Bible in 90 Days

¹⁵ Then after that the Levites can go in to work in the Tent of Meeting. But you must make them clean and you must bring them to me as a special gift. ¹⁶ That is because all the Levites among the Israelites are mine. All the Israelites' firstborn sons are mine. But I have taken the Levites for myself instead. ¹⁷ Every firstborn son among the Israelites is mine. And all the firstborn male animals are mine too. On the day that I killed all the firstborn sons in Egypt I made them special for myself. ¹⁸ But now I have not taken all the firstborn sons among the Israelites. I have taken the Levites instead. ¹⁹ And I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and to his sons from among the Israelites. They will work at the Tent of Meeting on behalf of the Israelites. And they will make peace with me on behalf of the Israelites. So there will not be a bad disease among the Israelites when they go near to God's Holy Tent.’

²⁰ So Moses and Aaron and all the Israelites did those things to the Levites. The Israelites did everything that the Lord had said to Moses about the Levites. ²¹ The Levites, too, made themselves clean and they washed their clothes. And Aaron brought them in front of Lord as a special gift. Aaron also burnt sacrifices to make them clean. ²² After that, the Levites went in to do their work in the Tent of Meeting. They helped Aaron and his sons. The Israelites did everything with the Levites that the Lord had said to Moses about them.

²³ Then the Lord spoke to Moses again and he said, ²⁴ ‘These are the rules about the Levites: The men who are 25 years old or older must go in to work in the Tent of Meeting. ²⁵ But they must stop that work when they are 50 years old. And they must not do that work after that. ²⁶ But they can help the other Levites in the Tent of Meeting. They can help them to do their jobs. But they themselves must not have any jobs. Those are the rules about the Levites and about their jobs.’

The Passover feast

9 The Lord spoke to Moses in the Sinai desert. The Israelites had left Egypt. It was the second year after the Israelites had left that country. It was the first month during that year. The Lord said, ² ‘The Israelites must eat the Passover meal at the proper time. They must eat it as the rules about it say. ³ The proper time is during the evening of the 14th day of this month. It is when it starts to become dark. That is when you must eat it. You must obey all its rules and its laws.’

⁴ So Moses told the Israelites that they should eat the Passover. ⁵ So they ate the Passover in the first month, on the 14th day when it started to become dark. That was in the Sinai desert. The Israelites did everything that the Lord had said to Moses about it.

⁶ But there were some people who were not clean. That was because they had touched a dead body. So they could not eat the Passover on that day. So they came to Moses and Aaron on that day. ⁷ And those people said to Moses, ‘We are not clean because of the dead body that we touched. But we would like to bring our gift to the Lord at the proper time with the other Israelites.’

⁸ So Moses said to them, ‘Wait here. Then I will ask the Lord about this.’

⁹ Then the Lord said to Moses, ¹⁰ ‘Say to the Israelites, “Anyone among you or your descendants may become not clean because of a dead body. Or they may be away because they are travelling. They can still eat the Passover meal to thank the Lord. ¹¹ They must eat it during the evening of the 14th day of the second month. They must eat it when it starts to become dark. They must eat it with bread and with bitter herbs. The bread must not have yeast in it. ¹² They must not keep any of the food until the next morning. And they must not break any of the bones of the lamb. And they must obey all the rules about the Passover. ¹³ But perhaps a clean person who is at home chooses not to eat the Passover meal. You must make that person separate from his people. That is because he did not offer the proper sacrifices to the Lord at the proper time. So that person must receive the punishment for his sin.

¹⁴ People from foreign countries may also eat the Lord's Passover meal, if they are living among you. But they must obey all the rules about the Passover festival. The rules are the same for a foreign person and for an Israelite.” ’

The cloud above the Tent of Meeting

¹⁵ On the day that Moses put up the Tent of Meeting, a cloud covered it. In the evening it became something like a fire over the Tent, until morning. ¹⁶ It was like that all the time. The cloud covered it during the day. But at night, the cloud seemed to have fire in it. ¹⁷ When the cloud went up from God's Tent, the Israelites started to travel. And when the cloud came down, the Israelites made their camp in that place. ¹⁸ The Lord decided when the Israelites should start to travel. And the Lord decided where they should stop and make their camp. During all the time that the cloud was over the tabernacle, they stayed in their camp. ¹⁹ Even when the cloud stayed over the tabernacle for many days, the Israelites obeyed the Lord. They did not start to travel. ²⁰ Sometimes the cloud stayed over God's Tent for a few days. Then they remained in their camp. When the Lord showed them that they should travel, they started to travel. ²¹ Sometimes the cloud stayed there from evening until morning. But, when the cloud went up in the morning, they started to travel. But sometimes it stayed for one day and one night. Then when the cloud went up, they started to travel again. ²² Sometimes the cloud continued to be over God's Tent for two days or for a month or for a year. It stayed above it. Then, the Israelites stayed in their camp. They did not start to travel. But when it went up, they did start to travel. ²³ The Lord decided when they should make their camp. And the Lord decided when they should start to travel. So they obeyed the Lord about everything that the Lord said to Moses.

The silver trumpets

10 The Lord said to Moses, ² ‘Make two trumpets from one piece of silver. Use a hammer to make them in the right shape. Make a noise with them to tell the people that they must come together. Also, use the trumpets to tell the people that they must move the camp. ³ When the people hear the sound from both trumpets, all the people must meet you. They must meet you at the door of the Tent of Meeting. ⁴ But you may want only the leaders of Israel's tribes to meet you. If you want that, a priest should make the sound from only one trumpet. ⁵ But when the sound is one short sound, the tribes on the east side of the camp must start to travel. ⁶ When they hear the next short sound, the tribes on the south side of the camp must start to travel. Short sounds from the trumpet will tell the people that they must start to travel. ⁷ But when you want everyone to meet together, make a different sound with the trumpet.

⁸ The priests, the sons of Aaron, must use the trumpets to make a noise. This is a rule for you and for all your descendants. ⁹ Use the trumpets to tell everyone when an enemy is attacking you in your own land. Make a sound with the trumpets to tell the people that they must fight the enemy. Then the Lord your God will hear and he will save you from your enemies. ¹⁰ You must make sounds with the trumpets on your happy days, too. And you must make sounds with the trumpets at your regular festivals and on the first days of your months. And you must make sounds with the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over your friendship offerings. God will hear and he will remember you. I am the Lord your God.’

