Numbers 19–21

1Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,

2“This is the statute of the law which Yahweh has commanded. Tell the children of Israel to bring you a red heifer without spot, in which is no defect, and which was never yoked.

3You shall give her to Eleazar the priest, and he shall bring her outside of the camp, and one shall kill her before his face.

4Eleazar the priest shall take some of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle her blood toward the front of the Tent of Meeting seven times.

5One shall burn the heifer in his sight; her skin, and her meat, and her blood, with her dung, shall he burn.

6The priest shall take cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet, and cast it into the middle of the burning of the heifer.

7Then the priest shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp, and the priest shall be unclean until the evening.

8He who burns her shall wash his clothes in water, and bathe his flesh in water, and shall be unclean until the evening.

9“A man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay them up outside of the camp in a clean place; and it shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for use in water for cleansing impurity. It is a sin offering.

10He who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the evening. It shall be to the children of Israel, and to the stranger who lives as a foreigner among them, for a statute forever.

11“He who touches the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days.

12He shall purify himself with water on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be clean; but if he doesn’t purify himself the third day, then the seventh day he shall not be clean.

13Whoever touches a dead person, the body of a man who has died, and doesn’t purify himself, defiles Yahweh’s tabernacle; and that soul shall be cut off from Israel; because the water for impurity was not sprinkled on him, he shall be unclean. His uncleanness is yet 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 seven days.

15Every open vessel, which has no covering bound on it, is unclean.

16“Whoever in the open field touches one who is slain with a sword, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.

17“For the unclean, they shall take of the ashes of the burning of the sin offering; and running water shall be poured on them in a vessel.

18A clean person shall take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, on all the vessels, on the persons who were there, and on him who touched the bone, or the slain, or the dead, or the grave.

19The clean person shall sprinkle on the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day. On the seventh day, he shall purify him. He shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean at evening.

20But the man who shall be unclean, and shall not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off from among the assembly, because he has defiled the sanctuary of Yahweh. The water for impurity has not been sprinkled on him. He is unclean.

21It shall be a perpetual statute to them. He who sprinkles the water for impurity shall wash his clothes, and he who touches the water for impurity shall be unclean until evening.

22“Whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean; and the soul that touches it shall be unclean until evening.”

1The children of Israel, even the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month. The people stayed in Kadesh. Miriam died there, and was buried there.

2There was no water for the congregation; and they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron.

3The people quarreled with Moses, and spoke, saying, “We wish that we had died when our brothers died before Yahweh!

4Why have you brought Yahweh’s assembly into this wilderness, that we should die there, we and our animals?

5Why have you made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in to this evil place? It is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink.”

6Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the Tent of Meeting, and fell on their faces. Yahweh’s glory appeared to them.

7Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

8“Take the rod, and assemble the congregation, you, and Aaron your brother, and speak to the rock before their eyes, that it pour out its water. You shall bring water to them out of the rock; so you shall give the congregation and their livestock drink.”

9Moses took the rod from before Yahweh, as he commanded him.

10Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels! Shall we bring water out of this rock for you?”

11Moses lifted up his hand, and struck the rock with his rod twice, and water came out abundantly. The congregation and their livestock drank.

12Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you didn’t believe in me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”

13These are the waters of Meribah; because the children of Israel strove with Yahweh, and he was sanctified in them.

14Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom, saying: “Your brother Israel says: You know all the travail that has happened to us;

15how our fathers went down into Egypt, and we lived in Egypt a long time. The Egyptians mistreated us and our fathers.

16When we cried to Yahweh, he heard our voice, sent an angel, and brought us out of Egypt. Behold, we are in Kadesh, a city in the edge of your border.

17“Please let us pass through your land. We will not pass through field or through vineyard, neither will we drink from the water of the wells. We will go along the king’s highway. We will not turn away to the right hand nor to the left, until we have passed your border.”

18Edom said to him, “You shall not pass through me, lest I come out with the sword against you.”

19The children of Israel said to him, “We will go up by the highway; and if we drink your water, I and my livestock, then I will give its price. Only let me, without doing anything else, pass through on my feet.”

20He said, “You shall not pass through.” Edom came out against him with many people, and with a strong hand.

21Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border, so Israel turned away from him.

22They traveled from Kadesh, and the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, came to Mount Hor.

23Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron in Mount Hor, by the border of the land of Edom, saying,

24“Aaron shall be gathered to his people; for he shall not enter into the land which I have given to the children of Israel, because you rebelled against my word at the waters of Meribah.

25Take 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. Aaron shall be gathered, and shall die there.”

27Moses did as Yahweh commanded. They went up onto Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation.

28Moses stripped Aaron of his garments, and put them on Eleazar his son. Aaron died there on the top of the mountain, and Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain.

29When all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead, they wept for Aaron thirty days, even all the house of Israel.

1The Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the South, heard that Israel came by the way of Atharim. He fought against Israel, and took some of them captive.

2Israel vowed a vow to Yahweh, and said, “If you will indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities.”

3Yahweh listened to the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their cities. The name of the place was called Hormah.

4They traveled from Mount Hor by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. The soul of the people was very discouraged because of the journey.

5The people spoke against God and against Moses: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, there is no water, and our soul loathes this disgusting food!”

6Yahweh sent venomous snakes among the people, and they bit the people. Many people of Israel died.

7The people came to Moses, and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against Yahweh and against you. Pray to Yahweh, that he take away the serpents from us.” Moses prayed for the people.

8Yahweh said to Moses, “Make a venomous snake, and set it on a pole. It shall happen that everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.”

9Moses made a serpent of bronze, and set it on the pole. If a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked at the serpent of bronze, he lived.

10The children of Israel traveled, and encamped in Oboth.

11They traveled from Oboth, and encamped at Iyeabarim, in the wilderness which is before Moab, toward the sunrise.

12From there they traveled, and encamped in the valley of Zered.

13From there they traveled, and encamped on the other side of the Arnon, which is in the wilderness that comes out of the border of the Amorites; for the Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.

14Therefore it is said in The Book of the Wars of Yahweh, “Vaheb in Suphah, the valleys of the Arnon,

15the slope of the valleys that incline toward the dwelling of Ar, leans on the border of Moab.”

16From there they traveled to Beer; that is the well of which Yahweh said to Moses, “Gather the people together, and I will give them water.”

17Then Israel sang this song: “Spring up, well! Sing to it,

18the well, which the princes dug, which the nobles of the people dug, with the scepter, and with their poles.” From the wilderness they traveled to Mattanah;

19and from Mattanah to Nahaliel; and from Nahaliel to Bamoth;

20and from Bamoth to the valley that is in the field of Moab, to the top of Pisgah, which looks down on the desert.

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

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

23Sihon would not allow Israel to pass through his border, but Sihon gathered all his people together, and went out against Israel into the wilderness, and came to Jahaz. He fought against Israel.

24Israel struck him with the edge of the sword, and possessed his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, even to the children of Ammon; for the border of the children of Ammon was fortified.

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

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

27Therefore those who speak in proverbs say, “Come to Heshbon. Let the city of Sihon be built and established;

28for a fire has gone out of Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon. It has devoured Ar of Moab, The lords of the high places of the Arnon.

29Woe to you, Moab! You are undone, people of Chemosh! He has given his sons as fugitives, and his daughters into captivity, to Sihon king of the Amorites.

30We have shot at them. Heshbon has perished even to Dibon. We have laid waste even to Nophah, Which reaches to Medeba.”

31Thus Israel lived in the land of the Amorites.

32Moses sent to spy out Jazer. They took its villages, and drove out the Amorites who were there.

33They turned and went up by the way of Bashan. Og the king of Bashan went out against them, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei.

34Yahweh said to Moses, “Don’t fear him, for I have delivered him into your hand, with all his people, and his land. You shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.”

35So they struck him, with his sons and all his people, until there were no survivors; and they possessed his land.