Old/New Testament

Aaron’s Stick Began to Grow

17 The Lord said to Moses, ² “Speak to the people of Israel. Get walking sticks from them, one for each father’s house. Get twelve walking sticks, from all their leaders by their fathers’ houses. Write each man’s name on his stick. ³ Write Aaron’s name on the walking stick of Levi. For there will be one walking stick for the head of each father’s house. ⁴ Then put them in the meeting tent before the Law, where I meet with you. ⁵ And the walking stick of the man I choose will begin to grow. In this way I will stop the complaining of the people of Israel, who are complaining against you.” ⁶ So Moses spoke to the people of Israel. All their leaders each gave him a walking stick, one for each leader by their fathers’ houses, twelve walking sticks. And the walking stick of Aaron was among their walking sticks. ⁷ Moses put the walking sticks before the Lord in the meeting tent of the Law.

⁸ The next day Moses went into the meeting tent of the Law. And he saw that the walking stick of Aaron for the house of Levi had begun to grow buds and flowers and almonds. ⁹ Moses brought out all the walking sticks from before the Lord to all the people of Israel. They looked, and each man took his stick. ¹⁰ But the Lord said to Moses, “Put the walking stick of Aaron in front of the Law again. It will be something special to see against those who go against My Word. Then you may put an end to their complaining against Me, so they will not die.” ¹¹ So Moses did this. He did just as the Lord had told him.

¹² Then the people of Israel said to Moses, “See, we are being destroyed! We are dying! We are all dying! ¹³ Everyone who comes near, who comes near the meeting tent of the Lord, must die. Are we all to be destroyed?”

The Work of the Religious Leaders and Levites

18 The Lord said to Aaron, “You and your sons and those of your father’s house will carry the guilt for any sin done in the meeting tent. And you and your sons with you will carry the guilt of any sin of the religious leaders. ² Bring with you your brothers also, the family of Levi, the family of your father. Then they may join you and help you while you and your sons are in front of the meeting tent of the Law. ³ They will help you and help in doing all the work of the tent. But they must not come near the objects of the meeting tent and the altar, or both they and you will die. ⁴ They will join you and help do all the work of the meeting tent. But no one else may come near you. ⁵ You must do the work of the meeting tent and the work of the altar, so there will no longer be anger on the people of Israel. ⁶ See, I Myself have taken your brothers the Levites from among the people of Israel. They are a gift to you, given to the Lord, to do the work for the meeting tent. ⁷ But you and your sons with you will do the religious work, in all that has to do with the altar and inside the curtain. I am giving you the work of being the religious leader as a gift. Anyone else who comes near the holy objects will be put to death.”

Gifts for the Religious Leaders

⁸ Then the Lord said to Aaron, “Now see, I am giving you all the gifts brought to Me that are not burned on the altar. I am giving them to you as a share, and to your sons as a share forever. ⁹ This will be yours from the most holy gifts, kept from the fire: every gift of theirs, even every grain gift, every sin gift and every guilt gift, which they bring to Me. They will be most holy for you and your sons. ¹⁰ You will eat it as the most holy gifts. Every male will eat it. It will be holy to you. ¹¹ And this is yours: their gift that is lifted up and all the wave gifts of the people of Israel. I am giving them to you and to your sons and daughters with you, as a share forever. Everyone in your house who is clean may eat it. ¹² I give to you all the best of the oil and all the best of the wine and of the grain, the first-fruits of what they give to the Lord. ¹³ The first-fruits ready to eat of all that is in their land, which they bring to the Lord, will be yours. Everyone in your house who is clean may eat it. ¹⁴ Everything in Israel that has been set apart to the Lord will be yours. ¹⁵ Every first-born of all flesh, man or animal, which they give to the Lord, will be yours. But you must pay the price and make free the first-born of man and the first-born of animals that are unclean. ¹⁶ You must make them free when they are one month old. The price to free them will be five large pieces of silver, the price decided upon at the meeting tent. One large piece of silver is worth twenty small pieces of silver. ¹⁷ But do not free the first-born of a bull or sheep or goat. For they are holy. You will put their blood on the altar and burn their fat as a gift by fire, a pleasing smell to the Lord. ¹⁸ But their meat will be yours, like the breast of a wave gift and like the right thigh are yours. ¹⁹ I have given to you and your sons and daughters, for a share forever, all the holy gifts which the people of Israel bring to the Lord. It is an agreement of salt forever before the Lord for you and your children with you.” ²⁰ Then the Lord said to Aaron, “You will have no share in their land. You will not own any part of land among them. I am your part and your share among the people of Israel.