The Israelites leave the Sinai desert

¹¹ In the second year, in the second month, on the 20th day of the month, the cloud went up. It went away from God's Tent of Meeting. ¹² So the Israelites started to travel on their journey away from the Sinai desert.^[a] Then the cloud stopped in the desert called Paran. ¹³ They started to travel for the first time, in the way that the Lord had told them to do, through Moses.

¹⁴ The flag of the camp of Judah's tribe, started to travel first, with all their armies. And Nahshon the son of Amminadab was over all their armies. ¹⁵ Nethanel, the son of Zuar, was over the army of the tribe of Issachar. ¹⁶ Eliab, the son of Helon, was over the army of the tribe of Zebulun. ¹⁷ Then the Levites packed God's Tent. Then Gershon's clan and Merari's clan, who were carrying God's Tent, started to travel.

¹⁸ Next the flag of the camp of Reuben started to travel, with all their armies. Elizur, the son of Shedeur, was over all their armies. ¹⁹ Shelumiel, the son of Zurishaddai, was over the army of the tribe of Simeon. ²⁰ Eliasaph, the son of Deuel, was over the army of the tribe of Gad. ²¹ Then Kohath's clan started to travel. They were carrying the holy things. Before they arrived at the new camp, the other Levites would put up God's Tent.

²² Next the flag of the camp of the tribe of Ephraim started to travel, with all their armies. Elishama the son of Ammihud was over all their armies. ²³ And Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur was over the army of the tribe of Manasseh. ²⁴ And Abidan the son of Gideoni was over the army of the tribe of Benjamin.

²⁵ Then the flag of the camp of the tribe of Dan started to travel last, with all their armies. They could keep the Israelites safe if an enemy attacked them from behind them. Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai was over all their armies. ²⁶ And Pagiel the son of Ocran was over the army of the tribe of Asher. ²⁷ And Ahira the son of Enan was over the army of the tribe of Naphtali. ²⁸ The Israelites marched out like that every time that they started to travel.

²⁹ Moses spoke to Reuel's son, Hobab. He was the brother of Moses' wife. He was a Midianite. Moses said to Hobab, ‘We are leaving here now to go to another place. The Lord has said to us, “I will give that place to you.” The Lord has promised to help Israel's people with good things. So come with us and we will take care of you.’

³⁰ But Hobab said to him, ‘I will not come. Instead, I will return to my own country and to my family there.’

³¹ Moses said, ‘Please do not leave us. You know good places for us to put up our tents in the desert. So you can be our guide. ³² And if you come with us, we will share with you the good things that the Lord gives to us.’

³³ So the Israelites left the Lord's mountain. They travelled for three days. During that time, the Levites carried the Lord's Covenant Box in front of them. That was so that the Lord could show them where to make their camp. ³⁴ And the Lord's cloud was over them during the day, whenever they started to travel from the camp.

³⁵ Each time that the Covenant Box started to travel Moses said, ‘Be ready, Lord! Cause your enemies to run away in every direction!’ ³⁶ When they stopped travelling, Moses said, ‘Return, Lord, to be near to the thousands of Israel's people.’

The people complain

11 But the people started to complain about their problems.^[b] The Lord heard them and he became very angry. He sent fire. The Lord sent his fire to burn among them. It destroyed some parts of the camp at the edge. ² So the people asked Moses to help them. And Moses prayed to the Lord, and the fire stopped. ³ So that place was called Taberah, because the Lord's fire burned among them there.

⁴ Some foreign people were travelling with the Israelites.^[c] Those people wanted very much to eat better food. So the Israelites wept again. They said, ‘We want meat to eat! ⁵ We remember the fish that we ate in Egypt. We had as much as we wanted. And we remember all the nice vegetables, cucumbers, leeks, onions and garlic. And we remember the melons. ⁶ But now our mouths are dry and we do not want to eat this food. There is not even anything to look at, except this manna.’ ⁷ The manna was like small seeds called coriander. Its colour was yellow and white. ⁸ The people walked about and they picked it up from the ground. They used stones to make it into flour. Or they beat it with a stick. They boiled it in pots, and they made cakes with it. The taste of the cakes was like olive oil. ⁹ At night, dew fell on the ground in the camp. The manna fell with the dew.

¹⁰ People in every family were crying at the doors of their tents. And Moses heard them. The Lord became very angry with the people. Moses too was not happy. ¹¹ So Moses said to the Lord, ‘I am your servant. But you have given this problem to me! It seems that you are not pleased with me. You have given to me the hard job to be leader of all these people. ¹² They are not my children! But you have said to me, “Take care of them like parents take care of their babies. Carry them to the land that I have promised to their ancestors.” ¹³ They are complaining to me. They are saying, “Give us meat that we can eat!” But I cannot get meat to feed all these people! ¹⁴ I cannot be the leader of all these people unless I receive help. This job is too difficult for me. ¹⁵ So if you do not want to help me, please kill me now. I do not want to continue to be so upset. So please be kind to me.’

¹⁶ So the Lord said to Moses, ‘Choose 70 leaders of the Israelites and bring them to the Tent of Meeting. You must know that they are leaders and officers that the people respect. Bring them to stand there with you. ¹⁷ Then I will come down and I will speak with you there. I will take some of the authority of my Spirit that I gave to you. I will share it with them. Then they will help you to lead the people. So you will not be the only man who is doing that job.

¹⁸ Then say to the people, “The Lord heard you when you were weeping. You said, ‘We want someone to give us meat to eat! Life was better when we were in Egypt.’ So the Lord will give you meat and you will eat it. So make yourselves clean for tomorrow, and then you will eat meat. ¹⁹ You will not eat it only for one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or 20 days. ²⁰ You will eat it every day for a whole month! You will hate the smell of it and it will seem disgusting to you. This is because you have turned against the Lord. He is near to you and you have wept in front of him. You have said, ‘We should never have left Egypt.’ ” ’

²¹ Moses said to the Lord, ‘There are 600,000 men here. But you have said, “I will give to them meat to eat for a whole month.” ²² Even if we killed all our sheep and cows, we would not have enough meat for them. If we caught every fish in the sea, we still would not have enough!’

²³ Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Do you think that I, the Lord, do not have enough power to do this? I have promised you to do it. So now you will see me do it!’

