Yahweh
spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting, on the
first day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out
of the land of Egypt, saying, “Take a census of all the
congregation of the children of Israel, by their families, by their
fathers’ houses, according to the number of the names, every male, one
by one; from twenty years
old and upward, all who are able to go out to war in Israel. You and Aaron
shall number them by their divisions. With you there shall be a man of
every tribe; everyone head of his fathers’ house. These are the names of the men who
shall stand with you:
Of Reuben: Elizur the son of Shedeur.
Of Simeon: Shelumiel the
son of Zurishaddai.
Of Judah: Nahshon the son
of Amminadab.
Of Issachar: Nethanel the
son of Zuar.
Of Zebulun: Eliab the son
of Helon.
Of the children of Joseph:
Of Ephraim: Elishama the son of Ammihud.
Of Manasseh: Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur.
Of Benjamin: Abidan the
son of Gideoni.
Of Dan: Ahiezer the son
of Ammishaddai.
Of Asher: Pagiel the son
of Ochran.
Of Gad: Eliasaph the son
of Deuel.
Of Naphtali: Ahira the
son of Enan.”
These are those who
were called of the congregation, the princes of the tribes of their
fathers; they were the heads of the thousands of Israel. Moses and Aaron took these men
who are mentioned by name. They assembled all the
congregation together on the first day of the second month; and they
declared their ancestry by their families, by their fathers’ houses,
according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward,
one by one. As Yahweh
commanded Moses, so he numbered them in the wilderness of Sinai.
The children of
Reuben, Israel’s firstborn, their generations, by their families, by
their fathers’ houses, according to the number of the names, one by one,
every male from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go out
to war; those who were
numbered of them, of the tribe of Reuben, were forty-six thousand five
hundred.
Of the children of
Simeon, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’ houses,
those who were numbered of it, according to the number of the names, one
by one, every male from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to
go out to war; those who
were numbered of them, of the tribe of Simeon, were fifty-nine thousand
three hundred.
Of the children of
Gad, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’ houses,
according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward,
all who were able to go out to war; those who were numbered of them,
of the tribe of Gad, were forty-five thousand six hundred fifty.
Of the children of
Judah, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’ houses,
according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward,
all who were able to go out to war; those who were numbered of them,
of the tribe of Judah, were sixty-four thousand six hundred.
Of the children of
Issachar, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’
houses, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and
upward, all who were able to go out to war; those who were numbered of them,
of the tribe of Issachar, were fifty-four thousand four hundred.
Of the children of
Zebulun, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’ houses,
according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward,
all who were able to go out to war; those who were numbered of them,
of the tribe of Zebulun, were fifty-seven thousand four hundred. Of the children of Joseph, of the
children of Ephraim, their generations, by their families, by their
fathers’ houses, according to the number of the names, from twenty years
old and upward, all who were able to go out to war; those who were numbered of them,
of the tribe of Ephraim, were forty thousand five hundred.
Of the children of
Manasseh, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’
houses, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and
upward, all who were able to go out to war; those who were numbered of them,
of the tribe of Manasseh, were thirty-two thousand two hundred.
Of the children of
Benjamin, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’
houses, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and
upward, all who were able to go out to war; those who were numbered of them,
of the tribe of Benjamin, were thirty-five thousand four hundred.
Of the children of
Dan, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’ houses,
according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward,
all who were able to go forth to war; those who were numbered of them,
of the tribe of Dan, were sixty-two thousand seven hundred.
Of the children of
Asher, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’ houses,
according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward,
all who were able to go forth to war; those who were numbered of them,
of the tribe of Asher, were forty-one thousand five hundred.
Of the children of
Naphtali, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’
houses, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and
upward, all who were able to go forth to war; those who were numbered of them,
of the tribe of Naphtali, were fifty-three thousand four hundred.
These are those who
were numbered, whom Moses and Aaron numbered, and the princes of Israel,
being twelve men: they were each one for his fathers’ house. So all those who were numbered of
the children of Israel by their fathers’ houses, from twenty years old
and upward, all who were able to go out to war in Israel; even all those who were numbered
were six hundred three thousand five hundred fifty. But the Levites after the tribe
of their fathers were not numbered among them. For Yahweh spoke to Moses,
saying, “Only the tribe
of Levi you shall not number, neither shall you take a census of them
among the children of Israel; but appoint the Levites over the
Tabernacle of the Testimony, and over all its furnishings, and over all
that belongs to it. They shall carry the tabernacle, and all its
furnishings; and they shall take care of it, and shall encamp around it.
When the tabernacle is to
move, the Levites shall take it down; and when the tabernacle is to be set
up, the Levites shall set it up. The stranger who comes near shall be put
to death. The children of
Israel shall pitch their tents, every man by his own camp, and every man
by his own standard, according to their divisions. But the Levites shall encamp
around the Tabernacle of the Testimony, that there may be no wrath on the
congregation of the children of Israel: and the Levites shall be
responsible for the Tabernacle of the Testimony.”
Thus the children of
Israel did. According to all that Yahweh commanded Moses, so they did.
Yahweh spoke to Moses
and to Aaron, saying, “The children of Israel shall
encamp every man by his own standard, with the banners of their fathers’
houses: at a distance from the Tent of Meeting shall they encamp around
it.”
Those who encamp on the
east side toward the sunrise shall be of the standard of the camp of
Judah, according to their divisions: and the prince of the children of
Judah shall be Nahshon the son of Amminadab. His division, and those who were
numbered of them, were seventy-four thousand six hundred.
Those who encamp next
to him shall be the tribe of Issachar: and the prince of the children of
Issachar shall be Nethanel the son of Zuar. His division, and those who were
numbered of it, were fifty-four thousand four hundred.
The tribe of Zebulun:
and the prince of the children of Zebulun shall be Eliab the son of Helon.
His division, and those
who were numbered of it, were fifty-seven thousand four hundred.
All who were numbered
of the camp of Judah were one hundred eighty-six thousand four hundred,
according to their divisions. They shall set out first.
“On the south side
shall be the standard of the camp of Reuben according to their divisions.
The prince of the children of Reuben shall be Elizur the son of Shedeur.
His division, and those
who were numbered of it, were forty-six thousand five hundred.
“Those who encamp
next to him shall be the tribe of Simeon. The prince of the children of
Simeon shall be Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai. His division, and those who were
numbered of them, were fifty-nine thousand three hundred.
“The tribe of Gad:
and the prince of the children of Gad shall be Eliasaph the son of Reuel.
His division, and those
who were numbered of them, were forty-five thousand six hundred fifty.
“All who were
numbered of the camp of Reuben were one hundred fifty-one thousand four
hundred fifty, according to their armies. They shall set out second.
“Then the Tent of
Meeting shall set out, with the camp of the Levites in the midst of the
camps. As they encamp, so shall they set out, every man in his place, by
their standards.
“On the west side
shall be the standard of the camp of Ephraim according to their divisions:
and the prince of the children of Ephraim shall be Elishama the son of
Ammihud. His division,
and those who were numbered of them, were forty thousand five hundred.
“Next to him shall
be the tribe of Manasseh: and the prince of the children of Manasseh shall
be Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur. His division, and those who were
numbered of them, were thirty-two thousand two hundred.
“The tribe of
Benjamin: and the prince of the children of Benjamin shall be Abidan the
son of Gideoni. His army,
and those who were numbered of them, were thirty-five thousand four
hundred.
“All who were
numbered of the camp of Ephraim were one hundred eight thousand one
hundred, according to their divisions. They shall set out third.
“On the north side
shall be the standard of the camp of Dan according to their divisions: and
the prince of the children of Dan shall be Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai.
His division, and those
who were numbered of them, were sixty-two thousand seven hundred.
“Those who encamp
next to him shall be the tribe of Asher: and the prince of the children of
Asher shall be Pagiel the son of Ochran. His division, and those who were
numbered of them, were forty-one thousand and five hundred.
“The tribe of
Naphtali: and the prince of the children of Naphtali shall be Ahira the
son of Enan. His
division, and those who were numbered of them, were fifty-three thousand
four hundred.
“All who were
numbered of the camp of Dan were one hundred fifty-seven thousand six
hundred. They shall set out last by their standards.”
These are those who
were numbered of the children of Israel by their fathers’ houses. All
who were numbered of the camps according to their armies were six hundred
three thousand five hundred fifty. But the Levites were not numbered
among the children of Israel; as Yahweh commanded Moses.
Thus the children of
Israel did. According to all that Yahweh commanded Moses, so they encamped
by their standards, and so they set out, everyone by their families,
according to their fathers’ houses.
Now this is the history
of the generations of Aaron and Moses in the day that Yahweh spoke with
Moses in Mount Sinai. These are the names of the sons of
Aaron: Nadab the firstborn, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.
These are the names of
the sons of Aaron, the priests who were anointed, whom he consecrated to
minister in the priest’s office. Nadab and Abihu died before
Yahweh, when they offered strange fire before Yahweh, in the wilderness of
Sinai, and they had no children. Eleazar and Ithamar ministered in the
priest’s office in the presence of Aaron their father.
Yahweh spoke to Moses,
saying, “Bring the tribe
of Levi near, and set them before Aaron the priest, that they may minister
to him. They shall keep
his requirements, and the requirements of the whole congregation before
the Tent of Meeting, to do the service of the tabernacle. They shall keep all the
furnishings of the Tent of Meeting, and the obligations of the children of
Israel, to do the service of the tabernacle. You shall give the Levites to
Aaron and to his sons. They are wholly given to him on the behalf of the
children of Israel. You
shall appoint Aaron and his sons, and they shall keep their priesthood.
The stranger who comes near shall be put to death.”
Yahweh spoke to Moses,
saying, “Behold, I have
taken the Levites from among the children of Israel instead of all the
firstborn who open the womb among the children of Israel; and the Levites
shall be mine: for all
the firstborn are mine. On the day that I struck down all the firstborn in
the land of Egypt I made holy to me all the firstborn in Israel, both man
and animal. They shall be mine. I am Yahweh.”
Yahweh spoke to Moses
in the wilderness of Sinai, saying, “Count the children of Levi by
their fathers’ houses, by their families. You shall count every male
from a month old and upward.”
Moses numbered them
according to the word of Yahweh, as he was commanded.
These were the sons of
Levi by their names: Gershon, and Kohath, and Merari.
These are the names of
the sons of Gershon by their families: Libni and Shimei.
The sons of Kohath by
their families: Amram, and Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel.
The sons of Merari by
their families: Mahli and Mushi.
These are the families of the Levites according to their fathers’
houses.
Of Gershon was the
family of the Libnites, and the family of the Shimeites: these are the
families of the Gershonites.
Those who were
numbered of them, according to the number of all the males, from a month
old and upward, even those who were numbered of them were seven thousand
five hundred.
The families of the
Gershonites shall encamp behind the tabernacle westward.
The prince of the
fathers’ house of the Gershonites shall be Eliasaph the son of Lael.
The duty of the sons of
Gershon in the Tent of Meeting shall be the tabernacle, and the tent, its
covering, and the screen for the door of the Tent of Meeting, and the hangings of the court,
and the screen for the door of the court, which is by the tabernacle, and
around the altar, and its cords for all of its service.
Of Kohath was the
family of the Amramites, and the family of the Izharites, and the family
of the Hebronites, and the family of the Uzzielites: these are the
families of the Kohathites. According to the number of all
the males, from a month old and upward, there were eight thousand six
hundred, keeping the requirements of the sanctuary.
The families of the
sons of Kohath shall encamp on the south side of the tabernacle. The prince of the fathers’
house of the families of the Kohathites shall be Elizaphan the son of
Uzziel. Their duty shall
be the ark, the table, the lamp stand, the altars, the vessels of the
sanctuary with which they minister, and the screen, and all its service.
Eleazar the son of Aaron
the priest shall be prince of the princes of the Levites, with the
oversight of those who keep the requirements of the sanctuary.
Of Merari was the
family of the Mahlites, and the family of the Mushites. These are the
families of Merari. Those
who were numbered of them, according to the number of all the males, from
a month old and upward, were six thousand two hundred.
The prince of the
fathers’ house of the families of Merari was Zuriel the son of Abihail.
They shall encamp on the north side of the tabernacle. The appointed duty of the sons of
Merari shall be the tabernacle’s boards, its bars, its pillars, its
sockets, all its instruments, all its service, the pillars of the court around
it, their sockets, their pins, and their cords. Those who encamp before the
tabernacle eastward, in front of the Tent of Meeting toward the sunrise,
shall be Moses, and Aaron and his sons, keeping the requirements of the
sanctuary for the duty of the children of Israel. The stranger who comes
near shall be put to death. All who were numbered of the
Levites, whom Moses and Aaron numbered at the commandment of Yahweh, by
their families, all the males from a month old and upward, were twenty-two
thousand.
Yahweh said to Moses,
“Number all the firstborn males of the children of Israel from a month
old and upward, and take the number of their names. You shall take the Levites for me
(I am Yahweh) instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel;
and the livestock of the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the
livestock of the children of Israel.”
Moses numbered, as
Yahweh commanded him, all the firstborn among the children of Israel.
All the firstborn males
according to the number of names, from a month old and upward, of those
who were numbered of them, were twenty-two thousand two hundred
seventy-three.
Yahweh spoke to Moses,
saying, “Take the
Levites instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel, and the
livestock of the Levites instead of their livestock; and the Levites shall
be mine. I am Yahweh. For
the redemption of the two hundred seventy-three of the firstborn of the
children of Israel, who exceed the number of the Levites, you shall take five shekels
apiece for each one; after the shekel of the sanctuary you shall take them
(the shekel is twenty gerahs): and you shall give the money,
with which their remainder is redeemed, to Aaron and to his sons.”
Moses took the
redemption money from those who exceeded the number of those who were
redeemed by the Levites; from the firstborn of the
children of Israel he took the money, one thousand three hundred
sixty-five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary: and Moses gave the redemption
money to Aaron and to his sons, according to the word of Yahweh, as Yahweh
commanded Moses.
Yahweh spoke to Moses
and to Aaron, saying, “Take a census of the sons of
Kohath from among the sons of Levi, by their families, by their fathers’
houses, from thirty years
old and upward even until fifty years old, all who enter into the service,
to do the work in the Tent of Meeting.
“This is the service
of the sons of Kohath in the Tent of Meeting, the most holy things.
When the camp moves
forward, Aaron shall go in, and his sons, and they shall take down the
veil of the screen, and cover the ark of the Testimony with it, and shall put a covering of
sealskin on it, and shall spread over it a cloth all of blue, and shall
put in its poles.
“On the table of show
bread they shall spread a blue cloth, and put on it the dishes, the
spoons, the bowls, and the cups with which to pour out; and the continual
bread shall be on it. They
shall spread on them a scarlet cloth, and cover the same with a covering
of sealskin, and shall put in its poles.
“They shall take a
blue cloth, and cover the lampstand of the light, and its lamps, and its
snuffers, and its snuff dishes, and all its oil vessels, with which they
minister to it. They
shall put it and all its vessels within a covering of sealskin, and shall
put it on the frame.
“On the golden altar
they shall spread a blue cloth, and cover it with a covering of sealskin,
and shall put in its poles.
“They shall take all
the vessels of ministry, with which they minister in the sanctuary, and
put them in a blue cloth, and cover them with a covering of sealskin, and
shall put them on the frame.
“They shall take
away the ashes from the altar, and spread a purple cloth on it. They shall put on it all its
vessels, with which they minister about it, the fire pans, the flesh
hooks, the shovels, and the basins; all the vessels of the altar; and they
shall spread on it a covering of sealskin, and put in its poles.
“When Aaron and his
sons have finished covering the sanctuary, and all the furniture of the
sanctuary, as the camp moves forward; after that, the sons of Kohath shall
come to carry it: but they shall not touch the sanctuary, lest they die.
These things are the burden of the sons of Kohath in the Tent of Meeting.
“The duty of Eleazar
the son of Aaron the priest shall be the oil for the light, the sweet
incense, the continual meal offering, and the anointing oil, the
requirements of all the tabernacle, and of all that is in it, the
sanctuary, and its furnishings.”
Yahweh spoke to Moses
and to Aaron, saying, “Don’t cut off the tribe of
the families of the Kohathites from among the Levites; but thus do to them, that they
may live, and not die, when they approach to the most holy things: Aaron
and his sons shall go in, and appoint them everyone to his service and to
his burden; but they
shall not go in to see the sanctuary even for a moment, lest they die.”
Yahweh spoke to Moses,
saying, “Take a census
of the sons of Gershon also, by their fathers’ houses, by their
families; you shall count
them from thirty years old and upward until fifty years old; all who enter
in to wait on the service, to do the work in the Tent of Meeting.
