Numbers 18–20

Duties of Priests and Levites

18Then the Lord said to Aaron: ^a“You and your sons and your father’s house with you shall ^bbear the ¹iniquity related to the sanctuary, and you and your sons with you shall bear the iniquity associated with your priesthood. ²Also bring with you your brethren of the ^ctribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, that they may be ^djoined with you and serve you while you and your sons are with you before the tabernacle of ²witness. ³They shall attend to your ³needs and ^eall the needs of the tabernacle; ^fbut they shall not come near the articles of the sanctuary and the altar, ^glest they die—they and you also. ⁴They shall be joined with you and attend to the needs of the tabernacle of meeting, for all the work of the tabernacle; ^hbut an outsider shall not come near you. ⁵And you shall attend to ⁱthe duties of the sanctuary and the duties of the altar, ^jthat there may be no more wrath on the children of Israel. ⁶Behold, I Myself have ^ktaken your brethren the Levites from among the children of Israel; ^lthey are a gift to you, given by the Lord, to do the work of the tabernacle of meeting. ⁷Therefore ^myou and your sons with you shall attend to your priesthood for everything at the altar and ⁿbehind the veil; and you shall serve. I give your priesthood to you as a ^ogift for service, but the outsider who comes near shall be put to death.”

Offerings for Support of the Priests

⁸And the Lord spoke to Aaron: “Here, ^pI Myself have also given you ⁴charge of My heave offerings, all the holy gifts of the children of Israel; I have given them ^qas a portion to you and your sons, as an ordinance forever. ⁹This shall be yours of the most holy things reserved from the fire: every offering of theirs, every ^rgrain offering and every ^ssin offering and every ^ttrespass offering which they render to Me, shall be most holy for you and your sons. ^10uIn a most holy place you shall eat it; every male shall eat it. It shall be holy to you.

¹¹“This also is yours: ^vthe heave offering of their gift, with all the wave offerings of the children of Israel; I have given them to you, and your sons and daughters with you, as an ordinance forever. ^wEveryone who is ⁵clean in your house may eat it.

^12x“All the ⁶best of the oil, all the best of the new wine and the grain, ^ytheir firstfruits which they offer to the Lord, I have given them to you. ¹³Whatever first ripe fruit is in their land, ^zwhich they bring to the Lord, shall be yours. Everyone who is clean in your house may eat it.

^14a“Every ⁷devoted thing in Israel shall be yours.

¹⁵“Everything that first opens ^bthe womb of all flesh, which they bring to the Lord, whether man or beast, shall be yours; nevertheless ^cthe firstborn of man you shall surely redeem, and the firstborn of unclean animals you shall redeem. ¹⁶And those redeemed of the devoted things you shall redeem when one month old, ^daccording to your valuation, for five shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, which is ^etwenty gerahs. ^17fBut the firstborn of a cow, the firstborn of a sheep, or the firstborn of a goat you shall not redeem; they are holy. ^gYou shall sprinkle their blood on the altar, and burn their fat as an offering made by fire for a sweet aroma to the Lord. ¹⁸And their flesh shall be yours, just as the ^hwave ⁸breast and the right thigh are yours.

¹⁹“All the heave offerings of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer to the Lord, I have given to you and your sons and daughters with you as an ordinance forever; ⁱit is a covenant of salt forever before the Lord with you and your descendants with you.”

²⁰Then the Lord said to Aaron: “You shall have ^jno inheritance in their land, nor shall you have any portion among them; ^kI am your portion and your inheritance among the children of Israel.

Tithes for Support of the Levites

²¹“Behold, ^lI have given the children of Levi all the tithes in Israel as ⁹an inheritance in return for the work which they perform, ^mthe work of the tabernacle of meeting. ²²ⁿHereafter the children of Israel shall not come near the tabernacle of meeting, ^olest they bear sin and die. ²³But the Levites shall perform the work of the tabernacle of meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity; it shall be a statute forever, throughout your generations, that among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance. ²⁴For the tithes of the children of Israel, which they offer up as a heave offering to the Lord, I have given to the Levites ¹as an inheritance; therefore I have said to them, ‘Among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.’ ”

