That way, when you see the tassel, you'll remember all the commands of the LORD and you'll observe them. Then you won't seek your own interests and desires that lead you to be unfaithful.

Then he addressed Korah and his entire company, "In the morning, may the LORD reveal who belongs to him and who is holy. May he cause that person to approach him. May he cause to approach him the one whom he has chosen.

and put fire and incense in them in the LORD's presence tomorrow. It will be that the man whom the LORD chooses will be holy. You're taking too much for yourselves, you descendants of Levi."

Is it such an insignificant thing to you that the God of Israel has separated you from the Israelis to draw you to himself, appointing you to do the work of the tent of the LORD and to stand before the community to minister to them?

Therefore you and your group have conspired against the LORD and Aaron. What is it that causes you to complain against him?"

Is it such an insignificant thing that you brought us out of a land flowing with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness? Now you're trying to make yourself be a prince and rule over us, aren't you?

You still haven't brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, nor have you given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Do you really think that you can make these men look the other way? We won't go up."

Then he told the community, "Move away from the camps of these wicked men and don't touch anything that belongs to them. That way you won't be destroyed along with all their sins."

Now Korah, Dathan, and Abiram stood at the entrance to their tents with their wives, sons, and little children. Then Moses said, "This is how you'll know that the LORD has sent me to do all these awesome works they're not coming merely from me.

But if the LORD creates something new, so that the ground opens its mouth and swallows them and everything that belongs to them and they all descend directly to Sheol while still alive, then you'll know that these men have spurned the LORD."

So they and all that belonged to them descended alive to Sheol. Then the earth closed over them. That's how they were annihilated from the assembly.

So Eleazar the priest took the bronze censers that had been burned and beat them into metal plates for the altar,

to serve as a memorial to the Israelis, a reminder that no unauthorized person, who isn't a descendant of Aaron, is to attempt to burn incense in the LORD'S presence, so that he may not become like Korah and his group, just as the LORD had spoken by the authority of Moses.

"Tell the Israelis to take a rod one from each ancestral house, that is, one from every leader, for a total of twelve rods. Write each tribal name on his rod.

The rod that belongs to the man whom I'll choose will burst into bloom. That's how I'll put a stop to the complaints of the Israelis, who are complaining against you."

Then the Lord instructed Moses, "Return Aaron's rod before the testimony to be kept for a reminder against the rebels so that you may put an end to their complaints against me and so that they won't die."

They are to take care of your concerns and all the responsibilities involved with the tent. But they're not to approach the holy vessels or the altar. That way, neither you nor they will die.

Take care of the sanctuary and the services of the altar so that there won't be any more wrath on the Israelis.

Notice that I've taken your brothers, the descendants of Levi, from among the Israelis, giving them to you as a gift from the LORD to perform the service of the Tent of Meeting.

Now you and your sons with you are to maintain your priestly duties and all matters that concern the altar and what is housed within the veil. You are to perform these services. I'm giving you the priesthood as a gift of service, but any unauthorized person who approaches is to be put to death."

This is what is to belong to you from consecrated offerings spared from the fire: all of their offerings, grain offerings, sin offerings, and trespass offerings that they render to me. They're to be considered most sacred to you and your sons.

All the best oil, wine, grain, and first fruits that they give to the LORD are to belong to you. Everyone who is clean in your household may eat it.

"The first ripe fruits of everything that the land produces and that they bring to the LORD are yours, too. Everyone who is clean in your household may eat it.

Everything that opens the womb, any living thing that they bring to the LORD whether from human beings or animals are for you. Just be sure that you redeem the firstborn of people and the firstborn of unclean animals.

Those that can be redeemed, you are to redeem at the age of one month, based on your estimate for five shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, that is, for 20 gerahs.

I'm giving you, your sons, and your daughters as a prescribed portion forever all the raised offerings of the consecrated things that the Israelis offer to the LORD. It's a salt covenant forever before the LORD with you and your descendants with you."

As to the descendants of Levi, certainly I've given all the tithes in Israel as their inheritance in return for their services that they perform at the Tent of Meeting.

The descendants of Levi are to perform the service of the Tent of Meeting and they are to bear their iniquity. This is to be a statute forever, throughout your generations, that they are not to receive an inheritance among the Israelis,

because I've given to the descendants of Levi the tithes that the Israelis bring to the LORD as raised offering. Therefore I told them that, unlike the Israelis, they won't receive an inheritance."

"Tell the descendants of Levi that when they receive tithes from the Israelis (the tithes that I've given you from them as an inheritance), you are to offer a tenth of it as a raised offering for the LORD.

