Numbers 19:1-22

New King James Version

Laws of Purification

19 Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, ²“This is the ^[a]ordinance of the law which the Lord has commanded, saying: ‘Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring you a red heifer without ^[b]blemish, in which there is no ^(A)defect ^(B)and on which a yoke has never come. ³You shall give it to Eleazar the priest, that he may take it ^(C)outside the camp, and it shall be slaughtered before him; ⁴and Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger, and ^(D)sprinkle some of its blood seven times directly in front of the tabernacle of meeting. ⁵Then the heifer shall be burned in his sight: ^(E)its hide, its flesh, its blood, and its offal shall be burned. ⁶And the priest shall take ^(F)cedar wood and ^(G)hyssop and scarlet, and cast them into the midst of the fire burning the heifer. ⁷^(H)Then the priest shall wash his clothes, he shall bathe in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp; the priest shall be unclean until evening. ⁸And the one who burns it shall wash his clothes in water, bathe in water, and shall be unclean until evening. ⁹Then a man who is clean shall gather up ^(I)the ashes of the heifer, and store them outside the camp in a clean place; and they shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel ^(J)for the water of ^[c]purification; it is for purifying from sin. ¹⁰And the one who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until evening. It shall be a statute forever to the children of Israel and to the stranger who dwells among them.

¹¹^(K)‘He who touches the dead ^[d]body of anyone shall be unclean seven days. ¹²^(L)He shall purify himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day; 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. ¹³Whoever touches the body of anyone who has died, and ^(M)does not purify himself, ^(N)defiles the tabernacle of the Lord. That person shall be cut off from Israel. He shall be unclean, because ^(O)the water of purification was not sprinkled on him; ^(P)his uncleanness is still on him.

¹⁴‘This is the law when a man dies in a tent: All who come into the tent and all who are in the tent shall be unclean seven days; ¹⁵and every ^(Q)open vessel, which has no cover fastened on it, is unclean. ¹⁶^(R)Whoever in the open field touches one who is slain by a sword or who has died, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.

¹⁷‘And for an unclean person they shall take some of the ^(S)ashes of the heifer burnt for purification from sin, and ^[e]running water shall be put on them in a vessel. ¹⁸A clean person shall take ^(T)hyssop and dip it in the water, sprinkle it on the tent, on all the vessels, on the persons who were there, or on the one who touched a bone, the slain, the dead, or a grave. ¹⁹The clean person shall sprinkle the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day; ^(U)and on the seventh day he shall purify himself, wash his clothes, and bathe in water; and at evening he shall be clean.

²⁰‘But the man who is unclean and does not purify himself, that person shall be cut off from among the assembly, because he has ^(V)defiled the sanctuary of the Lord. The water of purification has not been sprinkled on him; he is unclean. ²¹It shall be a perpetual statute for them. He who sprinkles the water of purification shall wash his clothes; and he who touches the water of purification shall be unclean until evening. ²²^(W)Whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean; and ^(X)the person who touches it shall be unclean until evening.’ ”

Moses’ Error at Kadesh^(Y)

20 Then^(Z) the children of Israel, the whole congregation, came into the Wilderness of Zin in the first month, and the people stayed in ^(AA)Kadesh; and ^(AB)Miriam died there and was buried there.

²^(AC)Now there was no water for the congregation; ^(AD)so they gathered together against Moses and Aaron. ³And the people ^(AE)contended with Moses and spoke, saying: “If only we had died ^(AF)when our brethren died before the Lord! ⁴^(AG)Why have you brought up the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness, that we and our animals should die here? ⁵And why have you made us come up out of Egypt, to bring us to this evil place? It is not a place of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates; nor is there any water to drink.” ⁶So Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and ^(AH)they ^[f]fell on their faces. And ^(AI)the glory of the Lord appeared to them.

⁷Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ⁸^(AJ)“Take the rod; you and your brother Aaron gather the congregation together. Speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will yield its water; thus ^(AK)you shall bring water for them out of the rock, and give drink to the congregation and their animals.” ⁹So Moses took the rod ^(AL)from before the Lord as He commanded him.

¹⁰And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock; and he said to them, ^(AM)“Hear now, you rebels! Must we bring water for you out of this rock?” ¹¹Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; ^(AN)and water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their animals drank.

¹²Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Because ^(AO)you did not believe Me, to ^(AP)hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”

¹³^(AQ)This was the water of ^[g]Meribah, because the children of Israel contended with the Lord, and He was hallowed among them.

Passage Through Edom Refused

¹⁴^(AR)Now Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of ^(AS)Edom. ^(AT)“Thus says your brother Israel: ‘You know all the hardship that has befallen us, ¹⁵^(AU)how our fathers went down to Egypt, ^(AV)and we dwelt in Egypt a long time, ^(AW)and the Egyptians ^[h]afflicted us and our fathers. ¹⁶^(AX)When we cried out to the Lord, He heard our voice and ^(AY)sent the Angel and brought us up out of Egypt; now here we are in Kadesh, a city on the edge of your border. ¹⁷Please ^(AZ)let us pass through your country. We will not pass through fields or vineyards, nor will we drink water from wells; we will go along the King’s Highway; we will not turn aside to the right hand or to the left until we have passed through your territory.’ ”

¹⁸Then ^(BA)Edom said to him, “You shall not pass through my land, lest I come out against you with the sword.”

¹⁹So the children of Israel said to him, “We will go by the Highway, and if I or my livestock drink any of your water, ^(BB)then I will pay for it; let me only pass through on foot, nothing more.”

