The Work of the Religious Leaders and Levites

18 The Lord said to Aaron, “You and your sons and those of your father’s house will carry the guilt for any sin done in the meeting tent. And you and your sons with you will carry the guilt of any sin of the religious leaders. ² Bring with you your brothers also, the family of Levi, the family of your father. Then they may join you and help you while you and your sons are in front of the meeting tent of the Law. ³ They will help you and help in doing all the work of the tent. But they must not come near the objects of the meeting tent and the altar, or both they and you will die. ⁴ They will join you and help do all the work of the meeting tent. But no one else may come near you. ⁵ You must do the work of the meeting tent and the work of the altar, so there will no longer be anger on the people of Israel. ⁶ See, I Myself have taken your brothers the Levites from among the people of Israel. They are a gift to you, given to the Lord, to do the work for the meeting tent. ⁷ But you and your sons with you will do the religious work, in all that has to do with the altar and inside the curtain. I am giving you the work of being the religious leader as a gift. Anyone else who comes near the holy objects will be put to death.”

Gifts for the Religious Leaders

⁸ Then the Lord said to Aaron, “Now see, I am giving you all the gifts brought to Me that are not burned on the altar. I am giving them to you as a share, and to your sons as a share forever. ⁹ This will be yours from the most holy gifts, kept from the fire: every gift of theirs, even every grain gift, every sin gift and every guilt gift, which they bring to Me. They will be most holy for you and your sons. ¹⁰ You will eat it as the most holy gifts. Every male will eat it. It will be holy to you. ¹¹ And this is yours: their gift that is lifted up and all the wave gifts of the people of Israel. I am giving them to you and to your sons and daughters with you, as a share forever. Everyone in your house who is clean may eat it. ¹² I give to you all the best of the oil and all the best of the wine and of the grain, the first-fruits of what they give to the Lord. ¹³ The first-fruits ready to eat of all that is in their land, which they bring to the Lord, will be yours. Everyone in your house who is clean may eat it. ¹⁴ Everything in Israel that has been set apart to the Lord will be yours. ¹⁵ Every first-born of all flesh, man or animal, which they give to the Lord, will be yours. But you must pay the price and make free the first-born of man and the first-born of animals that are unclean. ¹⁶ You must make them free when they are one month old. The price to free them will be five large pieces of silver, the price decided upon at the meeting tent. One large piece of silver is worth twenty small pieces of silver. ¹⁷ But do not free the first-born of a bull or sheep or goat. For they are holy. You will put their blood on the altar and burn their fat as a gift by fire, a pleasing smell to the Lord. ¹⁸ But their meat will be yours, like the breast of a wave gift and like the right thigh are yours. ¹⁹ I have given to you and your sons and daughters, for a share forever, all the holy gifts which the people of Israel bring to the Lord. It is an agreement of salt forever before the Lord for you and your children with you.” ²⁰ Then the Lord said to Aaron, “You will have no share in their land. You will not own any part of land among them. I am your part and your share among the people of Israel.

²¹ “See, I have given a tenth part of everything in Israel to the Levites, in return for the work they do, the work of the meeting tent. ²² The people of Israel must not come near the meeting tent again, or they will be guilty of sin and die. ²³ Only the Levites may do the work around the meeting tent, and they will carry their sin. It will be a Law forever for all your children-to-come. And they will have no land among the people of Israel. ²⁴ For I have given to the Levites one-tenth part of what the people of Israel give to the Lord. This is why I have said of them, ‘They will have no land among the people of Israel.’”

²⁵ Then the Lord said to Moses, ²⁶ “Say to the Levites, ‘When you take from the people of Israel the tenth which I have given you from them for your share, then give a gift from it to the Lord. Give one-tenth part of the tenth. ²⁷ And your gift will be to you as if it were the grain from the grain-floor or all the wine from the crushed grapes. ²⁸ So you must give a gift to the Lord from the tenth of what you receive from the people of Israel. And from it you must give the Lord’s gift to Aaron the religious leader. ²⁹ Out of all the gifts to you, you must give every gift that should go to the Lord, from all the best of them. Give the holy part from them.’

³⁰ “And say to them, ‘When you have given the best part of it, the rest of it will be to you as if it were the grain from the grain-floor and the wine from the crushed grapes. ³¹ You and those of your houses may eat it in any place. For it is your pay for your work in the meeting tent. ³² You will not be guilty because of it, when you have given the best of it. But do not make unclean the holy gifts of the people of Israel, or you will die.’”

Laws for Washing

19 Now the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ² “This is the Law which the Lord has told you. Tell the people of Israel to bring you a young red cow that is perfect, one that has never pulled a load. ³ You will give it to Eleazar the religious leader. It will be brought away from the tents and killed in front of him. ⁴ Next Eleazar the religious leader will take some of its blood with his finger, and put some of it toward the front of the meeting tent seven times. ⁵ Then Eleazar will watch the young cow being burned. Its skin, its flesh, its blood and its waste will be burned. ⁶ The religious leader will take cedar wood and hyssop and red cloth, and put it on the burning cow. ⁷ Then the religious leader will wash his clothes and wash his body in water. After this the religious leader may come among the tents, but he will be unclean until evening. ⁸ The one who burns it will also wash his clothes and wash his body in water. And he will be unclean until evening. ⁹ Now a man who is clean will gather up the ashes of the young cow and put them in a clean place away from the tents. They will be kept for the people of Israel to mix with the water used to make things clean, to take away sin. ¹⁰ The one who gathers the ashes of the young cow must wash his clothes. He will be unclean until evening. This will be a Law forever to the people of Israel and to the stranger who lives among them.

