Chronological

Responsibilities for Priests and Descendants of Levi

18 Later, the Lord told Aaron, “You, your sons, and your father’s tribe with you are to bear the iniquity of the sanctuary. Also, you and your sons with you are to bear the iniquity of your priesthood. ² Moreover, bring your brothers from your father’s tribe of Levi with you, so they may join you and minister to you while you and your sons with you stand in the presence of the Tent of Testimony. ³ They are to take care of your concerns and all the responsibilities involved with the tent. But they’re not to approach the holy vessels or the altar. That way, neither you nor they will die. ⁴ They are to join you to maintain services related to the Tent of Meeting, for all the responsibilities involved with the tent. But no unauthorized person^[a] is to approach you. ⁵ Take care of the sanctuary and the services of the altar so that there won’t be any more wrath on the Israelis. ⁶ Notice that I’ve taken your brothers, the descendants of Levi, from among the Israelis, giving them to you as a gift from the Lord to perform the service of the Tent of Meeting. ⁷ Now you and your sons with you are to maintain your priestly duties and all matters that concern the altar and what is housed within the veil. You are to perform these services. I’m giving you the priesthood as a gift of service, but any unauthorized person^[b] who approaches is to be put to death.”

Ownership for Offerings

⁸ Then the Lord told Aaron, “Look! I am indeed placing you in charge of my raised offerings and the holy things concerning the Israelis. Because of your anointing, I’m giving you and your sons a prescribed portion forever. ⁹ This is what is to belong to you from consecrated offerings spared^[c] from the fire: all of their offerings, grain offerings, sin offerings, and trespass offerings that they render to me. They’re to be considered most sacred to you and your sons. ¹⁰ You may eat them as consecrated gifts. Every male may eat them. They’re sacred for you. ¹¹ The raised offering and wave offerings presented by the Israelis are yours, too. I’ve given them to you, to your sons, and to your daughters as a prescribed apportionment forever. Everyone who is clean in your household may eat it. ¹² All the best^[d] oil, wine, grain, and first fruits that they give to the Lord are to belong to you. Everyone who is clean in your household may eat it.

¹³ “The first ripe fruits of everything that the land produces and that they bring to the Lord are yours, too. Everyone who is clean in your household may eat it. ¹⁴ Every devoted thing in Israel is yours, too. ¹⁵ Everything that opens the womb, any living thing that they bring to the Lord—whether from human beings or animals—are for you. Just be sure that you redeem the firstborn of people and the firstborn of unclean animals. ¹⁶ Those that can be redeemed, you are to redeem at the age of one month, based on your estimate—for five shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, that is, for 20 gerahs. ¹⁷ But you are not to redeem the firstborn of a cow, sheep, or a female goat. They are holy. You are to sprinkle their blood on the altar and burn their fat for an offering made by fire, a pleasing aroma to the Lord. ¹⁸ Their meat is to belong to you, just as the breast wave offering and the right thigh is yours. ¹⁹ I’m giving you, your sons, and your daughters as a prescribed portion forever all the raised offerings of the consecrated things that the Israelis offer to the Lord. It’s a salt covenant forever before the Lord with you and your descendants with you.”

Land Prohibited to Descendants of Levi

²⁰ Then the Lord instructed Aaron, “You are not to have any inheritance in the land, nor are you to have any portion among the people.^[e] I am your portion and your inheritance among the Israelis. ²¹ As to the descendants of Levi, certainly I’ve given all the tithes in Israel as their inheritance in return for their services that they perform at the Tent of Meeting. ²² Therefore, the Israelis need no longer come to the Tent of Meeting, so they won’t suffer the consequences of their sin and die. ²³ The descendants of Levi are to perform the service of the Tent of Meeting and they are to bear their iniquity. This is to be a statute forever, throughout your generations, that they are not to receive an inheritance among the Israelis, ²⁴ because I’ve given to the descendants of Levi the tithes that the Israelis bring to the Lord as raised offering. Therefore I told them that, unlike the Israelis, they won’t receive an inheritance.”

