Numbers 17–19

Aaron’s Staff Buds

17¹ The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ^2h“Speak to the people of Israel, and get from them staffs, one for each fathers’ house, from all their chiefs according to their fathers’ houses, twelve staffs. Write each man’s name on his staff, ³and write Aaron’s name on the staff of Levi. For there shall be one staff for the head of each fathers’ house. ⁴Then you shall deposit them in the tent of meeting before the testimony, ⁱwhere I meet with you. ⁵And the staff of the man ^jwhom I choose shall sprout. Thus I will make to cease from me ^kthe grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against you.” ⁶Moses spoke to the people of Israel. And all their chiefs gave him staffs, one for each chief, according to their fathers’ houses, twelve staffs. And the staff of Aaron was among their staffs. ⁷And Moses deposited the staffs before the Lord in ^lthe tent of the testimony.

⁸On the next day Moses went into the tent of the testimony, and behold, the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted and put forth buds and produced blossoms, and it bore ripe almonds. ⁹Then Moses brought out all the staffs from before the Lord to all the people of Israel. And they looked, and each man took his staff. ¹⁰And the Lord said to Moses, “Put back ^mthe staff of Aaron before the testimony, to be kept ⁿas a sign for the rebels, ^othat you may make an end of their grumblings against me, lest they die.” ¹¹Thus did Moses; as the Lord commanded him, so he did.

¹²And the people of Israel said to Moses, “Behold, we perish, we are undone, we are all undone. ^13pEveryone who comes near, who comes near to the tabernacle of the Lord, shall die. Are we all to perish?”

Duties of Priests and Levites

18So the Lord said to Aaron, “You and your sons and your father’s house with you shall ^qbear iniquity connected with the sanctuary, ^rand you and your sons with you shall bear iniquity connected with your priesthood. ²And with you bring your brothers also, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, that they may ^sjoin you and ^tminister to you while you and your sons with you are before the tent of the testimony. ³They shall keep guard over you and ^uover the whole tent, ^vbut shall not come near to the vessels of the sanctuary or to the altar ^wlest they, and you, die. ⁴They shall join you and keep guard over the tent of meeting for all the service of the tent, ^xand no outsider shall come near you. ⁵And you shall ^ykeep guard over the sanctuary and over the altar, ^zthat there may never again be wrath on the people of Israel. ^6aAnd behold, I have taken your brothers the Levites from among the people of Israel. ^bThey are a gift to you, given to the Lord, to do the service of the tent of meeting. ⁷And ^cyou and your sons with you shall guard your priesthood for all that concerns the altar and ^dthat is within the veil; and you shall serve. I give your priesthood as a gift,¹ and ^eany outsider who comes near shall be put to death.”

⁸Then the Lord spoke to Aaron, “Behold, ^fI have given you charge of the contributions made to me, all the consecrated things of the people of Israel. I have given them to you ^gas a portion and to your sons as a perpetual due. ⁹This shall be yours of the most holy things, reserved from the fire: every offering of theirs, every grain offering of theirs and every ^hsin offering of theirs and every ⁱguilt offering of theirs, which they render to me, shall be most holy to you and to your sons. ¹⁰In a most holy place shall you eat it. Every male may eat it; it is holy to you. ¹¹This also is yours: the contribution of their gift, all the ^jwave offerings of the people of Israel. I have given them to ^kyou, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a perpetual due. ^lEveryone who is clean in your house may eat it. ^12mAll the best of the oil and all the best of the wine and of the grain, ⁿthe firstfruits of what they give to the Lord, I give to you. ¹³The first ripe fruits of all that is in their land, ^owhich they bring to the Lord, shall be yours. ^lEveryone who is clean in your house may eat it. ^14pEvery devoted thing in Israel shall be yours. ^15qEverything that opens the womb of all flesh, whether man or beast, which they offer to the Lord, shall be yours. Nevertheless, ^rthe firstborn of man you shall redeem, and the firstborn of unclean animals you shall redeem. ¹⁶And their redemption price ^s(at a month old you shall redeem them) you shall fix at five shekels² in silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, ^twhich is twenty gerahs. ^17uBut the firstborn of a cow, or the firstborn of a sheep, or the firstborn of a goat, you shall not redeem; they are holy. You shall sprinkle their blood on the altar and shall burn their fat as a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. ¹⁸But their flesh shall be yours, as ^vthe breast that is waved and as the right thigh are yours. ^19wAll the holy contributions that the people of Israel present to the Lord I give to you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a perpetual due. ^xIt is a covenant of salt forever before the Lord for you and for your offspring with you.” ²⁰And the Lord said to Aaron, “You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any portion among them. ^yI am your portion and your inheritance among the people of Israel.

