Numbers 19–20

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 why have you made us come up out of Egypt, to bring us to this evil place? It is not a place of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates; nor is there any water to drink.” ⁶So Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and ⁱthey ¹fell on their faces. And ^jthe glory of the Lord appeared to them.

⁷Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ^8k“Take the rod; you and your brother Aaron gather the congregation together. Speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will yield its water; thus ^lyou shall bring water for them out of the rock, and give drink to the congregation and their animals.” ⁹So Moses took the rod ^mfrom before the Lord as He commanded him.

¹⁰And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock; and he said to them, ⁿ“Hear now, you rebels! Must we bring water for you out of this rock?” ¹¹Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; ^oand water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their animals drank.

¹²Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Because ^pyou did not believe Me, to ^qhallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”

^13rThis was the water of ²Meribah, because the children of Israel contended with the Lord, and He was hallowed among them.

Passage Through Edom Refused

^14sNow Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of ^tEdom. ^u“Thus says your brother Israel: ‘You know all the hardship that has befallen us, ^15vhow our fathers went down to Egypt, ^wand we dwelt in Egypt a long time, ^xand the Egyptians ³afflicted us and our fathers. ^16yWhen we cried out to the Lord, He heard our voice and ^zsent the Angel and brought us up out of Egypt; now here we are in Kadesh, a city on the edge of your border. ¹⁷Please ^alet us pass through your country. We will not pass through fields or vineyards, nor will we drink water from wells; we will go along the King’s Highway; we will not turn aside to the right hand or to the left until we have passed through your territory.’ ”

¹⁸Then ^bEdom said to him, “You shall not pass through my land, lest I come out against you with the sword.”

¹⁹So the children of Israel said to him, “We will go by the Highway, and if I or my livestock drink any of your water, ^cthen I will pay for it; let me only pass through on foot, nothing more.”

²⁰Then he said, ^d“You shall not pass through.” So Edom came out against them with many men and with a strong hand. ²¹Thus Edom ^erefused to give Israel passage through his territory; so Israel ^fturned away from him.

Death of Aaron

²²Now the children of Israel, the whole congregation, journeyed from ^gKadesh ^hand came to Mount Hor. ²³And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in Mount Hor by the border of the land of Edom, saying: ²⁴“Aaron shall ⁴be ⁱgathered to his people, for he shall not enter the land which I have given to the children of Israel, because you rebelled against My word at the water of Meribah. ^25jTake Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up to Mount Hor; ²⁶and strip Aaron of his garments and put them on Eleazar his son; for Aaron shall be gathered to his people and die there.” ²⁷So Moses did just as the Lord commanded, and they went up to Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation. ^28kMoses stripped Aaron of his garments and put them on Eleazar his son; and ^lAaron died there on the top of the mountain. Then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain. ²⁹Now when all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead, all the house of Israel mourned for Aaron ^mthirty days.