“This is the service
of the families of the Gershonites, in serving and in bearing burdens:
they shall carry the
curtains of the tabernacle, and the Tent of Meeting, its covering, and the
covering of sealskin that is above on it, and the screen for the door of
the Tent of Meeting, and
the hangings of the court, and the screen for the door of the gate of the
court, which is by the tabernacle and around the altar, and their cords,
and all the instruments of their service, and whatever shall be done with
them. Therein shall they serve. At the commandment of Aaron and
his sons shall be all the service of the sons of the Gershonites, in all
their burden, and in all their service; and you shall appoint their duty
to them in all their responsibilities. This is the service of the
families of the sons of the Gershonites in the Tent of Meeting: and their
duty shall be under the hand of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest.
“As for the sons of
Merari, you shall number them by their families, by their fathers’
houses; you shall count
them from thirty years old and upward even to fifty years old, everyone
who enters on the service, to do the work of the Tent of Meeting. This is the duty of their burden,
according to all their service in the Tent of Meeting: the tabernacle’s
boards, its bars, its pillars, its sockets, and the pillars of the court
around it, and their sockets, and their pins, and their cords, with all
their instruments, and with all their service: and by name you shall
appoint the instruments of the duty of their burden. This is the service of the
families of the sons of Merari, according to all their service, in the
Tent of Meeting, under the hand of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest.”
Moses and Aaron and
the princes of the congregation numbered the sons of the Kohathites by
their families, and by their fathers’ houses, from thirty years old and upward
even to fifty years old, everyone who entered into the service, for work
in the Tent of Meeting. Those who were numbered of them
by their families were two thousand seven hundred fifty. These are those who were numbered
of the families of the Kohathites, all who served in the Tent of Meeting,
whom Moses and Aaron numbered according to the commandment of Yahweh by
Moses.
Those who were
numbered of the sons of Gershon, their families, and by their fathers’
houses, from thirty years
old and upward even to fifty years old, everyone who entered into the
service, for work in the Tent of Meeting, even those who were numbered of
them, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, were two thousand six
hundred thirty. These are
those who were numbered of the families of the sons of Gershon, all who
served in the Tent of Meeting, whom Moses and Aaron numbered according to
the commandment of Yahweh. Those who were numbered of the
families of the sons of Merari, by their families, by their fathers’
houses, from thirty years
old and upward even to fifty years old, everyone who entered into the
service, for work in the Tent of Meeting, even those who were numbered of
them by their families, were three thousand two hundred. These are those who were numbered
of the families of the sons of Merari, whom Moses and Aaron numbered
according to the commandment of Yahweh by Moses. All those who were numbered of
the Levites, whom Moses and Aaron and the princes of Israel numbered, by
their families, and by their fathers’ houses, from thirty years old and upward
even to fifty years old, everyone who entered in to do the work of
service, and the work of bearing burdens in the Tent of Meeting, even those who were numbered of
them, were eight thousand five hundred eighty. According to the commandment of
Yahweh they were numbered by Moses, everyone according to his service, and
according to his burden. Thus were they numbered by him, as Yahweh
commanded Moses.
Yahweh spoke to Moses,
saying, “Command the
children of Israel that they put out of the camp every leper, and everyone
who has an issue, and whoever is unclean by the dead. Both you shall put male and female
outside of the camp; that they not defile their camp, in the midst of
which I dwell.”
The children of Israel
did so, and put them out outside of the camp; as Yahweh spoke to Moses, so
did the children of Israel.
Yahweh spoke to Moses,
saying, “Speak to the
children of Israel: ‘When a man or woman commits any sin that men
commit, so as to trespass against Yahweh, and that soul is guilty; then he shall confess his sin
which he has done, and he shall make restitution for his guilt in full,
and add to it the fifth part of it, and give it to him in respect of whom
he has been guilty. But if
the man has no kinsman to whom restitution may be made for the guilt, the
restitution for guilt which is made to Yahweh shall be the priest’s;
besides the ram of the atonement, by which atonement shall be made for
him. Every heave offering
of all the holy things of the children of Israel, which they present to
the priest, shall be his. Every man’s holy things shall
be his: whatever any man gives the priest, it shall be his.’”
Yahweh spoke to Moses,
saying, “Speak to the
children of Israel, and tell them: ‘If any man’s wife goes astray, and
is unfaithful to him, and
a man lies with her carnally, and it is hidden from the eyes of her
husband, and is kept close, and she is defiled, and there is no witness
against her, and she isn’t taken in the act; and the spirit of jealousy comes
on him, and he is jealous of his wife, and she is defiled: or if the
spirit of jealousy comes on him, and he is jealous of his wife, and she
isn’t defiled: then the
man shall bring his wife to the priest, and shall bring her offering for
her: the tenth part of an ephah of barley meal. He shall
pour no oil on it, nor put frankincense on it, for it is a meal offering
of jealousy, a meal offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to memory.
The priest shall bring
her near, and set her before Yahweh; and the priest shall take holy
water in an earthen vessel; and of the dust that is on the floor of the
tabernacle the priest shall take, and put it into the water. The priest shall set the woman
before Yahweh, and let the hair of the woman’s head go loose, and put
the meal offering of memorial in her hands, which is the meal offering of
jealousy. The priest shall have in his hand the water of bitterness that
brings a curse. The
priest shall cause her to swear, and shall tell the woman, “If no man
has lain with you, and if you haven’t gone aside to uncleanness, being
under your husband, be free from this water of bitterness that brings a
curse. But if you have
gone astray, being under your husband, and if you are defiled, and some
man has lain with you besides your husband:” then the priest shall cause the
woman to swear with the oath of cursing, and the priest shall tell the
woman, “Yahweh make you a curse and an oath among your people, when
Yahweh allows your thigh to fall away, and your body to swell; and this water that brings a
curse will go into your bowels, and make your body swell, and your thigh
fall away.” The woman shall say, “Amen, Amen.”
“‘The priest shall
write these curses in a book, and he shall blot them out into the water of
bitterness. He shall make
the woman drink the water of bitterness that causes the curse; and the
water that causes the curse shall enter into her and become bitter.
The priest shall take the
meal offering of jealousy out of the woman’s hand, and shall wave the
meal offering before Yahweh, and bring it to the altar. The priest shall take a handful
of the meal offering, as its memorial, and burn it on the altar, and
afterward shall make the woman drink the water. When he has made her drink the
water, then it shall happen, if she is defiled, and has committed a
trespass against her husband, that the water that causes the curse will
enter into her and become bitter, and her body will swell, and her thigh
will fall away: and the woman will be a curse among her people. If the woman isn’t defiled, but
is clean; then she shall be free, and shall conceive seed.
“‘This is the law
of jealousy, when a wife, being under her husband, goes astray, and is
defiled; or when the
spirit of jealousy comes on a man, and he is jealous of his wife; then he
shall set the woman before Yahweh, and the priest shall execute on her all
this law. The man shall
be free from iniquity, and that woman shall bear her iniquity.’”
Yahweh spoke to Moses,
saying, “Speak to the
children of Israel, and tell them: ‘When either man or woman shall make
a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to Yahweh,
he shall separate himself
from wine and strong drink. He shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar
of fermented drink, neither shall he drink any juice of grapes, nor eat
fresh grapes or dried. All
the days of his separation he shall eat nothing that is made of the
grapevine, from the seeds even to the skins.
“‘All the days of
his vow of separation no razor shall come on his head, until the days are
fulfilled, in which he separates himself to Yahweh. He shall be holy. He
shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow long.
“‘All the days that
he separates himself to Yahweh he shall not go near a dead body. He shall not make himself unclean
for his father, or for his mother, for his brother, or for his sister,
when they die; because his separation to God is on his
head. All the days of his
separation he is holy to Yahweh.
“‘If any man dies
very suddenly beside him, and he defiles the head of his separation; then
he shall shave his head in the day of his cleansing. On the seventh day he
shall shave it. On the
eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the
priest, to the door of the Tent of Meeting. The priest shall offer one for a
sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering, and make atonement for
him, because he sinned by reason of the dead, and shall make his head holy
that same day. He shall
separate to Yahweh the days of his separation, and shall bring a male lamb
a year old for a trespass offering; but the former days shall be void,
because his separation was defiled.
“‘This is the law
of the Nazirite: when the days of his separation are fulfilled, he shall
be brought to the door of the Tent of Meeting, and he shall offer his offering
to Yahweh, one male lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering,
and one ewe lamb a year old without blemish for a sin offering, and one
ram without blemish for peace offerings, and a basket of unleavened bread,
cakes of fine flour mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with
oil, and their meal offering, and their drink offerings. The priest shall present them
before Yahweh, and shall offer his sin offering, and his burnt offering.
He shall offer the ram
for a sacrifice of peace offerings to Yahweh, with the basket of
unleavened bread. The priest shall offer also its meal offering, and its
drink offering. The
Nazirite shall shave the head of his separation at the door of the Tent of
Meeting, and shall take the hair of the head of his separation, and put it
on the fire which is under the sacrifice of peace offerings. The priest shall take the boiled
shoulder of the ram, and one unleavened cake out of the basket, and one
unleavened wafer, and shall put them on the hands of the Nazirite, after
he has shaved the head of his separation; and the priest shall wave them
for a wave offering before Yahweh. This is holy for the priest, together
with the breast that is waved and the thigh that is offered. After that
the Nazirite may drink wine.
“‘This is the law
of the Nazirite who vows, and of his offering to Yahweh for his
separation, besides that which he is able to get. According to his vow
which he vows, so he must do after the law of his separation.’”
Yahweh spoke to Moses,
saying, “Speak to Aaron
and to his sons, saying, ‘This is how you shall bless the children of
Israel.’ You shall tell them,
- ‘Yahweh bless you,
and keep you.
- Yahweh make his face
to shine on you,
- and be gracious to you.
- Yahweh lift up his
face toward you,
- and give you peace.’
“So they shall put
my name on the children of Israel; and I will bless them.”
It happened on the day
that Moses had finished setting up the tabernacle, and had anointed it and
sanctified it, with all its furniture, and the altar with all its vessels,
and had anointed and sanctified them; that the princes of Israel, the
heads of their fathers’ houses, offered. These were the princes of the
tribes. These are they who were over those who were numbered: and they brought their offering
before Yahweh, six covered wagons, and twelve oxen; a wagon for every two
of the princes, and for each one an ox: and they presented them before the
tabernacle. Yahweh spoke
to Moses, saying, “Accept these from them, that
they may be used in doing the service of the Tent of Meeting; and you
shall give them to the Levites, to every man according to his service.”
Moses took the wagons
and the oxen, and gave them to the Levites. He gave two wagons and four oxen
to the sons of Gershon, according to their service: and he gave four wagons and eight
oxen to the sons of Merari, according to their service, under the
direction of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest. But to the sons of Kohath he gave
none, because the service of the sanctuary belonged to them; they carried
it on their shoulders.
The princes gave
offerings for the dedication of the altar in the day that it was anointed,
even the princes gave their offerings before the altar.
Yahweh said to Moses,
“They shall offer their offering, each prince on his day, for the
dedication of the altar.”
He who offered his
offering the first day was Nahshon the son of Amminadab, of the tribe of
Judah, and his offering
was:
one silver platter, the weight of which was one hundred thirty shekels,
one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary;
both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil for a meal offering;
one golden ladle of ten
shekels, full of incense;
one young bull,
one ram,
one male lamb a year old, for a burnt offering;
one male goat for a sin
offering;
and for the sacrifice of
peace offerings, two head of cattle, five rams, five male goats, and five
male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Nahshon the son of
Amminadab.
On the second day
Nethanel the son of Zuar, prince of Issachar, gave his offering. He offered for his offering:
one silver platter, the weight of which was one hundred thirty shekels,
one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary;
both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil for a meal offering;
one golden ladle of ten
shekels, full of incense;
one young bull,
one ram,
one male lamb a year old, for a burnt offering;
one male goat for a sin
offering;
and for the sacrifice of
peace offerings, two head of cattle, five rams, five male goats, five male
lambs a year old. This was the offering of Nethanel the son of Zuar.
On the third day Eliab
the son of Helon, prince of the children of Zebulun gave his offering:
one silver platter, the weight of which was a hundred and thirty shekels,
one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary;
both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil for a meal offering;
one golden ladle of ten
shekels, full of incense;
one young bull,
one ram,
one male lamb a year old, for a burnt offering;
one male goat for a sin
offering;
and for the sacrifice of
peace offerings, two head of cattle, five rams, five male goats, and five
male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Eliab the son of Helon.
On the fourth day
Elizur the son of Shedeur, prince of the children of Reuben gave his offering:
one silver platter, the weight of which was one hundred thirty shekels,
one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary;
both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil for a meal offering;
one golden ladle of ten
shekels, full of incense;
one young bull,
one ram,
one male lamb a year old, for a burnt offering;
one male goat for a sin
offering;
and for the sacrifice of
peace offerings, two head of cattle, five rams, five male goats, and five
male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Elizur the son of Shedeur.
On the fifth day
Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai, prince of the children of Simeon gave his offering:
one silver platter, the weight of which was one hundred thirty shekels,
one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary;
both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil for a meal offering;
one golden ladle of ten
shekels, full of incense;
one young bull,
one ram,
one male lamb a year old, for a burnt offering;
one male goat for a sin
offering;
and for the sacrifice of
peace offerings, two head of cattle, five rams, five male goats, and five
male lambs a year old: this was the offering of Shelumiel the son of
Zurishaddai.
On the sixth day,
Eliasaph the son of Deuel, prince of the children of Gad gave his offering:
one silver platter, the weight of which was one hundred thirty shekels,
one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary;
both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil for a meal offering;
one golden ladle of ten
shekels, full of incense;
one young bull,
one ram,
one male lamb a year old, for a burnt offering;
one male goat for a sin
offering;
and for the sacrifice of
peace offerings, two head of cattle, five rams, five male goats, and five
male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Eliasaph the son of Deuel.
On the seventh day
Elishama the son of Ammihud, prince of the children of Ephraim gave his offering:
one silver platter, the weight of which was one hundred thirty shekels,
one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary;
both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil for a meal offering;
one golden ladle of ten
shekels, full of incense;
one young bull,
one ram,
one male lamb a year old, for a burnt offering;
one male goat for a sin
offering;
and for the sacrifice of
peace offerings, two head of cattle, five rams, five male goats, and five
male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Elishama the son of
Ammihud.
On the eighth day
Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur, prince of the children of Manasseh gave his offering:
one silver platter, the weight of which was one hundred thirty shekels,
one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary;
both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil for a meal offering;
one golden ladle of ten
shekels, full of incense;
one young bull,
one ram,
one male lamb a year old, for a burnt offering;
one male goat for a sin
offering;
and for the sacrifice of
peace offerings, two head of cattle, five rams, five male goats, and five
male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Gamaliel the son of
Pedahzur.
On the ninth day
Abidan the son of Gideoni, prince of the children of Benjamin gave his offering:
one silver platter, the weight of which was one hundred thirty shekels,
one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary;
both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil for a meal offering;
one golden ladle of ten
shekels, full of incense;
one young bull,
one ram,
one male lamb a year old, for a burnt offering;
one male goat for a sin
offering;
and for the sacrifice of
peace offerings, two head of cattle, five rams, five male goats, and five
male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Abidan the son of Gideoni.
On the tenth day
Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai, prince of the children of Dan gave his offering:
one silver platter, the weight of which was one hundred thirty shekels,
one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary;
both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil for a meal offering;
one golden ladle of ten
shekels, full of incense;
one young bull,
one ram,
one male lamb a year old, for a burnt offering;
one male goat for a sin
offering;
and for the sacrifice of
peace offerings, two head of cattle, five rams, five male goats, and five
male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Ahiezer the son of
Ammishaddai.
On the eleventh day
Pagiel the son of Ochran, prince of the children of Asher gave his offering:
one silver platter, the weight of which was one hundred thirty shekels,
one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary;
both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil for a meal offering;
one golden ladle of ten
shekels, full of incense;
one young bull,
one ram,
one male lamb a year old, for a burnt offering;
one male goat for a sin
offering;
and for the sacrifice of
peace offerings, two head of cattle, five rams, five male goats, and five
male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Pagiel the son of Ochran.
On the twelfth day
Ahira the son of Enan, prince of the children of Naphtali gave his offering:
one silver platter, the weight of which was one hundred thirty shekels,
one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary;
both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil for a meal offering;
one golden spoon of ten
shekels, full of incense;
one young bull,
one ram,
one male lamb a year old, for a burnt offering;
one male goat for a sin
offering;
and for the sacrifice of
peace offerings, two head of cattle, five rams, five male goats, and five
male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Ahira the son of Enan.
This was the
dedication of the altar, on the day when it was anointed, by the princes
of Israel: twelve silver platters, twelve silver bowls, twelve golden
ladles; each silver
platter weighing one hundred thirty shekels, and each bowl seventy; all
the silver of the vessels two thousand four hundred shekels, after the
shekel of the sanctuary; the twelve golden ladles, full of
incense, weighing ten shekels apiece, after the shekel of the sanctuary;
all the gold of the ladles weighed one hundred twenty shekels; all the cattle for the burnt
offering twelve bulls, the rams twelve, the male lambs a year old twelve,
and their meal offering; and the male goats for a sin offering twelve;
and all the cattle for
the sacrifice of peace offerings twenty-four bulls, the rams sixty, the
male goats sixty, the male lambs a year old sixty. This was the dedication
of the altar, after it was anointed.
