Beginning

18 ¶ And the LORD said unto Aaron, Thou and thy sons and thy father’s house with thee shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary; and thou and thy sons with thee shall bear the iniquity of your priesthood.

² And thy brethren also of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of thy father, bring thou with thee, that they may be joined unto thee and serve thee; but thou and thy sons with thee shall serve before the tabernacle of the testimony.

³ And they shall keep thy charge, and the charge of all the tabernacle; only they shall not come near the holy vessels or the altar, that neither they, nor ye also, die.

⁴ And they shall join themselves unto thee and keep the charge of the tabernacle of the testimony in all the service of the tabernacle; and no stranger shall come near unto you.

⁵ And ye shall have the charge of the sanctuary and the charge of the altar, that there be no more wrath upon the sons of Israel.

⁶ For behold, I have taken your brethren the Levites from among the sons of Israel, given unto you as a gift of the LORD, to serve in the ministry of the tabernacle of the testimony.

⁷ Therefore thou and thy sons with thee shall keep your priesthood for every thing of the altar and within the veil, and ye shall minister; for I have given the service of your priesthood as a gift, and the stranger that comes near shall die.

⁸ ¶ The LORD spoke further unto Aaron, Behold, I also have given thee the charge of my offerings; all the dedicated things of the sons of Israel I have given unto thee by reason of the anointing, and to thy sons, by a perpetual statute.

⁹ This shall be thine of the holy things, reserved from the fire: every offering of theirs, every present of theirs, and every offering that represents their sin, and every offering that represents their guilt, which they shall render unto me, shall be most holy for thee and for thy sons.

¹⁰ In the sanctuary shalt thou eat it; every male shall eat it; it shall be holy unto thee.

¹¹ This also shall be thine: the heave offering of their gifts. All the wave offerings of the sons of Israel, I have given them unto thee and to thy sons and to thy daughters with thee, by a statute for ever; everyone that is clean in thy house shall eat of it.

¹² All the best of the oil and all the best of the wine and of the wheat, the firstfruits of this, which they shall present unto the LORD, this have I given thee.

¹³ The firstfruits of theirs of all the things of the land, which they shall bring unto the LORD, shall be thine; everyone that is clean in thy house shall eat of it.

¹⁴ Every anathema in Israel shall be thine.

¹⁵ Every thing that opens the womb in all flesh, which they shall offer unto the LORD, whether it is of men or animals, shall be thine; nevertheless the firstborn of man shalt thou surely ransom, and the firstborn of unclean animals shalt thou ransom.

¹⁶ And from a month old shalt thou effect their ransom, a ransom according to thine estimation, for the price of five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs.

¹⁷ But the firstborn of a cow, or the firstborn of a sheep, or the firstborn of a goat, thou shalt not ransom; they are sanctified; thou shalt sprinkle their blood upon the altar and shalt burn their fat for an offering on fire, for an acceptable savour unto the LORD.

¹⁸ And the flesh shall be thine, as the wave breast and as the right shoulder shall be thine.

¹⁹ All the heave offerings of the holy things, which the sons of Israel offer unto the LORD, I have given for thee and for thy sons and for thy daughters with thee, by a perpetual statute; it is a covenant of salt for ever before the LORD for thee and for thy seed with thee.

²⁰ ¶ And the LORD spoke unto Aaron, Thou shalt have no inheritance in their land, neither shalt thou have any part among them. I am thy part and thine inheritance among the sons of Israel.

²¹ And, behold, I have given the sons of Levi all the tithes in Israel for an inheritance, for their ministry because they serve in the ministry of the tabernacle of the testimony.

²² Neither must the sons of Israel from now on come near the tabernacle of the testimony lest they bear sin and die because of it.

²³ But the Levites shall do the service of the tabernacle of the testimony, and they shall bear their iniquity by a perpetual statute throughout your ages, and they shall not possess an inheritance among the sons of Israel.

²⁴ For unto the Levites I have given the tithes of the sons of Israel as inheritance, which they shall offer unto the LORD as offerings; therefore, I have said unto them, Among the sons of Israel they shall possess no inheritance.

²⁵ And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying,

²⁶ Thus shalt thou speak unto the Levites and say unto them, When ye take the tithes from the sons of Israel which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then ye shall present a tithe of the tithes as an offering unto the LORD.

²⁷ And ye shall count your offering as though it were the grain of the threshingfloor and as the fullness of the winepress.

²⁸ Thus ye also shall offer an offering unto the LORD of all your tithes, which ye shall have received of the sons of Israel; and ye shall give of them an offering unto the LORD, to Aaron the priest.

²⁹ Out of all your gifts ye shall offer every offering unto the LORD, of all the best thereof ye shall offer the portion that is to be dedicated.

³⁰ Therefore thou shalt say unto them, When ye offer the best thereof from it, then it shall be counted unto the Levites as the fruit of the threshingfloor and as the fruit of the winepress.

³¹ And ye shall eat it in any place, ye and your family; for it is your reward for your ministry in the tabernacle of the testimony.

³² And ye shall bear no sin by reason of it, when ye have offered from it the best of it; and ye shall not pollute the holy things of the sons of Israel, and ye shall not die.

19 ¶ And the LORD spoke unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,

² This is the ordinance of the law which the LORD has commanded, saying, Speak unto the sons of Israel that they bring thee a red heifer, perfect, in which there is no blemish, and upon which there has never been placed a yoke;

³ and ye shall give her unto Eleazar, the priest, that he may bring her forth outside the camp, and he shall cause her to be slain in his presence.