Offerings Given to the Descendants of Levi

²⁵ Then the Lord instructed Moses, ²⁶ “Tell the descendants of Levi that when they receive tithes from the Israelis (the tithes that I’ve given you from them as an inheritance), you are to offer a tenth of it^[f] as a raised offering for the Lord. ²⁷ Your raised offerings are to be accounted for you as though it were grain from threshing floors and full produce from wine vats. ²⁸ You are to offer a raised offering to the Lord from all your tithes that you receive from the Israelis. Give Aaron the priest the raised offering of the Lord ²⁹ out of all the most consecrated offerings that you receive, that is, all the raised offerings of the Lord, with all its best and the most holy parts of it. ³⁰ Tell them that when they bring the best from it, as far as the descendants of Levi are concerned, it is to be considered like produce from the threshing floors and wine vats. ³¹ You and your household may eat it anywhere, because it’s a reward to you in return for your services at the Tent of Meeting. ³² You won’t sin by offering the best of it, and you are not to profane the sacred things of the Israelis, so that you won’t die.”

The Red Heifer

19 The Lord told Moses and Aaron, ² “This is the ordinance of the law that the Lord commanded that the Israelis be told: They are to bring you a spotless red heifer, without physical defect, that has never been fitted with a yoke. ³ They are to deliver it to Eleazar the priest, and it is to be brought outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence. ⁴ Then Eleazar the priest is to take blood from it with his finger and sprinkle the blood in front of the Tent of Meeting. ⁵ The entire heifer is to be incinerated in his presence, including its skin, its flesh, its blood, and its dung. ⁶ Then the priest is to take some cedar^[g] wood, hyssop, and scarlet material and throw it into the middle of the burning heifer. ⁷ The priest is to wash his clothes and bathe himself^[h] with water, after which he may enter the camp, but he is to remain unclean until evening. ⁸ Whoever takes part in the burning is to wash his clothes and bathe himself^[i] in water and is to remain unclean until the evening. ⁹ Then someone^[j] who is clean is to gather the ashes of the heifer and lay them outside the camp in a clean place. This is to be done for the community of Israel to use for water of purification from sin. ¹⁰ Whoever gathers the ashes of the heifer is to wash his clothes and is to remain unclean until the evening. This ordinance is to remain for the benefit of both the Israelis and the resident aliens who live among them.”

Purification for Contact with the Dead

¹¹ “Whoever comes in contact with the body of a dead person is to remain unclean for seven days. ¹² He is to purify himself on the third day and he will be clean on the seventh day. But if he can’t purify himself on the third day then he can’t be clean on the seventh day. ¹³ Anyone who comes in contact with a dead person (that is, with the corpse^[k] of a human being^[l] who has died), but who does not purify himself, defiles the Lord’s tent. That person is to be eliminated from Israel, because the water of impurity wasn’t sprinkled on him. He remains unclean and his uncleanness will remain with him.

¹⁴ “This is the procedure to follow^[m] when a man dies in his tent: Everyone who enters the tent and everyone in it is to remain unclean for seven days. ¹⁵ Every open vessel that has no covering fastened around it is to be considered unclean. ¹⁶ Whoever is out in an open field and touches the body of^[n] someone who was killed by a sword, or a dead body, or someone’s bones, or a grave, he is to be considered unclean for seven days.

¹⁷ “Now as for the unclean, they are to take ashes from the burning sin offering, and pour running water on it inside a vessel. ¹⁸ A clean person is to take some hyssop, dip it in water, and then sprinkle it on the tent, on every vessel, and on whoever^[o] was there (that is, on whoever touched the bones, the killed person, or the dead body, including whoever dug the grave). ¹⁹ The clean person is to sprinkle the unclean person on the third day and seventh day and then he is to purify himself on the seventh day, wash his clothes, and bathe with water. He is to be considered clean at evening.

²⁰ “The person^[p] who is unclean but who doesn’t purify himself is to be eliminated from contact with the assembly, since he has defiled the Lord’s sanctuary and the water of impurity wasn’t sprinkled on him. He is to be considered unclean ²¹ as a continuing^[q] reminder to them. Whoever sprinkles the water of impurity is to wash his clothes, and whoever comes in contact with the water of impurity is to remain unclean until evening. ²² Furthermore, anything that the unclean person touches is to be considered unclean and the person who touches him is to be considered unclean until the evening.”

