Old/New Testament
Aaron’s Staff Is Chosen
17 The Lord spoke to Moses: 2 “Speak to the Israelites, and collect staffs from them, one from each father’s house, from all their tribal chiefs according to their fathers’ houses, twelve staffs in all. Write each man’s name on his staff. 3 Write Aaron’s name on the staff of Levi, because there will be one staff for each head of their fathers’ houses. 4 You are to place them in the Tent of Meeting before the Testimony, where I meet with you. 5 The staff of the man whom I will choose will sprout. I will rid myself of the Israelites’ constant grumbling against you.”
6 So Moses spoke to the Israelites, and each one of their tribal chiefs gave him a staff, one staff for each tribal chief according to their fathers’ houses, twelve staffs in all. Aaron’s staff was among their staffs. 7 Moses placed the staffs before the Lord in the Tent of the Testimony.
8 On the next day Moses went into the Tent of the Testimony and discovered that Aaron’s staff representing the house of Levi had sprouted, budded, blossomed, and produced almonds. 9 Moses brought out all the staffs from the Lord’s presence to all the Israelites. They looked, and each man took his staff.
10 The Lord said to Moses, “Put Aaron’s staff back in front of the Testimony to be kept as a sign against the rebellious.[a] In this way you will put an end to their grumblings against me, so that they do not die.” 11 That is what Moses did. He did just as the Lord commanded him.
12 The Israelites said to Moses, “Look, we are perishing! We are lost! We are all lost! 13 Everyone who approaches the Lord’s Dwelling dies! Must we all perish?”
Duties of the Priests and Levites
18 The Lord gave these directions to Aaron:
You, your sons, and your father’s house with you will bear the guilt for any sins in connection with the sanctuary. You and your sons with you will bear the guilt for any sins in connection with your priesthood. 2 Also have your brothers from the tribe of Levi, your father’s tribe, come forward with you so that they may join you and assist you when you and your sons along with you are on duty in front of the Tent of the Testimony. 3 They will perform the duties for you and for the entire tent. However, they are not to go close to the furnishings in the sanctuary or to the altar, so that they and you will not die. 4 They are to join you and perform the duties for the Tent of Meeting, to do all the work at the tent. No unauthorized person is to go near you.
5 You are to perform the duties for the sanctuary and for the altar so that there will not be any more wrath on the Israelites. 6 See, I myself have taken your brothers, the Levites, from among the Israelites. They are a gift to you, given by the Lord, to do the work at the Tent of Meeting. 7 But you and your sons with you will keep watch over your priesthood in connection with everything at the altar and inside the veil. You are to do this work. I am giving you your priesthood as a gift. Any unauthorized person who comes near must be put to death.
Offerings to Support the Priests and Levites
8 The Lord spoke to Aaron. This is what he said:
See, I myself have put you in charge of the elevated offerings made to me. All of the holy things from the Israelites I have given to you as an allotment and to your sons as a permanent right. 9 Part of the most holy things that are not burned in the fire will be yours. Every one of their offerings which they give to me—every one of their grain offerings, every one of their sin offerings, and every one of their restitution offerings—will be most holy for you and your sons. 10 You will eat it as a most holy thing. Every male may eat of it. It will be holy for you.
11 This is yours too: the elevated offerings from their gifts, including all the wave offerings[b] from the Israelites. I have given them to you and to your sons and daughters with you as a permanent right. Everyone who is ceremonially clean in your house may eat it.
12 All the best oil, all the best wine and grain, the Israelites’ firstfruits which they give to the Lord, I have given them all to you. 13 The first ripe produce from everything that is in their land, all that they bring to the Lord, will be yours. Everyone who is ceremonially clean in your house may eat it.
14 Everything permanently devoted by the Israelites will be yours. 15 The firstborn from every living thing, human or animal, whatever they present to the Lord, will be yours. However, you must redeem the firstborn of any human. You must also redeem the firstborn of an unclean animal. 16 When they are one month old, you must redeem them at the set redemption price, five shekels of silver, according to the sanctuary shekel, which weighs twenty gerahs.
17 However, you may not redeem the firstborn of the cattle, sheep, or goats. They are set aside as holy. You will splash their blood on the altar and turn their fat into smoke as an offering made by fire, with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. 18 Their meat will be yours. It will be yours just like the breast of the wave offering and the right thigh. 19 All the elevated offerings of holy things, which the Israelites lift up to the Lord, I have given to you and to your sons and daughters with you as a permanent allotment. It is a permanent covenant of salt[c] before the Lord for you and your descendants with you.
20 The Lord also said these things to Aaron:
You will not have any allotment of land among them in the land, and you will not have any share among them. I am your share and your possession among the people of Israel.
21 See, I have given all the tithes in Israel to the Levites as a possession in return for their work which they are doing, the work at the Tent of Meeting. 22 The Israelites will never again come near the Tent of Meeting. If they do, they will become responsible for sin and die. 23 But the Levites are to do the work at the Tent of Meeting, and they will bear their guilt. It will be a permanent regulation throughout your generations to come: They will not have any possession among the Israelites. 24 For the tithe from the Israelites, which they lift up as an elevated offering for the Lord, I have given to the Levites as a possession. Therefore I have said to them, “They will not have any possession among the Israelites.”
