Beginning

Chapter 18

Sanctuary and Altar Duties. ¹ The Lord said to Aaron, “You and your sons and your family with you will bear guilt for offenses against the sanctuary, while you and your sons will bear guilt for offenses against your priesthood. ² Bring your brothers from the Levites, your ancestral tribe, with you. Let them join with you and serve you when you and your sons are before the tent of Testimony. ³ They will attend to your duties and all the duties of the tent, but they must not come near the vessels of the sanctuary or the altar, lest they die and you also die. ⁴ They will join you and attend to the duties of the tent of meeting, for every service in the tabernacle. Let no one else approach you.

⁵ “You will attend to the duties of the sanctuary and the duties of the altar so that no wrath come upon the people of Israel. ⁶ It is I, myself, who have selected your brothers, the Levites, from among the people of Israel as a gift to you, dedicated to the Lord, to serve in the tent of meeting. ⁷ Only you and your sons can serve as priests for everything concerning the altar and whatever is inside the veil, and you will serve. I am giving you the service of the priesthood as a gift. Anyone else who comes near will be put to death.”^[a]

Priests’ Share of Offerings. ⁸ The Lord spoke to Aaron: “I have given you responsibility over all my offerings, over all the sacred things of the people of Israel. I have given these things to you and your sons as a portion, a perpetual allotment. ⁹ This shall be yours from among the most holy things dedicated by fire: all of their oblations, all of their cereal offerings, all of their sin offerings and all of their guilt offerings. These things that they offer to me will be most holy to you and your sons. ¹⁰ You will eat it in a Most Holy Place. Every male will eat it. It will be holy for you.

¹¹ “This also is yours: the offering of their gifts along with the wave offerings of the people of Israel. I have given them to you and your sons and daughters as your portion forever. Everyone who is pure in your household can eat it. ¹² I have given to you all of the best of the oil and the best of the wine and of the wheat and their firstfruits that they offer to the Lord. ¹³ The first ripe fruits of all that is in the land that they bring to the Lord shall be yours. Everyone who is pure in your household can eat it.

¹⁴ “Everything that is dedicated^[b] to the Lord will be yours. ¹⁵ Everything that opens the womb of all flesh that they bring to the Lord, whether man or beast, shall be yours. Nevertheless, you will redeem the firstborn son and you will redeem the firstborn male of impure animals. ¹⁶ When they are a month old, you shall redeem them at the redemption price of five shekels of silver, calculated according to the shekel of the sanctuary, which weighs twenty gerahs. ¹⁷ You are not to redeem the firstborn of the cattle or the firstborn of the sheep or the firstborn of the goats, for they are holy. Sprinkle their blood upon the altar and burn their fat as an offering made by fire, a pleasing fragrance to the Lord. ¹⁸ Their meat shall be yours, as well as the breast of the wave offering and the right thigh. These are yours. ¹⁹ All of the offerings of the holy things that the people of Israel bring to the Lord, I have given them to you and your sons and your daughters with you as an ordinance forever. This is a covenant of salt forever between the Lord and you and your descendants with you.”^[c]

²⁰ The Lord spoke to Aaron, “You will have no inheritance in their land, nor will you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the people of Israel.

²¹ Tithes Owed to the Levites.“I give the Levites all the tithes in Israel, an inheritance for the work that they perform in serving in the tent of meeting. ²² From now on the people of Israel must not approach the tent of meeting lest they sin and die. ²³ The Levites will do the work of the tent of meeting. They will bear responsibility for offenses against it. This is an everlasting ordinance for all your generations. They will receive no inheritance from among the people of Israel. ²⁴ I have given the Levites an inheritance of the tithes that the people of Israel present as an offering to the Lord. This is why I have said to them, ‘They will have no inheritance among the people of Israel.’ ”

²⁵ Tithes Paid by the Levites.^[d] The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²⁶ “Speak to the Levites and say to them, ‘When you receive a tithe from the people of Israel which I give you as an inheritance, you are to present a tithe of the tithe as the Lord’s offering. ²⁷ Your offering will be reckoned to you as grain from the threshing floor or as produce from the winepress. ²⁸ You shall present an offering to the Lord from all your tithes that you receive from the people of Israel; you will give the Lord’s offering to Aaron the priest from them. ²⁹ The Lord’s offering will come from the best and the holiest portion of all the gifts that you offer up.’ ³⁰ Therefore, you will say to them, ‘When you have lifted up the best of it, the rest will be apportioned to the Levites as the produce of the threshing floor and the produce of the winepress. ³¹ You can eat it anywhere, you and your households, as your reward for your service in the tent of meeting. ³² You will bear no guilt in this when you offer up the best of it, nor will you defile the holy gifts of Israel, lest you die.’ ”

Chapter 19

The Red Heifer. ¹ The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, ² “This is a statute of the law which the Lord has commanded saying, ‘Tell the people of Israel to bring you an unblemished red heifer that has no defect and upon which a yoke has never been placed. ³ You will give it to Eleazar the priest. Take it outside of the camp and slaughter it in front of him. ⁴ Eleazar the priest is to dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle its blood seven times directly in front of the tent of meeting. ⁵ Then the heifer will be burned before him; its skin, its meat, its blood, and its dung will be burned. ⁶ The priest is to take cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet wool and throw them upon the burning heifer. ⁷ The priest is then to wash his clothes and bathe himself. He can then enter the camp, but he will be unclean until the evening. ⁸ The man who burns it must also wash his clothes in water and bathe in water, but he, too, will be unclean until the evening. ⁹ A man who is clean is to gather up the ashes from the heifer and place them in a clean place outside of the camp. They will be kept by the assembly of the people of Israel for the water of purification, for removal of sin. ¹⁰ The man who gathers the ashes of the heifer will wash his clothes, and he will be unclean until the evening. This is the way it will be for the people of Israel and the foreigner dwelling among them, a statute forever.