^21z“To the Levites I have given every tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service that they do, their service in the tent of meeting, ^22aso that the people of Israel do not come near the tent of meeting, ^blest they bear sin and die. ²³But ^cthe Levites shall do the service of the tent of meeting, ^dand they shall bear their iniquity. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations, and among the people of Israel they shall have no inheritance. ²⁴For the tithe of the people of Israel, which ^ethey present as a contribution to the Lord, I have given to the Levites for an inheritance. Therefore I have said of them that they shall have no inheritance ^famong the people of Israel.”

²⁵And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²⁶“Moreover, you shall speak and say to the Levites, ‘When you take from the people of Israel the tithe that I have given you from them for your inheritance, then you shall present a contribution from it to the Lord, ^ga tithe of the tithe. ^27hAnd your contribution shall be counted to you as though it were the grain of the threshing floor, and as the fullness of the winepress. ²⁸So you shall also present a contribution to the Lord from all your tithes, which you receive from the people of Israel. And from it you shall give the Lord’s contribution to Aaron the priest. ²⁹Out of all the gifts to you, you shall present every contribution due to the Lord; from each its best part is to be dedicated.’ ³⁰Therefore you shall say to them, ‘When you have offered from it the best of it, ⁱthen the rest shall be counted to the Levites as produce of the threshing floor, and as produce of the winepress. ³¹And you may eat it in any place, you and your households, for it is ^jyour reward in return for your service in the tent of meeting. ³²And you shall ^kbear no sin by reason of it, when you have contributed the best of it. But you shall not ^lprofane the holy things of the people of Israel, lest you die.’ ”

Laws for Purification

19Now the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, ²“This is the statute of the law that the Lord has commanded: Tell the people of Israel to bring you a red heifer without defect, in which there is no blemish, ^mand on which a yoke has never come. ³And you shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and ⁿit shall be taken outside the camp and slaughtered before him. ⁴And Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger, and ^osprinkle some of its blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times. ⁵And the heifer shall be burned in his sight. ^pIts skin, its flesh, and its blood, with its dung, shall be burned. ⁶And the priest shall take ^qcedarwood and hyssop and scarlet yarn, and throw them into the fire burning the heifer. ⁷Then the priest ^rshall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp. But the priest shall be unclean until evening. ^8sThe one who burns the heifer ^rshall wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water and shall be unclean until evening. ⁹And a man who is clean shall gather up ^tthe ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a ^uclean place. And they shall be kept for the water for ^vimpurity for the congregation of the people of Israel; it is a sin offering. ¹⁰And the one who gathers the ashes of the heifer ^rshall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. And this shall be a perpetual statute for the people of Israel, and for the stranger who sojourns among them.

^11w“Whoever touches the dead body of any person shall be unclean seven days. ¹²He ^xshall cleanse himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day, and so be clean. But if he does not cleanse himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not become clean. ¹³Whoever touches a dead person, the body of anyone who has died, and does not cleanse himself, ^ydefiles the tabernacle of the Lord, ^zand that person shall be cut off from Israel; because the water for impurity was not thrown on him, he shall be unclean. His uncleanness is still on him.

¹⁴“This is the law when someone dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent shall be unclean seven days. ¹⁵And every ^aopen vessel that has no cover fastened on it is unclean. ^16bWhoever in the open field touches someone who was killed with a sword or who died naturally, or touches a human bone or a ^cgrave, shall be unclean seven days. ¹⁷For the unclean they shall take ^dsome ashes of the burnt sin offering, and fresh¹ water shall be added in a vessel. ¹⁸Then a clean person shall take ^ehyssop and dip it in the water and sprinkle it on the tent and on all the furnishings…