Numbers 18–20

Responsibility of Priests and Levites

¹⁸The Lord said to Aaron, “You and your sons and your ancestral house with you shall bear responsibility for offenses connected with the sanctuary, while you and your sons alone shall bear responsibility for offenses connected with the priesthood.^{* 2}So bring with you also your brothers of the tribe of Levi, your ancestral tribe, in order that they may be joined to you and serve you while you and your sons with you are in front of the tent of the covenant.^{* 3}They shall perform duties for you and for the whole tent. But they must not approach either the utensils of the sanctuary or the altar, or else both they and you will die.^{* 4}They are attached to you in order to perform the duties of the tent of meeting, for all the service of the tent; no outsider shall approach you.^{* 5}You yourselves shall perform the duties of the sanctuary and the duties of the altar, so that wrath may never again come upon the Israelites.^{* 6}It is I who now take your brother Levites from among the Israelites; they are now yours as a gift, dedicated to the Lord, to perform the service of the tent of meeting.^{* 7}But you and your sons with you shall diligently perform your priestly duties in all that concerns the altar and the area behind the curtain. I give your priesthood as a gift;^k any outsider who approaches shall be put to death.”^*

The Priests’ Portion

⁸The Lord spoke to Aaron, “I have given you charge of the offerings made to me, all the holy gifts of the Israelites; I have given them to you and your sons as a priestly portion due you in perpetuity.^{* 9}This shall be yours from the most holy things, reserved from the fire: every offering of theirs that they render to me as a most holy thing, whether grain offering, purification offering, or guilt offering, shall belong to you and your sons.^{* 10}As a most holy thing you shall eat it; every male may eat it; it shall be holy to you.^{* 11}This also is yours: I have given to you, together with your sons and daughters, as a perpetual due, whatever is set aside from the gifts of all the elevation offerings of the Israelites; everyone who is clean in your house may eat them.^{* 12}All the best of the oil and all the best of the wine and of the grain, the choice produce that they give to the Lord, I have given to you.^{* 13}The first fruits of all that is in their land that they bring to the Lord shall be yours; everyone who is clean in your house may eat of it.^{* 14}Every devoted thing in Israel shall be yours.^{* 15}The first issue of the womb of all creatures, human and animal, that is offered to the Lord shall be yours, but the firstborn of human beings you shall redeem, and the firstborn of unclean animals you shall redeem.^{* 16}Their redemption price, reckoned from one month of age, you shall fix at five shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary (that is, twenty gerahs).^{* 17}But the firstborn of a cow or the firstborn of a sheep or the firstborn of a goat you shall not redeem; they are holy. You shall dash their blood on the altar and turn their fat into smoke as an offering by fire^l for a pleasing odor to the Lord,^{* 18}but their flesh shall be yours, just as the breast that is elevated and as the right thigh are yours. ¹⁹All the holy offerings that the Israelites present to the Lord I have given to you, together with your sons and daughters, as a perpetual due; it is a covenant of salt forever before the Lord for you and your descendants as well.”^{* 20}Then the Lord said to Aaron, “You shall have no allotment in their land, nor shall you have any share among them; I am your share and your possession among the Israelites.^*

²¹“To the Levites I have given every tithe in Israel for a possession in return for the service that they perform, the service in the tent of meeting.^{* 22}From now on the Israelites shall no longer approach the tent of meeting, or else they will incur guilt and die.^{* 23}But the Levites shall perform the service of the tent of meeting, and they shall bear responsibility for their own offenses; it shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations. But among the Israelites they shall have no allotment,^{* 24}because I have given to the Levites as their portion the tithe of the Israelites, which they set apart as an offering to the Lord. Therefore I have said of them that they shall have no allotment among the Israelites.”