When Moses went into
the Tent of Meeting to speak with Yahweh, he heard his voice speaking to
him from above the mercy seat that was on the ark of the Testimony, from
between the two cherubim: and he spoke to him.
Yahweh spoke to Moses,
saying, “Speak to Aaron,
and tell him, ‘When you light the lamps, the seven lamps shall give
light in front of the lampstand.’”
Aaron did so. He lit
its lamps to light the area in front of the lampstand, as Yahweh commanded
Moses. This was the
workmanship of the lampstand, beaten work of gold. From its base to its
flowers, it was beaten work: according to the pattern which Yahweh had
shown Moses, so he made the lampstand.
Yahweh spoke to Moses,
saying, “Take the
Levites from among the children of Israel, and cleanse them. You shall do this to them, to
cleanse them: sprinkle the water of cleansing on them, let them shave
their whole bodies with a razor, and let them wash their clothes, and
cleanse themselves. Then
let them take a young bull, and its meal offering, fine flour mixed with
oil; and another young bull you shall take for a sin offering. You shall present the Levites
before the Tent of Meeting. You shall assemble the whole congregation of
the children of Israel. You shall present the Levites
before Yahweh. The children of Israel shall lay their hands on the
Levites, and Aaron shall
offer the Levites before Yahweh for a wave offering, on the behalf of the
children of Israel, that it may be theirs to do the service of Yahweh.
“The Levites shall
lay their hands on the heads of the bulls, and you shall offer the one for
a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering to Yahweh, to make
atonement for the Levites. You shall set the Levites before
Aaron, and before his sons, and offer them as a wave offering to Yahweh.
Thus you shall separate
the Levites from among the children of Israel, and the Levites shall be
mine.
“After that, the
Levites shall go in to do the service of the Tent of Meeting: and you
shall cleanse them, and offer them as a wave offering. For they are wholly given to me
from among the children of Israel; instead of all who open the womb, even
the firstborn of all the children of Israel, I have taken them to me.
For all the firstborn
among the children of Israel are mine, both man and animal. On the day
that I struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I sanctified them
for myself. I have taken
the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel.
I have given the Levites
as a gift to Aaron and to his sons from among the children of Israel, to
do the service of the children of Israel in the Tent of Meeting, and to
make atonement for the children of Israel; that there be no plague among
the children of Israel, when the children of Israel come near to the
sanctuary.”
Moses, and Aaron, and
all the congregation of the children of Israel did so to the Levites.
According to all that Yahweh commanded Moses concerning the Levites, so
the children of Israel did to them. The Levites purified themselves
from sin, and they washed their clothes; and Aaron offered them for a wave
offering before Yahweh; and Aaron made atonement for them to cleanse them.
After that, the Levites
went in to do their service in the Tent of Meeting before Aaron, and
before his sons: as Yahweh had commanded Moses concerning the Levites, so
they did to them.
Yahweh spoke to Moses,
saying, “This is that
which belongs to the Levites: from twenty-five years old and upward they
shall go in to wait on the service in the work of the Tent of Meeting;
and from the age of fifty
years they shall cease waiting on the work, and shall serve no more,
but shall minister with
their brothers in the Tent of Meeting, to perform the duty, and shall do
no service. You shall do thus to the Levites concerning their duties.”
Yahweh spoke to Moses
in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after
they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, “Moreover let the children of
Israel keep the Passover in its appointed season. On the fourteenth day of this
month, at evening, you shall keep it in its appointed season—according
to all its statutes, and according to all its ordinances, you shall keep
it.”
Moses spoke to the
children of Israel, that they should keep the Passover. They kept the Passover in the
first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at evening, in the
wilderness of Sinai. According to all that Yahweh commanded Moses, so the
children of Israel did. There were certain men, who were
unclean because of the dead body of a man, so that they could not keep the
Passover on that day, and they came before Moses and before Aaron on that
day. Those men said to
him, “We are unclean because of the dead body of a man. Why are we kept
back, that we may not offer the offering of Yahweh in its appointed season
among the children of Israel?”
Moses answered them,
“Wait, that I may hear what Yahweh will command concerning you.”
Yahweh spoke to Moses,
saying, “Say to the
children of Israel, ‘If any man of you or of your generations is unclean
by reason of a dead body, or is on a journey far away, he shall still keep
the Passover to Yahweh. In the second month, on the
fourteenth day at evening they shall keep it; they shall eat it with
unleavened bread and bitter herbs. They shall leave none of it until
the morning, nor break a bone of it. According to all the statute of the
Passover they shall keep it. But the man who is clean, and is
not on a journey, and fails to keep the Passover, that soul shall be cut
off from his people. Because he didn’t offer the offering of Yahweh in
its appointed season, that man shall bear his sin.
“‘If a foreigner
lives among you, and desires to keep the Passover to Yahweh; according to
the statute of the Passover, and according to its ordinance, so shall he
do. You shall have one statute, both for the foreigner, and for him who is
born in the land.’”
On the day that the
tabernacle was raised up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, even the Tent
of the Testimony: and at evening it was over the tabernacle as it were the
appearance of fire, until morning. So it was continually. The cloud
covered it, and the appearance of fire by night. Whenever the cloud was taken up
from over the Tent, then after that the children of Israel traveled; and
in the place where the cloud remained, there the children of Israel
encamped. At the
commandment of Yahweh, the children of Israel traveled, and at the
commandment of Yahweh they encamped. As long as the cloud remained on the
tabernacle they remained encamped. When the cloud stayed on the
tabernacle many days, then the children of Israel kept Yahweh’s command,
and didn’t travel. Sometimes the cloud was a few
days on the tabernacle; then according to the commandment of Yahweh they
remained encamped, and according to the commandment of Yahweh they
traveled. Sometimes the
cloud was from evening until morning; and when the cloud was taken up in
the morning, they traveled: or by day and by night, when the cloud was
taken up, they traveled. Whether it was two days, or a
month, or a year that the cloud stayed on the tabernacle, remaining on it,
the children of Israel remained encamped, and didn’t travel; but when it
was taken up, they traveled. At the commandment of Yahweh they
encamped, and at the commandment of Yahweh they traveled. They kept
Yahweh’s command, at the commandment of Yahweh by Moses.
Yahweh spoke to Moses,
saying, “Make two
trumpets of silver. You shall make them of beaten work. You shall use them
for the calling of the congregation, and for the journeying of the camps.
When they blow them, all
the congregation shall gather themselves to you at the door of the Tent of
Meeting. If they blow
just one, then the princes, the heads of the thousands of Israel, shall
gather themselves to you. When you blow an alarm, the camps
that lie on the east side shall go forward. When you blow an alarm the second
time, the camps that lie on the south side shall go forward. They shall
blow an alarm for their journeys. But when the assembly is to be
gathered together, you shall blow, but you shall not sound an alarm.
“The sons of Aaron,
the priests, shall blow the trumpets. This shall be to you for a statute
forever throughout your generations. When you go to war in your land
against the adversary who oppresses you, then you shall sound an alarm
with the trumpets. Then you will be remembered before Yahweh your God, and
you will be saved from your enemies.
“Also in the day of
your gladness, and in your set feasts, and in the beginnings of your
months, you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over
the sacrifices of your peace offerings; and they shall be to you for a
memorial before your God. I am Yahweh your God.”
It happened in the
second year, in the second month, on the twentieth day of the month, that
the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle of the testimony. The children of Israel went
forward according to their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai; and
the cloud stayed in the wilderness of Paran. They first went forward
according to the commandment of Yahweh by Moses.
First, the standard
of the camp of the children of Judah went forward according to their
armies. Nahshon the son of Amminadab was over his army. Nethanel the son of Zuar was
over the army of the tribe of the children of Issachar. Eliab the son of Helon was over
the army of the tribe of the children of Zebulun. The tabernacle was taken down;
and the sons of Gershon and the sons of Merari, who bore the tabernacle,
went forward. The
standard of the camp of Reuben went forward according to their armies.
Elizur the son of Shedeur was over his army. Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai
was over the army of the tribe of the children of Simeon. Eliasaph the son of Deuel was
over the army of the tribe of the children of Gad.
The Kohathites set
forward, bearing the sanctuary. The others set up the tabernacle before
they arrived.
The standard of the
camp of the children of Ephraim set forward according to their armies.
Elishama the son of Ammihud was over his army. Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur was
over the army of the tribe of the children of Manasseh. Abidan the son of Gideoni was
over the army of the tribe of the children of Benjamin.
The standard of the
camp of the children of Dan, which was the rear guard of all the camps,
set forward according to their armies. Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai was
over his army. Pagiel
the son of Ochran was over the army of the tribe of the children of Asher.
Ahira the son of Enan
was over the army of the tribe of the children of Naphtali. Thus were the travels of the
children of Israel according to their armies; and they went forward.
Moses said to Hobab,
the son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses’ father-in-law, “We are
journeying to the place of which Yahweh said, ‘I will give it to you.’
Come with us, and we will treat you well; for Yahweh has spoken good
concerning Israel.”
He said to him, “I
will not go; but I will depart to my own land, and to my relatives.”
He said, “Don’t
leave us, please; because you know how we are to encamp in the wilderness,
and you can be our eyes. It shall be, if you go with us,
yes, it shall be, that whatever good Yahweh does to us, we will do the
same to you.”
They set forward from
the Mount of Yahweh three days’ journey. The ark of the covenant of
Yahweh went before them three days’ journey, to seek out a resting place
for them. The cloud of
Yahweh was over them by day, when they set forward from the camp. It happened, when the ark went
forward, that Moses said, “Rise up, Yahweh, and let your enemies be
scattered! Let those who hate you flee before you!” When it rested, he said,
“Return, Yahweh, to the ten thousands of the thousands of Israel.”
The people were
complaining in the ears of Yahweh. When Yahweh heard it, his anger was
kindled; and Yahweh’s fire burnt among them, and consumed some of the
outskirts of the camp. The people cried to Moses; and
Moses prayed to Yahweh, and the fire abated. The name of that place was called
Taberah, because Yahweh’s fire burnt among them.
The mixed multitude
that was among them lusted exceedingly: and the children of Israel also
wept again, and said, “Who will give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish, which we
ate in Egypt for nothing; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks,
and the onions, and the garlic; but now we have lost our
appetite. There is nothing at all except this manna to look at.” The manna was like coriander
seed, and its appearance like the appearance of bdellium. The people went around, gathered
it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in mortars, and boiled it in pots,
and made cakes of it. Its taste was like the taste of fresh oil. When the dew fell on the camp in
the night, the manna fell on it.
Moses heard the
people weeping throughout their families, every man at the door of his
tent; and the anger of Yahweh was kindled greatly; and Moses was
displeased. Moses said
to Yahweh, “Why have you treated with your servant so badly? Why
haven’t I found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this
people on me? Have I
conceived all this people? Have I brought them forth, that you should tell
me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a nursing infant, to
the land which you swore to their fathers?’ Where could I get meat to give
to all this people? For they weep to me, saying, ‘Give us meat, that we
may eat.’ I am not
able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me.
If you treat me this
way, please kill me right now, if I have found favor in your sight; and
don’t let me see my wretchedness.”
Yahweh said to Moses,
“Gather to me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be
the elders of the people, and officers over them; and bring them to the
Tent of Meeting, that they may stand there with you. I will come down and talk with
you there. I will take of the Spirit which is on you, and will put it on
them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you not
bear it yourself alone.
“Say to the people,
‘Sanctify yourselves against tomorrow, and you will eat flesh; for you
have wept in the ears of Yahweh, saying, “Who will give us flesh to eat?
For it was well with us in Egypt.” Therefore Yahweh will give you flesh,
and you will eat. You
will not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor
twenty days, but a whole
month, until it come out at your nostrils, and it is loathsome to you;
because that you have rejected Yahweh who is among you, and have wept
before him, saying, “Why did we come out of Egypt?”’”
Moses said, “The
people, among whom I am, are six hundred thousand men on foot; and you
have said, ‘I will give them flesh, that they may eat a whole month.’
Shall flocks and herds
be slaughtered for them, to be sufficient for them? Shall all the fish of
the sea be gathered together for them, to be sufficient for them?”
Yahweh said to Moses,
“Has Yahweh’s hand grown short? Now you will see whether my word will
happen to you or not.”
Moses went out, and
told the people the words of Yahweh; and he gathered seventy men of the
elders of the people, and set them around the Tent. Yahweh came down in the cloud,
and spoke to him, and took of the Spirit that was on him, and put it on
the seventy elders: and it happened that when the Spirit rested on them,
they prophesied, but they did so no more. But two men remained in the
camp. The name of one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad: and the
Spirit rested on them; and they were of those who were written, but had
not gone out to the Tent; and they prophesied in the camp. A young man ran, and told Moses,
and said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp!”
Joshua the son of
Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his chosen men, answered, “My lord
Moses, forbid them!”
Moses said to him,
“Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all Yahweh’s people were
prophets, that Yahweh would put his Spirit on them!”
Moses went into the
camp, he and the elders of Israel. A wind from Yahweh went out and
brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, about a
day’s journey on this side, and a day’s journey on the other side,
around the camp, and about two cubits above the surface of the earth.
The people rose up all
that day, and all the night, and all the next day, and gathered the
quails. He who gathered least gathered ten homers; and
they spread them all abroad for themselves around the camp. While the flesh was yet between
their teeth, before it was chewed, the anger of Yahweh was kindled against
the people, and Yahweh struck the people with a very great plague. The name of that place was
called Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the
people who lusted.
From Kibroth
Hattaavah the people traveled to Hazeroth; and they stayed at Hazeroth.
Miriam and Aaron spoke
against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married; for he had
married a Cushite woman. They said, “Has Yahweh indeed
spoken only with Moses? Hasn’t he spoken also with us?” And Yahweh
heard it.
Now the man Moses was
very humble, above all the men who were on the surface of the earth.
Yahweh spoke suddenly to
Moses, to Aaron, and to Miriam, “You three come out to the Tent of
Meeting!”
The three of them came out. Yahweh came down in a pillar of
cloud, and stood at the door of the Tent, and called Aaron and Miriam; and
they both came forward. He said, “Hear now my words. If
there is a prophet among you, I Yahweh will make myself known to him in a
vision. I will speak with him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so. He is
faithful in all my house. With him I will speak mouth to
mouth, even plainly, and not in riddles; and he shall see Yahweh’s form.
Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant, against
Moses?” The anger of
Yahweh was kindled against them; and he departed. The cloud departed from over the
Tent; and behold, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow. Aaron looked at
Miriam, and behold, she was leprous.
Aaron said to Moses,
“Oh, my lord, please don’t count this sin against us, in which we have
done foolishly, and in which we have sinned. Let her not, I pray, be as one
dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he comes out of his
mother’s womb.”
Moses cried to
Yahweh, saying, “Heal her, God, I beg you!”
Yahweh said to Moses,
“If her father had but spit in her face, shouldn’t she be ashamed
seven days? Let her be shut up outside of the camp seven days, and after
that she shall be brought in again.”
Miriam was shut up
outside of the camp seven days, and the people didn’t travel until
Miriam was brought in again. Afterward the people traveled
from Hazeroth, and encamped in the wilderness of Paran.
Yahweh spoke to Moses,
saying, “Send men, that
they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of
Israel. Of every tribe of their fathers, you shall send a man, every one a
prince among them.”
Moses sent them from
the wilderness of Paran according to the commandment of Yahweh: all of
them men who were heads of the children of Israel. These were their names: Of the
tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur. Of the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat
the son of Hori. Of the
tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh. Of the tribe of Issachar, Igal
the son of Joseph. Of the
tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Nun. Of the tribe of Benjamin, Palti
the son of Raphu. Of the
tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi. Of the tribe of Joseph, of the
tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi. Of the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the
son of Gemalli. Of the
tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael. Of the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi
the son of Vophsi. Of
the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi. These are the names of the men
who Moses sent to spy out the land. Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun
Joshua. Moses sent them
to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, “Go up this way by the
South, and go up into the hill country: and see the land, what it is;
and the people who dwell therein, whether they are strong or weak, whether
they are few or many; and what the land is that they
dwell in, whether it is good or bad; and what cities they are that they
dwell in, whether in camps, or in strongholds; and what the land is, whether it
is fat or lean, whether there is wood therein, or not. Be courageous, and
bring of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the time of the
first-ripe grapes.” So
they went up, and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob,
to the entrance of Hamath. They went up by the South, and
came to Hebron; and Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak,
were there. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)
They came to the valley
of Eshcol, and cut down from there a branch with one cluster of grapes,
and they bore it on a staff between two. They also brought some of the
pomegranates and figs. That place was called the valley
of Eshcol, because of the cluster which the children of Israel cut down
from there. They
returned from spying out the land at the end of forty days. They went and came to Moses, and
to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, to the
wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word to them, and to all
the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. They told him, and said, “We
came to the land where you sent us; and surely it flows with milk and
honey; and this is its fruit. However the people who dwell in
the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large.
