But the tents of the Levites are to be round the Tent of meeting, so that wrath may not come on the children of Israel: the Tent of meeting is to be in the care of the Levites.

Make the tribe of Levi come near, and put them before Aaron the priest, to be his helpers,

From Gershon come the Libnites and the Shimeites; these are the families of the Gershonites.

From Kohath come the Amramites and the Izharites and the Hebronites and the Uzzielites; these are the families of the Kohathites.

From Merari come the Mahlites and the Mushites; these are the families of Merari.

And after the holy place and all its vessels have been covered up by Aaron and his sons, when the tents of the people go forward, the sons of Kohath are to come and take it up; but the holy things may not be touched by them for fear of death.

But do this to them, so that life and not death may be theirs when they come near the most holy things; let Aaron and his sons go in and give to every one his work and that which he is to take up;

And the priest will make her come near and put her before the Lord;

And he will make the woman come before the Lord with her hair loose, and will put the meal offering, the offering of a bitter spirit, in her hands; and the priest will take in his hand the bitter water causing the curse;

All the time he is under his oath let no blade come near his head; till the days while he is separate are ended he is holy and his hair may not be cut.

All the time he is separate he may not come near any dead body.

And this is the law for him who is separate, when the necessary days are ended: he is to come to the door of the Tent of meeting,

And make the Levites come forward in front of the Tent of meeting, and let all the children of Israel come together:

For they have been given to me from among the children of Israel; in place of every mother's first son, the first to come to birth in Israel, I have taken them for myself.

And I have given them to Aaron and to his sons, from among the children of Israel, to undertake for them all the work of the Tent of meeting, and to take away sin from the children of Israel so that no evil may come on them when they come near the holy place.

And the Lord said to Moses, in the waste land of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt,

When they are sounded, all the people are to come together to you at the door of the Tent of meeting.

If only one of them is sounded, then the chiefs, the heads of the thousands of Israel, are to come to you.

But when all the people are to come together, the horn is to be sounded but not loudly.

Then Moses said to Hobab, the son of his father-in-law Reuel the Midianite, We are journeying to that place of which the Lord has said, I will give it to you: so come with us, and it will be for your profit: for the Lord has good things in store for Israel.

And if you come with us, we will give you a part in whatever good the Lord does for us.

And when the ark went forward Moses said, Come up, O Lord, and let the armies of those who are against you be broken, and let your haters go in flight before you.

And the Lord said to Moses, Send for seventy of the responsible men of Israel, who are in your opinion men of weight and authority over the people; make them come to the Tent of meeting and be there with you.

And I will come down and have talk with you there: and I will take some of the spirit which is on you and put it on them, and they will take part of the weight of the people off you, so that you do not have to take it by yourself.

But every day for a month, till you are tired of it, turning from it in disgust: because you have gone against the Lord who is with you, and have been weeping before him saying, Why did we come out of Egypt?

And they said, Have the words of the Lord been given to Moses only? have they not come to us? And the Lord took note of it.

And suddenly the Lord said to Moses and Aaron and Miriam, Come out, you three, to the Tent of meeting. And the three of them went out.

And the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud, taking his place at the door of the Tent, and made Aaron and Miriam come before him.

And he said, Now give ear to my words: if there is a prophet among you I will give him knowledge of myself in a vision and will let my words come to him in a dream.

And Moses, crying to the Lord, said, Let my prayer come before you, O God, and make her well.

And the Lord said to Moses, If her father had put a mark of shame on her, would she not be shamed for seven days? Let her be shut up outside the tent-circle for seven days, and after that she may come in again.

So Miriam was shut up outside the tent-circle for seven days: and the people did not go forward on their journey till Miriam had come in again.

And if the land is fertile or poor, and if there is wood in it or not. And be of good heart, and come back with some of the produce of the land. Now it was the time when the first grapes were ready.

And all the children of Israel, crying out against Moses and Aaron, said, If only we had come to our death in the land of Egypt, or even in this waste land!