²⁴ So Moses went out from God's Tent and he told the people the Lord's message. He chose 70 leaders of the Israelites and he put them round the Tent. ²⁵ Then the Lord came down in the cloud to speak to them. He took some of the authority of his Spirit that he had given to Moses. And he shared it with the 70 leaders. While God's Spirit stayed on them, they prophesied. But they did not do it again after that.

²⁶ But two men had stayed in the camp. Their names were Eldad and Medad. They were among the men that Moses had chosen. But they had not gone to meet with God in the special Tent. God's Spirit also came on them. So they prophesied in the camp. ²⁷ A young man ran to Moses and he said, ‘Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.’

²⁸ Nun's son Joshua was there. Since he was a boy, he had been Moses' servant. Joshua said to Moses, ‘Moses, my master, stop them.’

²⁹ But Moses said to him, ‘Perhaps you think that I might be jealous of them. But I would be happy if the Lord would give his Spirit to all his people. I would like them all to be prophets!’ ³⁰ Then Moses and the leaders returned to the camp.

The Lord sends birds to feed the Israelites

³¹ Then the Lord sent a wind. It blew in birds called quails from the sea. They fell to the ground everywhere round the camp. There were birds everywhere as far as a person could walk in one day in any direction. They were about 1 metre deep all over the ground. ³² The people were picking up the birds all day and all night and all the next day. Each person got at least 220 litres of birds. They put their dead bodies on the ground everywhere round the camp. ³³ But the Lord became very angry with the people. They had not even started to eat the meat when the Lord sent a very bad disease among them.

³⁴ They buried there the bodies of people who had wanted better food. So the people called that place Kibroth-Hattaavah.^[d]

³⁵ From Kibroth-Hattaavah the people travelled to Hazeroth, and they stayed at Hazeroth.

Miriam and Aaron speak against Moses

12 Moses had married a woman who was a descendant of Cush. Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because he had married that woman.^{[e] 2} They said, ‘We do not believe that the Lord has really spoken only by Moses. We believe that he has spoken by us too.’ The Lord heard what they said.

³ Moses was a very humble man. He was the most humble person in the whole world.

⁴ Immediately, the Lord said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, ‘You three people come out to the Tent of Meeting.’ So the three people went there. ⁵ Then the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud. He stood at the door of the tent. He said that Aaron and Miriam should come nearer. They both came nearer. ⁶ Then he said, ‘Listen to my words! If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, will show myself to him in a vision. Or I will speak to him in a dream. ⁷ But it is different when I speak to Moses. He is the one that I trust to lead all my people. ⁸ I speak clearly to him, as I come near to him. I do not say things to him that are hard to understand. He even sees the shape of the Lord. So you should have been afraid to speak against my servant Moses!’

⁹ So the Lord was very angry with Aaron and Miriam and he left them. ¹⁰ But when the cloud had gone away from over the tent, Miriam's skin became white, like snow. She now had the bad disease called leprosy in her skin. Aaron looked at her and he saw that she had leprosy.

¹¹ Then Aaron said to Moses, ‘My master, please do not punish us because we have done this very silly thing. We have done a bad thing. ¹² But do not let Miriam be like a baby that is born dead, with a body that is only half there.’

¹³ So Moses called loudly to the Lord, ‘Please God, make her well again!’ ¹⁴ But the Lord said to Moses, ‘Even if her father had spat on her face, she would have to be ashamed for seven days. So you must keep her outside the camp for seven days. After that you can let her come back inside the camp.’

¹⁵ So Moses kept Miriam outside the camp for seven days. The people did not start to travel again until they had brought Miriam back into the camp again.

¹⁶ After that, the people left Hazeroth. They went to the Paran desert and they put up their tents there.

Moses sends men to explore Canaan

13 Then the Lord said to Moses, ² ‘I will give the land of Canaan to the Israelites. Now you must send men to explore that land. Choose one man from each tribe of your ancestors. Each man must be a leader among his tribe.’

³ So Moses obeyed the Lord's command. He sent the men from the Paran desert into Canaan. Each man was a leader among the Israelites. ⁴ This is a list of their names:

¹⁶ Those are the names of the men that Moses sent to explore the land. Moses changed the name of Hoshea, the son of Nun, to Joshua.^[f]

¹⁷ Moses sent them to explore the land of Canaan. He said to them, ‘Go north from here, through the Negev desert. Then continue to go north, into the place where there are hills. ¹⁸ Look at the land to see what it is like. See whether the people who live there are strong or weak. See whether few people or many people live there. ¹⁹ See whether their land is good or bad. Look at the towns where the people live. See if they have strong walls or they are in the open. ²⁰ See whether the land is able to make good food grow there, or not. See whether there are forests that grow there. Then try to get some fruit from the land and bring it back here.’ (It was the time of year for the first grapes to be ready to eat.)

²¹ So the men went and they explored the land of Canaan. They started in the desert called Zin, and they continued to Rehob, near Lebo-Hamath. ²² When they had gone up through the Negev desert in the south of the land, they arrived at Hebron. That was where Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, were living. They had built Hebron seven years before the Egyptians built Zoan.

²³ Then the men came to the valley called Eshcol. They cut a branch which had one group of grapes on it. It was so large that two men carried it between them on a pole. They also brought some other fruits called pomegranates and figs. ²⁴ They called that valley ‘Eshcol’ because of the large group of grapes that the Israelites cut down there.

²⁵ The men returned after they had explored the land for 40 days.

The men bring news to Moses

²⁶ The men came back to Kadesh in the Paran desert. They brought their message to Moses and Aaron and to all the Israelites there. They told them all about the land of Canaan and they showed its fruit to them. ²⁷ They said to Moses, ‘We went to look at the land where you sent us. It is certainly a land where there is plenty of food and drink, enough for everyone. This is some of its fruit. ²⁸ But the people who live in the land are strong. Their towns are very big, and strong walls keep them safe. Also, we saw some descendants of Anak there. ²⁹ The Amalekites are living in Negev, the land in the south of the country. The Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hills. And the Canaanites live by the sea and by the edge of Jordan River.’

³⁰ Then Caleb stood in front of Moses and he told the Israelites to be quiet. He said, ‘We should go into the land and get power over it. We will certainly be able to do it!’