¹¹ “The one who touches the dead body of any person will be unclean for seven days. ¹² He must clean himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day. Then he will be clean. But if he does not clean himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will be unclean. ¹³ Whoever touches the body of any man who has died, and does not make himself clean, makes the meeting tent of the Lord unclean. That person must be cut off from Israel. Because the water for cleaning was not put upon him, he will be unclean.

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 will be unclean for seven days. ¹⁵ And every open pot that has no cover on it will be unclean. ¹⁶ Anyone in an open field who touches one who has been killed with a sword, or who has died, or who touches a bone of a man, or a grave will be unclean for seven days. ¹⁷ The person who is unclean must take some of the ashes from the burning of the sin gift. Clean water must be added to them in a pot. ¹⁸ Then a clean person must take hyssop and put it in the water, and put it on the tent and on all the objects within the tent. He must put it on the persons who were there, and on the one who touched the bone or the man who was killed or the dead person or the grave. ¹⁹ The clean person must put the water on whoever is unclean, on the third day and on the seventh day. He will make him clean on the seventh day. He will wash his clothes and wash himself in water, and will be clean at evening.

²⁰ “But the man who is unclean and does not make himself clean, will no longer be one of God’s people. Because he has made unclean the holy place of the Lord. The water for cleaning has not been put on him. He is unclean. ²¹ It will be a Law forever for them. He who puts the water on to be made clean must wash his clothes. And he who touches the water used to be made clean will be unclean until evening. ²² Anything that the person who is unclean touches will be unclean. And the person who touches it will be unclean until evening.”

Water from the Rock

20 Then all the people of Israel came to the Desert of Zin in the first month. And the people stayed at Kadesh. Miriam died there and was buried.

² Now there was no water for the people, and they gathered together against Moses and Aaron. ³ The people complained to Moses, saying, “If only we had died when our brothers died before the Lord! ⁴ Why have you brought the Lord’s people into this desert, for us and our animals to die here? ⁵ Why have you made us come up from Egypt, to bring us into this bad place? It is not a place of grain, or figs, or vines, or pomegranates. And there is no water to drink.” ⁶ Then Moses and Aaron went from the people to the door of the meeting tent, and bowed to the ground. They saw the shining-greatness of the Lord. ⁷ The Lord said to Moses, ⁸ “Take the special stick. You and your brother Aaron gather the people together. Speak to the rock in front of them and it will give its water. So you will bring water out of the rock for them. Let the people and their animals drink.” ⁹ So Moses took the special stick from before the Lord, just as He had told him. ¹⁰ Moses and Aaron gathered the people in front of the rock. And he said to them, “Listen now, you people who go against the Lord. Should we bring water for you out of this rock?” ¹¹ Then Moses lifted up his hand and hit the rock twice with his stick, and more than enough water came out. The people and their animals drank. ¹² But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you have not believed Me and honored Me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, you will not bring these people into the land I have given them.” ¹³ These were the waters of Meribah because the people of Israel complained against the Lord, and He proved Himself holy among them.

¹⁴ Moses sent men from Kadesh to the king of Edom, saying, “This is what your brother Israel has said: ‘You know all the troubles we have had. ¹⁵ Our fathers went down to Egypt, and we lived in Egypt a long time. The Egyptians were bad in the way they acted toward us. ¹⁶ But we cried out to the Lord. He heard our voice and sent an angel and brought us out from Egypt. Now look, we are at Kadesh, a town at the side of your country. ¹⁷ We ask you to let us pass through your land. We will not pass through field or vines. We will not even drink water from a well. We will go on the king’s road and will not turn to the right or left, until we pass through your country.’” ¹⁸ But Edom said to him, “You must not pass through, or I will come out with the sword against you.” ¹⁹ The people of Israel said to him, “We will go up by the straight road. If I and my animals do drink any of your water, then I will pay for it. Let me only pass through on my feet, nothing else.” ²⁰ But Edom said, “You must not pass through.” And Edom came out against him with many men and much strength. ²¹ Edom would not let Israel pass through his country. So Israel turned away from him.

²² When they traveled from Kadesh, all the people of Israel came to Mount Hor. ²³ The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron at Mount Hor by the side of the land of Edom, saying, ²⁴ “Aaron will be buried with his people. For he will not go into the land I have given to the people of Israel, because you went against what I told you to do at the waters of Meribah. ²⁵ Take Aaron and his son Eleazar, and bring them up to Mount Hor. ²⁶ Take the clothing off Aaron and put them on his son Eleazar. Aaron will die there and be buried with his people.” ²⁷ Moses did just as the Lord had told him. They went up to Mount Hor before the eyes of all the people. ²⁸ After Moses had taken the clothing off Aaron and put them on his son Eleazar, Aaron died there on the mountain top. Then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain. ²⁹ When all the people saw that Aaron had died, all the house of Israel cried in sorrow for Aaron thirty days.