²¹ “See, I have given a tenth part of everything in Israel to the Levites, in return for the work they do, the work of the meeting tent. ²² The people of Israel must not come near the meeting tent again, or they will be guilty of sin and die. ²³ Only the Levites may do the work around the meeting tent, and they will carry their sin. It will be a Law forever for all your children-to-come. And they will have no land among the people of Israel. ²⁴ For I have given to the Levites one-tenth part of what the people of Israel give to the Lord. This is why I have said of them, ‘They will have no land among the people of Israel.’”

²⁵ Then the Lord said to Moses, ²⁶ “Say to the Levites, ‘When you take from the people of Israel the tenth which I have given you from them for your share, then give a gift from it to the Lord. Give one-tenth part of the tenth. ²⁷ And your gift will be to you as if it were the grain from the grain-floor or all the wine from the crushed grapes. ²⁸ So you must give a gift to the Lord from the tenth of what you receive from the people of Israel. And from it you must give the Lord’s gift to Aaron the religious leader. ²⁹ Out of all the gifts to you, you must give every gift that should go to the Lord, from all the best of them. Give the holy part from them.’

³⁰ “And say to them, ‘When you have given the best part of it, the rest of it will be to you as if it were the grain from the grain-floor and the wine from the crushed grapes. ³¹ You and those of your houses may eat it in any place. For it is your pay for your work in the meeting tent. ³² You will not be guilty because of it, when you have given the best of it. But do not make unclean the holy gifts of the people of Israel, or you will die.’”

Laws for Washing

19 Now the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ² “This is the Law which the Lord has told you. Tell the people of Israel to bring you a young red cow that is perfect, one that has never pulled a load. ³ You will give it to Eleazar the religious leader. It will be brought away from the tents and killed in front of him. ⁴ Next Eleazar the religious leader will take some of its blood with his finger, and put some of it toward the front of the meeting tent seven times. ⁵ Then Eleazar will watch the young cow being burned. Its skin, its flesh, its blood and its waste will be burned. ⁶ The religious leader will take cedar wood and hyssop and red cloth, and put it on the burning cow. ⁷ Then the religious leader will wash his clothes and wash his body in water. After this the religious leader may come among the tents, but he will be unclean until evening. ⁸ The one who burns it will also wash his clothes and wash his body in water. And he will be unclean until evening. ⁹ Now a man who is clean will gather up the ashes of the young cow and put them in a clean place away from the tents. They will be kept for the people of Israel to mix with the water used to make things clean, to take away sin. ¹⁰ The one who gathers the ashes of the young cow must wash his clothes. He will be unclean until evening. This will be a Law forever to the people of Israel and to the stranger who lives among them.

¹¹ “The one who touches the dead body of any person will be unclean for seven days. ¹² He must clean himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day. Then he will be clean. But if he does not clean himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will be unclean. ¹³ Whoever touches the body of any man who has died, and does not make himself clean, makes the meeting tent of the Lord unclean. That person must be cut off from Israel. Because the water for cleaning was not put upon him, he will be unclean.