³¹ But the men who had gone into Canaan with him said, ‘These people are stronger than we are. So we cannot go and fight against them.’ ³² Those men gave to the Israelites a bad report about the land that they had explored. They said, ‘We went through that whole land and we explored it. The land seems to eat the people who live there! All the people that we saw there were very big and strong. ³³ We also saw descendants of the Nephilites there. And we felt like very small insects when we looked at them. And we seemed like very small insects to them too.’ (The descendants of Anak are also descendants of the Nephilites.)^[g]

The people turn against Moses

14 Then all the people started to weep loudly. And they cried all night. ² All the Israelites spoke bad words against Moses and Aaron. All the people said to them, ‘We would rather have died in Egypt, or even in this desert! ³ Why has the Lord brought us into this land? Its people will kill us all with swords. They will take our wives and our children for themselves. We think that it would be better for us to return to Egypt.’ ⁴ So they said to each other, ‘We should choose a new leader instead of Moses. Then we should return to Egypt.’

⁵ Then Moses and Aaron threw themselves on the ground in front of the whole group of the Israelites. ⁶ Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, were two of the men who had explored the land. They were very upset and they tore their clothes.^{[h] 7} Joshua and Caleb said to all the Israelites, ‘The land that we travelled through to explore is a very good land. ⁸ If the Lord is happy with us, he will bring us into this land. And he will give it to us. In that land there is plenty of food and drink, enough for everyone. ⁹ But do not refuse to obey the Lord. Do not be afraid of the people in that land. They are ready for us to fight against them and win! They have no place to hide! The Lord is with us to help us. So do not be afraid of them.’

¹⁰ Then all the people wanted to throw stones at Joshua and Caleb to kill them. But the glory of the Lord appeared over the Tent of Meeting. All the Israelites could see that.

¹¹ The Lord said to Moses, ‘These people continue to turn away from me. I did great miracles to show them my power. But still they will not trust me. ¹² I will send a disease to kill them. They will not get any of the good things that I wanted to give to them. Then I will make you, Moses, the ancestor of a nation greater and more powerful than they are.’

¹³ Moses said to the Lord, ‘Please do not do that! You used your great power to bring these people out of Egypt. If you destroy them, the Egyptians will hear about it. ¹⁴ Then they will tell the people who live in this land about it. They know that you, Lord, are among your people. They know that you meet with your people. They know that your cloud stays over them. They know that you lead them as a pillar of cloud during the day and as a pillar of fire during the night. ¹⁵ The people in other nations have heard of your power. So now, if you kill all your people together, the people in those nations will say, ¹⁶ “The Lord could not bring those people into the land that he had seriously promised to give to them. So he killed all of them in the desert.”

¹⁷ But now, I pray that you will show how powerful you are. You yourself have said, ¹⁸ “The Lord does not quickly become angry. His faithful love for his people continues for ever. He forgives people when they turn against him and they do bad things. But if someone is guilty, he surely punishes them. And he punishes their children, their grandchildren and their grandchildren's children.”

¹⁹ So please forgive the very bad thing that these people have done. Do that because your faithful love is so great. You have forgiven these people since they left Egypt until now. So please be kind and forgive them again now.’

²⁰ Then the Lord said, ‘I have forgiven them as you asked me to do. ²¹ As surely as I live, and all the earth will be full of my glory, I tell you this. ²² All these people have seen my glory. They have seen the miracles that I did in Egypt and in the desert. But they have tested me many times now to see if I would punish them. They still do not obey me. ²³ So I tell you, none of them will ever see the land that I promised to give to their ancestors. None of those men who did not trust me will see that place. ²⁴ But my servant Caleb has thought differently, and he has obeyed me completely. So I will bring him into the land that he explored. It will belong to his descendants. ²⁵ The Amalekites and the Canaanites live in the valleys now. So tomorrow you must turn back. You must travel through the desert towards the Red Sea.’

²⁶ The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ²⁷ ‘These evil people have complained against me too many times! I have heard the bad things that the Israelites have said against me. ²⁸ Tell them this: “I, the Lord, have heard your words. I promise you, as surely as I live, I will certainly do to you as you have said. ²⁹ Your dead bodies will fall to the ground in this desert. All the men that Moses counted will die. Those were the men who were 20 years old or older when he counted them. They complained against me and now they will die in this desert. ³⁰ None of them will go into the land that I promised to give to you to live in. The only men who will go in are Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, the son of Nun. ³¹ You said that the people in Canaan would take your children to be their slaves. But I will bring those children into the land. You did not want that land for yourselves, but now it will belong to your children. ³² But as for you, your dead bodies will fall to the ground in this desert. ³³ Your children will be shepherds in the desert for 40 years. Because you did not trust me, your children will have trouble. That will continue until all your dead bodies are lying in the desert. ³⁴ You explored the land of Canaan for 40 days. Now you will have trouble for 40 years, because of your sins. Each day becomes one year! You will know that I am not with you, but I am against you. ³⁵ I, the Lord, have spoken! I will certainly do all these things to punish these evil people. That is because they have all joined together to speak against me. In this desert they will die. Yes, that will be the end of them!” ’

^36-37 The men who had given a bad report to the people about the land of Canaan died immediately. Moses had sent them to explore the land, but they had caused all the people to turn against the Lord. So the Lord sent a bad disease to kill those men. ³⁸ Only two men who had gone to explore the land did not die. They were Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh.

³⁹ When Moses gave God's message to all the Israelites, the people were very sad. ⁴⁰ But the next morning, they got up early. They went up to the top of the hills near there. They said, ‘We have certainly done a bad thing. But now we are ready! We will go to the place that the Lord has promised to give to us.’

⁴¹ But Moses said, ‘You are still not obeying the Lord's command. Why is that? It will not happen as you want. ⁴² Do not go into that land. The Lord is not with you. So your enemies will win against you. ⁴³ The Amalekites and the Canaanites will be there in front of you. They will kill you with their swords. That will happen because you have refused to obey the Lord. So the Lord will not be with you to help you.’

⁴⁴ But the people did not listen to Moses. Moses and the Lord's Covenant Box stayed in the camp. But still the men went up to the top of the hills. ⁴⁵ Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in those hills ran down. They attacked the Israelite men and they chased them to Hormah.^[i]

Rules about sacrifices

15 The Lord said to Moses, ² ‘Say to the Israelites, “You will go into the land that I am giving to you. ³ When you are living there, you can sacrifice bulls, male sheep or goats to the Lord. You will burn them on the altar as a burnt offering. You may offer special sacrifices to the Lord when you have promised to do it. Or you may offer sacrifices because you choose to do it. Also, you will give sacrifices during your regular festivals. The smell of these sacrifices as they burn will please the Lord. ⁴ The person who gives the gift to the Lord must also give a gift of flour. He must mix the flour with oil. It should be 1 kilogram of your best flour. Mix this flour with 1 litre of olive oil. ⁵ You must also give 1 litre of wine for each lamb. You must give that as a drink offering with each burnt offering or sacrifice.