Why is the Lord taking us into this land to come to our death by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will get into strange hands: would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?

And Moses said to the Lord, Then it will come to the ears of the Egyptians; for by your power you took this people out from among them;

So now, may my prayer come before you, and let the power of the Lord be great, as you said:

How long am I to put up with this evil people and their outcries against me? The words which they say against me have come to my ears.

Say to them, By my life, says the Lord, as certainly as your words have come to my ears, so certainly will I do this to you:

Not one will come into the land which I gave my word you would have for your resting-place, but only Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, the son of Nun.

And your little ones, whom you said would come into strange hands, I will take in, and they will see the land which you would not have.

I the Lord have said it, and this I will certainly do to all this evil people who have come together against me: in this waste land destruction will come on them, and death will be their fate.

And Moses said, Why are you now acting against the Lord's order, seeing that no good will come of it?

Say to the children of Israel, When you have come into the land which I am giving to you for your resting-place,

Say to the children of Israel, When you come into the land where I am guiding you,

And he said to Korah and his band, In the morning the Lord will make clear who are his, and who is holy, and who may come near him: the man of his selection will be caused to come near him.

Does it seem only a small thing to you that the God of Israel has made you separate from the rest of Israel, letting you come near himself to do the work of the House of the Lord, and to take your place before the people to do what has to be done for them;

Letting you, and all your brothers the sons of Levi, come near to him? and would you now be priests?

So you and all your band have come together against the Lord; and Aaron, who is he, that you are crying out against him?

Then Moses sent for Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab: and they said, We will not come up:

And more than this, you have not taken us into a land flowing with milk and honey, or given us a heritage of fields and vine-gardens: will you put out the eyes of these men? We will not come up.

And Moses said to Korah, You and all your band are to come before the Lord tomorrow, you and they and Aaron:

And Korah made all the people come together against them to the door of the Tent of meeting: and the glory of the Lord was seen by all the people.

Come out from among this people, so that I may send sudden destruction on them.

Say to the people, Come away from the tent of Korah Dathan, and Abiram.

And he said to the people, Come away now from the tents of these evil men, without touching anything of theirs, or you may be taken in the punishment of their sins.

Now when the people had come together against Moses and Aaron, looking in the direction of the Tent of meeting, they saw the cloud covering it, and the glory of the Lord came before their eyes.

Come out from among this people, so that I may send sudden destruction on them. And they went down on their faces.

And let them be stored up in the Tent of meeting, in front of the ark of witness where I come to you.

And the children of Israel said to Moses, Truly, destruction has come on us; an evil fate has overtaken us all.

Death will overtake everyone who comes near, who comes near the House of the Lord: are we all to come to destruction?

And the Lord said to Aaron, You and your sons and your father's family are to be responsible for all wrongdoing in relation to the holy place: and you and your sons are to be responsible for the errors which come about in your work as priests.

Let your brothers, the family of Levi, come near with you, so that they may be joined with you and be your servants: but you and your sons with you are to go in before the ark of witness.

They are to do your orders and be responsible for the work of the Tent; but they may not come near the vessels of the holy place or the altar, so that death may not overtake them or you.

They are to be joined with you in the care of the Tent of meeting, doing whatever is needed for the Tent: and no one of any other family may come near you.

You are to be responsible for the holy place and the altar, so that wrath may never again come on the children of Israel.

In future the children of Israel are not to come near the Tent of meeting, so that death may not come to them because of sin.

And the priest, after washing his clothing and bathing his body in water, may come back to the tent-circle, and will be unclean till evening.

And anyone touching one who has been put to death with the sword in the open country, or the body of one who has come to his end by a natural death, or a man's bone, or the resting-place of a dead body, will be unclean for seven days.

And a clean person is to take hyssop and put it in the water, shaking it over the tent, and all the vessels, and the people who were there, and over him by whom the bone, or the body of one who has been put to death with the sword, or the body of one who has come to his end by a natural death, or the resting-place was touched.