Moreover, we saw the children of Anak there. Amalek dwells in the land of the
South: and the Hittite, and the Jebusite, and the Amorite, dwell in the
hill country; and the Canaanite dwells by the sea, and along by the side
of the Jordan.” Caleb
stilled the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once, and
possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.” But the men who went up with him
said, “We aren’t able to go up against the people; for they are
stronger than we.” They brought up an evil report
of the land which they had spied out to the children of Israel, saying,
“The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that eats
up its inhabitants; and all the people who we saw in it are men of great
stature. There we saw
the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come of the Nephilim: and we were in
our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.”
All the congregation
lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. All the children of Israel
murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said
to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would that we
had died in this wilderness! Why does Yahweh bring us to this
land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will be a prey:
wouldn’t it be better for us to return into Egypt?” They said one to another, “Let
us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.” Then Moses and Aaron fell on
their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of
Israel. Joshua the son of
Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were of those who spied out the
land, tore their clothes: and they spoke to all the
congregation of the children of Israel, saying, “The land, which we
passed through to spy it out, is an exceeding good land. If Yahweh delights in us, then he
will bring us into this land, and give it to us; a land which flows with
milk and honey. Only
don’t rebel against Yahweh, neither fear the people of the land; for
they are bread for us: their defense is removed from over them, and Yahweh
is with us. Don’t fear them.” But all the congregation
threatened to stone them with stones. The glory of Yahweh appeared in the
Tent of Meeting to all the children of Israel. Yahweh said to Moses, “How
long will this people despise me? and how long will they not believe in
me, for all the signs which I have worked among them? I will strike them with the
pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of you a nation greater and
mightier than they.” Moses said to Yahweh, “Then
the Egyptians will hear it; for you brought up this people in your might
from among them; and
they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that
you Yahweh are in the midst of this people; for you Yahweh are seen face
to face, and your cloud stands over them, and you go before them, in a
pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night. Now if you killed this people as
one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of you will speak,
saying, ‘Because
Yahweh was not able to bring this people into the land which he swore to
them, therefore he has slain them in the wilderness.’ Now please let the power of the
Lord be great, according as you have spoken, saying,
‘Yahweh is slow to
anger, and abundant in loving kindness, forgiving iniquity and
disobedience; and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the
iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth
generation.’ Please
pardon the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your
loving kindness, and according as you have forgiven this people, from
Egypt even until now.” Yahweh said, “I have pardoned
according to your word: but in very deed, as I live, and
as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of Yahweh; because all those men who have
seen my glory, and my signs, which I worked in Egypt and in the
wilderness, yet have tempted me these ten times, and have not listened to
my voice; surely they
shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers, neither shall any
of those who despised me see it: but my servant Caleb, because he
had another spirit with him, and has followed me fully, him will I bring
into the land into which he went; and his seed shall possess it. Now the Amalekite and the
Canaanite dwell in the valley: tomorrow turn, and go into the wilderness
by the way to the Red Sea.” Yahweh spoke to Moses and to
Aaron, saying, “How
long shall I bear with this evil congregation, that murmur against me? I
have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur
against me. Tell them,
‘As I live, says Yahweh, surely as you have spoken in my ears, so will I
do to you: your dead
bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and all who were numbered of you,
according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, who have
murmured against me, surely you shall not come into
the land, concerning which I swore that I would make you dwell therein,
except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little ones, that you
said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land
which you have rejected. But as for you, your dead bodies
shall fall in this wilderness. Your children shall be wanderers
in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your prostitution, until
your dead bodies be consumed in the wilderness. After the number of the days in
which you spied out the land, even forty days, for every day a year, you
will bear your iniquities, even forty years, and you will know my
alienation.’ I,
Yahweh, have spoken, surely this will I do to all this evil congregation,
who are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be
consumed, and there they shall die.” The men, whom Moses sent to spy
out the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur
against him, by bringing up an evil report against the land, even those men who brought up an
evil report of the land, died by the plague before Yahweh. But Joshua the son of Nun, and
Caleb the son of Jephunneh, remained alive of those men who went to spy
out the land. Moses told
these words to all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly.
They rose up early in
the morning, and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, “Behold, we
are here, and will go up to the place which Yahweh has promised: for we
have sinned.” Moses
said, “Why now do you disobey the commandment of Yahweh, since it shall
not prosper? Don’t go
up, for Yahweh isn’t among you; that you not be struck down before your
enemies. For there the
Amalekite and the Canaanite are before you, and you shall fall by the
sword: because you are turned back from following Yahweh, therefore Yahweh
will not be with you.”
But they presumed to
go up to the top of the mountain: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of
Yahweh, and Moses, didn’t depart out of the camp. Then the Amalekite came down,
and the Canaanite who lived in that mountain, and struck them and beat
them down, even to Hormah.
Yahweh spoke to Moses,
saying, “Speak to the
children of Israel, and tell them, ‘When you have come into the land of
your habitations, which I give to you, and will make an offering by fire
to Yahweh, a burnt offering, or a sacrifice, to accomplish a vow, or as a
freewill offering, or in your set feasts, to make a pleasant aroma to
Yahweh, of the herd, or of the flock; then he who offers his offering
shall offer to Yahweh a meal offering of a tenth part of an ephah of fine
flour mixed with the fourth part of a hin of oil: and wine for the drink offering,
the fourth part of a hin, you shall prepare with the burnt offering, or
for the sacrifice, for each lamb.
“‘Or for a ram,
you shall prepare for a meal offering two tenth parts of an ephah of fine
flour mixed with the third part of a hin of oil: and for the drink offering you
shall offer the third part of a hin of wine, of a pleasant aroma to
Yahweh. When you prepare
a bull for a burnt offering, or for a sacrifice, to accomplish a vow, or
for peace offerings to Yahweh; then shall he offer with the bull
a meal offering of three tenth parts of an ephah of fine flour mixed with
half a hin of oil: and
you shall offer for the drink offering half a hin of wine, for an offering
made by fire, of a pleasant aroma to Yahweh. Thus shall it be done for each
bull, or for each ram, or for each of the male lambs, or of the young
goats. According to the
number that you shall prepare, so you shall do to everyone according to
their number.
“‘All who are
native-born shall do these things in this way, in offering an offering
made by fire, of a pleasant aroma to Yahweh. If a stranger lives as a
foreigner with you, or whoever may be among you throughout your
generations, and will offer an offering made by fire, of a pleasant aroma
to Yahweh; as you do, so he shall do. For the assembly, there shall be
one statute for you, and for the stranger who lives as a foreigner, a
statute forever throughout your generations: as you are, so shall the
foreigner be before Yahweh. One law and one ordinance shall
be for you, and for the stranger who lives as a foreigner with you.’”
Yahweh spoke to
Moses, saying, “Speak
to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘When you come into the land
where I bring you, then
it shall be that when you eat of the bread of the land, you shall offer up
a wave offering to Yahweh. Of the first of your dough you
shall offer up a cake for a wave offering: as the wave offering of the
threshing floor, so you shall heave it. Of the first of your dough you
shall give to Yahweh a wave offering throughout your generations.
“‘When you shall
err, and not observe all these commandments, which Yahweh has spoken to
Moses, even all that
Yahweh has commanded you by Moses, from the day that Yahweh gave
commandment, and onward throughout your generations; then it shall be, if it be done
unwittingly, without the knowledge of the congregation, that all the
congregation shall offer one young bull for a burnt offering, for a
pleasant aroma to Yahweh, with the meal offering of it, and the drink
offering of it, according to the ordinance, and one male goat for a sin
offering. The priest
shall make atonement for all the congregation of the children of Israel,
and they shall be forgiven; for it was an error, and they have brought
their offering, an offering made by fire to Yahweh, and their sin offering
before Yahweh, for their error: and all the congregation of the
children of Israel shall be forgiven, and the stranger who lives as a
foreigner among them; for in respect of all the people it was done
unwittingly.
“‘If one person
sins unwittingly, then he shall offer a female goat a year old for a sin
offering. The priest
shall make atonement for the soul who errs, when he sins unwittingly,
before Yahweh, to make atonement for him; and he shall be forgiven.
You shall have one law
for him who does anything unwittingly, for him who is native-born among
the children of Israel, and for the stranger who lives as a foreigner
among them.
“‘But the soul
who does anything with a high hand, whether he is native-born or a
foreigner, the same blasphemes Yahweh; and that soul shall be cut off from
among his people. Because he has despised the word
of Yahweh, and has broken his commandment, that soul shall utterly be cut
off; his iniquity shall be on him.’”
While the children of
Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the
Sabbath day. Those who
found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron, and to all the
congregation. They put
him in custody, because it had not been declared what should be done to
him.
Yahweh said to Moses,
“The man shall surely be put to death: all the congregation shall stone
him with stones outside of the camp.” All the congregation brought him
outside of the camp, and stoned him to death with stones; as Yahweh
commanded Moses.
Yahweh spoke to
Moses, saying, “Speak
to the children of Israel, and tell them that they should make themselves
fringes in the borders of their garments throughout
their generations, and that they put on the fringe of
each border a cord of blue: and it shall be to you for a fringe, that you may look on it, and remember all the
commandments of Yahweh, and do them; and that you not follow after your
own heart and your own eyes, after which you use to play the prostitute;
that you may remember
and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God. I am Yahweh your God, who
brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am Yahweh your
God.”
Now Korah, the son of
Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, with Dathan and Abiram, the
sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men:
and they rose up before
Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred fifty princes
of the congregation, called to the assembly, men of renown; and they assembled themselves
together against Moses and against Aaron, and said to them, “You take
too much on yourself, since all the congregation are holy, everyone of
them, and Yahweh is among them: why then lift yourselves up above the
assembly of Yahweh?”
When Moses heard it,
he fell on his face: and
he spoke to Korah and to all his company, saying, “In the morning Yahweh
will show who are his, and who is holy, and will cause him to come near to
him: even him whom he shall choose he will cause to come near to him.
Do this: take censers,
Korah, and all his company; and put fire in them, and put
incense on them before Yahweh tomorrow: and it shall be that the man whom
Yahweh chooses, he shall be holy. You have gone too far, you sons of
Levi!”
Moses said to Korah,
“Hear now, you sons of Levi! Is it a small thing to you, that
the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel, to
bring you near to himself, to do the service of the tabernacle of Yahweh,
and to stand before the congregation to minister to them; and that he has brought you
near, and all your brothers the sons of Levi with you? and do you seek the
priesthood also? Therefore you and all your
company are gathered together against Yahweh: and Aaron, what is he that
you murmur against him?”
Moses sent to call
Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab; and they said, “We won’t come
up: is it a small thing
that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey, to
kill us in the wilderness, but you must also make yourself a prince over
us? Moreover you
haven’t brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, nor given us
inheritance of fields and vineyards: will you put out the eyes of these
men? We won’t come up.” Moses was very angry, and said
to Yahweh, “Don’t respect their offering: I have not taken one donkey
from them, neither have I hurt one of them.” Moses said to Korah, “You and
all your company go before Yahweh, you, and they, and Aaron, tomorrow:
and each man take his
censer, and put incense on them, and each man bring before Yahweh his
censer, two hundred fifty censers; you also, and Aaron, each his
censer.” They each
took his censer, and put fire in them, and laid incense thereon, and stood
at the door of the Tent of Meeting with Moses and Aaron. Korah assembled all the
congregation against them to the door of the Tent of Meeting: and the
glory of Yahweh appeared to all the congregation. Yahweh spoke to Moses and to
Aaron, saying, “Separate yourselves from
among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment!” They fell on their faces, and
said, “God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and
will you be angry with all the congregation?”
Yahweh spoke to
Moses, saying, “Speak
to the congregation, saying, ‘Get away from around the tent of Korah,
Dathan, and Abiram!’” Moses rose up and went to Dathan
and Abiram; and the elders of Israel followed him. He spoke to the congregation,
saying, “Depart, please, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch
nothing of theirs, lest you be consumed in all their sins!”
So they went away
from the tent of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, on every side: and Dathan and
Abiram came out, and stood at the door of their tents, and their wives,
and their sons, and their little ones. Moses said, “Hereby you shall
know that Yahweh has sent me to do all these works; for they are not from
my own mind. If these
men die the common death of all men, or if they be visited after the
visitation of all men; then Yahweh hasn’t sent me. But if Yahweh make a new thing,
and the ground open its mouth, and swallow them up, with all that
appertain to them, and they go down alive into Sheol;
then you shall understand that these men have despised Yahweh.”
It happened, as he
made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground split apart that
was under them; and the
earth opened its mouth, and swallowed them up, and their households, and
all the men who appertained to Korah, and all their goods. So they, and all that
appertained to them, went down alive into Sheol: and
the earth closed on them, and they perished from among the assembly.
All Israel that were
around them fled at their cry; for they said, “Lest the earth swallow us
up!” Fire came forth
from Yahweh, and devoured the two hundred fifty men who offered the
incense.
Yahweh spoke to
Moses, saying, “Speak
to Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, that he take up the censers out of
the burning, and scatter the fire yonder; for they are holy, even the censers of these
sinners against their own lives; and let them be made beaten plates for a
covering of the altar: for they offered them before Yahweh; therefore they
are holy; and they shall be a sign to the children of Israel.” Eleazar the priest took the
bronze censers, which those who were burnt had offered; and they beat them
out for a covering of the altar, to be a memorial to the children
of Israel, to the end that no stranger, who isn’t of the seed of Aaron,
comes near to burn incense before Yahweh; that he not be as Korah, and as
his company: as Yahweh spoke to him by Moses. But on the next day all the
congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against
Aaron, saying, “You have killed Yahweh’s people!” It happened, when the
congregation was assembled against Moses and against Aaron, that they
looked toward the Tent of Meeting: and behold, the cloud covered it, and
the glory of Yahweh appeared. Moses and Aaron came to the
front of the Tent of Meeting. Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
“Get away from among
this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment!” They fell on
their faces.
Moses said to Aaron,
“Take your censer, and put fire from off the altar in it, and lay
incense on it, and carry it quickly to the congregation, and make
atonement for them; for wrath has gone out from Yahweh! The plague has
begun.”
Aaron did as Moses
said, and ran into the midst of the assembly; and behold, the plague has
begun among the people: and he put on the incense, and made atonement for
the people. He stood
between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed. Now those who died by the plague
were fourteen thousand and seven hundred, besides those who died about the
matter of Korah. Aaron
returned to Moses to the door of the Tent of Meeting: and the plague was
stayed.
Yahweh spoke to Moses,
saying, “Speak to the
children of Israel, and take of them rods, one for each fathers’ house,
of all their princes according to their fathers’ houses, twelve rods:
write every man’s name on his rod. You shall write Aaron’s name on
the rod of Levi; for there shall be one rod for each head of their
fathers’ houses. You
shall lay them up in the Tent of Meeting before the testimony, where I
meet with you. It shall
happen, that the rod of the man whom I shall choose shall bud: and I will
make to cease from me the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they
murmur against you.”
Moses spoke to the
children of Israel; and all their princes gave him rods, for each prince
one, according to their fathers’ houses, even twelve rods: and the rod
of Aaron was among their rods. Moses laid up the rods before
Yahweh in the tent of the testimony.
It happened on the
next day, that Moses went into the tent of the testimony; and behold, the
rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, and put forth buds, and
produced blossoms, and bore ripe almonds. Moses brought out all the rods
from before Yahweh to all the children of Israel: and they looked, and
took every man his rod.
Yahweh said to Moses,
“Put back the rod of Aaron before the testimony, to be kept for a token
against the children of rebellion; that you may make an end of their
murmurings against me, that they not die.” Moses did so. As Yahweh
commanded him, so he did.
The children of
Israel spoke to Moses, saying, “Behold, we perish! We are undone! We are
all undone! Everyone who
comes near, who comes near to the tabernacle of Yahweh, dies! Will we all
perish?”
Yahweh said to Aaron,
“You and your sons and your fathers’ house with you shall bear the
iniquity of the sanctuary; and you and your sons with you shall bear the
iniquity of your priesthood. Your brothers also, the tribe of
Levi, the tribe of your father, bring near with you, that they may be
joined to you, and minister to you: but you and your sons with you shall
be before the tent of the testimony. They shall keep your commands,
and the duty of all the Tent: only they shall not come near to the vessels
of the sanctuary and to the altar, that they not die, neither they, nor
you. They shall be joined
to you, and keep the responsibility of the Tent of Meeting, for all the
service of the Tent: and a stranger shall not come near to you.
“You shall perform
the duty of the sanctuary, and the duty of the altar; that there be no
more wrath on the children of Israel. I, behold, I have taken your
brothers the Levites from among the children of Israel: to you they are a
gift, given to Yahweh, to do the service of the Tent of Meeting. You and your sons with you shall
keep your priesthood for everything of the altar, and for that within the
veil; and you shall serve: I give you the priesthood as a service of gift:
and the stranger who comes near shall be put to death.”