⁶ If the animal is a male sheep, you must also offer 2 kilograms of flour. Mix this flour with 1.5 litres of olive oil. ⁷ Also, you must pour 1.5 litres of wine on the altar as a drink offering. The smell of the smoke from this sacrifice will please the Lord.

⁸ A person can give a young bull as a burnt offering. This may be a special sacrifice that he has promised to give to God. Or it may be a friendship offering to the Lord. ⁹ Also, you must offer 3 kilograms of flour. Mix this flour with 2 litres of olive oil. Do that if the bull is a burnt offering, or a friendship offering. Do the same if you offer this sacrifice because of a promise. ¹⁰ Also, you must pour 2 litres of wine on the altar as a drink offering. The smell of this smoke will please the Lord.

¹¹ You must do the same thing for each bull or for each male sheep. And you must do the same thing for each male lamb or for each young goat. ¹² You must do that for every animal that you offer as a gift to God. ¹³ All the Israelites must do that when they burn sacrifices. The smell of them as they burn will please the Lord. ¹⁴ A stranger who is living in your land may want to give a gift by fire to the Lord. He must do the same as you do now, and for all future time. ¹⁵ These rules will be the same for the Israelites and for all foreign people who live with them. These rules are for now and for all future time. Both you and the foreign person must obey the Lord's rules. ¹⁶ There is the same law for you and for the foreign person who is living among you. There is only one set of rules.” ’

¹⁷ The Lord said to Moses, ¹⁸ ‘Tell the Israelites this. I am bringing them into the land of Canaan. After they have gone into it, they must obey my rules. ¹⁹ When they first eat the food from that land, they must give a special offering to the Lord. ²⁰ You must give a cake as a special offering from the first of your flour. You must do it as you give your special gift from your threshing floor. ²¹ From the first of your flour, you must give to the Lord a special offering. And your descendants must continue to do that.

²² The people might not obey a rule that the Lord told Moses about. But they might not know that they are not obeying a rule. ²³ It might be any rule that the Lord gave to you by Moses. ²⁴ Perhaps somebody does not know that they are not obeying one of my rules. When that happens, they must sacrifice a young bull as a burnt offering. The smell of the smoke from this sacrifice will please the Lord. Also, they must give a grain offering, a drink offering and a male goat as a sin offering. ²⁵ Then the priest will make things right with God for all the Israelites. The Lord will forgive them. That is because their sin was a mistake. They have brought their offering, an offering by fire to the Lord. And they have brought their sin offering to the Lord, for their mistake. ²⁶ God will forgive all the Israelites and the foreign people who live among you. That is because your sin was a mistake. And also you offered the proper sacrifices to me.

²⁷ Also, a person may not know that something is a sin. If he does that thing, he must sacrifice a female goat. The goat must be one year old. It will be a sin offering. ²⁸ The priest will bring the gift to the Lord. That is to make things right. Then the Lord will forgive that person who did the sin. The person did not know that he had done a wrong thing. ²⁹ The same rule is for the Israelites and for all the foreign people who live among them. That is when it was a mistake. ³⁰ But a person might do something that he knows to be wrong. He does it because he wants to do it. That person is as bad as someone who insults the Lord. It does not matter whether he is an Israelite or a foreign person. You must make that person separate from all the people. ³¹ That person thought that the Lord's command was not important. He has not obeyed God's rules. So you must make that person completely separate from the people. He is a guilty person.’

A man does not obey the rules for the day of rest

³² When the Israelites were in the desert, a man was picking up sticks on the day of rest. ³³ Some people found him while he was picking up the sticks. They took him to Moses and Aaron and to all the people. ³⁴ They were not sure what to do with the man. So they put him by himself in a tent. Men stood at the door of the tent so that he could not leave it. ³⁵ The Lord said to Moses, ‘This man must die. All the people must take him outside the camp. They must throw stones at him to kill him.’ ³⁶ So the people took the man outside the camp. They threw stones at him until he died. That was what the Lord had told Moses to do.

Tassels

³⁷ The Lord said to Moses, ³⁸ ‘Tell the Israelites that they must put tassels on the corners of their clothes. They must fix the tassels on blue strings. They must do this now and for all future time. ³⁹ You will be able to look at the tassels. They will help you to remember all the Lord's rules. Then you can obey them. Then you will not only do what you yourself want to do. You will not turn away from me. ⁴⁰ When you see the tassels, you will remember to obey all my rules. You will be holy for your God. ⁴¹ I am the Lord your God. I brought you out from Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord your God.’

Korah and other people turn against Moses

16 Then Korah the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, decided to speak against Moses. Eliab's sons, Dathan and Abiram, and Peleth's son, On, who were descendants of Reuben, were with him. ² Together with 250 leaders of the Israelites, they all turned against Moses. Those were famous men that the people had chosen as their leaders. ³ They all came to Moses and Aaron and they said, ‘All the Israelites are special. The Lord has chosen all of us and he is with us all. So you should not say that you are better than the rest of the Lord's people.’

⁴ When Moses heard that, he threw himself onto the ground. ⁵ Moses said to Korah and to all the other men, ‘Tomorrow the Lord will show us who is truly special to him. He will show us who really belongs to him. He will make the person that he chooses come near to him. ⁶ Now do this: Get some pots for yourselves, Korah and your group of friends. ⁷ Put fire and incense in them, to burn in front of the Lord tomorrow. Then the Lord will choose the man who is holy. You make yourselves too important, you descendants of Levi!’

⁸ Then Moses said to Korah, ‘Listen, you descendants of Levi. ⁹ The God of Israel has caused you Levites to be separate from all the other Israelites. He has brought you near to himself, to work in the Lord's Tent. He has chosen you to stand in front of all the people to serve them. But it seems that this is not enough for you. ¹⁰ He has brought you, Korah, and all the other descendants of Levi near to himself. But it seems that you want to be priests as well. ¹¹ You are not only speaking bad words against Aaron. You and all your group are complaining against the Lord!’