¹⁴ “This is the Law when a man dies in a tent. Everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent will be unclean for seven days. ¹⁵ And every open pot that has no cover on it will be unclean. ¹⁶ Anyone in an open field who touches one who has been killed with a sword, or who has died, or who touches a bone of a man, or a grave will be unclean for seven days. ¹⁷ The person who is unclean must take some of the ashes from the burning of the sin gift. Clean water must be added to them in a pot. ¹⁸ Then a clean person must take hyssop and put it in the water, and put it on the tent and on all the objects within the tent. He must put it on the persons who were there, and on the one who touched the bone or the man who was killed or the dead person or the grave. ¹⁹ The clean person must put the water on whoever is unclean, on the third day and on the seventh day. He will make him clean on the seventh day. He will wash his clothes and wash himself in water, and will be clean at evening.

²⁰ “But the man who is unclean and does not make himself clean, will no longer be one of God’s people. Because he has made unclean the holy place of the Lord. The water for cleaning has not been put on him. He is unclean. ²¹ It will be a Law forever for them. He who puts the water on to be made clean must wash his clothes. And he who touches the water used to be made clean will be unclean until evening. ²² Anything that the person who is unclean touches will be unclean. And the person who touches it will be unclean until evening.”

The Feeding of the Five Thousand ^(A)

³⁰ The followers of Jesus came back to Him. They told Jesus all they had done and taught. ³¹ He said to them, “Come away from the people. Be by yourselves and rest.” There were many people coming and going. They had had no time even to eat. ³² They went by themselves in a boat to a desert. ³³ Many people saw them leave and knew who they were. People ran fast from all the cities and got there first. ³⁴ When Jesus got out of the boat, He saw many people gathered together. He had loving-pity for them. They were like sheep without a shepherd. He began to teach them many things.

³⁵ The day was almost gone. The followers of Jesus came to Him. They said, “This is a desert. It is getting late. ³⁶ Tell the people to go to the towns and villages and buy food for themselves.” ³⁷ He said to them, “Give them something to eat.” They said to Him, “Are we to go and buy many loaves of bread and give it to them?” ³⁸ He said to them, “How many loaves of bread do you have here? Go and see.” When they knew, they said, “Five loaves of bread and two fish.” ³⁹ Then He told them to have all the people sit down together in groups on the green grass. ⁴⁰ They sat down in groups of fifty people and in groups of one hundred people. ⁴¹ Jesus took the five loaves of bread and two fish. He looked up to heaven and gave thanks. He broke the loaves in pieces and gave them to the followers to set before the people. He divided the two fish among them all. ⁴² They all ate and were filled. ⁴³ After that the followers picked up twelve baskets full of pieces of bread and fish. ⁴⁴ About five thousand men ate the bread.

Jesus Walks On The Water ^(B)

⁴⁵ At once Jesus had His followers get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side to the town of Bethsaida. He sent the people away. ⁴⁶ When they were all gone, He went up to the mountain to pray. ⁴⁷ It was evening. The boat was half-way across the sea. Jesus was alone on the land. ⁴⁸ He saw His followers were in trouble. The wind was against them. They were working very hard rowing the boat. About three o’clock in the morning Jesus came to them walking on the sea. He would have gone past them. ⁴⁹ When the followers saw Him walking on the water, they thought it was a spirit and cried out with fear. ⁵⁰ For they all saw Him and were afraid. At once Jesus talked to them. He said, “Take hope. It is I, do not be afraid.” ⁵¹ He came over to them and got into the boat. The wind stopped. They were very much surprised and wondered about it. ⁵² They had not learned what they should have learned from the loaves because their hearts were hard.

People Are Healed at Gennesaret ^(C)

⁵³ Then they crossed the sea and came to the land of Gennesaret and went to shore. ⁵⁴ When Jesus got out of the boat, the people knew Him at once. ⁵⁵ They ran through all the country bringing people who were sick on their beds to Jesus. ⁵⁶ Wherever He went, they would lay the sick people in the streets in the center of town where people gather. They begged Him that they might touch the bottom of His coat. Everyone who did was healed. This happened in the towns and in the cities and in the country where He went.