Numbers 19:1–22:1

The Offering for Cleansing

19The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ²“These are the teachings that the Lord commanded. Tell the Israelites to get a young red cow that does not have anything wrong with it and that has never been worked. ³Give the cow to Eleazar the priest; he will take it outside the camp and kill it. ⁴Then Eleazar the priest must put some of its blood on his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the Meeting Tent. ⁵The whole cow must be burned while he watches; the skin, the meat, the blood, and the intestines must all be burned. ⁶Then the priest must take a cedar stick, a hyssop branch, and a red string and throw them onto the burning cow. ⁷After the priest has washed himself and his clothes with water, he may come back into the camp, but he will be unclean until evening. ⁸The man who burns the cow must wash himself and his clothes in water; he will be unclean until evening.

⁹“Then someone who is clean will collect the ashes from the cow and put them in a clean place outside the camp. The Israelites will keep these ashes to use in the cleansing water, in a special ceremony to cleanse away sin. ¹⁰The man who collected the cow’s ashes must wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. This is a lasting rule for the Israelites and for the foreigners among them.

¹¹“Those who touch a dead person’s body will be unclean for seven days. ¹²They must wash themselves with the cleansing water on the third day and on the seventh day; then they will be clean. But if they do not wash themselves on the third day and the seventh day, they cannot be clean. ¹³If those who touch a dead person’s body stay unclean and go to the Lord’s Holy Tent, it becomes unclean; they must be cut off from Israel. If the cleansing water is not sprinkled on them, they are unclean and will stay unclean.

¹⁴“This is the teaching about someone who dies in a tent: Anyone in the tent or anyone who enters it will be unclean for seven days. ¹⁵And every open jar or pot without a cover becomes unclean. ¹⁶If anyone is outside and touches someone who was killed by a sword or who died a natural death, or if anyone touches a human bone or a grave, that person will be unclean for seven days.

¹⁷“So you must use the ashes from the burnt offering to make that person clean again. Pour fresh water over the ashes into a jar. ¹⁸A clean person must take a hyssop branch and dip it into the water, and then he must sprinkle it over the tent and all its objects. He must also sprinkle the people who were there, as well as anyone who touched a bone, or the body of someone who was killed, or a dead person, or a grave. ¹⁹The person who is clean must sprinkle this water on the unclean people on the third day and on the seventh day. On the seventh day they will become clean. They must wash their clothes and take a bath, and they will be clean that evening. ²⁰If any who are unclean do not become clean, they must be cut off from the community. Since they were not sprinkled with the cleansing water, they stay unclean, and they could make the Lord’s Holy Tent unclean. ²¹This is a lasting rule. Those who sprinkle the cleansing water must also wash their clothes, and anyone who touches the water will be unclean until evening. ²²Anything an unclean person touches becomes unclean, and whoever touches it will be unclean until evening.”

Moses Disobeys God

20In the first month all the people of Israel arrived at the Desert of Zin, and they stayed at Kadesh. There Miriam died and was buried. ²There was no water for the people, so they came together against Moses and Aaron. ³They argued with Moses and said, “We should have died in front of the Lord as our brothers did. ⁴Why did you bring the Lord’s people into this desert? Are we and our animals to die here? ⁵Why did you bring us from Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain, figs, grapevines, or pomegranates, and there’s no water to drink!”

⁶So Moses and Aaron left the people and went to the entrance of the Meeting Tent. There they bowed facedown, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them. ⁷The Lord said to Moses, ⁸“Take your walking stick, and you and your brother Aaron should gather the people. Speak to that rock in front of them so that its water will flow from it. When you bring the water out from that rock, give it to the people and their animals.”

⁹So Moses took the stick from in front of the Lord, as he had said. ¹⁰Moses and Aaron gathered the people in front of the rock, and Moses said, “Now listen to me, you who turn against God! Do you want us to bring water out of this rock?” ¹¹Then Moses lifted his hand and hit the rock twice with his stick. Water began pouring out, and the people and their animals drank it.

¹²But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe me, and because you did not honor me as holy before the people, you will not lead them into the land I will give them.”

¹³These are the waters of Meribah, ⁿ where the Israelites argued with the Lord and where he showed them he was holy.