Yahweh spoke to Aaron,
“I, behold, I have given you the command of my wave offerings, even all
the holy things of the children of Israel; to you have I given them by
reason of the anointing, and to your sons, as a portion forever. This shall be yours of the most
holy things from the fire: every offering of theirs, even every meal
offering of theirs, and every sin offering of theirs, and every trespass
offering of theirs, which they shall render to me, shall be most holy for
you and for your sons. You shall eat of it like the
most holy things. Every male shall eat of it. It shall be holy to you.
“This is yours,
too: the wave offering of their gift, even all the wave offerings of the
children of Israel. I have given them to you, and to your sons and to your
daughters with you, as a portion forever. Everyone who is clean in your
house shall eat of it.
“All the best of
the oil, and all the best of the vintage, and of the grain, the first
fruits of them which they give to Yahweh, to you have I given them.
The first-ripe fruits of
all that is in their land, which they bring to Yahweh, shall be yours;
everyone who is clean in your house shall eat of it.
“Everything devoted
in Israel shall be yours. Everything that opens the womb,
of all flesh which they offer to Yahweh, both of man and animal shall be
yours: nevertheless you shall surely redeem the firstborn of man, and you
shall redeem the firstborn of unclean animals. You shall redeem those who are
to be redeemed of them from a month old, according to your estimation, for
five shekels of money, after the shekel of the sanctuary (the same is
twenty gerahs).
“But you shall not
redeem the firstborn of a cow, or the firstborn of a sheep, or the
firstborn of a goat. They are holy. You shall sprinkle their blood on the
altar, and shall burn their fat for an offering made by fire, for a
pleasant aroma to Yahweh. Their flesh shall be yours, as
the wave offering breast and as the right thigh, it shall be yours.
All the wave offerings
of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer to Yahweh, have I
given you, and your sons and your daughters with you, as a portion
forever: it is a covenant of salt forever before Yahweh to you and to your
seed with you.”
Yahweh said to Aaron,
“You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any
portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the
children of Israel.
“To the children of
Levi, behold, I have given all the tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in
return for their service which they serve, even the service of the Tent of
Meeting. Henceforth the
children of Israel shall not come near the Tent of Meeting, lest they bear
sin, and die. But the
Levites shall do the service of the Tent of Meeting, and they shall bear
their iniquity: it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations;
and among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance. For the tithe of the children of
Israel, which they offer as a wave offering to Yahweh, I have given to the
Levites for an inheritance: therefore I have said to them, ‘Among the
children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.’”
Yahweh spoke to
Moses, saying, “Moreover you shall speak to
the Levites, and tell them, ‘When you take of the children of Israel the
tithe which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then you
shall offer up a wave offering of it for Yahweh, a tithe of the tithe.
Your wave offering shall
be reckoned to you, as though it were the grain of the threshing floor,
and as the fullness of the winepress. Thus you also shall offer a wave
offering to Yahweh of all your tithes, which you receive of the children
of Israel; and of it you shall give Yahweh’s wave offering to Aaron the
priest. Out of all your
gifts you shall offer every wave offering of Yahweh, of all its best, even
the holy part of it out of it.’
“Therefore you
shall tell them, ‘When you heave its best from it, then it shall be
reckoned to the Levites as the increase of the threshing floor, and as the
increase of the winepress. You shall eat it in every place,
you and your households: for it is your reward in return for your service
in the Tent of Meeting. You shall bear no sin by reason
of it, when you have heaved from it its best: and you shall not profane
the holy things of the children of Israel, that you not die.’”
Yahweh spoke to Moses
and to Aaron, saying, “This is the statute of the law
which Yahweh has commanded: Speak to the children of Israel, that they
bring you a red heifer without spot, in which is no blemish, and which was
never yoked. You shall
give her to Eleazar the priest, and he shall bring her forth outside of
the camp, and one shall kill her before his face: and Eleazar the priest shall take
of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle her blood toward the front of
the Tent of Meeting seven times. One shall burn the heifer in his
sight; her skin, and her flesh, and her blood, with her dung, shall he
burn: and the priest
shall take cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet, and cast it into the midst
of the burning of the heifer. Then the priest shall wash his
clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall
come into the camp, and the priest shall be unclean until the evening.
He who burns her shall
wash his clothes in water, and bathe his flesh in water, and shall be
unclean until the evening.
“A man who is clean
shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay them up outside of the
camp in a clean place; and it shall be kept for the congregation of the
children of Israel for a water for impurity: it is a sin offering. He who gathers the ashes of the
heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the evening: and it
shall be to the children of Israel, and to the stranger who lives as a
foreigner among them, for a statute forever.
“He who touches the
dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days: the same shall purify himself
with water on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be clean: but
if he doesn’t purify himself the third day, then the seventh day he
shall not be clean. Whoever touches a dead person,
the body of a man who has died, and doesn’t purify himself, defiles the
tabernacle of Yahweh; and that soul shall be cut off from Israel: because
the water for impurity was not sprinkled on him, he shall be unclean; his
uncleanness is yet on him.
“This is the law
when a man dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent, and everyone
who is in the tent, shall be unclean seven days. Every open vessel, which has no
covering bound on it, is unclean.
“Whoever in the
open field touches one who is slain with a sword, or a dead body, or a
bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.
“For the unclean
they shall take of the ashes of the burning of the sin offering; and
running water shall be put thereto in a vessel: and a clean person shall take
hyssop, and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, and on all
the vessels, and on the persons who were there, and on him who touched the
bone, or the slain, or the dead, or the grave: and the clean person shall
sprinkle on the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day: and on
the seventh day he shall purify him; and he shall wash his clothes, and
bathe himself in water, and shall be clean at evening. But the man who shall be
unclean, and shall not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off from the
midst of the assembly, because he has defiled the sanctuary of Yahweh: the
water for impurity has not been sprinkled on him; he is unclean. It shall be a perpetual statute
to them: and he who sprinkles the water for impurity shall wash his
clothes, and he who touches the water for impurity shall be unclean until
evening.
“Whatever the
unclean person touches shall be unclean; and the soul that touches it
shall be unclean until evening.”
The children of
Israel, even the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin in
the first month: and the people stayed in Kadesh; and Miriam died there,
and was buried there. There was no water for the
congregation: and they assembled themselves together against Moses and
against Aaron. The people
strove with Moses, and spoke, saying, “We wish that we had died when our
brothers died before Yahweh! Why have you brought the assembly
of Yahweh into this wilderness, that we should die there, we and our
animals? Why have you
made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in to this evil place? It is
no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is
there any water to drink.”
Moses and Aaron went
from the presence of the assembly to the door of the Tent of Meeting, and
fell on their faces: and the glory of Yahweh appeared to them. Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
“Take the rod, and
assemble the congregation, you, and Aaron your brother, and speak to the
rock before their eyes, that it give forth its water; and you shall bring
forth to them water out of the rock; so you shall give the congregation
and their livestock drink.”
Moses took the rod
from before Yahweh, as he commanded him. Moses and Aaron gathered the
assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Hear now, you
rebels; shall we bring you water out of this rock for you?” Moses lifted up his hand, and
struck the rock with his rod twice: and water came forth abundantly, and
the congregation drank, and their livestock.
Yahweh said to Moses
and Aaron, “Because you didn’t believe in me, to sanctify me in the
eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this
assembly into the land which I have given them.”
These are the waters
of Meribah; because the children of Israel strove with Yahweh, and he was
sanctified in them. Moses sent messengers from
Kadesh to the king of Edom, saying:
“Thus says your brother Israel: You know all the travail that has
happened to us: how our
fathers went down into Egypt, and we lived in Egypt a long time; and the
Egyptians dealt ill with us, and our fathers: and when we cried to Yahweh, he
heard our voice, and sent an angel, and brought us forth out of Egypt: and
behold, we are in Kadesh, a city in the uttermost of your border.
“Please let us pass
through your land: we will not pass through field or through vineyard,
neither will we drink of the water of the wells: we will go along the
king’s highway; we will not turn aside to the right hand nor to the
left, until we have passed your border.”
Edom said to him,
“You shall not pass through me, lest I come out with the sword against
you.”
The children of
Israel said to him, “We will go up by the highway; and if we drink of
your water, I and my livestock, then will I give its price: let me only,
without doing anything else, pass through on my feet.”
He said, “You shall
not pass through.” Edom came out against him with many people, and with
a strong hand. Thus Edom
refused to give Israel passage through his border, so Israel turned away
from him.
They traveled from
Kadesh: and the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, came to
Mount Hor. Yahweh spoke
to Moses and Aaron in Mount Hor, by the border of the land of Edom,
saying, “Aaron shall
be gathered to his people; for he shall not enter into the land which I
have given to the children of Israel, because you rebelled against my word
at the waters of Meribah. Take Aaron and Eleazar his son,
and bring them up to Mount Hor; and strip Aaron of his garments,
and put them on Eleazar his son: and Aaron shall be taken, and shall die
there.”
Moses did as Yahweh
commanded: and they went up into Mount Hor in the sight of all the
congregation. Moses
stripped Aaron of his garments, and put them on Eleazar his son; and Aaron
died there on the top of the mountain: and Moses and Eleazar came down
from the mountain. When
all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead, they wept for Aaron thirty
days, even all the house of Israel.
The Canaanite, the
king of Arad, who lived in the South, heard tell that Israel came by the
way of Atharim; and he fought against Israel, and took some of them
captive. Israel vowed a
vow to Yahweh, and said, “If you will indeed deliver this people into my
hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities.” Yahweh listened to the voice of
Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them
and their cities: and the name of the place was called Hormah.
They traveled from
Mount Hor by the way to the Red Sea, to compass the
land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of
the way. The people spoke
against God, and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt
to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, and there is no water;
and our soul loathes this light bread.”
Yahweh sent fiery
serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many people of
Israel died. The people
came to Moses, and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against
Yahweh, and against you. Pray to Yahweh, that he take away the serpents
from us.” Moses prayed for the people.
Yahweh said to Moses,
“Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard: and it shall happen,
that everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” Moses made a serpent of brass,
and set it on the standard: and it happened, that if a serpent had bitten
any man, when he looked to the serpent of brass, he lived. The children of Israel traveled,
and encamped in Oboth. They traveled from Oboth, and
encamped at Iyeabarim, in the wilderness which is before Moab, toward the
sunrise. From there they
traveled, and encamped in the valley of Zered. From there they traveled, and
encamped on the other side of the Arnon, which is in the wilderness, that
comes out of the border of the Amorites: for the Arnon is the border of
Moab, between Moab and the Amorites. Therefore it is said in the book
of the Wars of Yahweh, “Vaheb in Suphah, the valleys of the Arnon,
the slope of the valleys
that incline toward the dwelling of Ar, leans on the border of Moab.”
From there they
traveled to Beer: that is the well of which Yahweh said to Moses,
“Gather the people together, and I will give them water.”
Then sang Israel this
song:
- “Spring up, well; sing to it:
- the well, which the
princes dug,
- which the nobles of the people dug,
- with the scepter, and with their poles.”
-
From the wilderness they traveled to Mattanah; and from Mattanah to Nahaliel;
and from Nahaliel to Bamoth; and from Bamoth to the valley
that is in the field of Moab, to the top of Pisgah, which looks down on
the desert. Israel sent
messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, saying, “Let me pass through your
land: we will not turn aside into field, or into vineyard; we will not
drink of the water of the wells: we will go by the king’s highway, until
we have passed your border.”
Sihon would not allow
Israel to pass through his border: but Sihon gathered all his people
together, and went out against Israel into the wilderness, and came to
Jahaz; and he fought against Israel. Israel struck him with the edge
of the sword, and possessed his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, even to
the children of Ammon; for the border of the children of Ammon was strong.
Israel took all these
cities: and Israel lived in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon,
and in all its towns. For Heshbon was the city of
Sihon the king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of
Moab, and taken all his land out of his hand, even to the Arnon. Therefore those who speak in
proverbs say,
- “Come to Heshbon.
- Let the city of Sihon be built and established;
- for a fire has gone
out of Heshbon,
- a flame from the city of Sihon.
- It has devoured Ar of Moab,
- The lords of the high places of the Arnon.
- Woe to you, Moab!
- You are undone, people of Chemosh!
- He has given his sons as fugitives,
- and his daughters into captivity,
- to Sihon king of the Amorites.
- We have shot at them.
- Heshbon has perished even to Dibon.
- We have laid waste even to Nophah,
- Which reaches to Medeba.”
Thus Israel lived in
the land of the Amorites. Moses sent to spy out Jazer; and
they took its towns, and drove out the Amorites who were there. They turned and went up by the
way of Bashan: and Og the king of Bashan went out against them, he and all
his people, to battle at Edrei.
Yahweh said to Moses,
“Don’t fear him: for I have delivered him into your hand, and all his
people, and his land; and you shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of
the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.”
So they struck him,
and his sons and all his people, until there was none left him remaining:
and they possessed his land.
The children of Israel
traveled, and encamped in the plains of Moab beyond the Jordan at Jericho.
Balak the son of Zippor
saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites. Moab was very afraid of the
people, because they were many: and Moab was distressed because of the
children of Israel. Moab
said to the elders of Midian, “Now this multitude will lick up all that
is around us, as the ox licks up the grass of the field.”
Balak the son of Zippor was king of Moab at that time. He sent messengers to Balaam the
son of Beor, to Pethor, which is by the River, to the land of the children
of his people, to call him, saying, “Behold, there is a people who came
out from Egypt. Behold, they cover the surface of the earth, and they are
staying opposite me. Please come now therefore curse
me this people; for they are too mighty for me: perhaps I shall prevail,
that we may strike them, and that I may drive them out of the land; for I
know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed.”
The elders of Moab and
the elders of Midian departed with the rewards of divination in their
hand; and they came to Balaam, and spoke to him the words of Balak.
He said to them, “Lodge
here this night, and I will bring you word again, as Yahweh shall speak to
me.” The princes of Moab stayed with Balaam. God came to Balaam, and said,
“Who are these men with you?” Balaam said to God, “Balak the
son of Zippor, king of Moab, has said to me, ‘Behold, the people that has
come out of Egypt, it covers the surface of the earth: now, come curse me
them; perhaps I shall be able to fight against them, and shall drive them
out.’”
God said to Balaam,
“You shall not go with them. You shall not curse the people; for they
are blessed.”
Balaam rose up in the
morning, and said to the princes of Balak, “Go to your land; for Yahweh
refuses to permit me to go with you.”
The princes of Moab
rose up, and they went to Balak, and said, “Balaam refuses to come with
us.”
Balak sent yet again
princes, more, and more honorable than they. They came to Balaam, and said to
him, “Thus says Balak the son of Zippor, ‘Please let nothing hinder
you from coming to me: for I will promote you to very
great honor, and whatever you say to me I will do. Please come therefore,
and curse this people for me.’”
Balaam answered the
servants of Balak, “If Balak would give me his house full of silver and
gold, I can’t go beyond the word of Yahweh my God, to do less or more.
Now therefore, please
wait also here this night, that I may know what Yahweh will speak to me
more.”
God came to Balaam at
night, and said to him, “If the men have come to call you, rise up, go
with them; but only the word which I speak to you, that you shall do.”
Balaam rose up in the
morning, and saddled his donkey, and went with the princes of Moab.
God’s anger was
kindled because he went; and the angel of Yahweh placed himself in the way
for an adversary against him. Now he was riding on his donkey, and his two
servants were with him. The donkey saw the angel of
Yahweh standing in the way, with his sword drawn in his hand; and the
donkey turned aside out of the way, and went into the field: and Balaam
struck the donkey, to turn her into the way. Then the angel of Yahweh stood
in a narrow path between the vineyards, a wall being on this side, and a
wall on that side. The
donkey saw the angel of Yahweh, and she thrust herself to the wall, and
crushed Balaam’s foot against the wall: and he struck her again.
The angel of Yahweh
went further, and stood in a narrow place, where there was no way to turn
either to the right hand or to the left. The donkey saw the angel of
Yahweh, and she lay down under Balaam: and Balaam’s anger was kindled,
and he struck the donkey with his staff.
Yahweh opened the
mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you,
that you have struck me these three times?”
Balaam said to the
donkey, “Because you have mocked me, I wish there were a sword in my
hand, for now I would have killed you.”
The donkey said to
Balaam, “Am I not your donkey, on which you have ridden all your life
long to this day? Was I ever in the habit of doing so to you?”
He said, “No.”
Then Yahweh opened
the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of Yahweh standing in the way,
with his sword drawn in his hand; and he bowed his head, and fell on his
face. The angel of
Yahweh said to him, “Why have you struck your donkey these three times?
Behold, I have come forth as an adversary, because your way is perverse
before me: and the
donkey saw me, and turned aside before me these three times. Unless she
had turned aside from me, surely now I would have killed you, and saved
her alive.”