¹² Then Moses called Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, to come to him. But they said, ‘No, we will not come. ¹³ You have brought us out of a country where there is plenty of food and drink, enough for everyone. You have brought us here, where we will die in the desert. But it seems that that is not enough for you. It seems that you want to be our master as well! ¹⁴ You have certainly not brought us into a land where there is plenty of food and drink. You have not given to us fields and vineyards, for us and for our descendants. You cannot deceive all these men. We will not come up to meet with you!’

¹⁵ Moses was angry. He said to the Lord, ‘Do not accept what these men offer to you. I did not take anything from them, not even one donkey! I did not do a wrong thing to any of them.’

¹⁶ Moses said to Korah, ‘Tomorrow, you and your men must come to the Tent of Meeting. You must come to stand in front of the Lord. Aaron will be there too. ¹⁷ Each of you must take a pot and you must put incense in it. You must put the pots on the altar in front of the Lord. That will be 250 pots. You yourself must do the same thing, as well as Aaron.’ ¹⁸ So each man took a pot. He put incense in it, and fire to burn it. They stood with Moses and Aaron at the door of the Tent of Meeting.

¹⁹ Korah brought all his group of people to stand against Moses and Aaron at the door of the Tent of Meeting. Then the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. ²⁰ The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ²¹ ‘Stand away from these men so that I can kill them.’

²² But Moses and Aaron threw themselves on the ground. Their faces were touching the ground. They said, ‘You, our God, are the God who gives life to all people. When one man does a bad thing, will you be angry with all the people? Is that right?’

²³ The Lord said to Moses, ²⁴ ‘Tell the people to move away from the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram.’

²⁵ Moses got up from the ground. He went to Dathan and Abiram. The leaders of the Israelites went with him. ²⁶ Moses said to all the people, ‘Move away from the tents of these wicked men. Do not touch anything that belongs to them. If you do not move away, God may destroy you together with them, because of all their sins.’

²⁷ So the people moved away from the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram. Dathan and Abiram were standing with their wives, babies and children at the doors of their tents.

²⁸ Then Moses said to the people, ‘Now you will know that the Lord has chosen me to lead you. He has told me to do this. It was not my own idea. This is how you will know. ²⁹ If these men die in a usual way, as all men will die one day, then the Lord did not choose me. ³⁰ But if the Lord causes something new to happen to these men, you will know that they have turned against him. For example, a hole might appear in the ground so that these men fall into it. They might fall down into their own graves while they are still alive. If that happens to them and to all that belongs to them, then you will know that the Lord has punished them.’

³¹ When Moses finished speaking, a hole opened in the ground. ³² Like a big mouth, it ate those men, their families and everything that belonged to them. The earth covered Korah, all his group and everything that belonged to them. ³³ They all went down into the deep grave while they were still alive. The ground closed over them and they died, no longer part of God's people. ³⁴ When the other Israelites heard those men shout, they ran away quickly. They were saying, ‘Help! The ground might eat us too!’

³⁵ Then the Lord sent fire down. It killed the 250 men who were offering the incense to God.

³⁶ The Lord said to Moses, ³⁷ ‘Tell Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, that he must take the pots with incense out of the burning fire. That is because those pots are holy. Then you must throw away the coal over all the ground round that place. ³⁸ Those men died because they did a bad thing. But the pots that they were holding are holy, because they were offering the incense to the Lord. So workers must use hammers to make the pots into thin metal. Then cover the altar with the metal. That will be like a sign to warn the Israelites.’ ³⁹ So Eleazar took the 250 pots and he used the bronze metal to cover the altar. ⁴⁰ Then the Israelites would remember not to do what Korah and his group did. Only people from the family of Aaron could burn incense on the Lord's altar. God would punish anyone else, like he punished Korah and his men. The Lord had given this command through Moses.

⁴¹ But on the next day, all the Israelites together complained against Moses and Aaron. They said, ‘You have killed the Lord's people!’ ⁴² When the people came together to stand against Moses and Aaron, they turned to look at the Tent of Meeting. The Lord's cloud covered the Tent and his glory appeared. ⁴³ Moses and Aaron went to stand at the front of the Tent of Meeting.

⁴⁴ The Lord said to Moses, ⁴⁵ ‘Get away from the people so that I can destroy them immediately!’ Moses and Aaron threw themselves down so that their faces touched the ground. ⁴⁶ Moses said to Aaron, ‘Pick up your pot. Take coals with fire from the altar and put incense with them in the pot. Then take it quickly among all the people. Remove their sin so that God will forgive them. Be quick! The Lord is so angry with the people that he is already punishing them with a bad disease!’

⁴⁷ The bad disease was already killing some of the people. But Aaron did what Moses had told him to do. He took the pot of incense among the people to remove their sin. ⁴⁸ In that way, he stood between the people who had died and those who were still living. The bad disease stopped killing people. ⁴⁹ But 14,700 people died because of the disease, as well as the people who had died with Korah. ⁵⁰ After the disease stopped, Aaron went back to Moses at the door of the Tent of Meeting.

Aaron's stick makes flowers

17 The Lord said to Moses, ² ‘Tell the Israelites that they must give to you 12 sticks, one for each tribe. Write the name of the leader of each tribe on each stick. ³ Write Aaron's name on the stick from the tribe of Levi. ⁴ Take the sticks to the Tent of Meeting and put them in front of the Covenant Box. ⁵ Leaves will start to grow on the stick of the man that I have chosen as priest. In that way I will stop the bad words that the Israelites are always saying against you.’

⁶ Moses spoke to the Israelites and the leaders gave him 12 sticks. ⁷ Moses put the sticks in front of the Covenant Box of the Lord in the Tent of Meeting.

⁸ The next day, Moses went to the Tent of Meeting. He saw that the stick of the tribe of Levi had started to make leaves. That stick had the name of Aaron on it. Flowers and almonds were growing on it! ⁹ Moses brought all the sticks out of the Tent of Meeting. He showed them to the leaders and they saw what had happened. Each leader took his own stick.

¹⁰ The Lord said to Moses, ‘Put Aaron's stick in front of the Covenant Box again. The people will see it there like a sign. Then they will remember that they must not turn against me. If they continue to complain, they will die.’ ¹¹ Moses did what the Lord told him.

