Chronological
Chapter 18
1 The Lord said to Aaron:[a] You and your sons as well as your ancestral house with you[b] shall be responsible for any sin with respect to the sanctuary; but only you and your sons with you shall be responsible for any sin with respect to your priesthood. 2 You shall also present with you your kinsmen of the tribe of Levi, your ancestral tribe, that they may be joined to you[c] and assist you, while you and your sons with you are in front of the tent of the covenant. 3 They shall discharge your obligations and those with respect to the whole tent; however, they shall not come near the utensils of the sanctuary or the altar, or else both they and you will die. 4 They will be joined to you to perform the duties associated with the tent of meeting, all the labor pertaining to the tent. But no unauthorized person[d] shall come near you. 5 You shall perform the duties of the sanctuary and of the altar, that wrath may not fall again upon the Israelites.
6 I hereby take your kinsmen, the Levites, from among the Israelites; they are a gift to you,(A) dedicated to the Lord for the labor they perform for the tent of meeting. 7 (B)But you and your sons with you must take care to exercise your priesthood in whatever concerns the altar and the area within the veil.[e] I give you your priesthood as a gift. Any unauthorized person who comes near shall be put to death.
The Priests’ Share of the Sacrifices. 8 The Lord said to Aaron:[f] I hereby give to you charge of the contributions made to me, including the various holy offerings of the Israelites;(C) I assign them to you and to your sons as a perquisite, a perpetual due. 9 This is what you shall have from the oblations that are most holy: every offering of theirs—namely, all their grain offerings, purification offerings, and reparation offerings which they must return to me—shall be most holy for you and for your sons. 10 You shall eat them in a most holy place;[g] every male may partake of them. As holy, they belong to you.
11 This also you shall have: the contributions that are their gifts, including the elevated offering[h] of the Israelites; I assign them to you and to your sons and daughters with you as a perpetual due.(D) All in your household who are clean may eat them. 12 I also assign to you all the best(E) of the new oil and of the new wine and grain that they give to the Lord as their first produce that has been processed. 13 The first-ripened fruits of whatever is in their land, which they bring to the Lord, shall be yours; all of your household who are clean may eat them. 14 Whatever is under the ban[i] in Israel shall be yours. 15 Every living thing that opens the womb, human being and beast alike, such as are to be offered to the Lord, shall be yours;(F) but you must redeem the firstborn of human beings, as well as redeem the firstborn of unclean animals. 16 For the redemption price of a son, when he is a month old, you shall pay the equivalent of five silver shekels according to the sanctuary shekel, that is, twenty gerahs. 17 But the firstborn of cattle, or the firstborn of sheep or the firstborn of goats you shall not redeem; they are holy. Their blood you must splash on the altar and their fat you must burn as an oblation of pleasing aroma to the Lord. 18 (G)Their meat, however, shall be yours, just as the brisket of the elevated offering and the right thigh belong to you. 19 As a perpetual due I assign to you and to your sons and daughters with you all the contributions of holy things which the Israelites set aside for the Lord; this is a covenant of salt[j] to last forever before the Lord, for you and for your descendants with you. 20 (H)Then the Lord said to Aaron:[k] You shall not have any heritage in their land nor hold any portion among them; I will be your portion and your heritage among the Israelites.
Tithes Due the Levites. 21 To the Levites, however, I hereby assign all tithes in Israel as their heritage in recompense for the labor they perform, the labor pertaining to the tent of meeting.(I) 22 The Israelites may no longer approach the tent of meeting, thereby incurring the penalty of death. 23 Only the Levites are to perform the labor pertaining to the tent of meeting, and they shall incur the penalty for the Israelites’ sin;[l] this is a permanent statute for all your generations. But they shall not have any heritage among the Israelites, 24 for I have assigned to the Levites as their heritage the tithes which the Israelites put aside as a contribution to the Lord. That is why I have said, they will not have any heritage among the Israelites.
Tithes Paid by the Levites. 25 The Lord said to Moses: 26 Speak to the Levites and say to them: When you take from the Israelites the tithes I have assigned you from them as your heritage, you are to make a contribution from them to the Lord, a tithe of the tithe; 27 and your contribution will be credited to you as if it were grain from the threshing floor or new wine from the vat. 28 Thus you too shall make a contribution to the Lord from all the tithes you take from the Israelites, handing over to Aaron the priest the contribution to the Lord. 29 From all the gifts to you, you shall make every contribution due to the Lord—from their best parts, that is the part to be consecrated from them.
30 Say to them also: Once you have made your contribution from the best part, the rest of the tithe will be credited to the Levites as if it were produce of the threshing floor or the produce of the vat. 31 You and your households may eat it anywhere, since it is your recompense in exchange for labor in the tent of meeting. 32 You will incur no punishment when you contribute the best part of it. But do not profane the holy offerings of the Israelites or else you shall die.
Chapter 19
Ashes of the Red Heifer. 1 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron: 2 This is the statute for the ritual which the Lord has commanded. Tell the Israelites to procure for you a red heifer without defect and free from every blemish and on which no yoke has ever been laid. 3 You will give it to Eleazar the priest, and it will be led outside the camp[m] and slaughtered in his presence. 4 Eleazar the priest will take some of its blood on his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the tent of meeting.[n] 5 Then the heifer will be burned in his sight; it will be burned with its hide and flesh, its blood and dung; 6 and the priest will take cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet yarn and throw them into the fire in which the heifer is being burned. 7 The priest shall then wash his garments and bathe his body in water, afterward he may enter the camp. The priest remains unclean until the evening. 8 Likewise, the one who burned the heifer shall wash his garments in water, bathe his body in water, and be unclean until evening. 9 Then somebody who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them in a clean place outside the camp. There they are to be kept to prepare purification water for the Israelite community. This is a purification offering. 10 The one who has gathered up the ashes of the heifer shall also wash his garments and be unclean until evening. This is a permanent statute, both for the Israelites and for the alien residing among them.