You are to offer a raised offering to the LORD from all your tithes that you receive from the Israelis. Give Aaron the priest the raised offering of the LORD

out of all the most consecrated offerings that you receive, that is, all the raised offerings of the LORD, with all its best and the most holy parts of it.

Tell them that when they bring the best from it, as far as the descendants of Levi are concerned, it is to be considered like produce from the threshing floors and wine vats.

You won't sin by offering the best of it, and you are not to profane the sacred things of the Israelis, so that you won't die."

"This is the ordinance of the law that the LORD commanded that the Israelis be told: They are to bring you a spotless red heifer, without physical defect, that has never been fitted with a yoke.

Anyone who comes in contact with a dead person (that is, with the corpse of a human being who has died), but who does not purify himself, defiles the LORD's tent. That person is to be eliminated from Israel, because the water of impurity wasn't sprinkled on him. He remains unclean and his uncleanness will remain with him.

Every open vessel that has no covering fastened around it is to be considered unclean.

A clean person is to take some hyssop, dip it in water, and then sprinkle it on the tent, on every vessel, and on whoever was there (that is, on whoever touched the bones, the killed person, or the dead body, including whoever dug the grave).

Furthermore, anything that the unclean person touches is to be considered unclean and the person who touches him is to be considered unclean until the evening."

As the people argued with Moses, they told him, "We wish that we had died when our relatives died in the LORD's presence!

But the LORD rebuked Moses and Aaron, telling Moses: "Because you both didn't believe me, because you didn't consecrate me as holy in the presence of the Israelis, you won't be the ones to bring this congregation into the land that I'm about to give them."

That's how Edom refused Israel passage through their territory. So Israel turned away from there.

"Aaron is to be gathered to his people, since he is not to enter the land that I'm about to give the Israelis. After all, you both rebelled against my command at the Meribah Springs.

When the entire community saw that Aaron had died, they mourned in memory of Aaron for 30 days.

When the Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming along the Atharim caravan route, he fought against Israel and took some of them captive.

Then the people approached Moses and admitted, "We've sinned by speaking against the LORD and you. Pray to the LORD, that he'll remove the serpents from us." So Moses prayed in behalf of the people.

Then they traveled from Oboth and encamped at Iye-abarim, in the wilderness that is in the vicinity of Moab's eastern border.

Then they traveled to the other side of Arnon and camped in the wilderness that borders the territory of the Amorites. (Arnon borders Moab between Moab and the Amorites,

and the slope of the valleys, that extends to the dwelling places of Ar and the borders of Moab.")

That's also where Israel sang this song: Rise up, well! Sing to it!

It's the well that the leaders dug, the one carved out by the nobles of the people with their scepters and staffs.

and from Bamoth to the valley of Moab where their fields are, and from there to the top of Mount Pisgah, that looks down toward the open desert.

Zippor's son Balak saw everything that Israel had done to the Amorites.

At that time, Zippor's son Balak was the king of Moab. He sent messengers to Beor's son Balaam in Pethor, near the Euphrates River, the land where the descendants of his people originated, to summon his aid. He said, "Look! A group of people have escaped from Egypt. They cover the surface of the whole earth, and are sitting here right in front of me.

So come right now and curse this people for me, because there are too many of them for me to handle. Perhaps I'll be able to strike them down and drive them out of the land, since I know that whomever you bless is blessed and whomever you curse is cursed."

In response, Balak sent more officers higher ranking ones, at that!

God came to visit Balaam that same night and told him, "If the men come to call on you, get up and go with them, but be sure to do only what I tell you to do."

but the angel of the LORD stood on a narrow path that crossed the vineyards. It had walls on both sides of the path.

When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, she squeezed herself so close to the wall that Balaam's foot was pressed to the wall. So he beat her again!

When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, she crouched down under Balaam. As a result, Balaam got so angry that he started to whip the donkey with his staff.

That's when the LORD enabled the donkey to speak. She asked Balaam, "What did I do to you that you would beat me in the space of only three footsteps?"

But in response, the donkey asked Balaam, "I'm your donkey that you've ridden on in the past without incident, am I not, and I'm the same donkey you're riding on right now, am I not? Am I in the habit of treating you like this?" "No," he admitted.

Then the angel of the LORD asked him, "Why did you beat your donkey in the space of only three footsteps? I've come to oppose you, because I say that what you're doing is perverted.

If she hadn't turned away from me, I would have killed you by now and left her alive!" At this, Balaam replied to the angel of the LORD, "I've sinned! I didn't know that you were standing to meet me on the road. So now, since it displeases you, let me go back."