²⁵The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²⁶“You shall say to the Levites: When you receive from the Israelites the tithe that I have given you from them for your portion, you shall set apart an offering from it to the Lord, a tithe of the tithe.^{* 27}It shall be reckoned to you as your gift, the same as the grain of the threshing floor and the fullness of the winepress. ²⁸Thus you also shall set apart an offering to the Lord from all the tithes that you receive from the Israelites, and from them you shall give the Lord’s offering to the priest Aaron.^{* 29}Out of all the gifts to you, you shall set apart every offering due to the Lord; the best of all of them is the part to be consecrated. ³⁰Say also to them: When you have set apart the best of it, then the rest shall be reckoned to the Levites as produce of the threshing floor and as produce of the winepress. ³¹You may eat it in any place, you and your households, for it is your payment for your service in the tent of meeting. ³²You shall incur no guilt by reason of it, when you have offered the best of it. But you shall not profane the holy gifts of the Israelites, on pain of death.”^*

Ceremony of the Red Heifer

¹⁹The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, ²“This is a statute of the law that the Lord has commanded: Tell the Israelites to bring you a red heifer without defect, in which there is no blemish and on which no yoke has been laid.^{* 3}You shall give it to the priest Eleazar, and it shall be taken outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence.^{* 4}The priest Eleazar shall take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the tent of meeting.^{* 5}Then the heifer shall be burned in his sight; its skin, its flesh, and its blood, with its entrails,^m shall be burned. ⁶The priest shall take cedarwood, hyssop, and crimson material and throw them into the fire in which the heifer is burning.^{* 7}Then the priest shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp, but the priest shall remain unclean until evening.^{* 8}The one who burns the heiferⁿ shall wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water; he shall remain unclean until evening. ⁹Then someone who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place, and they shall be kept for the congregation of the Israelites for the water for cleansing. It is a purification offering.^{* 10}The one who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening.

“This shall be a perpetual statute for the Israelites and for the alien residing among them. ¹¹Those who touch the dead body of any human being shall be unclean seven days.^{* 12}They shall purify themselves with the water on the third day and on the seventh day and so be clean, but if they do not purify themselves on the third day and on the seventh day, they will not become clean.^{* 13}All who touch a corpse, the body of a human being who has died, and do not purify themselves defile the tabernacle of the Lord; such persons shall be cut off from Israel. Since water for cleansing was not dashed on them, they remain unclean; their uncleanness is still on them.^*

¹⁴“This is the law when someone dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent shall be unclean seven days. ¹⁵And every open vessel with no cover fastened on it is unclean. ¹⁶Whoever in the open field touches one who has been killed by a sword or who has died naturally,^o or a human bone, or a grave shall be unclean seven days.^{* 17}For the unclean they shall take some ashes of the burnt purification offering, and running water shall be added in a vessel;^{* 18}then a clean person shall take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, on all the furnishings, on the persons who were there, and on whoever touched the bone, the slain, the corpse, or the grave. ¹⁹The clean person shall sprinkle the unclean ones on the third day and on the seventh day, thus purifying them on the seventh day. Then they shall wash their clothes and bathe themselves in water, and at evening they shall be clean.^{* 20}Any who are unclean but do not purify themselves, those persons shall be cut off from the assembly, for they have defiled the sanctuary of the Lord. Since the water for cleansing has not been dashed on them, they are unclean.^*

²¹“It shall be a perpetual statute for them. The one who sprinkles the water for cleansing shall wash his clothes, and whoever touches the water for cleansing shall be unclean until evening. ²²Whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean, and anyone who touches it shall be unclean until evening.”^*

The Waters of Meribah

²⁰The Israelites, the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month, and the people stayed in Kadesh. Miriam died there and was buried there.^*

²Now there was no water for the congregation, so they gathered together against Moses and against Aaron.^{* 3}The people quarreled with Moses and said, “Would that we had died when our kindred died before the Lord!^{* 4}Why have you brought the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness for us and our livestock to die here?^{* 5}Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to bring us to this wretched place? It is no place for grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, and there is no water to drink.” ⁶Then Moses and Aaron went away from the assembly to the entrance of the tent of meeting; they fell on their faces, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them.^{* 7}The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ⁸“Take the…