⁴ And Eleazar, the priest, shall take of her blood with his finger and sprinkle of her blood directly before the tabernacle of the testimony seven times;

⁵ and he shall cause the heifer to be burnt in his sight; her skin and her flesh and her blood with her dung shall he cause to burn.

⁶ Then the priest shall take cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet and cast it into the midst of the burning of the heifer.

⁷ Then the priest shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp, and the priest shall be unclean until the evening.

⁸ Likewise he that burns her shall wash his clothes in water and bathe his flesh in water and shall be unclean until the evening.

⁹ And a man that is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and lay them up outside the camp in a clean place, and it shall be kept for the congregation of the sons of Israel for the water of separation; it is sin.

¹⁰ And he that gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes and be unclean until the evening; and it shall be unto the sons of Israel and unto the stranger that sojourns among them for a perpetual statute.

¹¹ ¶ He that touches the dead body of any human person shall be unclean seven days.

¹² They shall remove the sin from themselves with that water on the third day, and on the seventh day they shall be clean; but if they do not remove the sin from themselves the third day, then the seventh day they shall not be clean.

¹³ Whoever touches the dead body of anyone that is dead and does not remove the sin has defiled the tabernacle of the LORD; and that person shall be cut off from Israel; because the water of separation was not sprinkled upon him, he shall be unclean, and his uncleanness shall be upon him.

¹⁴ This is the law when anyone dies in a tent; all that come into the tent and all that are in the tent shall be unclean seven days.

¹⁵ And every open vessel which has no lid fastened upon it shall be unclean.

¹⁶ And whoever touches one that is slain with a sword in the open fields or a dead body or a human bone or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.

¹⁷ And for the unclean person they shall take of the dust of the heifer that was burnt as sin and put living water over it in a vessel;

¹⁸ and a clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in the water and sprinkle it upon the tent and upon all the stuff and upon the persons that were there and upon the one that touched the bone or the one slain or the one dead or the grave.

¹⁹ And the clean person shall sprinkle upon the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day; and when he has removed the sin from them the seventh day, he shall then wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and shall be clean in the evening.

²⁰ But the man that shall be unclean and shall not cause the sin to be removed from himself, that person shall be cut off from among the congregation because he has defiled the tabernacle of the LORD; the water of separation has not been sprinkled upon him; he is unclean.

²¹ And it shall be a perpetual statute unto them, also he that sprinkles the water of separation shall wash his clothes; and he that touches the water of separation shall be unclean until evening.

²² And whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean; and the person that touches it shall be unclean until evening.

20 ¶ Then came the sons of Israel, even the whole congregation, into the desert of Zin in the first month; and the people abode in Kadesh; and Miriam died there and was buried there.

² And there was no water for the congregation; and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron.

³ And the people contended with Moses and spoke, saying, Oh, that we had died when our brethren died before the LORD!

⁴ And why have ye caused the congregation of the LORD to come into this wilderness that we and our beasts should die here?

⁵ And why have ye made us to come up out of Egypt to bring us in unto this evil place? It is not a place to plant seed or of figs or of vines or of pomegranates; there is not even any water to drink.

⁶ And Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the congregation unto the door of the tabernacle of the testimony, and they fell upon their faces; and the glory of the LORD appeared upon them.

⁷ And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying,

⁸ Take the rod and gather the congregation together, thou and Aaron, thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes, and it shall give forth its water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock; so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink.

⁹ Then Moses took the rod from before the LORD as he commanded him.

¹⁰ And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?

¹¹ Then Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice; and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.

¹² And the LORD spoke unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the sons of Israel, therefore, ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.

¹³ These are the waters of Meribah; over which the sons of Israel strove with the LORD, and he was sanctified in them.

¹⁴ ¶ And Moses sent ambassadors from Kadesh unto the king of Edom, Thus saith thy brother Israel, Thou knowest all the travail that has befallen us:

¹⁵ how our fathers went down into Egypt, and we were in Egypt a long time; and the Egyptians mistreated us and our fathers;

¹⁶ and we cried unto the LORD, who heard our voice, and sent an angel and has brought us forth out of Egypt; and, behold, we are in Kadesh, a city on the edge of thy border.

¹⁷ Let us pass, I pray thee, through thy country; we will not pass through the fields or through the vineyards, neither will we drink of the water of the wells; we will go by the king’s high way, we will not turn to the right hand nor to the left until we have passed thy borders.

¹⁸ And Edom replied unto him, Thou shalt not pass by me lest I come out against thee with the sword.

¹⁹ And the sons of Israel said unto him, We will go by the high way; and if I and my cattle drink of thy water, then I will pay for it; I will only, without doing anything else, go through on my feet.

²⁰ And he said, Thou shalt not go through. And Edom came out against him with many people and with a strong hand.

²¹ Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border; and thus Israel turned away from him.

²² ¶ And the sons of Israel, even the whole congregation, journeyed from Kadesh, and came unto Mount Hor.

²³ And the LORD spoke unto Moses and Aaron in Mount Hor, on the borders of the land of Edom, saying,

²⁴ Aaron shall be gathered unto his peoples; for he shall not enter into the land which I have given unto the sons of Israel because ye were rebels to my word at the water of Meribah.

²⁵ Take Aaron and Eleazar, his son, and bring them up unto Mount Hor

²⁶ and cause Aaron to be stripped of his garments and put them upon Eleazar, his son; for Aaron shall be gathered unto his people and shall die there.

²⁷ And Moses did as the LORD commanded him; and they went up into Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation.

²⁸ And Moses caused Aaron to be stripped of his garments and put them upon Eleazar, his son; and Aaron died there in the top of the mount; and Moses and Eleazar came down from the mount.

²⁹ And when all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead, they mourned for Aaron thirty days, even all the families of Israel.