¹¹ Water of Purification.“ ‘Whoever touches a person’s dead body will be unclean for seven days. ¹² He will purify himself with the water on the third day, and on the seventh day he will be clean; but if he does not cleanse himself on the third day, then he will not be clean on the seventh day. ¹³ Whoever touches a dead body, the body of someone who died and then does not purify himself defiles the tabernacle of the Lord. That person shall be cut off from Israel. He will be unclean because the water of purification was not sprinkled upon him; he will be unclean.

¹⁴ “ ‘This is the law for when a man dies inside of a tent. Everyone who comes inside the tent and everything that is in the tent will be unclean for seven days. ¹⁵ Every open uncovered container will be unclean. ¹⁶ Anyone who is out in the open fields and touches someone who has been killed with a sword, or a dead body, or a bone of a person, or a grave, that person will be unclean for seven days.

^17 [e]“ ‘For the unclean, take the ashes from the burnt purification from sin and put them into a vessel and pour fresh water over them. ¹⁸ Then a person who is clean will dip hyssop into the water and sprinkle it upon the tent and upon its belongings and upon all the people who were there, upon anyone who touched a bone, or a person who was killed, or a dead body, or a grave. ¹⁹ The clean person will sprinkle the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day. On the seventh day he will purify himself. He will wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and then he will be clean in the evening. ²⁰ But the man who is unclean and does not purify himself will be cut off from the assembly because he has defiled the sanctuary of the Lord. The water of purification was not sprinkled upon him and he is unclean. ²¹ It will be an everlasting statute that the one who sprinkles the water of purification will wash his clothes. The one who touches the water of purification will be unclean until the evening. ²² Whatever the unclean person touches will be unclean, and the person who touches it will be unclean until the evening.’ ”

Chapter 20

Death of Miriam.^{[f] 1} The people of Israel, the whole assembly, came into the Desert of Zin in the first month,^[g] and the people stayed in Kadesh. It was there that Miriam died and was buried.

The Need for Water. ² The community had no water, and they gathered together against Moses and Aaron. ³ They argued with Moses and said, “Would that we would have died when our brothers fell before the Lord. ⁴ Why have you brought the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness so that we die here, both we and our cattle? ⁵ Why have you made us come out of Egypt to this evil place? It has no grain, or figs, or vines, or pomegranates. There is no water to drink!”

Moses and Aaron Sin. ⁶ Moses and Aaron went from in front of the assembly to the entrance of the tent of meeting. They fell upon their faces, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them.

⁷ The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ⁸ “Take the staff, and you and Aaron your brother are to gather the assembly together. Speak to the rock in their sight and it will pour forth water. You will bring forth water from the rock for the assembly and their animals to drink.”

⁹ Moses took the staff from before the Lord, as he had been commanded. ¹⁰ Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels! Must we bring forth water out of this rock for you?” ^11 [h]Then Moses lifted up his arm and he struck the rock with his staff twice. Water came gushing out, and the community and their animals drank.

¹² But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you have not trusted and hallowed me in the eyes of the people of Israel, you will not lead this community into the land that I have given them. ¹³ This is the water of Meribah, because the people of Israel quarreled with the Lord, and he showed himself to be bold among them.”^[i]

¹⁴ Israel Denied Passage.^[j] Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom saying, “Thus says Israel, your brother, ‘You know all the hardships that have come upon us. ¹⁵ Our ancestors went down to Egypt and lived there for many years. The Egyptians mistreated us and our fathers. ¹⁶ When we cried out, he heard our voice and sent an angel to bring us out of Egypt. We are now in Kadesh, a town at the edge of your territory. ¹⁷ Please, let us pass through your land. We will not walk through the vineyards nor drink from the wells. We will pass along the King’s Highway, and we will not turn to the right nor to the left until we have crossed over your borders.’ ”

¹⁸ But Edom said, “You will not pass through. Otherwise, I will come out against you with the sword.”

¹⁹ The people of Israel replied, “We will go along the main road. If my cattle drink from your water, I will pay for it. Only let me pass through on foot, nothing else.” ²⁰ But he said, “You will not pass through.” Edom came out against the people with a great and powerful force. ²¹ Since Edom refused to let Israel pass through its territory, Israel turned away from it.

²² The Death of Aaron. When they left Kadesh, the whole assembly of the people of Israel came to Mount Hor. ²³ The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron at Mount Hor near the border of Edom and said, ²⁴ “Aaron is going to be gathered to his people.^[k] He will not enter the land that I have promised to the people of Israel because you disobeyed my command at the waters of Meribah. ²⁵ Take Aaron and his son Eleazar up Mount Hor. ²⁶ Take Aaron’s garments off and put them on Eleazar, his son. Aaron is to be gathered to his people; he will die there.”

²⁷ So Moses did as the Lord had commanded. They went up Mount Hor in the sight of the assembly. ²⁸ Moses removed Aaron’s garments and he put them upon Eleazar, his son. Aaron died on top of the mountain, and Moses and Eleazar then came down the mountain. ²⁹ The whole assembly learned that Aaron had died. The whole house of Israel mourned for Aaron for thirty days.