Numbers 17–19

Aaron’s Staff Is Chosen

17Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ²“Speak to the Israelites,^a and take from among them twelve staffs, a staff from each family^b from among all their leaders according to their families’ households. Write the name of each man on his staff, ³and the name of Aaron on the staff of Levi, because one staff is for the head of each of their families.^{c 4}You must then put them in the tent of assembly before^d the testimony^e where I meet with you. ⁵And it will happen, the man whom I will choose, his staff will blossom, and so I will rid from upon myself the grumblings of the Israelites,^f who are grumbling against you.” ⁶Moses spoke to the Israelites,^g and all their leaders gave him a staff for each leader, one from each of their families,^h twelve staffs, and the staff of Aaron was in the midst of their tribes. ⁷And Moses put the staffs before Yahweh in the tent of testimony.

⁸Then the next day, Moses went into the tent of the testimony, and behold the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi blossomed and put forth a flower and produced blossoms, and it produced almonds. ⁹Then Moses brought out to all the Israelitesⁱ all the staffs before the presence of Yahweh, and they saw, and each man took his staff. ¹⁰And Yahweh said to Moses, “Bring back the staff of Aaron before the testimony^j as a guard and sign for the children of rebellion, and let them finish their grumblings before me and not die.” ¹¹So Moses did; just as Yahweh commanded him, so he did.

¹²And the Israelites^k said to Moses, saying, “Look! We will die! We will be destroyed! All of us will perish! ¹³Anyone who approaches the tabernacle of Yahweh will die. Will we all die?”^l

The Duties of the Priests and Levites

18Yahweh said to Aaron, “You, your sons, and your family with you will bear the guilt of the sanctuary, and you and your sons with you will bear the guilt of your priesthood. ²Moreover, bring your brothers with you, the tribe of Levi the tribe of your father, that they may be joined to you and minister to you, you and your sons with you before the tent of testimony. ³They will keep your responsibility and the responsibility of all the tent, only they may not come near the vessels of the sanctuary and the altar, so both you and they will not die. ⁴They will be joined to you, and they will keep the responsibility of the tent of assembly for the entire service of the tent; a stranger may not come near you. ⁵You will keep the responsibility of the sanctuary and the responsibility of the altar, and there will no longer be wrath on the Israelites.^{a 6}Look, I myself have chosen your brothers the Levites from the midst of the children. They are a gift to you given from Yahweh to perform the work of the tent of assembly. ⁷But you with your sons will keep your priesthood to perform your priestly duties for everything at the altar^b and for the area behind the curtain.^c I give you the priesthood as a gift, but the stranger who approaches will be put to death.”

Portions for the Priests

⁸Yahweh spoke to Aaron, “Behold, I myself have given to you the responsibility of my contributions for all the holy objects of the Israelites;^d I have given them as a portion to you and your sons as an eternal decree. ⁹This will be for you from the sanctuary of the holy things from the fire; all of their offerings, from every grain offering, from every sin offering, and from every guilt offering which they will bring to me is a most holy thing^e for you and your sons. ¹⁰You will eat it in the most holy place;^f every male will eat it. It will be a holy object to you. ¹¹This is also for you: the contribution of their gift of the wave offerings of the children Israel. I have given them to you and your sons and your daughters with you as an eternal decree; whoever is clean in your house may eat it. ¹²All the finest olive oil and all the finest new wine and their best grain that they have given to Yahweh, I have given them to you. ¹³The firstfruits of all that is in their land that they present to Yahweh will be for you; whoever is clean in your house may eat it. ¹⁴All consecrated possessions^g in Israel will be for you. ¹⁵All the first offspring of a womb of any creature that they offer to Yahweh, whether human or animal, will be yours; you will surely redeem the firstborn of the human and the unclean firstborn of the animal. ¹⁶As to their price of redemption, from a one-month-old^h you will redeem them according to your proper value, five shekels of silver according to the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerah. ¹⁷Only the firstborn of an ox or the firstborn of a sheep or the firstborn of a goat you will not redeem; they are holy. Their blood you will sprinkle over the altar, and their fat you will turn into smoke as an offering made by fire, a fragrance of appeasement for Yahweh. ¹⁸But their flesh will be for you like the breast section of the wave offering, and it will be for you like the right upper thigh. ¹⁹All the contributions of holiness that the Israelitesⁱ offer to Yahweh I have given to you and your sons and your daughters with you as an eternal decree; it is an eternal covenant of salt before^j Yahweh to you and your offspring with you.” ²⁰Then Yahweh said to Aaron, “You will not receive an inheritance in their land, and there will not be a plot of ground for you in the midst of the Israelites.^k

²¹“Behold, I have given to the descendants^l of Levi every tithe in Israel as an inheritance in return for their service, which they are doing, the work of the tent of assembly. ²²The Israelites^m will not come near again to the tent of assembly, or they will bear sinⁿ and die. ²³The Levites^o will perform the service of the tent of assembly, and they will bear their guilt, an eternal decree for all your generations. But they will not receive an inheritance in the midst of the Israelites^{p 24}because the tithes^q of the Israelites^r that are offered^s to Yahweh as a contribution, I have given to the Levites as an inheritance; therefore I said to them, ‘They will not receive an inheritance in the midst of the Israelites.’ ”^t

²⁵Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ²⁶“You will speak to the Levites and say to them, ‘When you receive the tithe from the Israelites^u that I have given to you from them for your inheritance, you will present^v a contribution from it to Yahweh, a tithe from a tithe. ²⁷Your contribution will be credited to you like the grain from the threshing floor and like the produce from the press. ²⁸So you will present^w your own contribution to Yahweh from all your tithes that you receive from the Israelites;^x from it you will give the contribution of Yahweh to Aaron the priest. ²⁹From all your gifts you will present^y every contribution of Yahweh, from all its fat, the part that is sacred.’ ³⁰You will say to them, ‘When you are presenting^z its fat, the rest will be credited to the Levites like a yield of the threshing floor and like a yield from the press. ³¹You may eat it anywhere, you and your household, because it is a wage in return for your service in the tent of assembly. ³²You will not bear any sin because you have presented^a its fat; you will not defile the holy objects of the Israelites,^b or you will die.’ ”

Ashes of the Red Heifer

19And 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 brought^c out to a place outside the camp, and it will be slaughtered^d in his presence. ⁴Then 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. ⁵The heifer will be burned^e in his sight; its skin, its meat, and its blood, in addition to its offal, will burn. ⁶The 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. ⁸The one who burns it will wash his garments and his body in water; he will be unclean until the evening. ⁹A 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. ¹⁰The 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 Israelitesⁱ 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. ¹²He 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. ¹³Anyone 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. ¹⁵Every container that is opened that does not have a lid cord^k on it is unclean. ¹⁶Anyone 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. ¹⁷For the unclean person they will takeⁿ from the powder of the burnt purification offering,^o and they will put^p running water into a container. ¹⁸A 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…