Then the one who gathers up the cow’s ashes must wash his clothes, and he will remain unclean until evening. This is a permanent statute for the Israelites and for the foreigner who resides among them.

The entire Israelite community entered the Wilderness of Zin in the first month, and they settled in Kadesh. Miriam died and was buried there.

But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust Me to show My holiness in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this assembly into the land I have given them.”

These are the waters of Meribah, where the Israelites quarreled with the Lord, and He showed His holiness to them.

“We will go on the main road,” the Israelites replied to them, “and if we or our herds drink your water, we will pay its price. There will be no problem; only let us travel through on foot.”

After they set out from Kadesh, the entire Israelite community came to Mount Hor.

“Aaron will be gathered to his people; he will not enter the land I have given the Israelites, because you both rebelled against My command at the waters of Meribah.

Then the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people, and they bit them so that many Israelites died.

The Israelites set out and camped at Oboth.

From there the Israelites went on to Beer, that is the well where the Lord said to Moses, “Gather the people together and I will give them water.”

But the Israelites defeated him in battle and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as the Ammonites, for the border of the Ammonites was strongly defended.

So the Israelites lived in the land of the Amorites.

So the sons of Israel killed Og and his sons and all his people, until there was no survivor left to him; and they took possession of his land.

The Israelites traveled on and camped in the plains of Moab near the Jordan across from Jericho.

Balak son of Zippor saw all that the Israelites had done to the Amorites.

Moab was terrified of the people because they were numerous, and Moab dreaded the Israelites.

Then it came about in the morning that Balak took Balaam and brought him up to the high places of Baal; from there he saw a portion of the Israelites.

For they invited the Israelites to the sacrifices of their gods, and the Israelites ate [food offered to idols] and bowed down to Moab’s gods.

An Israelite man came bringing a Midianite woman to his relatives in the sight of Moses and the whole Israelite community while they were weeping at the entrance to the tent of meeting.

followed the Israelite man into the tent, and drove it through both the Israelite man and the woman—through her belly. Then the plague on the Israelites was stopped,

“Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned back My wrath from the Israelites because he was zealous among them with My zeal, so that I did not destroy the Israelites in My zeal.

It will be a covenant of perpetual priesthood for him and his future descendants, because he was zealous for his God and made atonement for the Israelites.”

Now the name of the Israelite that was slain, even that was slain with the Midianitish woman, was Zimri, the son of Salu, a prince of a chief house among the Simeonites.

“Take a census of the entire Israelite community by their ancestral houses of those 20 years old or more who can serve in Israel’s army.”

“Take a census of those 20 years old or more, as the Lord had commanded Moses and the Israelites who came out of the land of Egypt.”

These registered Israelite men numbered 601,730.

Those registered were 23,000, every male one month old or more; they were not registered among the other Israelites, because no inheritance was given to them among the Israelites.

These were the ones registered by Moses and Eleazar the priest when they registered the Israelites on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho.

But among them there was not one of those who had been registered by Moses and Aaron the priest when they registered the Israelites in the Wilderness of Sinai.

Tell the Israelites: When a man dies without having a son, transfer his inheritance to his daughter.

If his father has no brothers, give his inheritance to the nearest relative of his clan, and he will take possession of it. This is to be a statutory ordinance for the Israelites as the Lord commanded Moses.”

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go up this mountain of the Abarim range and see the land that I have given the Israelites.

Confer some of your authority on him so that the entire Israelite community will obey him.

He will stand before Eleazar who will consult the Lord for him with the decision of the Urim. He and all the Israelites with him, even the entire community, will go out and come back in at his command.”

“Command the Israelites and say to them: Be sure to present to Me at its appointed time My offering and My food as My fire offering, a pleasing aroma to Me.

So Moses told the Israelites everything the Lord had commanded him.

Moses told the leaders of the Israelite tribes, “This is what the Lord has commanded:

“Execute vengeance for the Israelites against the Midianites. After that, you will be gathered to your people.”

Send 1,000 men to war from each Israelite tribe.”

So 1,000 were recruited from each Israelite tribe out of the thousands in Israel—12,000 equipped for war.

The Israelites took the Midianite women and their children captive, and they plundered all their cattle, flocks, and property.

They brought the prisoners, animals, and spoils of war to Moses, Eleazar the priest, and the Israelite community at the camp on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho.

“Yet they are the ones who, at Balaam’s advice, incited the Israelites to unfaithfulness against the Lord in the Peor incident, so that the plague came against the Lord’s community.

From the Israelites’ half, take one out of every 50 from the people, cattle, donkeys, sheep, and goats, all the livestock, and give them to the Levites who perform the duties of the Lord’s tabernacle.”

From the Israelites’ half, which Moses separated from the men who fought,

Moses took one out of every 50, selected from the people and the livestock of the Israelites’ half. He gave them to the Levites who perform the duties of the Lord’s tabernacle, as the Lord had commanded him.

Moses and Eleazar the priest received the gold from the commanders of thousands and of hundreds and brought it into the tent of meeting as a memorial for the Israelites before the Lord.

Why are you discouraging the Israelites from crossing into the land the Lord has given them?

After they went up as far as Eshcol Valley and saw the land, they discouraged the Israelites from entering the land the Lord had given them.

So the Lord's anger was kindled against the Israelites, and he made them wander in the wilderness for forty years, until all that generation that had done wickedly before the Lord was finished.

Now look, you are standing in your fathers' place, a brood of sinners, to increase still further the fierce wrath of the Lord against the Israelites.

But we will arm ourselves and be ready to go ahead of the Israelites until we have brought them into their place. Meanwhile, our dependents will remain in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land.

We will not return to our homes until each of the Israelites has taken possession of his inheritance.

So Moses gave orders about them to Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the family leaders of the Israelite tribes.

These were the stages of the Israelites’ journey when they went out of the land of Egypt by their military divisions under the leadership of Moses and Aaron.

They departed from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the month. On the day after the Passover the Israelites went out triumphantly in the sight of all the Egyptians.

The Israelites departed from Rameses and camped at Succoth.

At the Lord’s command, Aaron the priest climbed Mount Hor and died there on the first day of the fifth month in the fortieth year after the Israelites went out of the land of Egypt.

At that time the Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the Negev in the land of Canaan, heard the Israelites were coming.

"Speak to the Israelites and tell them, 'When you have crossed the Jordan into the land of Canaan,

"Give these instructions to the Israelites, and tell them: 'When you enter Canaan, the land that has been assigned to you as an inheritance, the land of Canaan with its borders,

Then Moses commanded the Israelites: "This is the land which you will inherit by lot, which the Lord has commanded to be given to the nine and a half tribes,

These are the ones whom the Lord commanded to divide up the inheritance among the Israelites in the land of Canaan.

"Instruct the Israelites to give the Levites towns to live in from the inheritance the Israelites will possess. You must also give the Levites grazing land around the towns.

The towns you will give must be from the possession of the Israelites. From the larger tribes you must give more; and from the smaller tribes fewer. Each must contribute some of its own towns to the Levites in proportion to the inheritance allocated to each.

"Speak to the Israelites and tell them, 'When you cross over the Jordan River into the land of Canaan,

These six towns will be places of refuge for the Israelites, and for the foreigner, and for the settler among them, so that anyone who kills any person accidentally may flee there.

Therefore do not defile the land that you will inhabit, in which I live, for I the Lord live among the Israelites."

Then the heads of the family groups of the Gileadites, the descendant of Machir, the descendant of Manasseh, who were from the Josephite families, approached and spoke before Moses and the leaders who were the heads of the Israelite families.

They said, "The Lord commanded my lord to give the land as an inheritance by lot to the Israelites; and my lord was commanded by the Lord to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad to his daughters.

Now if they should be married to one of the men from another Israelite tribe, their inheritance would be taken from the inheritance of our fathers and added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry. As a result, it will be taken from the lot of our inheritance.

And when the Jubilee of the Israelites is to take place, their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry. So their inheritance will be taken away from the inheritance of our ancestral tribe."

Then Moses gave a ruling to the Israelites by the word of the Lord: "What the tribe of the Josephites is saying is right.

In this way the inheritance of the Israelites will not be transferred from tribe to tribe. But every one of the Israelites must retain the ancestral heritage.

And every daughter who possesses an inheritance from any of the tribes of the Israelites must become the wife of a man from any family in her father's tribe, so that every Israelite may retain the inheritance of his fathers.

No inheritance may pass from tribe to tribe. But every one of the tribes of the Israelites must retain its inheritance."

These are the commandments and the decisions that the Lord commanded the Israelites through the authority of Moses, on the plains of Moab by the Jordan River opposite Jericho.