Balaam said to the
angel of Yahweh, “I have sinned; for I didn’t know that you stood in
the way against me. Now therefore, if it displeases you, I will go back
again.”
The angel of Yahweh
said to Balaam, “Go with the men; but only the word that I shall speak
to you, that you shall speak.”
So Balaam went with the princes of Balak. When Balak heard that Balaam had
come, he went out to meet him to the City of Moab, which is on the border
of the Arnon, which is in the utmost part of the border. Balak said to Balaam,
“Didn’t I earnestly send to you to call you? Why didn’t you come to
me? Am I not able indeed to promote you to honor?”
Balaam said to Balak,
“Behold, I have come to you: have I now any power at all to speak
anything? The word that God puts in my mouth, that shall I speak.”
Balaam went with
Balak, and they came to Kiriath Huzoth. Balak sacrificed cattle and
sheep, and sent to Balaam, and to the princes who were with him. It happened in the morning, that
Balak took Balaam, and brought him up into the high places of Baal; and he
saw from there the utmost part of the people.
Balaam said to Balak,
“Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bulls and seven
rams.”
Balak did as Balaam
had spoken; and Balak and Balaam offered on every altar a bull and a ram.
Balaam said to Balak,
“Stand by your burnt offering, and I will go: perhaps Yahweh will come
to meet me; and whatever he shows me I will tell you.”
He went to a bare height. God met Balaam: and he said to
him, “I have prepared the seven altars, and I have offered up a bull and
a ram on every altar.”
Yahweh put a word in
Balaam’s mouth, and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you shall
speak.”
He returned to him,
and behold, he was standing by his burnt offering, he, and all the princes
of Moab. He took up his
parable, and said,
- “From Aram has Balak brought me,
- the king of Moab from the mountains of the East.
- Come, curse Jacob for me.
- Come, defy Israel.
- How shall I curse
whom God has not cursed?
- How shall I defy whom Yahweh has not defied?
- For from the top of
the rocks I see him.
- From the hills I see him.
- Behold, it is a people that dwells alone,
- and shall not be reckoned among the nations.
- Who can count the
dust of Jacob,
- or number the fourth part of Israel?
- Let me die the death of the righteous!
- Let my last end be like his!”
Balak said to Balaam,
“What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and behold,
you have blessed them altogether.”
He answered and said,
“Must I not take heed to speak that which Yahweh puts in my mouth?”
Balak said to him,
“Please come with me to another place, where you may see them; you shall
see but the utmost part of them, and shall not see them all: and curse me
them from there.”
He took him into the
field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered
up a bull and a ram on every altar. He said to Balak, “Stand here
by your burnt offering, while I meet over there.”
Yahweh met Balaam,
and put a word in his mouth, and said, “Return to Balak, and say this.”
He came to him, and
behold, he was standing by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab
with him. Balak said to him, “What has Yahweh spoken?”
He took up his
parable, and said,
- “Rise up, Balak, and hear!
- Listen to me, you son of Zippor.
- God is not a man,
that he should lie,
- nor the son of man, that he should repent.
- Has he said, and will he not do it?
- Or has he spoken, and will he not make it good?
- Behold, I have
received a command to bless.
- He has blessed, and I can’t reverse it.
- He has not seen
iniquity in Jacob.
- Neither has he seen perverseness in Israel.
- Yahweh his God is with him.
- The shout of a king is among them.
- God brings them out
of Egypt.
- He has as it were the strength of the wild ox.
- Surely there is no
enchantment with Jacob;
- Neither is there any divination with Israel.
- Now it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel,
- What has God done!
- Behold, the people
rises up as a lioness,
- As a lion he lifts himself up.
- He shall not lie down until he eat of the prey,
- and drinks the blood of the slain.”
Balak said to Balaam,
“Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all.”
But Balaam answered
Balak, “Didn’t I tell you, saying, ‘All that Yahweh speaks, that I
must do?’”
Balak said to Balaam,
“Come now, I will take you to another place; perhaps it will please God
that you may curse me them from there.”
Balak took Balaam to
the top of Peor, that looks down on the desert. Balaam said to Balak, “Build
me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bulls and seven rams.”
Balak did as Balaam
had said, and offered up a bull and a ram on every altar.
When Balaam saw that
it pleased Yahweh to bless Israel, he didn’t go, as at the other times,
to meet with enchantments, but he set his face toward the wilderness.
Balaam lifted up his
eyes, and he saw Israel dwelling according to their tribes; and the Spirit
of God came on him. He
took up his parable, and said,
- “Balaam the son of Beor says,
- the man whose eye was closed says;
- he says, who hears
the words of God,
- who sees the vision of the Almighty,
- falling down, and having his eyes open:
- How goodly are your
tents, Jacob,
- and your tents, Israel!
- As valleys they are
spread forth,
- as gardens by the riverside,
- as aloes which Yahweh has planted,
- as cedar trees beside the waters.
- Water shall flow from
his buckets.
- His seed shall be in many waters.
- His king shall be higher than Agag.
- His kingdom shall be exalted.
- God brings him out of
Egypt.
- He has as it were the strength of the wild ox.
- He shall eat up the nations his adversaries,
- shall break their bones in pieces,
- and pierce them with his arrows.
- He couched, he lay
down as a lion,
- as a lioness; who shall rouse him up?
- Everyone who blesses you is blessed.
- Everyone who curses you is cursed.”
Balak’s anger was
kindled against Balaam, and he struck his hands together; and Balak said
to Balaam, “I called you to curse my enemies, and, behold, you have
altogether blessed them these three times. Therefore now flee you to your
place! I thought to promote you to great honor; but, behold, Yahweh has
kept you back from honor.”
Balaam said to Balak,
“Didn’t I also tell your messengers who you sent to me, saying,
‘If Balak would give
me his house full of silver and gold, I can’t go beyond the word of
Yahweh, to do either good or bad of my own mind. I will say what Yahweh
says’? Now, behold, I
go to my people: come, I will inform you what this people shall do to your
people in the latter days.”
He took up his
parable, and said,
- “Balaam the son of Beor says,
- the man whose eye was closed says;
- he says, who hears
the words of God,
- knows the knowledge of the Most High,
- and who sees the vision of the Almighty,
- Falling down, and having his eyes open:
- I see him, but not
now.
- I see him, but not near.
- A star will come out of Jacob.
- A scepter will rise out of Israel,
- and shall strike through the corners of Moab,
- and break down all the sons of Sheth.
- Edom shall be a
possession.
- Seir, his enemies, also shall be a possession,
- while Israel does valiantly.
- Out of Jacob shall
one have dominion,
- and shall destroy the remnant from the city.”
He looked at Amalek,
and took up his parable, and said,
- “Amalek was the first of the nations,
- But his latter end shall come to destruction.”
He looked at the
Kenite, and took up his parable, and said,
- “Your dwelling place is strong.
- Your nest is set in the rock.
- Nevertheless Kain
shall be wasted,
- until Asshur carries you away captive.”
He took up his
parable, and said,
- “Alas, who shall live when God does this?
- But ships shall come
from the coast of Kittim.
- They shall afflict Asshur, and shall afflict Eber.
- He also shall come to destruction.”
Balaam rose up, and
went and returned to his place; and Balak also went his way.
Israel stayed in
Shittim; and the people began to play the prostitute with the daughters of
Moab: for they called the
people to the sacrifices of their gods; and the people ate, and bowed down
to their gods. Israel
joined himself to Baal Peor: and the anger of Yahweh was kindled against
Israel. Yahweh said to
Moses, “Take all the chiefs of the people, and hang them up to Yahweh
before the sun, that the fierce anger of Yahweh may turn away from
Israel.”
Moses said to the
judges of Israel, “Everyone kill his men who have joined themselves to
Baal Peor.”
Behold, one of the
children of Israel came and brought to his brothers a Midianite woman in
the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the
children of Israel, while they were weeping at the door of the Tent of
Meeting. When Phinehas,
the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from
the midst of the congregation, and took a spear in his hand; and he went after the man of
Israel into the pavilion, and thrust both of them through, the man of
Israel, and the woman through her body. So the plague was stayed from the
children of Israel. Those
who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand. Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
“Phinehas, the son of
Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned my wrath away from the
children of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so
that I didn’t consume the children of Israel in my jealousy. Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give
to him my covenant of peace: and it shall be to him, and to
his seed after him, the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he
was jealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of
Israel.’”
Now the name of the
man of Israel that was slain, who was slain with the Midianite woman, was
Zimri, the son of Salu, a prince of a fathers’ house among the
Simeonites. The name of
the Midianite woman who was slain was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur; he was
head of the people of a fathers’ house in Midian.
Yahweh spoke to
Moses, saying, “Harass
the Midianites, and strike them; for they harassed you with their
wiles, with which they have deceived you in the matter of Peor, and in the
matter of Cozbi, the daughter of the prince of Midian, their sister, who
was slain on the day of the plague in the matter of Peor.”
It happened after the
plague, that Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Eleazar the son of Aaron the
priest, saying, “Take a
census of all the congregation of the children of Israel, from twenty
years old and upward, by their fathers’ houses, all who are able to go
forth to war in Israel.” Moses and Eleazar the priest
spoke with them in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying,
“Take a census, from
twenty years old and upward; as Yahweh commanded Moses and the children of
Israel.”
These are those that came out of the land of Egypt. Reuben, the firstborn of Israel;
the sons of Reuben: of Hanoch, the family of the Hanochites; of Pallu, the
family of the Palluites; of Hezron, the family of the
Hezronites; of Carmi, the family of the Carmites. These are the families of the
Reubenites; and those who were numbered of them were forty-three thousand
seven hundred thirty. The
sons of Pallu: Eliab. The
sons of Eliab: Nemuel, and Dathan, and Abiram. These are that Dathan and
Abiram, who were called of the congregation, who strove against Moses and
against Aaron in the company of Korah, when they strove against Yahweh,
and the earth opened its
mouth, and swallowed them up together with Korah, when that company died;
what time the fire devoured two hundred fifty men, and they became a sign.
Notwithstanding, the
sons of Korah didn’t die. The sons of Simeon after their
families: of Nemuel, the family of the Nemuelites; of Jamin, the family of
the Jaminites; of Jachin, the family of the Jachinites; of Zerah, the family of the
Zerahites; of Shaul, the family of the Shaulites. These are the families of the
Simeonites, twenty-two thousand two hundred. The sons of Gad after their
families: of Zephon, the family of the Zephonites; of Haggi, the family of
the Haggites; of Shuni, the family of the Shunites; of Ozni, the family of the
Oznites; of Eri, the family of the Erites; of Arod, the family of the
Arodites; of Areli, the family of the Arelites. These are the families of the
sons of Gad according to those who were numbered of them, forty thousand
and five hundred. The
sons of Judah: Er and Onan; and Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan.
The sons of Judah after
their families were: of Shelah, the family of the Shelanites; of Perez,
the family of the Perezites; of Zerah, the family of the Zerahites.
The sons of Perez were:
of Hezron, the family of the Hezronites; of Hamul, the family of the
Hamulites. These are the
families of Judah according to those who were numbered of them,
seventy-six thousand five hundred. The sons of Issachar after their
families: of Tola, the family of the Tolaites; of Puvah, the family of the
Punites; of Jashub, the
family of the Jashubites; of Shimron, the family of the Shimronites.
These are the families
of Issachar according to those who were numbered of them, sixty-four
thousand three hundred. The sons of Zebulun after their
families: of Sered, the family of the Seredites; of Elon, the family of
the Elonites; of Jahleel, the family of the Jahleelites. These are the families of the
Zebulunites according to those who were numbered of them, sixty thousand
five hundred. The sons
of Joseph after their families: Manasseh and Ephraim. The sons of Manasseh: of Machir,
the family of the Machirites; and Machir became the father of Gilead; of
Gilead, the family of the Gileadites. These are the sons of Gilead: of
Iezer, the family of the Iezerites; of Helek, the family of the Helekites;
and Asriel, the family
of the Asrielites; and Shechem, the family of the Shechemites; and Shemida, the family of the
Shemidaites; and Hepher, the family of the Hepherites. Zelophehad the son of Hepher had
no sons, but daughters: and the names of the daughters of Zelophehad were
Mahlah, and Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. These are the families of
Manasseh; and those who were numbered of them were fifty-two thousand
seven hundred. These are
the sons of Ephraim after their families: of Shuthelah, the family of the
Shuthelahites; of Becher, the family of the Becherites; of Tahan, the
family of the Tahanites. These are the sons of Shuthelah:
of Eran, the family of the Eranites. These are the families of the
sons of Ephraim according to those who were numbered of them, thirty-two
thousand five hundred. These are the sons of Joseph after their families.
The sons of Benjamin
after their families: of Bela, the family of the Belaites; of Ashbel, the
family of the Ashbelites; of Ahiram, the family of the Ahiramites; of Shephupham, the family of the
Shuphamites; of Hupham, the family of the Huphamites. The sons of Bela were Ard and
Naaman: the family of the Ardites; of Naaman, the family of the Naamites.
These are the sons of
Benjamin after their families; and those who were numbered of them were
forty-five thousand six hundred. These are the sons of Dan after
their families: of Shuham, the family of the Shuhamites. These are the
families of Dan after their families. All the families of the
Shuhamites, according to those who were numbered of them, were sixty-four
thousand four hundred. The sons of Asher after their
families: of Imnah, the family of the Imnites; of Ishvi, the family of the
Ishvites; of Beriah, the family of the Berites. Of the sons of Beriah: of Heber,
the family of the Heberites; of Malchiel, the family of the Malchielites.
The name of the daughter
of Asher was Serah. These are the families of the
sons of Asher according to those who were numbered of them, fifty-three
thousand and four hundred. The sons of Naphtali after their
families: of Jahzeel, the family of the Jahzeelites; of Guni, the family
of the Gunites; of
Jezer, the family of the Jezerites; of Shillem, the family of the
Shillemites. These are
the families of Naphtali according to their families; and those who were
numbered of them were forty-five thousand four hundred. These are those who were
numbered of the children of Israel, six hundred one thousand seven hundred
thirty. Yahweh spoke to
Moses, saying, “To
these the land shall be divided for an inheritance according to the number
of names. To the more
you shall give the more inheritance, and to the fewer you shall give the
less inheritance: to everyone according to those who were numbered of him
shall his inheritance be given. Notwithstanding, the land shall
be divided by lot: according to the names of the tribes of their fathers
they shall inherit. According to the lot shall their
inheritance be divided between the more and the fewer.”
These are those who
were numbered of the Levites after their families: of Gershon, the family
of the Gershonites; of Kohath, the family of the Kohathites; of Merari,
the family of the Merarites. These are the families of Levi:
the family of the Libnites, the family of the Hebronites, the family of
the Mahlites, the family of the Mushites, the family of the Korahites.
Kohath became the father of Amram. The name of Amram’s wife was
Jochebed, the daughter of Levi, who was born to Levi in Egypt: and she
bore to Amram Aaron and Moses, and Miriam their sister. To Aaron were born Nadab and
Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. Nadab and Abihu died, when they
offered strange fire before Yahweh. Those who were numbered of them
were twenty-three thousand, every male from a month old and upward: for
they were not numbered among the children of Israel, because there was no
inheritance given them among the children of Israel. These are those who were
numbered by Moses and Eleazar the priest, who numbered the children of
Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho. But among these there was not a
man of them who were numbered by Moses and Aaron the priest, who numbered
the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai. For Yahweh had said of them,
They shall surely die in the wilderness. There was not left a man of them,
except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.
Then drew near the
daughters of Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of
Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of Manasseh the son of
Joseph; and these are the names of his daughters: Mahlah, Noah, and
Hoglah, and Milcah, and Tirzah. They stood before Moses, and
before Eleazar the priest, and before the princes and all the
congregation, at the door of the Tent of Meeting, saying, “Our father died in the
wilderness, and he was not among the company of those who gathered
themselves together against Yahweh in the company of Korah: but he died in
his own sin; and he had no sons. Why should the name of our father
be taken away from among his family, because he had no son? Give to us a
possession among the brothers of our father.”
Moses brought their
cause before Yahweh. Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
“The daughters of
Zelophehad speak right: you shall surely give them a possession of an
inheritance among their father’s brothers; and you shall cause the
inheritance of their father to pass to them. You shall speak to the children
of Israel, saying, ‘If a man dies, and has no son, then you shall cause
his inheritance to pass to his daughter. If he has no daughter, then you
shall give his inheritance to his brothers. If he has no brothers, then you
shall give his inheritance to his father’s brothers. If his father has no brothers,
then you shall give his inheritance to his kinsman who is next to him of
his family, and he shall possess it: and it shall be to the children of
Israel a statute and ordinance, as Yahweh commanded Moses.’”
Yahweh said to Moses,
“Go up into this mountain of Abarim, and see the land which I have given
to the children of Israel. When you have seen it, you also
shall be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother was gathered;
because you rebelled
against my word in the wilderness of Zin, in the strife of the
congregation, to sanctify me at the waters before their eyes.” (These
are the waters of Meribah of Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.)
Moses spoke to
Yahweh, saying, “Let
Yahweh, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the
congregation, who may go
out before them, and who may come in before them, and who may lead them
out, and who may bring them in; that the congregation of Yahweh not be as
sheep which have no shepherd.”
Yahweh said to Moses,
“Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your
hand on him; and set him
before Eleazar the priest, and before all the congregation; and commission
him in their sight. You
shall put of your honor on him, that all the congregation of the children
of Israel may obey. He
shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall inquire for him by the
judgment of the Urim before Yahweh: at his word shall they go out, and at
his word they shall come in, both he, and all the children of Israel with
him, even all the congregation.”
Moses did as Yahweh
commanded him; and he took Joshua, and set him before Eleazar the priest,
and before all the congregation: and he laid his hands on him,
and commissioned him, as Yahweh spoke by Moses.
Yahweh spoke to Moses,
saying, “Command the
children of Israel, and tell them, ‘My offering, my food for my
offerings made by fire, of a pleasant aroma to me, you shall observe to
offer to me in their due season.’ You shall tell them, ‘This is
the offering made by fire which you shall offer to Yahweh: male lambs a
year old without blemish, two day by day, for a continual burnt offering.
You shall offer the one
lamb in the morning, and you shall offer the other lamb at evening;
with the tenth part of an
ephah of fine flour for a meal offering, mixed with the
fourth part of a hin of beaten oil. It is a continual burnt offering,
which was ordained in Mount Sinai for a pleasant aroma, an offering made
by fire to Yahweh. Its
drink offering shall be the fourth part of a hin for the one lamb. You
shall pour out a drink offering of strong drink to Yahweh in the holy
place. The other lamb you
shall offer at evening: as the meal offering of the morning, and as the
drink offering of it, you shall offer it, an offering made by fire, of a
pleasant aroma to Yahweh.
“‘On the Sabbath
day two male lambs a year old without blemish, and two tenth parts of an
ephah of fine flour for a meal offering, mixed with oil, and the drink
offering of it: this is
the burnt offering of every Sabbath, besides the continual burnt offering,
and the drink offering of it.
“‘In the
beginnings of your months you shall offer a burnt offering to Yahweh: two
young bulls, and one ram, seven male lambs a year old without blemish;
and three tenth parts of
an ephah of fine flour for a meal offering, mixed with oil, for each bull;
and two tenth parts of fine flour for a meal offering, mixed with oil, for
the one ram; and a tenth
part of fine flour mixed with oil for a meal offering to every lamb; for a
burnt offering of a pleasant aroma, an offering made by fire to Yahweh.
Their drink offerings
shall be half a hin of wine for a bull, and the third part of a hin for
the ram, and the fourth part of a hin for a lamb: this is the burnt
offering of every month throughout the months of the year. One male goat for a sin offering
to Yahweh; it shall be offered besides the continual burnt offering, and
the drink offering of it.
“‘In the first
month, on the fourteenth day of the month, is Yahweh’s Passover. On the fifteenth day of this
month shall be a feast: seven days shall unleavened bread be eaten.
In the first day shall
be a holy convocation: you shall do no servile work; but you shall offer an offering
made by fire, a burnt offering to Yahweh: two young bulls, and one ram,
and seven male lambs a year old; they shall be to you without blemish;
and their meal offering,
fine flour mixed with oil: you shall offer three tenth parts for a bull,
and two tenth parts for the ram. You shall offer a tenth part for
every lamb of the seven lambs; and one male goat for a sin
offering, to make atonement for you. You shall offer these besides
the burnt offering of the morning, which is for a continual burnt
offering. In this way
you shall offer daily, for seven days, the food of the offering made by
fire, of a pleasant aroma to Yahweh: it shall be offered besides the
continual burnt offering, and the drink offering of it. On the seventh day you shall
have a holy convocation: you shall do no servile work.
“‘Also in the day
of the first fruits, when you offer a new meal offering to Yahweh in your
feast of weeks, you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no servile
work; but you shall
offer a burnt offering for a pleasant aroma to Yahweh: two young bulls,
one ram, seven male lambs a year old; and their meal offering, fine
flour mixed with oil, three tenth parts for each bull, two tenth parts for
the one ram, a tenth
part for every lamb of the seven lambs; one male goat, to make atonement
for you. Besides the
continual burnt offering, and the meal offering of it, you shall offer
them (they shall be to you without blemish), and their drink offerings.
“‘In the seventh
month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a holy convocation;
you shall do no servile work: it is a day of blowing of trumpets to you.
You shall offer a burnt
offering for a pleasant aroma to Yahweh: one young bull, one ram, seven
male lambs a year old without blemish; and their meal offering, fine
flour mixed with oil, three tenth parts for the bull, two tenth parts for
the ram, and one tenth
part for every lamb of the seven lambs; and one male goat for a sin
offering, to make atonement for you; besides the burnt offering of the
new moon, and the meal offering of it, and the continual burnt offering
and the meal offering of it, and their drink offerings, according to their
ordinance, for a pleasant aroma, an offering made by fire to Yahweh.
“‘On the tenth day
of this seventh month you shall have a holy convocation; and you shall
afflict your souls: you shall do no kind of work; but you shall offer a burnt
offering to Yahweh for a pleasant aroma: one young bull, one ram, seven
male lambs a year old; they shall be to you without blemish; and their meal offering, fine
flour mixed with oil, three tenth parts for the bull, two tenth parts for
the one ram, a tenth
part for every lamb of the seven lambs: one male goat for a sin
offering; besides the sin offering of atonement, and the continual burnt
offering, and the meal offering of it, and their drink offerings.
“‘On the
fifteenth day of the seventh month you shall have a holy convocation; you
shall do no servile work, and you shall keep a feast to Yahweh seven days:
and you shall offer a
burnt offering, an offering made by fire, of a pleasant aroma to Yahweh;
thirteen young bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old; they shall
be without blemish; and
their meal offering, fine flour mixed with oil, three tenth parts for
every bull of the thirteen bulls, two tenth parts for each ram of the two
rams, and a tenth part
for every lamb of the fourteen lambs; and one male goat for a sin
offering, besides the continual burnt offering, the meal offering of it,
and the drink offering of it.
“‘On the second
day you shall offer twelve young bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a
year old without blemish; and their meal offering and
their drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs,
according to their number, after the ordinance; and one male goat for a sin
offering; besides the continual burnt offering, and the meal offering of
it, and their drink offerings.
“‘On the third
day eleven bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without
blemish; and their meal
offering and their drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for
the lambs, according to their number, after the ordinance; and one male goat for a sin
offering; besides the continual burnt offering, and the meal offering of
it, and the drink offering of it.
“‘On the fourth
day ten bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish;
their meal offering and
their drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs,
according to their number, after the ordinance; and one male goat for a sin
offering; besides the continual burnt offering, the meal offering of it,
and the drink offering of it.
“‘On the fifth
day nine bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish;
and their meal offering
and their drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs,
according to their number, after the ordinance; and one male goat for a sin
offering, besides the continual burnt offering, and the meal offering of
it, and the drink offering of it.
“‘On the sixth
day eight bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish;
and their meal offering
and their drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs,
according to their number, after the ordinance; and one male goat for a sin
offering; besides the continual burnt offering, the meal offering of it,
and the drink offerings of it.
“‘On the seventh
day seven bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish;
and their meal offering
and their drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs,
according to their number, after the ordinance; and one male goat for a sin
offering; besides the continual burnt offering, the meal offering of it,
and the drink offering of it.
“‘On the eighth
day you shall have a solemn assembly: you shall do no servile work;
but you shall offer a
burnt offering, an offering made by fire, of a pleasant aroma to Yahweh:
one bull, one ram, seven male lambs a year old without blemish; their meal offering and their
drink offerings for the bull, for the ram, and for the lambs, shall be
according to their number, after the ordinance: and one male goat for a sin
offering, besides the continual burnt offering, and the meal offering of
it, and the drink offering of it.
“‘You shall offer
these to Yahweh in your set feasts, besides your vows, and your freewill
offerings, for your burnt offerings, and for your meal offerings, and for
your drink offerings, and for your peace offerings.’”
Moses told the
children of Israel according to all that Yahweh commanded Moses.
Moses spoke to the
heads of the tribes of the children of Israel, saying, “This is the
thing which Yahweh has commanded. When a man vows a vow to Yahweh,
or swears an oath to bind his soul with a bond, he shall not break his
word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.
“Also when a woman
vows a vow to Yahweh, and binds herself by a bond, being in her father’s
house, in her youth, and
her father hears her vow, and her bond with which she has bound her soul,
and her father holds his peace at her; then all her vows shall stand, and
every bond with which she has bound her soul shall stand. But if her father disallow her in
the day that he hears, none of her vows, or of her bonds with which she
has bound her soul, shall stand: and Yahweh will forgive her, because her
father disallowed her.
“If she has a
husband, while her vows are on her, or the rash utterance of her lips,
with which she has bound her soul, and her husband hears it, and
hold his peace at her in the day that he hears it; then her vows shall
stand, and her bonds with which she has bound her soul shall stand.
But if her husband
forbids her in the day that he hears it, then he shall make void her vow
which is on her, and the rash utterance of her lips, with which she has
bound her soul: and Yahweh will forgive her.
“But the vow of a
widow, or of her who is divorced, everything with which she has bound her
soul, shall stand against her.
“If she vowed in
her husband’s house, or bound her soul by a bond with an oath, and her husband heard it, and
held his peace at her, and didn’t disallow her; then all her vows shall
stand, and every bond with which she bound her soul shall stand. But if her husband made them
null and void in the day that he heard them, then whatever proceeded out
of her lips concerning her vows, or concerning the bond of her soul, shall
not stand: her husband has made them void; and Yahweh will forgive her.
Every vow, and every
binding oath to afflict the soul, her husband may establish it, or her
husband may make it void. But if her husband altogether
hold his peace at her from day to day, then he establishes all her vows,
or all her bonds, which are on her: he has established them, because he
held his peace at her in the day that he heard them. But if he shall make them null
and void after that he has heard them, then he shall bear her iniquity.”
These are the
statutes, which Yahweh commanded Moses, between a man and his wife,
between a father and his daughter, being in her youth, in her father’s
house.
Yahweh spoke to Moses,
saying, “Avenge the
children of Israel for the Midianites. Afterward you shall be gathered to
your people.”
Moses spoke to the
people, saying, “Arm men from among you for the war, that they may go
against Midian, to execute Yahweh’s vengeance on Midian. Of every tribe one thousand,
throughout all the tribes of Israel, you shall send to the war.” So there were delivered, out of
the thousands of Israel, a thousand of every tribe, twelve thousand armed
for war. Moses sent them,
one thousand of every tribe, to the war, them and Phinehas the son of
Eleazar the priest, to the war, with the vessels of the sanctuary and the
trumpets for the alarm in his hand. They warred against Midian, as
Yahweh commanded Moses; and they killed every male. They killed the kings of Midian
with the rest of their slain: Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba,
the five kings of Midian: Balaam also the son of Beor they killed with the
sword. The children of
Israel took captive the women of Midian and their little ones; and all
their livestock, and all their flocks, and all their goods, they took for
a prey. All their cities
in the places in which they lived, and all their encampments, they burnt
with fire. They took all
the spoil, and all the prey, both of man and of animal. They brought the captives, and
the prey, and the spoil, to Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and to the
congregation of the children of Israel, to the camp at the plains of Moab,
which are by the Jordan at Jericho. Moses, and Eleazar the priest,
and all the princes of the congregation, went forth to meet them outside
of the camp. Moses was
angry with the officers of the army, the captains of thousands and the
captains of hundreds, who came from the service of the war. Moses said to them, “Have you
saved all the women alive? Behold, these caused the
children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass
against Yahweh in the matter of Peor, and so the plague was among the
congregation of Yahweh. Now therefore kill every male
among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man by lying
with him. But all the
girls, who have not known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.
“Encamp outside of
the camp seven days: whoever has killed any person, and whoever has
touched any slain, purify yourselves on the third day and on the seventh
day, you and your captives. As to every garment, and all
that is made of skin, and all work of goats’ hair, and all things made
of wood, you shall purify yourselves.”
Eleazar the priest
said to the men of war who went to the battle, “This is the statute of
the law which Yahweh has commanded Moses: however the gold, and the
silver, the brass, the iron, the tin, and the lead, everything that may withstand
the fire, you shall make to go through the fire, and it shall be clean;
nevertheless it shall be purified with the water for impurity: and all
that doesn’t withstand the fire you shall make to go through the water.
You shall wash your
clothes on the seventh day, and you shall be clean; and afterward you
shall come into the camp.”
Yahweh spoke to
Moses, saying, “Take
the sum of the prey that was taken, both of man and of animal, you, and
Eleazar the priest, and the heads of the fathers’ households of the
congregation; and divide
the prey into two parts: between the men skilled in war, who went out to
battle, and all the congregation. Levy a tribute to Yahweh of the
men of war who went out to battle: one soul of five hundred; of the
persons, of the cattle, of the donkeys, and of the flocks. Take it of their half, and give
it to Eleazar the priest, for Yahweh’s wave offering. Of the children of Israel’s
half, you shall take one drawn out of every fifty, of the persons, of the
cattle, of the donkeys, and of the flocks, of all the livestock, and give
them to the Levites, who perform the duty of the tabernacle of Yahweh.”
Moses and Eleazar the
priest did as Yahweh commanded Moses.
Now the prey, over
and above the booty which the men of war took, was six hundred
seventy-five thousand sheep, and seventy-two thousand head of
cattle, and sixty-one
thousand donkeys, and
thirty-two thousand persons in all, of the women who had not known man by
lying with him. The
half, which was the portion of those who went out to war, was in number
three hundred thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep: and Yahweh’s tribute of the
sheep was six hundred seventy-five. The cattle were thirty-six
thousand; of which Yahweh’s tribute was seventy-two. The donkeys were thirty thousand
five hundred; of which Yahweh’s tribute was sixty-one. The persons were sixteen
thousand; of whom Yahweh’s tribute was thirty-two persons. Moses gave the tribute, which
was Yahweh’s wave offering, to Eleazar the priest, as Yahweh commanded
Moses. Of the children
of Israel’s half, which Moses divided off from the men who warred
(now the
congregation’s half was three hundred thirty-seven thousand five hundred
sheep, and thirty-six
thousand head of cattle, and thirty thousand five hundred
donkeys, and sixteen
thousand persons), even
of the children of Israel’s half, Moses took one drawn out of every
fifty, both of man and of animal, and gave them to the Levites, who
performed the duty of the tabernacle of Yahweh; as Yahweh commanded Moses.
The officers who were
over the thousands of the army, the captains of thousands, and the
captains of hundreds, came near to Moses; and they said to Moses, “Your
servants have taken the sum of the men of war who are under our command,
and there lacks not one man of us. We have brought Yahweh’s
offering, what every man has gotten, of jewels of gold, armlets, and
bracelets, signet rings, earrings, and necklaces, to make atonement for
our souls before Yahweh.”
Moses and Eleazar the
priest took their gold, even all worked jewels. All the gold of the wave
offering that they offered up to Yahweh, of the captains of thousands, and
of the captains of hundreds, was sixteen thousand seven hundred fifty
shekels. (The men of war
had taken booty, every man for himself.) Moses and Eleazar the priest
took the gold of the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and brought it
into the Tent of Meeting, for a memorial for the children of Israel before
Yahweh.
Now the children of
Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of livestock:
and when they saw the land of Jazer, and the land of Gilead, that behold,
the place was a place for livestock; the children of Gad and the
children of Reuben came and spoke to Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and
to the princes of the congregation, saying, “Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jazer,
and Nimrah, and Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Sebam, and Nebo, and Beon,
the land which Yahweh
struck before the congregation of Israel, is a land for livestock; and
your servants have livestock.” They said, “If we have found
favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants for a
possession; don’t bring us over the Jordan.”
Moses said to the
children of Gad, and to the children of Reuben, “Shall your brothers go
to the war, and shall you sit here? Why do you discourage the heart
of the children of Israel from going over into the land which Yahweh has
given them? Your fathers
did so when I sent them from Kadesh Barnea to see the land. For when they went up to the
valley of Eshcol, and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the
children of Israel, that they should not go into the land which Yahweh had
given them. Yahweh’s
anger was kindled in that day, and he swore, saying, ‘Surely none of the men who
came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land
which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; because they have not
wholly followed me: except Caleb the son of
Jephunneh the Kenizzite, and Joshua the son of Nun; because they have
followed Yahweh completely.’ Yahweh’s anger was kindled
against Israel, and he made them wander back and forth in the wilderness
forty years, until all the generation, who had done evil in the sight of
Yahweh, was consumed.
“Behold, you have
risen up in your fathers’ place, an increase of sinful men, to augment
yet the fierce anger of Yahweh toward Israel. For if you turn away from after
him, he will yet again leave them in the wilderness; and you will destroy
all this people.”