Use of the Ashes. 11 Those who touch the corpse of any human being will be unclean for seven days; 12 they shall purify themselves with the water on the third and on the seventh day, and then be clean. But if they fail to purify themselves on the third and on the seventh day, they will not become clean. 13 (J)Those who touch the corpse of a human being who dies and who fail to purify themselves defile the tabernacle of the Lord and these persons shall be cut off from Israel. Since the purification water has not been splashed over them, they remain unclean: their uncleanness is still on them.
14 This is the ritual: When someone dies in a tent, everyone who enters the tent, as well as everyone already in it, will be unclean for seven days; 15 and every open vessel with its lid unfastened will be unclean. 16 Moreover, everyone who in the open country touches a person who has been slain by the sword or who has died naturally, or who touches a human bone or a grave, will be unclean for seven days. 17 For anyone who is thus unclean, ashes shall be taken from the burnt purification offering, and spring water will be poured on them from a vessel.(K) 18 Then someone who is clean will take hyssop, dip it in this water, and sprinkle it on the tent and on all the vessels and persons that were in it, or on the one who touched the bone, the slain person or the other corpse, or the grave. 19 The clean will sprinkle the unclean on the third and on the seventh day, and thus purify them on the seventh day. Then they will wash their garments and bathe in water, and in the evening be clean. 20 [o]Those who become unclean and fail to purify themselves—those people will be cut off from the assembly, because they defile the sanctuary of the Lord. The purification water has not been splashed over them; they remain unclean. 21 This will be a permanent statute for you.
Those who sprinkle the purification water will wash their garments, and those who come in contact with the purification water will be unclean until evening. 22 Moreover, anything that the unclean person touches becomes unclean itself, and the one who touches such a person becomes unclean until evening.
Chapter 20[p]
Death of Miriam. 1 The Israelites, the whole community, arrived in the wilderness of Zin[q] in the first month, and the people stayed at Kadesh. It was here that Miriam died, and here that she was buried.
Need for Water at Kadesh. 2 Since the community had no water, they held an assembly against Moses and Aaron. 3 The people quarreled with Moses, exclaiming, “Would that we had perished when our kindred perished before the Lord! 4 Why have you brought the Lord’s assembly into this wilderness for us and our livestock to die here? 5 Why have you brought us up out of Egypt, only to bring us to this wretched place? It is not a place for grain nor figs nor vines nor pomegranates! And there is no water to drink!” 6 But Moses and Aaron went away from the assembly to the entrance of the tent of meeting, where they fell prostrate.
Sin of Moses and Aaron. Then the glory of the Lord appeared to them, 7 and the Lord said to Moses: 8 Take the staff and assemble the community, you and Aaron your brother, and in their presence command the rock to yield its waters. Thereby you will bring forth water from the rock for them, and supply the community and their livestock with water. 9 So Moses took the staff from its place before the Lord, as he was ordered. 10 Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly in front of the rock, where he said to them,(L) “Just listen, you rebels! Are we to produce water for you out of this rock?” 11 (M)Then, raising his hand, Moses struck the rock twice[r] with his staff, and water came out in abundance, and the community and their livestock drank. 12 [s]But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron: Because you did not have confidence in me, to acknowledge my holiness before the Israelites, therefore you shall not lead this assembly into the land I have given them.
13 These are the waters of Meribah,(N) where the Israelites quarreled with the Lord, and through which he displayed his holiness.
Edom’s Refusal. 14 From Kadesh Moses sent messengers to the king of Edom: “Thus says your brother Israel:[t] You know of all the hardships that have befallen us, 15 how our ancestors went down to Egypt, and we stayed in Egypt a long time, and the Egyptians treated us and our ancestors harshly. 16 When we cried to the Lord,(O) he heard our cry and sent an angel who led us out of Egypt. Now here we are at Kadesh, a town at the edge of your territory. 17 Please let us pass through your land. We will not cross any fields or vineyards, nor drink any well water, but we will go straight along the King’s Highway[u] without turning to the right or to the left, until we have passed through your territory.”
18 But Edom answered him, “You shall not pass through here; if you do, I will advance against you with the sword.” 19 The Israelites said to him, “We will go up along the highway. If we or our livestock drink any of your water, we will pay for it. It is nothing—just let us pass through on foot.” 20 But Edom replied, “You shall not pass through,”(P) and advanced against them with a large and heavily armed force. 21 Therefore, since Edom refused to let Israel pass through their territory, Israel turned away from them.
Death of Aaron. 22 (Q)Setting out from Kadesh, the Israelites, the whole community, came to Mount Hor.[v] 23 There at Mount Hor, on the border of the land of Edom, the Lord said to Moses and Aaron: 24 Let Aaron be gathered to his people, for he shall not enter the land I have given to the Israelites, because you both rebelled against my directions at the waters of Meribah. 25 Take Aaron and Eleazar his son and bring them up on Mount Hor.(R) 26 Then strip Aaron of his garments and put them on Eleazar, his son; but there Aaron shall be gathered up in death.
27 Moses did as the Lord commanded. When they had climbed Mount Hor in view of the whole community, 28 Moses stripped Aaron of his garments and put them on Eleazar his son. Then Aaron died there on top of the mountain.(S) When Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain, 29 all the community understood that Aaron had breathed his last; and for thirty days the whole house of Israel mourned Aaron.
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.