Edom Will Not Let Israel Pass

¹⁴From Kadesh, Moses sent messengers to the king of Edom. He said, “Your brothers, the Israelites, say to you: You know about all the troubles we have had, ¹⁵how our ancestors went down into Egypt and we lived there for many years. The people of Egypt were cruel to us and our ancestors, ¹⁶but when we cried out to the Lord, he heard us and sent us an angel to bring us out of Egypt.

“Now we are here at Kadesh, a town on the edge of your land. ¹⁷Please let us pass through your country. We will not touch any fields of grain or vineyards, and will not drink water from the wells. We will travel only along the king’s road, not turning right or left until we have passed through your country.”

¹⁸But the king of Edom answered: “You may not pass through here. If you try, I will come and meet you with swords.”

¹⁹The Israelites answered: “We will go along the main road, and if we or our animals drink any of your water, we will pay for it. We only want to walk through. That’s all.”

²⁰But he answered: “You may not pass through here.”

Then the Edomites went out to meet the Israelites with a large and powerful army. ²¹The Edomites refused to let them pass through their country, so the Israelites turned back.

Aaron Dies

²²All the Israelites moved from Kadesh to Mount Hor, ²³near the border of Edom. There the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ²⁴“Aaron will die. He will not enter the land that I’m giving to the Israelites, because you both acted against my command at the waters of Meribah. ²⁵Take Aaron and his son Eleazar up on Mount Hor, ²⁶and take off Aaron’s special clothes and put them on his son Eleazar. Aaron will die there; he will join his ancestors.”

²⁷Moses obeyed the Lord’s command. They climbed up Mount Hor, and all the people saw them go. ²⁸Moses took off Aaron’s clothes and put them on Aaron’s son Eleazar. Then Aaron died there on top of the mountain. Moses and Eleazar came back down the mountain, ²⁹and when all the people learned that Aaron was dead, everyone in Israel cried for him for thirty days.

War with the Canaanites

21The Canaanite king of Arad lived in the southern area. When he heard that the Israelites were coming on the road to Atharim, he attacked them and captured some of them. ²Then the Israelites made this promise to the Lord: “If you will help us defeat these people, we will completely destroy their cities.” ³The Lord listened to the Israelites, and he let them defeat the Canaanites. The Israelites completely destroyed the Canaanites and their cities, so the place was named Hormah. ⁿ

The Bronze Snake

⁴The Israelites left Mount Hor and went on the road toward the Red Sea, in order to go around the country of Edom. But the people became impatient on the way ⁵and grumbled at God and Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt to die in this desert? There is no bread and no water, and we hate this terrible food!”

⁶So the Lord sent them poisonous snakes; they bit the people, and many of the Israelites died. ⁷The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we grumbled at you and the Lord. Pray that the Lord will take away these snakes.” So Moses prayed for the people.

⁸The Lord said to Moses, “Make a bronze snake, and put it on a pole. When anyone who is bitten looks at it, that person will live.” ⁹So Moses made a bronze snake and put it on a pole. Then when a snake bit anyone, that person looked at the bronze snake and lived.

The Journey to Moab

¹⁰The Israelites went and camped at Oboth. ¹¹They went from Oboth to Iye Abarim, in the desert east of Moab. ¹²From there they went and camped in the Zered Valley. ¹³From there they went and camped across the Arnon, in the desert just inside the Amorite country. The Arnon is the border between the Moabites and the Amorites. ¹⁴That is why the Book of the Wars of the Lord says:

“… and Waheb in Suphah, and the ravines,

the Arnon, ¹⁵and the slopes of the ravines

that lead to the settlement of Ar.

These places are at the border of Moab.”

¹⁶The Israelites went from there to Beer; a well is there where the Lord said to Moses, “Gather the people and I will give them water.”

¹⁷Then the Israelites sang this song:

“Pour out water, well!

Sing about it.

¹⁸Princes dug this well.

Important men made it.

With their scepters and poles, they dug it.”

The people went from the desert to Mattanah. ¹⁹From Mattanah they went to Nahaliel and on to Bamoth. ²⁰From Bamoth they went to the valley of Moab where the top of Mount Pisgah looks over the desert.

Israel Kills Sihon and Og

²¹The Israelites sent messengers to Sihon, king of the Amorites, saying, ²²“Let us pass through your country. We will not go through any fields of grain or vineyards, or drink water from the wells. We will travel only along the king’s road until we have passed through your country.”

²³But King Sihon would not let the Israelites pass through his country. He gathered his whole army together, and they marched out to meet Israel in…