the company of the tribe of Asher. ²⁷ Ahira, the son of Enan, was the leader of the company of the tribe of Naphtali. ²⁸ This was the order of the companies of the people of Israel as they set out.

²⁹ Plea to Hobab. Moses said to Hobab, the son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses’ father-in-law, “We are setting out for the place that the Lord said, ‘I will give it to you.’ Come with us and we will treat you well, for the Lord has promised good things to Israel.” ³⁰ But he said to him, “I will not go, rather I will leave for my own land and my own people.” ³¹ But he said, “Please do not leave us. You know where we should camp in the desert, and you could look out for us. ³² If you come with us, then whatever good things the Lord bestows upon us, we will share them with you.”

³³ Into the Wilderness. They traveled a three days’ journey from the mountain of the Lord, and the Ark of the Covenant went before them throughout the three days’ journey, searching out a resting place for them. ³⁴ The cloud of the Lord was over them by day when they set out from the camp. ³⁵ Whenever the Ark set forth, Moses would say,