But the angel of the LORD told Balaam, "Go with the men, but deliver only the message that I'm going to give you." So Balaam went with Balak's officials.

When Balak heard that Balaam had arrived, he went out to meet him in the city of Moab on the border of Arnon at the extreme end of his territory.

So Balaam returned to where Balak had been standing, that is, next to his offerings, accompanied by all the Moabite officials.

I saw them from the top of the rocks. I watched them from the hills. Truly this is a people that lives by itself and doesn't matter among the nations.

So Balaam returned to where Balak had been standing, that is, next to his offerings, accompanied by the Moabite officials. "What did the LORD say?" Balak asked him.

"Didn't I tell you," Balaam responded to Balak, "that I'll say whatever the LORD tells me to say?"

When Balaam noticed that the LORD was pleased that Balaam was blessing Israel, he didn't behave as he had time after time before, that is, to practice divination. Instead, he turned with his face to the wilderness,

A declaration from one who hears what God has to say, who saw the vision that the Almighty revealed, who keeps stumbling with open eyes.

Now get out of here! I had promised you that I would definitely honor you, but now the LORD has kept me from doing that!"

A declaration from one who hears what God has to say, who knows what the Most High knows, who saw the vision that the Almighty revealed, who keeps stumbling with open eyes.

That very moment, one of the Israelis arrived, bringing to his brothers one of the Midianite women, right in front of Moses and the entire community of Israel, while they were weeping at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting!

The woman who was slain, that is, the Midianite woman, was named Cozbi. She was the daughter of Zur, a leader of one of the ancestral houses of Midian.

because they've acted deceitfully, bringing trouble to you in this incident at Peor with Cozbi, daughter of a prince from Midian, who was killed during the plague that came about because of the incident at Peor."

The ground had opened its mouth and swallowed them up, along with Korah. Also, that group died when the fire devoured 250 men as a warning sign,

But none of these men among these numbered by Moses and by Aaron the priest (that is, when they numbered the Israelis in the wilderness of Sinai) survived to enter the land,

Tell the Israelis that when a man dies without a son, you are to pass his inheritance to his daughter.

Then the LORD told Moses, "You are to climb these Abarim mountains and look over the land that I'm going to give the Israelis.

who will go in and out before them, and who will lead them out and bring them in so that the LORD'S community won't be like a flock without a shepherd."

"Select Nun's son Joshua. The Spirit is in that man," the LORD answered Moses. "You are to lay your hand on him

turning over your authority to him so that the entire community of Israel knows to obey him.

"You are to command the Israelis about my offerings that they are to be sure to bring edible offerings to me, presented by fire, and a pleasing aroma to me, at their appointed time.

Tell them that this is the offering, presented by fire, that you are to offer to the LORD: two one year old lambs, offered daily every day.

Bring an offering that is to be incinerated in the LORD's presence, consisting of two young bulls, a ram, and seven one year old lambs, all without any defects,

Moses instructed the Israelis regarding everything that the LORD had commanded him.

"When a man makes a vow to the LORD, or swears an oath an obligation that is binding to himself he is not to break his word. Instead, he is to fulfill whatever promise came out of his mouth.'"

and her father hears her vow and the obligations that she had pledged herself to fulfill, yet her father keeps silent about it, then all her vows and every obligation she pledged herself to are to stand.

But if her father disallows her on the same day that he hears what she has said, then all her vows and every obligation she had pledged herself to fulfill are not to stand. The LORD will forgive her, because her father has forbidden her."

"If she has a husband and she makes a vow that is binding on herself, or if she makes a hasty vow with her mouth that she pledges herself to fulfill,

and her husband hears her vow, yet remains silent on the day that he hears it, then her vows are to stand and the obligation to which she had pledged herself is to stand.

But if, on the same day her husband hears and disallows her, then he has revoked her vows that she made for herself, along with any hasty vows that she spoke and to which she pledged herself to fulfill. The LORD will forgive her."

"Everything that a widow or a divorced woman pledges herself to fulfill are to be binding on her.

If, while she had been living in her late or former husband's house, she makes a vow or a promise that binds her with an oath,

and her husband hears it but remains silent, not disallowing it, then all her vows are to stand, along with every obligation that she has pledged to fulfill.

But if her husband disallowed them the very day that he heard her, everything that she spoke relating to her vows and her obligation to herself are not to stand, because her husband revoked them. The LORD will forgive her.

Her husband may confirm or revoke every vow and binding obligation that afflicts her.

But if her husband remains silent about her from day to day, then he has affirmed all her vows or obligations that she has obligated herself to fulfill. He has affirmed them because he remained silent from the day he heard her vows.