The Meribah Springs^(A)

20 The entire community of the Israelis entered the Zin wilderness during the first month. The people stayed in Kadesh. Miriam died and was buried there.

² But there was no water for the community, so they gathered together against Moses and Aaron. ³ As the people argued with Moses, they told him, “We wish that we had died when our relatives died in the Lord’s presence! ⁴ Why did you bring the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness? So we and our cattle could die here? ⁵ Why did you take us out of Egypt and bring us to this terrible place? There’s no place to plant seeds, fig trees, vines, or pomegranates! And there’s no water to drink!”

⁶ Then Moses and Aaron went into the presence of the community at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and fell on their faces. Then the glory of the Lord appeared to them.

⁷ The Lord told Moses, ⁸ “Take the rod, gather the community together, and then you and your brother Aaron are to speak to the rock right before their eyes. It will release water. As you bring water to them from the rock, the community and the cattle will be able to drink.” ⁹ So Moses took the rod in the Lord’s presence, just as he had commanded.

¹⁰ Then Moses and Aaron gathered the community together in front of the rock. “Pay attention, you rebels!” Moses told them. “Are we to bring you water from this rock?” ¹¹ Then Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod. Lots of water gushed out, and both the community and their cattle were able to drink.

The Lord Disciplines Moses

¹² But the Lord rebuked Moses and Aaron, telling Moses: “Because you both^[r] didn’t believe me, because you didn’t consecrate me as holy^[s] in the presence^[t] of the Israelis, you won’t be the ones to bring this congregation into the land that I’m about to give them.” ¹³ Because the Israelis argued with the Lord and he was set apart among them, this place was called the Meribah Springs.^[u]

The Israelis Approach Edom

¹⁴ Later, Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom with this message: “This is what your relative Israel says: ‘You know all the hardships we’ve encountered.^{[v] 15} Our ancestors went down to Egypt, where we lived for many^[w] years. But the Egyptians treated us and our ancestors viciously. ¹⁶ Then we cried to the Lord and he heard our voice, sending us a messenger who brought us out of Egypt. Now look! We’ve arrived in Kadesh, a city at the extreme end of your territory. ¹⁷ Permit us now to pass through your land. We won’t pass through your fields or vineyards, and we won’t drink water^[x] from your wells. We’ll keep to the King’s Highway without turning either right or left until we have passed through your territory.’”

¹⁸ But Edom replied, “You are not to pass through my land.^[y] If you do, I’ll come out and start a war with you.”

¹⁹ Then the Israelis replied, “Permit us to travel on the highway. If we and our cattle drink your water, we’ll pay the price you ask. Only please let us walk through, and nothing more.”^[z]

²⁰ But still he replied, “No. You’re not to pass through.” Then Edom went out to meet Moses with a vast army and a lot of military might.^{[aa] 21} That’s how Edom refused Israel passage through their territory. So Israel turned away from there.^[ab]

The Death of Aaron

²² They traveled from Kadesh, and then the entire community of the Israelis arrived at Mount Hor. ²³ Then the Lord told Moses and Aaron at Mount Hor, near the territory of Edom, ²⁴ “Aaron is to be gathered to his people, since he is not to enter the land that I’m about to give the Israelis. After all, you both rebelled against my command^[ac] at the Meribah Springs. ²⁵ So take Aaron and his son Eleazar and ascend Mount Hor. ²⁶ Remove Aaron’s vestments and place them on his son Eleazar, because Aaron is to be gathered to his people^[ad] and die there.”

²⁷ So Moses did just what the Lord had commanded. They ascended Mount Hor right in front of the entire community. ²⁸ As Moses was stripping Aaron’s garments from him and clothing Aaron’s son Eleazar with them, Aaron died there on top of the mountain. Afterwards, Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain. ²⁹ When the entire community saw that Aaron had died, they mourned in memory of Aaron for 30 days.