Numbers 8–9

¹And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, saying, ²‘Speak unto Aaron, and thou hast said unto him, In thy causing the lights to go up, over-against the face of the candlestick do the seven lights give light.’ ³And Aaron doth so; over-against the face of the candlestick he hath caused its lights to go up, as Jehovah hath commanded Moses. ⁴And this is the work of the candlestick: beaten work of gold; unto its thigh, unto its flower it is beaten work; as the appearance which Jehovah shewed Moses, so he hath made the candlestick.

⁵And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, saying, ⁶‘Take the Levites from the midst of the sons of Israel, and thou hast cleansed them.

⁷‘And thus thou dost to them to cleanse them: sprinkle upon them waters of atonement, and they have caused a razor to pass over all their flesh, and have washed their garments, and cleansed themselves, ⁸and have taken a bullock, a son of the herd, and its present, flour mixed with oil,—and a second bullock a son of the herd thou dost take for a sin-offering, ⁹and thou hast brought near the Levites before the tent of meeting, and thou hast assembled the whole company of the sons of Israel, ¹⁰and thou hast brought near the Levites before Jehovah, and the sons of Israel have laid their hands on the Levites, ¹¹and Aaron hath waved the Levites—a wave-offering before Jehovah, from the sons of Israel, and they have been—for doing the service of Jehovah.

¹²‘And the Levites lay their hands on the head of the bullocks, and make thou the one a sin-offering, and the one a burnt-offering to Jehovah, to atone for the Levites, ¹³and thou hast caused the Levites to stand before Aaron, and before his sons, and hast waved them—a wave-offering to Jehovah; ¹⁴and thou hast separated the Levites from the midst of the sons of Israel, and the Levites have become Mine; ¹⁵and afterwards do the Levites come in to serve the tent of meeting, and thou hast cleansed them, and hast waved them—a wave-offering.

¹⁶‘For they are certainly given to Me out of the midst of the sons of Israel, instead of him who openeth any womb—the first-born of all—from the sons of Israel I have taken them to Myself; ¹⁷for Mine is every first-born among the sons of Israel, among man and among beast; in the day of my smiting every first-born in the land of Egypt I sanctified them for Myself; ¹⁸and I take the Levites instead of every first-born among the sons of Israel:

¹⁹‘And I give the Levites gifts to Aaron and to his sons, from the midst of the sons of Israel, to do the service of the sons of Israel in the tent of meeting, and to make atonement for the sons of Israel, and there is no plague among the sons of Israel in the sons of Israel’s drawing nigh unto the sanctuary.’ ²⁰And Moses doth—Aaron also, and all the company of the sons of Israel—to the Levites according to all that Jehovah hath commanded Moses concerning the Levites; so have the sons of Israel done to them. ²¹And the Levites cleanse themselves, and wash their garments, and Aaron waveth them a wave-offering before Jehovah, and Aaron maketh atonement for them to cleanse them, ²²and afterwards have the Levites gone in to do their service in the tent of meeting, before Aaron and before his sons; as Jehovah hath commanded Moses concerning the Levites, so they have done to them. ²³And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, saying, ²⁴‘This is that which is the Levites’: from a son of five and twenty years and upward he doth go in to serve the host in the service of the tent of meeting, ²⁵and from a son of fifty years he doth return from the host of the service, and doth not serve any more, ²⁶and he hath ministered with his brethren in the tent of meeting, to keep the charge, and doth not do service; thus thou dost to the Levites concerning their charge.’

Chapter 9

¹And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, in the wilderness of Sinai, in the second year of their going out of the land of Egypt, in the first month, saying, ²‘Also, the sons of Israel prepare the passover in its appointed season; ³in the fourteenth day of this month between the evenings ye prepare it in its appointed season; according to all its statutes, and according to all its ordinances ye prepare it.’ ⁴And Moses speaketh unto the sons of Israel to prepare the passover, ⁵and they prepare the passover in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, between the evenings, in the wilderness of Sinai; according to all that Jehovah hath commanded Moses, so have the sons of Israel done. ⁶And there are men who have been defiled by the body of a man, and they have not been able to prepare the passover on that day, and they come near before Moses, and before Aaron, on that day, ⁷and those men say unto him, ‘We are defiled by the body of a man; why are we withheld so as not to bring near the offering of Jehovah in its appointed season, in the midst of the sons of Israel?’ ⁸And Moses saith unto them, ‘Stand ye, and I hear what Jehovah hath commanded concerning you.’ ⁹And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, saying, ¹⁰‘Speak unto the sons of Israel, saying, Though any man is unclean by a body or in a distant journey (of you or of your generations), yet he hath prepared a passover to Jehovah; ¹¹in the second month, on the fourteenth day, between the evenings they prepare it; with unleavened and bitter things they eat it; ¹²they do not leave of till morning; and a bone they do not break in it: according to all the statute of the passover they prepare it.

¹³‘And the man who is clean, and hath not been on a journey, and hath ceased to prepare the passover, even that person hath been cut off from his people; because the offering of Jehovah he hath not brought near, in its appointed season, that man doth bear his sin.

¹⁴‘And when a sojourner sojourneth with you, then he hath prepared a passover to Jehovah, according to the statute of the passover, and according to its ordinance, so he doth; one statute is to you, even to a sojourner, and to a native of the land.’

¹⁵And in the day of the raising up of the tabernacle hath the cloud covered the tabernacle, even the tent of the testimony; and in the evening there is on the tabernacle as an appearance of fire till morning; ¹⁶so it is continually; the cloud covereth it, also the appearance of fire by night. ¹⁷And according to the going up of the cloud from off the tent and afterwards do the sons of Israel journey; and in the place where the cloud doth tabernacle, there do the sons of Israel encamp; ¹⁸by the command of Jehovah the sons of Israel journey, and by the command of Jehovah they encamp; all the days that the cloud doth tabernacle over the tabernacle they encamp. ¹⁹And in the cloud prolonging itself over the tabernacle many days, then have the sons of Israel kept the charge of Jehovah, and journey not, ²⁰and so when the cloud is a number of days over the tabernacle; by the command of Jehovah they encamp, and by the command of Jehovah they journey. ²¹And so when the cloud is from evening till morning, when the cloud hath gone up in the morning, then they have journeyed; whether by day or by night, when the cloud hath gone up, then they have journeyed. ²²Whether two days, or a month, or days, in the cloud prolonging itself over the tabernacle, to tabernacle over it, the sons of Israel encamp, and journey not; and in its being lifted up they journey; ²³by the command of Jehovah they encamp, and by the command of Jehovah they journey; the charge of Jehovah they have kept, by the command of Jehovah in the hand of Moses.

Chapter 10