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. ⁷^hThen 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.

¹¹^k‘He who touches the dead ⁴body of anyone shall be unclean seven days. ¹²^lHe 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. ¹⁶^rWhoever 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. ²²^wWhatever 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.

²^dNow 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! ⁴^hWhy 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, ⁸^k“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.”

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

Passage Through Edom Refused

¹⁴^sNow 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, ¹⁵^vhow our fathers went down to Egypt, ^wand we dwelt in Egypt a long time, ^xand the Egyptians ³afflicted us and our fathers. ¹⁶^yWhen 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. ²⁵^jTake 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. ²⁸^kMoses 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.

Canaanites Defeated at Hormah

21The ^aking of Arad, the Canaanite, who dwelt in the South, heard that Israel was coming on the road to Atharim. Then he fought against Israel and took some of them prisoners. ²^bSo Israel made a vow to the Lord, and said, “If You will indeed deliver this people into my hand, then ^cI will utterly destroy their cities.” ³And the Lord listened to the voice of Israel and delivered up the Canaanites, and they utterly destroyed them and their cities. So the name of that place was called ¹Hormah.

The Bronze Serpent

⁴Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the Way of the Red Sea, to ^dgo around the land of Edom; and the soul of the people became very ²discouraged on the way. ⁵And the people ^espoke against God and against Moses: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul ³loathes this worthless bread.” ⁶So ^fthe Lord sent ^gfiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died.

⁷^hTherefore the people came to Moses, and said, “We have ⁱsinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you; ^jpray to the Lord that He take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.

⁸Then the Lord said to Moses, ^k“Make a ^lfiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” ⁹So ^mMoses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.

From Mount Hor to Moab

¹⁰Now the children of Israel moved on and ⁿcamped in Oboth. ¹¹And they journeyed from Oboth and camped at ⁴Ije Abarim, in the wilderness which is east of Moab, toward the sunrise. ¹²^oFrom there they moved and camped in the Valley of Zered. ¹³From there they moved and camped on the other side of the Arnon, which is in the wilderness that extends from the border of the Amorites; for ^pthe Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites. ¹⁴Therefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of the Lord: