Category: Numbers

[5:1] The Lord said to Moses,

[5:2] “Command the people of Israel to expel from the camp everyone with a dreaded skin disease or a bodily discharge and everyone who is unclean by contact with a corpse.

[5:3] Send all these ritually unclean people out, so that they will not defile the camp, where I live among my people.”

[5:4] The Israelites obeyed and expelled them all from the camp.

[5:5] The Lord gave Moses

[5:6] the following instructions for the people of Israel. When any of you are unfaithful to the Lord and commit a wrong against someone,

[5:7] you must confess your sin and make full repayment, plus an additional 20 percent, to the person you have wronged.

[5:8] But if that person has died and has no near relative to whom payment can be made, it shall be given to the Lord for the priest. This payment is in addition to the ram used to perform the ritual of purification for the guilty person.

[5:9] Also every special contribution which the Israelites offer to the Lord belongs to the priest to whom they present it.

[5:10] Each priest shall keep the offerings presented to him.

[5:11] The Lord commanded Moses

[5:15] In either case the man shall take his wife to the priest. He shall also take the required offering of two pounds of barley flour, but he shall not pour any olive oil on it or put any incense on it, because it is an offering from a suspicious husband, made to bring the truth to light.

[5:16] The priest shall bring the woman forward and have her stand in front of the altar.

[5:17] He shall pour some holy water into a clay bowl and take some of the earth that is on the floor of the Tent of the Lord's presence and put it in the water to make it bitter.

[5:18] Then he shall loosen the woman's hair and put the offering of flour in her hands. In his hands the priest shall hold the bowl containing the bitter water that brings a curse.

[5:19] Then the priest shall make the woman agree to this oath spoken by the priest: “If you have not committed adultery, you will not be harmed by the curse that this water brings.

[5:20] But if you have committed adultery,

[5:21] may the Lord make your name a curse among your people. May he cause your genital organs to shrink and your stomach to swell up.

[5:22] May this water enter your stomach and cause it to swell up and your genital organs to shrink.” The woman shall respond, “I agree; may the Lord do so.”

[5:23] Then the priest shall write this curse down and wash the writing off into the bowl of bitter water.

[5:24] Before he makes the woman drink the water, which may then cause her bitter pain,

[5:25] the priest shall take the offering of flour out of the woman's hands, hold it out in dedication to the Lord, and present it on the altar.

[5:26] Then he shall take a handful of it as a token offering and burn it on the altar. Finally, he shall make the woman drink the water.

[5:27] If she has committed adultery, the water will cause bitter pain; her stomach will swell up and her genital organs will shrink. Her name will become a curse among her people.

[5:28] But if she is innocent, she will not be harmed and will be able to bear children.

[5:31] The husband shall be free of guilt, but the woman, if guilty, must suffer the consequences.

[6:1] The Lord commanded Moses

[6:2] to give the following instructions to the people of Israel. Any of you, male or female, who make a special vow to become a nazirite and dedicate yourself to the Lord

[6:3] shall abstain from wine and beer. You shall not drink any kind of drink made from grapes or eat any grapes or raisins.

[6:4] As long as you are a nazirite, you shall not eat anything that comes from a grapevine, not even the seeds or skins of grapes.

[6:5] As long as you are under the nazirite vow, you must not cut your hair or shave. You are bound by the vow for the full time that you are dedicated to the Lord, and you shall let your hair grow.

[6:8] As long as you are a nazirite, you are consecrated to the Lord.

[6:9] If your consecrated hair is defiled because you are right beside someone who suddenly dies, you must wait seven days and then shave your head; and so you become ritually clean.

[6:10] On the eighth day you shall bring two doves or two pigeons to the priest at the entrance of the Tent of the Lord's presence.

[6:11] The priest shall offer one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering, to perform the ritual of purification for you because of your contact with a corpse. On the same day you shall reconsecrate your hair

[6:12] and rededicate to the Lord your time as a nazirite. The previous period of time doesn't count, because your consecrated hair was defiled. As a repayment offering you shall bring a one-year-old lamb.

[6:13] When you complete your nazirite vow, you shall perform this ritual. You shall go to the entrance of the Tent

[6:14] and present to the Lord three animals without any defects: a one-year-old male lamb for a burnt offering, a one-year-old ewe lamb for a sin offering, and a ram for a fellowship offering.

[6:15] You shall also offer a basket of bread made without yeast: thick loaves made of flour mixed with olive oil and thin cakes brushed with olive oil, and in addition the required offerings of grain and wine.

[6:16] The priest shall present all these to the Lord and offer the sin offering and the burnt offering.

[6:17] He shall sacrifice the ram to the Lord as a fellowship offering, and offer it with the basket of bread; he shall also present the offerings of grain and wine.

[6:18] At the entrance of the Tent you nazirites shall shave off your hair and put it on the fire on which the fellowship offering is being burned.

[6:19] Then, when the shoulder of the ram is boiled, the priest shall take it and put it, together with one thick loaf of bread and one thin cake from the basket, into the hands of the nazirite.

[6:20] Next, the priest shall present them as a special gift to the Lord; they are a sacred offering for the priest, in addition to the breast and the leg of the ram which by law belong to the priest. After that, the nazirite may drink wine.

[6:21] These are the regulations for you nazirites; but if you promise an offering beyond what your vow requires you to give, you must fulfill exactly the promise you made.

[6:22] The Lord commanded Moses

[6:23] to tell Aaron and his sons to use the following words in blessing the people of Israel:

[6:24] May the Lord bless you and take care of you;

[6:25] May the Lord be kind and gracious to you;

[6:26] May the Lord look on you with favor and give you peace.

[6:27] And the Lord said, “If they pronounce my name as a blessing upon the people of Israel, I will bless them.”

[7:1] On the day Moses finished setting up the Tent of the Lord's presence, he anointed and dedicated the Tent and all its equipment, and the altar and all its equipment.

[7:2] Then the clan chiefs who were leaders in the tribes of Israel, the same men who were in charge of the census,

[7:3] brought their offerings to the Lord: six wagons and twelve oxen, a wagon for every two leaders and an ox for each leader. After they had presented them,

[7:4] the Lord said to Moses,

[7:5] “Accept these gifts for use in the work to be done for the Tent; give them to the Levites according to the work they have to do.”

[7:6] So Moses gave the wagons and the oxen to the Levites.

[7:7] He gave two wagons and four oxen to the Gershonites,

[7:8] and four wagons and eight oxen to the Merarites. All their work was to be done under the direction of Ithamar son of Aaron.

[7:9] But Moses gave no wagons or oxen to the Kohathites, because the sacred objects they took care of had to be carried on their shoulders.

[7:10] The leaders also brought offerings to celebrate the dedication of the altar. When they were ready to present their gifts at the altar,

[7:11] the Lord said to Moses, “Tell them that each day for a period of twelve days one of the leaders is to present his gifts for the dedication of the altar.” The offerings each one brought were identical: one silver bowl weighing 50 ounces and one silver basin weighing 30 ounces, by the official standard, both of them full of flour mixed with oil for the grain offering; one gold dish weighing 4 ounces, full of incense; one young bull, one ram, and a one-year-old lamb, for the burnt offering; one goat for the sin offering; and two bulls, five rams, five goats, and five one-year-old lambs, for the fellowship offering. – –twelve silver bowls and twelve silver basins weighing a total of 60 pounds – –twelve gold dishes weighing a total of 48 ounces, filled with incense – –twelve bulls, twelve rams, and twelve one-year-old lambs, plus the grain offerings that go with them, for the burnt offerings – –twelve goats for the sin offerings – –twenty-four bulls, sixty rams, sixty goats, sixty one-year-old lambs, for the fellowship offerings

[7:89] When Moses went into the Tent to talk with the Lord, he heard the Lord speaking to him from above the lid on the Covenant Box, between the two winged creatures.

[8:1] The Lord said to Moses,

[8:2] “Tell Aaron that when he puts the seven lamps on the lampstand, he should place them so that the light shines toward the front.”

[8:3] Aaron obeyed and placed the lamps facing the front of the lampstand.

[8:4] From top to bottom the lampstand was made of hammered gold, according to the pattern that the Lord had shown Moses.

[8:5] The Lord said to Moses,

[8:6] “Separate the Levites from the rest of the people of Israel and purify them

[8:7] in the following way: sprinkle them with the water of purification and have them shave their whole bodies and have them wash their clothes. Then they will be ritually clean.

[8:8] Then they are to take a young bull and the required grain offering of flour mixed with olive oil; and you are to take another bull for the sin offering.

[8:9] Then assemble the whole community of Israel and have the Levites stand in front of the Tent of my presence.

[8:10] The people of Israel are to place their hands on the heads of the Levites,

[8:11] and then Aaron shall dedicate the Levites to me as a special gift from the Israelites, so that they may do my work.

[8:12] The Levites shall then put their hands on the heads of the two bulls; one is to be offered as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering, in order to perform the ritual of purification for the Levites.

[8:13] “Dedicate the Levites as a special gift to me, and put Aaron and his sons in charge of them.

[8:14] Separate the Levites in this way from the rest of the Israelites, so that they will belong to me.

[8:15] After you have purified and dedicated the Levites, they will be qualified to work in the Tent.

[8:16] I have claimed them in the place of all the first-born sons of the Israelites, and they belong to me alone.

[8:17] When I killed all the first-born in Egypt, I consecrated as my own the oldest son of each Israelite family and the first-born of every animal.

[8:18] I am now taking the Levites instead of all the first-born of the Israelites,

[8:19] and I assign the Levites to Aaron and his sons, as a gift from the Israelites, to work in the Tent for the people of Israel and to protect the Israelites from the disaster that would strike them if they came too near the Holy Place.”

[8:20] So Moses, Aaron, and all the people of Israel dedicated the Levites, as the Lord commanded Moses.

[8:21] The Levites purified themselves and washed their clothes, and Aaron dedicated them as a special gift to the Lord. He also performed the ritual of purification for them.

[8:22] The people did everything the Lord had commanded Moses concerning the Levites. And so the Levites were qualified to work in the Tent under Aaron and his sons.

[8:23] The Lord said to Moses,

[8:24] “From the age of twenty-five each Levite shall perform his duties in the Tent of my presence,

[8:25] and at the age of fifty he shall retire.

[8:26] After that, he may help his fellow Levites in performing their duties in the Tent, but he must not perform any service by himself. This is how you are to regulate the duties of the Levites.”

[9:1] The Lord spoke to Moses in the Sinai Desert in the first month of the second year after the people of Israel had left Egypt. He said,

[9:4] So Moses told the people to observe the Passover,

[9:5] and on the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month they did so in the Sinai Desert. The people did everything just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

[9:6] But there were some people who were ritually unclean because they had touched a corpse, and they were not able to keep the Passover on that day. They went to Moses and Aaron

[9:7] and said, “We are unclean because we have touched a corpse, but why should we be excluded from presenting the Lord's offering with the rest of the Israelites?”

[9:8] Moses answered, “Wait until I receive instructions from the Lord.”

[9:9] The Lord told Moses

[9:10] to say to the people of Israel, “When any of you or your descendants are unclean from touching a corpse or are far away on a journey, but still want to keep the Passover,

[9:11] you are permitted to observe it one month later instead, on the evening of the fourteenth day of the second month. Celebrate it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

[9:12] Do not leave any of the food until the following morning and do not break any of the animal's bones. Observe the Passover according to all the regulations.

[9:13] But if any of you are ritually clean and not away on a journey and do not observe the Passover, you shall no longer be considered my people, because you did not present the offering to me at the appointed time. You must suffer the consequences of your sin.

[9:14] “If foreigners living among you want to keep the Passover, they must observe it according to all the rules and regulations. The same law applies to everyone, whether native or foreigner.”

[9:17] Whenever the cloud lifted, the people of Israel broke camp, and they set up camp again in the place where the cloud came down.

[9:18] The people broke camp at the command of the Lord, and at his command they set up camp. As long as the cloud stayed over the Tent, they stayed in the same camp.

[9:19] When the cloud stayed over the Tent for a long time, they obeyed the Lord and did not move on.

[9:20] Sometimes the cloud remained over the Tent for only a few days; in any case, they remained in camp or moved, according to the command of the Lord.

[9:21] Sometimes the cloud remained only from evening until morning, and they moved on as soon as the cloud lifted. Whenever the cloud lifted, they moved on.

[9:22] Whether it was two days, a month, a year, or longer, as long as the cloud remained over the Tent, they did not move on; but when it lifted, they moved.

[9:23] They set up camp and broke camp in obedience to the commands which the Lord gave through Moses.