25 The Lord told Moses 26 to speak to the Levites and tell them this:
When you receive from the Israelites the tithe, which I have given to you as your possession, you will lift up an elevated offering from it for the Lord, a tenth of the tithe. 27 Your elevated offering will be credited to you, as if it were grain from the threshing floor and abundance from the winepress. 28 In this way you also are to lift up an elevated offering for the Lord from every one of the tithes which you receive from the Israelites. From the tithes, you will give the elevated offering for the Lord to Aaron the priest. 29 You will lift up every elevated offering for the Lord from the things given to you, from all the best, the holiest part of it.
30 Tell the Levites this:
When you lift up the best part of the offering, it will be credited to the Levites as if it were produce from the threshing floor and the winepress. 31 You may eat it anywhere, with your household, for it is your wages in return for your work at the Tent of Meeting. 32 You will not become responsible for sin in regard to it when you lift up the best part of it. You will not defile the holy things from the Israelites, and you will not die.
Purification Rites
19 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron:
2 These are requirements of the law which the Lord has commanded.
Tell the Israelites to bring you a red heifer without blemish, one that has no defect and that has never been under a yoke. 3 You are to give it to Eleazar the priest. He is to have it taken outside of the camp and slaughtered in his presence. 4 With his finger Eleazar the priest is to take some of its blood and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the Tent of Meeting. 5 The heifer is to be burned in his sight. Its hide, flesh, and blood are to be burned along with its manure. 6 The priest will take cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet yarn and throw them onto the burning heifer. 7 Then the priest will wash his clothes and bathe his flesh in water. Afterward he will come into the camp, and the priest will be unclean until evening. 8 The one who burns the heifer is to wash his clothing in water and bathe his flesh in water. He will remain unclean until evening.
9 A man who is ceremonially clean is to gather up the heifer’s ashes and place them outside of the camp in a clean place. They will be kept for the Israelite congregation to use to make the water for removing impurity.[d] It is a sin offering. 10 The one who gathers the heifer’s ashes is to wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. This will be a permanent regulation for the Israelites and the aliens residing among them.
11 Whoever touches the body of a dead person will be unclean for seven days. 12 He is to purify himself with the water on the third day, and he will become clean on the seventh day. But if he does not purify himself on the third day, then he will not become clean on the seventh day. 13 Anyone who touches a dead human body but does not purify himself defiles the Lord’s Dwelling. That person must be cut off from Israel. He is unclean, because he has not sprinkled himself with the water for removing impurity. His uncleanness is still on him.
14 This is the law when someone dies in a tent: Everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent will be unclean for seven days. 15 Every open container without a lid on it is unclean.
16 Anyone in the open countryside who touches someone killed by a sword or someone who has died, or anyone who touches a human bone or a grave, will be unclean for seven days.
17 For the unclean person, take some of the ashes from the burnt sin offering, put them into a vessel, and add water from a flowing source[e] to the ashes. 18 A ceremonially clean person is to take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle the water on the tent, on all the items, and on the people who were there. He is also to sprinkle it on anyone who has touched someone who was killed or someone who has died and on anyone who has touched a grave or a human bone. 19 The ceremonially clean person will sprinkle the unclean person on the third day and on the seventh day. On the seventh day, after the ceremonially clean person has purified the unclean person, that person will wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and he will be clean at evening. 20 But anyone who is unclean and refuses to purify himself will be cut off from the midst of the assembly, because he has defiled the sanctuary of the Lord. The water for removing impurity was not sprinkled on him, so he remains unclean. 21 This will be a permanent regulation for them. The one who sprinkles the water for removing impurity shall wash his clothing, and whoever touches the water for removing impurity will be unclean until evening.
22 Everything that the unclean person touches will be unclean, and the person who touches those things will be unclean until evening.
Jesus Feeds More Than Five Thousand
30 The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all that they had done and taught. 31 He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while.” For there were so many people coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat. 32 They went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. 33 But many people saw them leave and knew where they were going. They ran there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. 34 When Jesus stepped out of the boat, he saw a large crowd. His heart went out to them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. He began to teach them many things. 35 It was already late in the day when his disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place and it is already very late. 36 Send them away so they can go into the surrounding country and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”
37 But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.”
They asked him, “Should we go and buy two hundred denarii[a] worth of bread and give them something to eat?”
38 He said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go see.”
When they found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.”
39 He directed everyone to sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 They sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. 41 Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish, looked up to heaven, and blessed the loaves and broke them. Then he kept giving pieces to his disciples to set in front of them. He also divided the two fish among them all. 42 They all ate and were satisfied. 43 Then they picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. 44 There were five thousand men who ate the loaves.
Jesus Walks on Water
45 Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go ahead to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he himself dismissed the crowd. 46 After he had sent them off, he went up the mountain to pray.
47 When it was evening, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and Jesus was alone on the land. 48 He saw them straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. About the fourth watch of the night,[b] he went to them, walking on the sea. He was ready to pass by them. 49 When they saw him walking on the sea, they thought he was a ghost, and they cried out. 50 They all saw him and were terrified. Immediately he spoke with them and said, “Take courage! It is I.[c] Do not be afraid.” 51 Then he climbed up into the boat with them, and the wind stopped. They were completely amazed, 52 because they had not understood about the loaves. Instead, their hearts were hardened.
53 When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret and anchored there. 54 As soon as they stepped out of the boat, people recognized Jesus. 55 They ran around that whole region and began to bring sick people on their stretchers to where they heard he was. 56 Wherever he entered villages, cities, or the countryside, they were laying sick people in the marketplaces and pleading with him that they might just touch the edge of his garment. And all who touched it were made well.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.