They came near to
him, and said, “We will build sheepfolds here for our livestock, and
cities for our little ones: but we ourselves will be ready
armed to go before the children of Israel, until we have brought them to
their place: and our little ones shall dwell in the fortified cities
because of the inhabitants of the land. We will not return to our
houses, until the children of Israel have inherited every man his
inheritance. For we will
not inherit with them on the other side of the Jordan, and forward;
because our inheritance is fallen to us on this side of the Jordan
eastward.”
Moses said to them,
“If you will do this thing, if you will arm yourselves to go before
Yahweh to the war, and
every armed man of you will pass over the Jordan before Yahweh, until he
has driven out his enemies from before him, and the land is subdued before
Yahweh; then afterward you shall return, and be guiltless towards Yahweh,
and towards Israel; and this land shall be to you for a possession before
Yahweh.
“But if you will
not do so, behold, you have sinned against Yahweh; and be sure your sin
will find you out. Build
cities for your little ones, and folds for your sheep; and do that which
has proceeded out of your mouth.”
The children of Gad
and the children of Reuben spoke to Moses, saying, “Your servants will
do as my lord commands. Our little ones, our wives, our
flocks, and all our livestock, shall be there in the cities of Gilead;
but your servants will
pass over, every man who is armed for war, before Yahweh to battle, as my
lord says.”
So Moses commanded
concerning them to Eleazar the priest, and to Joshua the son of Nun, and
to the heads of the fathers’ households of the tribes of the children of
Israel. Moses said to
them, “If the children of Gad and the children of Reuben will pass with
you over the Jordan, every man who is armed to battle, before Yahweh, and
the land shall be subdued before you; then you shall give them the land of
Gilead for a possession: but if they will not pass over
with you armed, they shall have possessions among you in the land of
Canaan.”
The children of Gad
and the children of Reuben answered, saying, “As Yahweh has said to your
servants, so will we do. We will pass over armed before
Yahweh into the land of Canaan, and the possession of our inheritance
shall remain with us beyond the Jordan.”
Moses gave to them,
even to the children of Gad, and to the children of Reuben, and to the
half-tribe of Manasseh the son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon king of the
Amorites, and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, the land, according to its
cities and borders, even the cities of the surrounding land. The children of Gad built Dibon,
and Ataroth, and Aroer, and Atrothshophan, and Jazer,
and Jogbehah, and Beth
Nimrah, and Beth Haran: fortified cities, and folds for sheep. The children of Reuben built
Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Kiriathaim, and Nebo, and Baal Meon, (their
names being changed), and Sibmah: and they gave other names to the cities
which they built. The
children of Machir the son of Manasseh went to Gilead, and took it, and
dispossessed the Amorites who were therein. Moses gave Gilead to Machir the
son of Manasseh; and he lived therein. Jair the son of Manasseh went
and took its towns, and called them Havvoth Jair. Nobah went and took Kenath, and
its villages, and called it Nobah, after his own name.
These are the journeys
of the children of Israel, when they went forth out of the land of Egypt
by their armies under the hand of Moses and Aaron. Moses wrote their goings out
according to their journeys by the commandment of Yahweh: and these are
their journeys according to their goings out. They traveled from Rameses in the
first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month; on the next day
after the Passover the children of Israel went out with a high hand in the
sight of all the Egyptians, while the Egyptians were burying
all their firstborn, whom Yahweh had struck among them: on their gods also
Yahweh executed judgments. The children of Israel traveled
from Rameses, and encamped in Succoth. They traveled from Succoth, and
encamped in Etham, which is in the edge of the wilderness. They traveled from Etham, and
turned back to Pihahiroth, which is before Baal Zephon: and they encamped
before Migdol. They
traveled from before Hahiroth, and passed through the midst of the sea
into the wilderness: and they went three days’ journey in the wilderness
of Etham, and encamped in Marah. They traveled from Marah, and
came to Elim: and in Elim were twelve springs of water, and seventy palm
trees; and they encamped there. They traveled from Elim, and
encamped by the Red Sea. They traveled from the Red Sea, and encamped in the wilderness of Sin. They traveled from the
wilderness of Sin, and encamped in Dophkah. They traveled from Dophkah, and
encamped in Alush. They
traveled from Alush, and encamped in Rephidim, where there was no water
for the people to drink. They traveled from Rephidim, and
encamped in the wilderness of Sinai. They traveled from the
wilderness of Sinai, and encamped in Kibroth Hattaavah. They traveled from Kibroth
Hattaavah, and encamped in Hazeroth. They traveled from Hazeroth, and
encamped in Rithmah. They traveled from Rithmah, and
encamped in Rimmon Perez. They traveled from Rimmon Perez,
and encamped in Libnah. They traveled from Libnah, and
encamped in Rissah. They
traveled from Rissah, and encamped in Kehelathah. They traveled from Kehelathah,
and encamped in Mount Shepher. They traveled from Mount
Shepher, and encamped in Haradah. They traveled from Haradah, and
encamped in Makheloth. They traveled from Makheloth,
and encamped in Tahath. They traveled from Tahath, and
encamped in Terah. They
traveled from Terah, and encamped in Mithkah. They traveled from Mithkah, and
encamped in Hashmonah. They traveled from Hashmonah,
and encamped in Moseroth. They traveled from Moseroth, and
encamped in Bene Jaakan. They traveled from Bene Jaakan,
and encamped in Hor Haggidgad. They traveled from Hor
Haggidgad, and encamped in Jotbathah. They traveled from Jotbathah,
and encamped in Abronah. They traveled from Abronah, and
encamped in Ezion Geber. They traveled from Ezion Geber,
and encamped in the wilderness of Zin (the same is Kadesh). They traveled from Kadesh, and
encamped in Mount Hor, in the edge of the land of Edom. Aaron the priest went up into
Mount Hor at the commandment of Yahweh, and died there, in the fortieth
year after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, in
the fifth month, on the first day of the month. Aaron was one hundred
twenty-three years old when he died in Mount Hor. The Canaanite, the king of Arad,
who lived in the South in the land of Canaan, heard of the coming of the
children of Israel. They
traveled from Mount Hor, and encamped in Zalmonah. They traveled from Zalmonah, and
encamped in Punon. They
traveled from Punon, and encamped in Oboth. They traveled from Oboth, and
encamped in Iye Abarim, in the border of Moab. They traveled from Iyim, and
encamped in Dibon Gad. They traveled from Dibon Gad,
and encamped in Almon Diblathaim. They traveled from Almon
Diblathaim, and encamped in the mountains of Abarim, before Nebo. They traveled from the mountains
of Abarim, and encamped in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.
They encamped by the
Jordan, from Beth Jeshimoth even to Abel Shittim in the plains of Moab.
Yahweh spoke to Moses in
the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying, Speak to the children of Israel,
and tell them, “When you pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan,
then you shall drive out
all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all their stone
idols, destroy all their molten images, and demolish all their high
places. You shall take
possession of the land, and dwell therein; for I have given given the land
to you to possess it. You shall inherit the land by
lot according to your families; to the more you shall give the more
inheritance, and to the fewer you shall give the less inheritance:
wherever the lot falls to any man, that shall be his. You shall inherit
according to the tribes of your fathers.
“But if you do not
drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those you let
remain of them will be as pricks in your eyes and as thorns in your sides,
and they will harass you in the land in which you dwell. It shall happen that as I
thought to do to them, so will I do to you.”
Yahweh spoke to Moses,
saying, “Command the
children of Israel, and tell them, ‘When you come into the land of
Canaan (this is the land that shall fall to you for an inheritance, even
the land of Canaan according to its borders), then your south quarter shall be
from the wilderness of Zin along by the side of Edom, and your south
border shall be from the end of the Salt Sea eastward; and your border shall turn about
southward of the ascent of Akrabbim, and pass along to Zin; and the goings
out of it shall be southward of Kadesh Barnea; and it shall go forth to
Hazar Addar, and pass along to Azmon; and the border shall turn about
from Azmon to the brook of Egypt, and the goings out of it shall be at the
sea.
“‘For the western
border, you shall have the great sea and its border: this shall be your
west border.
“‘This shall be
your north border: from the great sea you shall mark out for you Mount
Hor; from Mount Hor you
shall mark out to the entrance of Hamath; and the goings out of the border
shall be at Zedad; and
the border shall go forth to Ziphron, and the goings out of it shall be at
Hazar Enan: this shall be your north border.
“‘You shall mark
out your east border from Hazar Enan to Shepham; and the border shall go down
from Shepham to Riblah, on the east side of Ain; and the border shall go
down, and shall reach to the side of the sea of Chinnereth eastward;
and the border shall go
down to the Jordan, and the goings out of it shall be at the Salt Sea.
This shall be your land according to its borders around it.’”
Moses commanded the
children of Israel, saying, “This is the land which you shall inherit by
lot, which Yahweh has commanded to give to the nine tribes, and to the
half-tribe; for the
tribe of the children of Reuben according to their fathers’ houses, and
the tribe of the children of Gad according to their fathers’ houses,
have received, and the half-tribe of Manasseh have received, their
inheritance: the two
tribes and the half-tribe have received their inheritance beyond the
Jordan at Jericho eastward, toward the sunrise.”
Yahweh spoke to
Moses, saying, “These
are the names of the men who shall divide the land to you for inheritance:
Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun. You shall take one prince of
every tribe, to divide the land for inheritance. These are the names of the men:
Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh. Of the tribe of the children of
Simeon, Shemuel the son of Ammihud. Of the tribe of Benjamin, Elidad
the son of Chislon. Of
the tribe of the children of Dan a prince, Bukki the son of Jogli. Of the children of Joseph: of
the tribe of the children of Manasseh a prince, Hanniel the son of Ephod.
Of the tribe of the
children of Ephraim a prince, Kemuel the son of Shiphtan. Of the tribe of the children of
Zebulun a prince, Elizaphan the son of Parnach. Of the tribe of the children of
Issachar a prince, Paltiel the son of Azzan. Of the tribe of the children of
Asher a prince, Ahihud the son of Shelomi. Of the tribe of the children of
Naphtali a prince, Pedahel the son of Ammihud.” These are they whom Yahweh
commanded to divide the inheritance to the children of Israel in the land
of Canaan.
Yahweh spoke to Moses
in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying, “Command the children of Israel
that they give to the Levites of the inheritance of their possession
cities to dwell in; and you shall give suburbs for the cities around them
to the Levites. The
cities shall they have to dwell in; and their suburbs shall be for their
livestock, and for their substance, and for all their animals.
“The suburbs of the
cities, which you shall give to the Levites, shall be from the wall of the
city and outward one thousand cubits around it. You shall measure outside of the
city for the east side two thousand cubits, and for the south side two
thousand cubits, and for the west side two thousand cubits, and for the
north side two thousand cubits, the city being in the midst. This shall be
to them the suburbs of the cities.
“The cities which
you shall give to the Levites, they shall be the six cities of refuge,
which you shall give for the manslayer to flee to: and besides them you
shall give forty-two cities. All the cities which you shall
give to the Levites shall be forty-eight cities together with their
suburbs. Concerning the
cities which you shall give of the possession of the children of Israel,
from the many you shall take many; and from the few you shall take few:
everyone according to his inheritance which he inherits shall give of his
cities to the Levites.” Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
“Speak to the children
of Israel, and tell them, ‘When you pass over the Jordan into the land
of Canaan, then you
shall appoint you cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the
manslayer who kills any person unwittingly may flee there. The cities shall be to you for
refuge from the avenger, that the manslayer not die, until he stands
before the congregation for judgment. The cities which you shall give
shall be for you six cities of refuge. You shall give three cities
beyond the Jordan, and you shall give three cities in the land of Canaan;
they shall be cities of refuge. For the children of Israel, and
for the stranger and for the foreigner living among them, shall these six
cities be for refuge; that everyone who kills any person unwittingly may
flee there.
“‘But if he
struck him with an instrument of iron, so that he died, he is a murderer:
the murderer shall surely be put to death. If he struck him with a stone in
the hand, by which a man may die, and he died, he is a murderer: the
murderer shall surely be put to death. Or if he struck him with a
weapon of wood in the hand, by which a man may die, and he died, he is a
murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death. The avenger of blood shall
himself put the murderer to death: when he meets him, he shall put him to
death. If he thrust him
of hatred, or hurled at him, lying in wait, so that he died, or in enmity struck him with his
hand, so that he died; he who struck him shall surely be put to death; he
is a murderer: the avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death, when
he meets him.
“‘But if he
thrust him suddenly without enmity, or hurled on him anything without
lying in wait, or with
any stone, by which a man may die, not seeing him, and cast it on him, so
that he died, and he was not his enemy, neither sought his harm; then the congregation shall
judge between the striker and the avenger of blood according to these
ordinances; and the
congregation shall deliver the manslayer out of the hand of the avenger of
blood, and the congregation shall restore him to his city of refuge, where
he was fled: and he shall dwell therein until the death of the high
priest, who was anointed with the holy oil.
“‘But if the
manslayer shall at any time go beyond the border of his city of refuge,
where he flees, and the
avenger of blood find him outside of the border of his city of refuge, and
the avenger of blood kill the manslayer; he shall not be guilty of blood,
because he should have
remained in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest: but
after the death of the high priest the manslayer shall return into the
land of his possession.
“‘These things
shall be for a statute and ordinance to you throughout your generations in
all your dwellings.
“‘Whoever kills
any person, the murderer shall be slain at the mouth of witnesses: but one
witness shall not testify against any person that he die.
“‘Moreover you
shall take no ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death;
but he shall surely be put to death.
“‘You shall take
no ransom for him who is fled to his city of refuge, that he may come
again to dwell in the land, until the death of the priest.
“‘So you shall
not pollute the land in which you are: for blood, it pollutes the land;
and no expiation can be made for the land for the blood that is shed
therein, but by the blood of him who shed it. You shall not defile the land
which you inhabit, in the midst of which I dwell: for I, Yahweh, dwell in
the midst of the children of Israel.’”
The heads of the
fathers’ households of the family of the children of Gilead, the son of
Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of the sons of Joseph, came
near, and spoke before Moses, and before the princes, the heads of the
fathers’ households of the children of Israel: and they said, “Yahweh
commanded my lord to give the land for inheritance by lot to the children
of Israel: and my lord was commanded by Yahweh to give the inheritance of
Zelophehad our brother to his daughters. If they are married to any of the
sons of the other tribes of the children of Israel, then will their
inheritance be taken away from the inheritance of our fathers, and will be
added to the inheritance of the tribe whereunto they shall belong: so will
it be taken away from the lot of our inheritance. When the jubilee of the children
of Israel shall be, then will their inheritance be added to the
inheritance of the tribe whereunto they shall belong: so will their
inheritance be taken away from the inheritance of the tribe of our
fathers.”
Moses commanded the
children of Israel according to the word of Yahweh, saying, “The tribe
of the sons of Joseph speaks right. This is the thing which Yahweh
does command concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, saying, Let them be
married to whom they think best; only into the family of the tribe of
their father shall they be married. So shall no inheritance of the
children of Israel remove from tribe to tribe; for the children of Israel
shall all keep the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers. Every daughter who possesses an
inheritance in any tribe of the children of Israel shall be wife to one of
the family of the tribe of her father, that the children of Israel may
possess every man the inheritance of his fathers. So shall no inheritance remove
from one tribe to another tribe; for the tribes of the children of Israel
shall each keep his own inheritance.”
The daughters of
Zelophehad did as Yahweh commanded Moses: for Mahlah, Tirzah, and Hoglah,
and Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were married to their
father’s brothers’ sons. They were married into the
families of the sons of Manasseh the son of Joseph; and their inheritance
remained in the tribe of the family of their father. These are the commandments and
the ordinances which Yahweh commanded by Moses to the children of Israel
in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.
Notes: [1] back to 1:1
“Yahweh” is God’s proper Name, sometimes rendered “LORD” (all
caps) in other translations. [2] back to 5:15 1 ephah is about 22 litres or about 2/3 of
a bushel [3] back to 6:7 The
Hebrew word rendered “God” is “Elohim.” [4]
back to 11:3 Taberah means “burning” [5] back to 11:32 1 homer is about 220
litres or 6 bushels [6] back to
11:34 Kibroth Hattaavah means “graves of lust.” [7] back to 14:17 The word translated
“Lord” is “Adonai.” [8] back to 14:25 or, Sea of Reeds [9]
back to 15:38 or, tassels (Hebrew tzitzit) [10] back to 15:38 or, tassel [11] back to 15:39 or, tassel [12] back to 16:30 Sheol is the place of
the dead. [13] back to 16:33
Sheol is the place of the dead. [14] back to 21:4 or, Sea of Reeds [15]
back to 28:5 1 ephah is about 22 litres or about 2/3
of a bushel [16] back to 33:10
or, Sea of Reeds [17] back to
33:11 or, Sea of Reeds
Bible Index
Num
|
Tell A Friend