¹² The Israelites said to Moses, ‘We will all die! ¹³ Any person who comes near the Lord's special Tent will die. So we will all die!’

The work of the priests and the Levites

18 The Lord said to Aaron, ‘You and your sons and your family will be guilty for any wrong thing that happens in my Holy Tent. You and your sons will be guilty for any wrong thing that a priest does. ² Bring the people of your tribe, the Levites, to the Tent of Meeting. ³ They must take care of the Tent of Meeting on your behalf. You must tell them what they should do. They must not go near anything that is inside God's Holy Place or the altar. If they do, they will die, and you will die too. ⁴ The Levites must work with you as they take care of the Tent of Meeting. No other people have authority to come near you as you work there.

⁵ You must take care of God's Holy Place and the altar. Then I will not be angry with the Israelites again. ⁶ I have chosen your family, the Levites, from among the other Israelite tribes. They are the Lord's gift to you, to help you take care of the Tent of Meeting. ⁷ But only you, Aaron, and your sons will serve me as priests. You will work at the altar and in the Holy Place behind the curtain. I have chosen you to serve me as my priests. That is my gift to you. Any other person who comes near the Holy Place must die.’

Offerings for priests and for Levites

⁸ The Lord said to Aaron, ‘I give you authority over the things that people offer to me. As priests, part of the gifts that people bring will belong to you and your sons. This rule will always be true for you and your descendants. ⁹ I am giving to you the parts that do not burn on the altar. A part of all these gifts will belong to you: grain offerings, sin offerings and guilt offerings. These are holy gifts and they belong to you and to your sons. ¹⁰ All the men in your family may eat these gifts. Remember that they are holy gifts.

¹¹ Also, you will receive part of the special gifts that the Israelites lift up in front of me. I have given it to you and to your sons and daughters, for all time. Every person who lives in your house may eat it. But they must be clean at the time.

¹² I will give to you the best olive oil, the best wine and the best grain. The people give to the Lord the first part of these that they get. ¹³ I also give to you the best parts of the food that people bring to the Lord. Any clean person who lives in your house may eat them.

¹⁴ Everything in Israel that should belong to me is now yours. ¹⁵ I give to you every firstborn animal and male child that people offer to the Lord. But you must pay the price for every firstborn son and for every firstborn male animal that is not clean. ¹⁶ When they are one month old, you must buy them from me for five shekels of silver each. The shekel must have the same weight as the shekel that the Levites use in God's Holy Tent. There are 20 gerahs in one shekel.

¹⁷ You must not pay for the firstborn of a cow, a sheep or a goat. Those animals are holy. Splash the blood from those animals on the altar and burn the fat from them. The smell will make the Lord happy. ¹⁸ And the meat of those animals belongs to you. In the same way, the meat of the ribs and the right back leg of the special gifts that you lift up to me also belong to you.^[j]

¹⁹ I have given all the gifts that the Israelites offer to the Lord to you, your sons and your daughters. That is a rule for all time. That is the Lord's special promise to you and to your descendants for all time.’

²⁰ Then the Lord said to Aaron, ‘You priests and your descendants will have no land, like the other tribes do. You will not share in the things that they receive. I myself am the gift that you receive.

²¹ The Israelites give to me one tenth of everything that they receive. I will give it to the Levites because they serve me in the Tent of Meeting. ²² The other Israelites must not come near the Tent of Meeting again. If they do come near it, they will be guilty and then they will die. ²³ Only the Levites must do the work in the Tent of Meeting. And if they do anything wrong there, they will be guilty. That will be a rule for you and for all your descendants. The Levites will not receive any land like the other Israelites do. ²⁴ That is because I have given to the Levites the tithes that the Israelites offer to the Lord. I have told them, “You will not receive any land, like the other Israelites do.” I have given the tithes to them instead.’

²⁵ The Lord said to Moses, ²⁶ ‘You must say to the Levites, “You will receive from the Israelites the tithe that I have given to you from them. I have not given any land to you. I have given the tithes to you instead. When you receive those tithes, you must offer one tenth of it to the Lord. That will be a tithe of the tithe. ²⁷ This gift will be the same as when a farmer is giving grain or wine to me. It will be special. ²⁸ So you will give something to the Lord from the tithes that you receive from the Israelites. You must give that part to Aaron the priest. ²⁹ From all the gifts that the people give to you, you must make separate every offering that the Lord should have. The best part of each gift is the part that you must make separate for the Lord.”

³⁰ You must say to the Levites, “After you have made the best part of the gift separate for the priests, the other part will belong to the Levites. That will be the grain and the wine that you receive for your food. ³¹ That is what you receive because you take care of the Tent of Meeting. You and your family may eat it anywhere that you choose. ³² You will not be guilty when you eat it. That is because you have offered the best part of it to God. But you must do that in the right way. The gifts that you receive from the Israelites are holy. If you do not do the right things with them, you will die.” ’

Water that makes people clean

19 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ² ‘This is another rule in the Lord's law that I am telling to you: Tell the Israelites that they must bring to you a young red cow. It must not have anything wrong with it. And nobody must have put a yoke on it. ³ They must take the cow outside the camp. They must kill it and then give it to Eleazar the priest. ⁴ Eleazar must take some of the blood from the cow. He must splash it seven times in front of the Tent of Meeting. ⁵ Then they must burn the whole cow while Eleazar is watching. They must burn its body with the skin, meat, blood and everything that is inside its body. ⁶ The priest must take some wood, some plants and some red wool. He must throw them on the fire. ⁷ Then he must wash his clothes and he must wash his body with water. After that, he can come into the camp, but he will not be clean until the evening. ⁸ And the man who burns the animal must also wash his clothes in water. And he must wash his body in water. He will not be clean until the evening.

⁹ Then a man who is clean must pick up all the ashes of the cow. And he must put them outside the camp in a clean place. Keep them safe there for all the Israelites. You must mix them with water to make special water. It will be water for someone who is not clean to make them holy again. It is water to remove sin. ¹⁰ The man who picks up the ashes must also wash his clothes. He will not be clean until evening. This rule is for the Israelites and for all the people who are living with them.

¹¹ Any person who touches a dead body will not be clean for seven days. ¹² He must use the water to wash himself on the third day and on the seventh day. Then he will be clean. If he does not wash himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not be clean. ¹³ A person might touch the body of a dead person. If he does not make himself clean, he has made the Lord's Tent of Meeting unclean. You must make that person separate from the Israelites. Because they did not splash the special water on him, he will not be clean. He will continue to be unclean.

