Numbers 19:1–20:13
19 And Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 2 “This is the decree of the law that Yahweh has commanded, saying, ‘Speak to the ⌊Israelites⌋a and let them take to you a red heifer without a physical defect, on which a yoke ⌊has not been placed⌋.b 3 And you will give it to Eleazar the priest, and it will be broughtc out to a place outside the camp, and it will be slaughteredd in his presence. 4 Then Eleazar the priest will take some of its blood on his finger and spatter it toward the mouth of the tent of assembly seven times. 5 The heifer will be burnede in his sight; its skin, its meat, and its blood, in addition to its offal, will burn. 6 The priest will take cedar wood, hyssop, and crimson thread, and he will throw them in the midst of ⌊the burning heifer⌋.f 7 The priest will wash his garments and his body in the water, and afterward he will come to the camp; the priest will be unclean until the evening. 8 The one who burns it will wash his garments and his body in water; he will be unclean until the evening. 9 A clean man will gather the ashes of the heifer, and he will put them in a clean ⌊place outside the camp⌋;g it will be for the community of the ⌊Israelites⌋h as a requirement for waters of impurity; it is a purification offering. 10 The one who gathers the ashes of the heifer will wash his garments; he will be unclean until evening. It will be an eternal decree for the ⌊Israelites⌋i and for one who dwells as an alien in their midst.
11 “ ‘The one who touches a corpse of ⌊any person⌋j will be unclean for seven days. 12 He will purify himself on the third day, and on the seventh day he will be clean. If he does not purify himself on the third day, he will not be clean on the seventh day. 13 Anyone who touches a corpse, the person of a human being who died, and does not purify himself, defiles the tabernacle of Yahweh, and that person will be cut off from Israel because the waters of impurity were not sprinkled on him. He will still be unclean, and uncleanness is on him.
14 “ ‘This is the law of a person who dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent and all who are in the tent will be unclean seven days. 15 Every container that is opened that does not have a lid cordk on it is unclean. 16 Anyone ⌊in the open field⌋l who touches ⌊one who has been slain⌋,m or a corpse, or a bone of a person, or a burial site, he will be unclean for seven days. 17 For the unclean person they will taken from the powder of the ⌊burnt purification offering⌋,o and they will putp running water into a container. 18 A clean person will take hyssop and dip it into the water and sprinkle it on the tent and on all the objects and persons who were there, and on one who touched the bone, or the one slain, or the dead, or the burial site. 19 The clean person will spatter the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day; and on the seventh day he will purify him, and he will wash his garments; he will bathe in the waters, and in the evening he will be clean. 20 But the man who is unclean and does not purify himself, that person will be cut off from the midst of the assembly because he defiled the sanctuary of Yahweh; the water of impurity was not sprinkled on him; he is unclean.
21 “ ‘It will be an eternal decree for them. The one who spatters the waters of impurity will wash his garments, and the one who touches the waters of impurity will be unclean until the evening. 22 Anything that the unclean person touches will be unclean, and the person who touches it will be unclean until the evening.’ ”
20 Then the entire community of the ⌊Israelites⌋a came to the desert of Zin on the first month, and the people stayed in Kadesh; Miriam died and was buried there.
2 There was no water for the community, and they were gathered before Moses and Aaron. 3 And the people quarreled with Moses and spoke, saying, “If only we died when our brothers were dying ⌊before⌋b Yahweh! 4 Why have you brought the assembly of Yahweh, us and our livestock, into this desert to die here? 5 Why have you brought us from Egypt to bring us to this bad place? It is not a place of seed or figsc or vinesd or pomegranate trees,e and there is not water to drink.” 6 And Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the doorway of the tent of assembly. They fell on their faces, and the glory of Yahweh appeared to them. 7 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 8 “Take the staff and summon the community, you and Aaron your brother, and speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will give water. Bring out for them water from the rock, and let the community and their livestock drink.”
9 So Moses took the staff from ⌊before⌋f Yahweh just as he command him, 10 and Moses and Aaron summoned the assembly to the presence of the rock, and he said to them, “Please listen, you rebels; can we bring out water for you from this rock?” 11 Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice. And abundant water went out, and the community and their livestock drank. 12 But Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you have not trusted in me, to regard me as holy ⌊in the sight of⌋g the ⌊Israelites⌋,h you will not bring this assembly into the land that I have given to them.” 13 Those were the waters of Meribah, where the ⌊Israelites⌋i quarreled with Yahweh, and he showed himself holy among them.