Chapter 19

Ordinance of the Red Heifer

1 Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying,

2 “This is the statute of the law which the Lord has commanded, saying, ‘Speak to the sons of Israel that they bring you an aunblemished red heifer in which is no defect and bon which a yoke has never 1been placed.

3 ‘You shall give it to aEleazar the priest, and it shall bbe brought outside the camp and be slaughtered in his presence.

4 ‘Next Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and asprinkle some of its blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times.

5 ‘Then the heifer shall be burned in his sight; aits hide and its flesh and its blood, with its refuse, shall be burned.

6 ‘The priest shall take acedar wood and hyssop and scarlet material and cast it into the midst of the 1burning heifer.

7 ‘The priest ashall then wash his clothes and bathe his 1body in water, and afterward come into the camp, but the priest shall be unclean until evening.

8 ‘The one who burns it shall also wash his clothes in water and bathe his 1body in water, and shall be unclean until evening.

9 ‘Now a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place, and 1the congregation of the sons of Israel shall keep it as awater to remove impurity; it is 2purification from sin.

10 ‘The one who gathers the ashes of the heifer ashall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening; and it shall be a perpetual statute to the sons of Israel and to the alien who sojourns among them.

11 ‘aThe one who touches the corpse of any 1person shall be unclean for seven days.

12 ‘That one shall apurify himself from uncleanness with 1the water on the third day and on the seventh day, and 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.

13 ‘aAnyone who touches a corpse, the 1body of a man who has died, and does not purify himself, bdefiles the 2tabernacle of the Lord; and that person shall be cut off from Israel. Because the water for impurity was not 3csprinkled on him, he shall be unclean; his uncleanness is still on him.

14 ‘This is the law when a man dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent shall be unclean for seven days.

15 ‘Every open vessel, which has no covering 1tied down on it, shall be unclean.

16 ‘aAlso, anyone who in the open field touches one who has been slain with a sword or who has died naturally, or a human bone or a grave, shall be unclean for seven days.

17 ‘Then for the unclean person they shall take some of the 1ashes of the 2burnt 3apurification from sin and 4flowing water shall be 5added to them in a vessel.

18 ‘A clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent and on all the furnishings and on the persons who were there, and on the one who touched the bone or the one slain or the one dying naturally or the grave.

19 ‘Then the clean person ashall sprinkle on the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day; and on the seventh day he shall purify him from uncleanness, and he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and shall be clean by evening.

20 ‘But the man who is unclean and does not purify himself from uncleanness, that person shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly, because he has adefiled the sanctuary of the Lord; the water for impurity has not been sprinkled on him, he is unclean.

21 ‘So it shall be a perpetual statute for them. And he awho sprinkles the water for impurity shall wash his clothes, and he who touches the water for impurity shall be unclean until evening.

22 ‘aFurthermore, anything that the unclean person touches shall be unclean; and the person who touches it shall be unclean until evening.’ ”

Chapter 20

Death of Miriam

1 Then the sons of Israel, the whole congregation, came to the awilderness of Zin in the first month; and the people stayed at Kadesh. Now Miriam died there and was buried there.

2 aThere was no water for the congregation, band they assembled themselves against Moses and Aaron.

3 aThe people thus contended with Moses and spoke, saying, “bIf only we had perished cwhen our brothers perished before the Lord!

4 “aWhy then have you brought the Lord’s assembly into this wilderness, for us and our beasts to die 1here?

5 “Why have you made us come up from Egypt, to bring us in to this wretched place? aIt is not a place of 1grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, nor is there water to drink.”

6 Then Moses and Aaron came in from the presence of the assembly to the doorway of the tent of meeting and afell on their faces. Then the glory of the Lord appeared to them;

7 and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

The Water of Meribah

8 “Take athe rod; and you and your brother Aaron assemble the congregation and speak to the rock before their eyes, that it may yield its water. You shall thus bring forth water for them out of the rock and let the congregation and their beasts drink.”

9 So Moses took the rod afrom before the Lord, just as He had commanded him;

10 and Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock. And he said to them, “aListen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?”

11 Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and awater came forth abundantly, and the congregation and their beasts drank.

12 But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “aBecause you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”

13 Those were the waters of 1aMeribah, 2because the sons of Israel contended with the Lord, and He proved Himself holy among them.

14 From Kadesh Moses then sent messengers to athe king of Edom: “Thus your brother Israel has said, ‘You bknow all the hardship that has befallen us;

15 that our fathers went down to Egypt, and we stayed in Egypt a long time, and the Egyptians treated us and our fathers badly.

16 ‘But awhen we cried out to the Lord, He heard our voice and sent ban angel and brought us out from Egypt; now behold, we are at Kadesh, a town on the edge of your territory.

17 ‘Please alet us pass through your land. We will not pass through field or through vineyard; we will not even drink water from a well. We will go along the king’s highway, not turning to the right or left, until we pass through your territory.’ ”

18 aEdom, however, said to him, “You shall not pass through 1us, or I will come out with the sword against you.”

19 Again, the sons of Israel said to him, “We will go up by the highway, and if I and amy livestock do drink any of your water, bthen I will 1pay its price. Let me only pass through on my feet, 2nothing else.”