¹⁴ This is the rule when a person dies in a tent. Any person who is in the tent will not be clean for seven days. ¹⁵ Any pot in the tent that does not have a lid will not be clean.

¹⁶ Also, a person might have killed someone with a sword out in the country. Or someone may have died because he was old or ill. Anyone who touches a dead body in the country will become unclean for seven days. Also if they touch a human bone, or a grave, that person will be unclean for seven days.

¹⁷ Then for the person who is not clean, you must take some of the ashes of the young red cow. That is the cow to make people clean. You must put these ashes into a pot and you must mix them with water from a river. ¹⁸ Then a person who is clean must take hyssop. He must put it into the water. Then he must use it to splash the water on the tent and on everything that is in it. He must also splash the water on all the people who have been there. And he must splash it on the person who touched the bone or the dead body or the grave. ¹⁹ And the clean person must splash the water on the unclean person on the third day too. And he must do it on the seventh day. On the seventh day he will make the person clean again. Then the person who had not been clean must wash his clothes. And he must wash himself in water. In the evening, that person will become clean. ²⁰ The person who is not clean might not wash himself and his clothes. If he does not do it, you must make that person separate from the people. That is because he has made the Lord's Holy Place become unclean. Because the priest did not splash special water on him he will not be clean. ²¹ This rule is for now and for ever. The man who splashes the special water must also wash his clothes. Any person who touches the special water will not be clean until evening. ²² If an unclean person touches anything, that thing also becomes unclean. If anyone touches the unclean person, he also becomes unclean until evening.’

Water comes from a rock

20 In the first month, the Israelites came to the Zin desert. They put up their tents at Kadesh. Miriam died there and the people buried her.

² The people did not have any water to drink. They complained to Moses and Aaron. ³ They said to Moses, ‘We would rather be dead! When the Lord killed our brothers, he should have killed us too. ⁴ We are the Lord's people. Have you brought us and our animals here to die? ⁵ You should not have brought us to this very bad place. When we were in Egypt, we had grain, figs, grapes and pomegranates. There is no food like that here! And there is no water to drink!’

⁶ Moses and Aaron went away from the people to the door of the Tent of Meeting. They threw themselves down with their faces towards the ground. The glory of the Lord appeared to them. ⁷ The Lord said to Moses, ⁸ ‘Get the stick. Take your brother Aaron with you and go to the whole group of the Israelites. Then speak to that rock that you can all see. Water will pour out from it. Then the people and their animals can drink it.’

⁹ So Moses did what the Lord had told him. He took the stick from its place in the Lord's Tent of Meeting. ¹⁰ Then Moses and Aaron brought all the people to meet in front of the rock. Moses said to them, ‘Listen now, you people who refuse to obey God. It seems that we must bring water out of this rock for you!’ ¹¹ Moses lifted up his arm. He hit the rock twice with his stick. Water poured out from the rock. The people and their animals drank the water.

¹² The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ‘You did not trust me enough to show the Israelites that I am holy. So you will not lead them into the land that I have promised to give to them.’

¹³ The place where this happened was called ‘Meribah’, because the Israelites quarrelled with the Lord there.^[k] But he showed them there that he was their holy God.

The Israelites want to travel through Edom

¹⁴ From Kadesh, Moses sent men to the king of Edom with this message: ‘We are Israelites, your relatives. We should be friendly to each other. You know about all the troubles that have happened to us. ¹⁵ Our ancestors went to Egypt. We lived there for many years. The people in Egypt were cruel to us. ¹⁶ But when we asked the Lord to help us, he heard us. He sent an angel and he brought us out from Egypt.

Now we are here at Kadesh, which is a town at the border of your land. ¹⁷ Please let us travel through your land. We will not go through any fields or through any vineyards. We will not even drink water from your wells. We will go along the main road. We will not leave that road on either side until we have gone through all your land.’

¹⁸ The king of Edom said, ‘You must not travel through my country. If you do, we will bring our army to attack you.’

¹⁹ The Israelites replied, ‘We will stay on the main road. If our animals drink your water, we will pay for it. We only want to travel through your country. We do not want anything else.’

²⁰ The king of Edom said, ‘No, you must not travel through our country.’ He sent many strong soldiers to attack the Israelites. ²¹ In that way, the Edomites stopped the Israelites from travelling through Edom. So the Israelites turned away from there.

Aaron dies

²² All the Israelites went from Kadesh to Hor mountain. ²³ When they were there, at the border of Edom's land, the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron. ²⁴ He said, ‘Aaron will soon die. He will not go in to the land that I am giving to the Israelites. That is because you both refused to obey me at Meribah. ²⁵ Moses, you must take Aaron and his son Eleazar to climb up Hor mountain. ²⁶ Take the priest's clothes from Aaron and put them on Eleazar. Aaron will die there.’

²⁷ Moses did what the Lord told him to do. Moses, Aaron and Eleazar climbed up Hor mountain, while the Israelites watched. ²⁸ Moses took the priest's clothes from Aaron and he put them on Eleazar. Then Aaron died there, at the top of the mountain. Moses and Eleazar walked back down the mountain.^{[l] 29} The Israelites wept for 30 days because Aaron died.

The Israelites destroy the Canaanites

21 The king of Arad city lived in the Negev desert. That was in the south part of Canaan. People told him that the Israelites were coming on the road to Atharim. So he attacked the Israelites and he caught some of them. ² The Israelites made this promise to the Lord: ‘If you put these people under our power, we will destroy their towns for you.’ ³ The Lord accepted the Israelites' promise. He put the Canaanites under their power. The Israelites destroyed them and all their towns. After that, the place was called Hormah.^[m]

The bronze snake

⁴ The Israelites left Hor mountain. They travelled round the edge of Edom to the Red Sea. As they travelled, the people were upset. ⁵ They complained to God and to Moses, ‘You should not have brought us from Egypt to die here in the desert. There is nothing to eat. There is no water to drink. We do not like this bad food, manna.’

⁶ Then the Lord sent snakes among the people. They bit the people and many of the Israelites died. ⁷ So the people came to Moses and they said, ‘We did a bad thing when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Please pray to the Lord on our behalf. Ask him to remove the snakes from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people.