²⁰Then he said, ^(BC)“You shall not pass through.” So Edom came out against them with many men and with a strong hand. ²¹Thus Edom ^(BD)refused to give Israel passage through his territory; so Israel ^(BE)turned away from him.

Death of Aaron

²²Now the children of Israel, the whole congregation, journeyed from ^(BF)Kadesh ^(BG)and came to Mount Hor. ²³And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in Mount Hor by the border of the land of Edom, saying: ²⁴“Aaron shall ^[i]be ^(BH)gathered to his people, for he shall not enter the land which I have given to the children of Israel, because you rebelled against My word at the water of Meribah. ²⁵^(BI)Take 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; for Aaron shall be gathered to his people and die there.” ²⁷So Moses did just as the Lord commanded, and they went up to Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation. ²⁸^(BJ)Moses stripped Aaron of his garments and put them on Eleazar his son; and ^(BK)Aaron died there on the top of the mountain. Then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain. ²⁹Now when all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead, all the house of Israel mourned for Aaron ^(BL)thirty days.

Canaanites Defeated at Hormah

21 The ^(BM)king of Arad, the Canaanite, who dwelt in the South, heard that Israel was coming on the road to Atharim. Then he fought against Israel and took some of them prisoners. ²^(BN)So Israel made a vow to the Lord, and said, “If You will indeed deliver this people into my hand, then ^(BO)I will utterly destroy their cities.” ³And the Lord listened to the voice of Israel and delivered up the Canaanites, and they utterly destroyed them and their cities. So the name of that place was called ^[j]Hormah.

The Bronze Serpent

⁴Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the Way of the Red Sea, to ^(BP)go around the land of Edom; and the soul of the people became very ^[k]discouraged on the way. ⁵And the people ^(BQ)spoke against God and against Moses: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul ^[l]loathes this worthless bread.” ⁶So ^(BR)the Lord sent ^(BS)fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died.

⁷^(BT)Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, “We have ^(BU)sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you; ^(BV)pray to the Lord that He take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.

⁸Then the Lord said to Moses, ^(BW)“Make a ^(BX)fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” ⁹So ^(BY)Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.

From Mount Hor to Moab

¹⁰Now the children of Israel moved on and ^(BZ)camped in Oboth. ¹¹And they journeyed from Oboth and camped at ^[m]Ije Abarim, in the wilderness which is east of Moab, toward the sunrise. ¹²^(CA)From there they moved and camped in the Valley of Zered. ¹³From there they moved and camped on the other side of the Arnon, which is in the wilderness that extends from the border of the Amorites; for ^(CB)the Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites. ¹⁴Therefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of the Lord:

^[n]“Waheb in Suphah,
The brooks of the Arnon,
¹⁵And the slope of the brooks
That reaches to the dwelling of ^(CC)Ar,
And lies on the border of Moab.”

¹⁶From there they went ^(CD)to Beer, which is the well where the Lord said to Moses, “Gather the people together, and I will give them water.” ¹⁷^(CE)Then Israel sang this song:

“Spring up, O well!
All of you sing to it—
¹⁸The well the leaders sank,
Dug by the nation’s nobles,
By the ^(CF)lawgiver, with their staves.”

And from the wilderness they went to Mattanah, ¹⁹from Mattanah to Nahaliel, from Nahaliel to Bamoth, ²⁰and from Bamoth, in the valley that is in the ^[o]country of Moab, to the top of Pisgah which looks ^(CG)down on the ^[p]wasteland.

King Sihon Defeated^(CH)

²¹Then ^(CI)Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, saying, ²²^(CJ)“Let me pass through your land. We will not turn aside into fields or vineyards; we will not drink water from wells. We will go by the King’s Highway until we have passed through your territory.” ²³^(CK)But Sihon would not allow Israel to pass through his territory. So Sihon gathered all his people together and ^[q]went out against Israel in the wilderness, ^(CL)and he came to Jahaz and fought against Israel. ²⁴Then ^(CM)Israel defeated him with the edge of the sword, and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as the people of Ammon; for the border of the people of Ammon was fortified. ²⁵So Israel took all these cities, and Israel ^(CN)dwelt in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon and in all its villages. ²⁶For 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 from his hand as far as the Arnon. ²⁷Therefore those who speak in ^[r]proverbs say:

“Come to Heshbon, let it be built;
Let the city of Sihon be repaired.

²⁸“For ^(CO)fire went out from Heshbon,
A flame from the city of Sihon;
It consumed ^(CP)Ar of Moab,
The lords of the ^(CQ)heights of the Arnon.
²⁹Woe to you, ^(CR)Moab!
You have perished, O people of ^(CS)Chemosh!
He has given his ^(CT)sons as fugitives,
And his ^(CU)daughters into captivity,
To Sihon king of the Amorites.

³⁰“But we have shot at them;
Heshbon has perished ^(CV)as far as Dibon.
Then we laid waste as far as Nophah,
Which reaches to ^(CW)Medeba.”

³¹Thus Israel dwelt in the land of the Amorites. ³²Then Moses sent to ^[s]spy out ^(CX)Jazer; and they took its villages and drove out the Amorites who were there.

King Og Defeated^(CY)

³³^(CZ)And they turned and went up by the way to ^(DA)Bashan. So Og king of Bashan went out against them, he and all his people, to battle ^(DB)at Edrei. ³⁴Then the Lord said to Moses, ^(DC)“Do not fear him, for I have ^[t]delivered him into your hand, with all his people and his land; and ^(DD)you shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon.” ³⁵^(DE)So they defeated him, his sons, and all his people, until there was no survivor left him; and they took possession of his land.