Why have you taken the Lord's people into this waste, for death to come to us and to our cattle there?

Why have you made us come out of Egypt into this evil place? This is no place of seed or figs or vines or other fruits, and there is no water for drinking.

Take the rod, you and Aaron, your brother, and make all the people come together, and before their eyes give orders to the rock to give out its water; and so make water come out of the rock for them, and give the people and their cattle drink.

Then Moses and Aaron made the people come together in front of the rock, and he said to them, Give ear now, you people whose hearts are turned from the Lord; are we to get water for you out of the rock?

And Edom said, You are not to go through my land, for if you do I will come out against you with the sword.

And take Aaron's robes off him and put them on Eleazar, his son: and death will come to Aaron there, and he will be put to rest with his people.

And crying out against God and against Moses, they said, Why have you taken us out of Egypt to come to our death in the waste land? For there is no bread and no water, and this poor bread is disgusting to us.

From there they went on to Beer, the water-spring of which the Lord said to Moses, Make the people come together and I will give them water.

Then Israel gave voice to this song: Come up, O water-spring, let us make a song to it:

So the makers of wise sayings say, Come to Heshbon, building up the town of Sihon and making it strong:

They are wounded with our arrows; destruction has come on Heshbon, even to Dibon; and we have made the land waste as far as Nophah, stretching out to Medeba.

So he sent men to Balaam, son of Beor, at Pethor by the River in the land of the children of his people, saying to him, See, a people has come out of Egypt, covering all the face of the earth, and they have put up their tents opposite to me:

Come now, in answer to my prayer, and put a curse on this people, for they are greater than I: and then I may be strong enough to overcome them and send them out of the land: for it is clear that good comes to him who has your blessing, but he on whom you put your curse is cursed.

See, the people who have come out of Egypt are covering all the earth: now, put a curse on this people for me, so that I may be able to make war on them, driving them out of the land.

So the chiefs of Moab went back to Balak and said, Balaam will not come with us.

For I will give you a place of very great honour, and whatever you say to me I will do; so come, in answer to my prayer, and put a curse on this people.

And that night God came to Balaam and said to him, If these men have come for you, go with them: but do only what I say to you.

And the angel of the Lord said to him, Why have you given your ass blows these three times? See, I have come out against you to keep you back, because your purpose is not pleasing to me.

Now Balak, hearing that Balaam had come, went to the chief town of Moab, on the edge of the Arnon, in the farthest part of the land, for the purpose of meeting him.

And Balak said to Balaam, Did I not send to you, requesting you with all my heart to come to me? why did you not come? am I not able to give you a place of honour?

Then Balaam said to Balak, Now I have come to you; but have I power to say anything? Only what God puts into my mouth may I say.

And in the words which the Lord had given him he said, From Aram Balak has sent for me, the king of Moab from the mountains of the East: come, put curses on Jacob for me and be angry with Israel.

And Balak said to him, Come with me now into another place from which you will not be able to see them all, but only the outskirts of them; and you will send curses on them from there.

Then Balak said to Balaam, Come now, I will take you to another place; it may be that God will let you put a curse on them from there.

So now I will go back to my people: but first let me make clear to you what this people will do to your people in days to come.

I see him, but not now: looking on him, but not near: a star will come out of Jacob, and a rod of authority out of Israel, sending destruction to the farthest limits of Moab and on the head of all the sons of Sheth.

But ships will come from the direction of Kittim, troubling Asshur and troubling Eber, and like the others their fate will be destruction.

But twenty-four thousand of them had come to their death by the disease.

For they are a danger to you with their false ways, causing sin to come on you in the question of Peor, and because of Cozbi, their sister, the daughter of the chief of Midian, who was put to death at the time of the disease which came on you because of Peor.

Let all the people of twenty years old and over be numbered, as the Lord has given orders to Moses and the children of Israel who have come out of Egypt.