The Tithe of the Levites

²⁵Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²⁶“Speak thus to the Levites, and say to them: ‘When you take from the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them as your inheritance, then you shall offer up a heave offering of it to the Lord, ^pa tenth of the tithe. ²⁷And your heave offering shall be reckoned to you as though it were the grain of the ^qthreshing floor and as the fullness of the winepress. ²⁸Thus you shall also offer a heave offering to the Lord from all your tithes which you receive from the children of Israel, and you shall give the Lord’s heave offering from it to Aaron the priest. ²⁹Of all your gifts you shall offer up every heave offering due to the Lord, from all the ²best of them, the consecrated part of them.’ ³⁰Therefore you shall say to them: ‘When you have lifted up the best of it, then the rest shall be accounted to the Levites as the produce of the threshing floor and as the produce of the winepress. ³¹You may eat it in any place, you and your households, for it is ^ryour ³reward for your work in the tabernacle of meeting. ³²And you shall ^sbear no sin because of it, when you have lifted up the best of it. But you shall not ^tprofane the holy gifts of the children of Israel, lest you die.’ ”

Laws of Purification

19Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, ²“This is the ¹ordinance of the law which the Lord has commanded, saying: ‘Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring you a red heifer without ²blemish, in which there is no ^adefect ^band on which a yoke has never come. ³You shall give it to Eleazar the priest, that he may take it ^coutside the camp, and it shall be slaughtered before him; ⁴and Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger, and ^dsprinkle some of its blood seven times directly in front of the tabernacle of meeting. ⁵Then the heifer shall be burned in his sight: ^eits hide, its flesh, its blood, and its offal shall be burned. ⁶And the priest shall take ^fcedar wood and ^ghyssop and scarlet, and cast them into the midst of the fire burning the heifer. ^7hThen the priest shall wash his clothes, he shall bathe in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp; the priest shall be unclean until evening. ⁸And the one who burns it shall wash his clothes in water, bathe in water, and shall be unclean until evening. ⁹Then a man who is clean shall gather up ⁱthe ashes of the heifer, and store them outside the camp in a clean place; and they shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel ^jfor the water of ³purification; it is for purifying from sin. ¹⁰And the one who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until evening. It shall be a statute forever to the children of Israel and to the stranger who dwells among them.

^11k‘He who touches the dead ⁴body of anyone shall be unclean seven days. ^12lHe shall purify himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day; then he will be clean. But if he does not purify himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not be clean. ¹³Whoever touches the body of anyone who has died, and ^mdoes not purify himself, ⁿdefiles the tabernacle of the Lord. That person shall be cut off from Israel. He shall be unclean, because ^othe water of purification was not sprinkled on him; ^phis uncleanness is still on him.

¹⁴‘This is the law when a man dies in a tent: All who come into the tent and all who are in the tent shall be unclean seven days; ¹⁵and every ^qopen vessel, which has no cover fastened on it, is unclean. ^16rWhoever in the open field touches one who is slain by a sword or who has died, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.

¹⁷‘And for an unclean person they shall take some of the ^sashes of the heifer burnt for purification from sin, and ⁵running water shall be put on them in a vessel. ¹⁸A clean person shall take ^thyssop and dip it in the water, sprinkle it on the tent, on all the vessels, on the persons who were there, or on the one who touched a bone, the slain, the dead, or a grave. ¹⁹The clean person shall sprinkle the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day; ^uand on the seventh day he shall purify himself, wash his clothes, and bathe in water; and at evening he shall be clean.

²⁰‘But the man who is unclean and does not purify himself, that person shall be cut off from among the assembly, because he has ^vdefiled the sanctuary of the Lord. The water of purification has not been sprinkled on him; he is unclean. ²¹It shall be a perpetual statute for them. He who sprinkles the water of purification shall wash his clothes; and he who touches the water of purification shall be unclean until evening. ^22wWhatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean; and ^xthe person who touches it shall be unclean until evening.’ ”

Moses’ Error at Kadesh

20Then ^athe children of Israel, the whole congregation, came into the Wilderness of Zin in the first month, and the people stayed in ^bKadesh; and ^cMiriam died there and was buried there.

^2dNow there was no water for the congregation; ^eso they gathered together against Moses and Aaron. ³And the people ^fcontended with Moses and spoke, saying: “If only we had died ^gwhen our brethren died before the Lord! ^4hWhy have you brought up the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness, that we and our animals should die here? ⁵And…