20 But he said, “aYou shall not pass through.” And Edom came out against him with a heavy 1force and with a strong hand.

21 aThus Edom refused to allow Israel to pass through his territory; bso Israel turned away from him.

22 Now when they set out from aKadesh, the sons of Israel, the whole congregation, came to Mount Hor.

Death of Aaron

23 Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron at aMount Hor by the border of the land of Edom, saying,

24 “Aaron will be agathered to his people; for he shall not enter the land which I have given to the sons of Israel, because byou rebelled against My 1command at the waters of Meribah.

25 “Take Aaron and his son aEleazar and bring them up to Mount Hor;

26 and strip Aaron of his garments and put them on his son Eleazar. So Aaron will be agathered to his people, and will die there.”

27 So Moses did just as the Lord had commanded, and they went up to Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation.

28 After Moses had stripped Aaron of his garments and aput them on his son Eleazar, bAaron died there on the mountain top. Then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain.

29 When all the congregation saw that Aaron had died, all the house of Israel wept for Aaron thirty adays.

Chapter 21

Arad Conquered

1 When the Canaanite, the king of aArad, who lived in the 1Negev, heard that Israel was coming by the way of 2Atharim, then he fought against Israel and took some of them captive.

2 So aIsrael made a vow to the Lord and said, “If You will indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will 1utterly destroy their cities.”

3 The Lord heard the voice of Israel and delivered up the Canaanites; then they 1utterly destroyed them and their cities. Thus the name of the place was called 2aHormah.

4 Then they set out from Mount Hor by the way of the 1Red Sea, to ago around the land of Edom; and the 2people became impatient because of the journey.

5 The people spoke against God and Moses, “aWhy have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no 1food and no water, and 2bwe loathe this miserable food.”

The Bronze Serpent

6 aThe Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and bthey bit the people, so that cmany people of Israel died.

7 aSo the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the Lord and you; bintercede with the Lord, that He may remove the serpents from us.” And Moses interceded for the people.

8 Then the Lord said to Moses, “1Make a afiery serpent, and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he will live.”

9 And Moses made a abronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived.

10 aNow the sons of Israel moved out and camped in Oboth.

11 They journeyed from Oboth and camped at Iyeabarim, in the wilderness which is opposite Moab, to the 1east.

12 aFrom there they set out and camped in 1Wadi Zered.

13 From there they journeyed and camped on the other side of the Arnon, which is in the wilderness that comes out of the border of the Amorites, afor the Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.

14 Therefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of the Lord,

“Waheb in Suphah,

And the wadis of the Arnon,

15 And the slope of the wadis

That extends to the site of aAr,

And leans to the border of Moab.”

16 aFrom there they continued to 1Beer, that is the well where the Lord said to Moses, “Assemble the people, that I may give them water.”

17 aThen Israel sang this song:

“Spring up, O well! Sing to it!

18 “The well, which the leaders sank,

Which the nobles of the people dug,

With the scepter and with their staffs.”

And from the wilderness they continued to Mattanah,

19 and from Mattanah to Nahaliel, and from Nahaliel to Bamoth,

20 and from Bamoth to the valley that is in the land of Moab, at the top of Pisgah which overlooks the 1wasteland.

Two Victories

21 aThen Israel sent messengers to Sihon, king of the Amorites, saying,

22 “aLet me pass through your land. We will not turn off into field or vineyard; we will not drink water from wells. We will go by the king’s highway until we have passed through your border.”

23 aBut Sihon would not permit Israel to pass through his border. So Sihon gathered all his people and went out against Israel in the wilderness, and came to bJahaz and fought against Israel.

24 Then aIsrael 1struck him with the edge of the sword, and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as the sons of Ammon; for the bborder of the sons of Ammon was 2Jazer.

25 Israel took all these cities and aIsrael lived in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all her 1villages.

26 For Heshbon was the city of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab and had taken all his land out of his hand, as far as the Arnon.

27 Therefore those who use proverbs say,

“Come to Heshbon! Let it be built!

So let the city of Sihon be established.

28 “aFor a fire went forth from Heshbon,

A flame from the town of Sihon;

It devoured bAr of Moab,

The 1cdominant 2heights of the Arnon.

29 “aWoe to you, O Moab!

You are ruined, O people of bChemosh!

cHe has given his sons as fugitives,

dAnd his daughters into captivity,

To an Amorite king, Sihon.

30 “But we have cast them down,

Heshbon is ruined as far as aDibon,

Then we have laid waste even to Nophah,

Which reaches to Medeba.”

31 Thus Israel lived in the land of the Amorites.

32 Moses sent to spy out aJazer, and they captured its villages and dispossessed the Amorites who were there.

33 aThen they turned and went up by the way of Bashan, and Og the king of Bashan went out 1with all his people, for battle at bEdrei.

34 But the Lord said to Moses, “aDo not fear him, for I have given him into your hand, and all his people and his land; and you shall do to him as you did to Sihon, king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.”

35 So athey 1killed him and his sons and all his people, until there was no remnant left him; and they possessed his land.