A man from each tribe is to be with you, each one the head of his ancestral house.

So Moses and Aaron took these men who had been designated by name,

For the Lord had told Moses:

The Israelites did everything just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

But the Levites were not registered among the Israelites, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

But Nadab and Abihu died in the Lord’s presence when they presented unauthorized fire before the Lord in the Wilderness of Sinai, and they had no sons. So Eleazar and Ithamar served as priests under the direction of Aaron their father.

So Moses registered them in obedience to the Lord as he had been commanded:

The chief of the Levite leaders was Eleazar son of Aaron the priest; he had oversight of those responsible for the duties of the sanctuary.

“You must not cut his hair throughout the time of his vow of consecration. He must be holy until the time is completed during which he consecrates himself to the Lord; he is to let the hair of his head grow long.

He is not to defile himself for his father or mother, or his brother or sister, when they die, because the hair consecrated to his God is on his head.

“If someone suddenly dies near him, defiling his consecrated head of hair, he must shave his head on the day of his purification; he is to shave it on the seventh day.

The priest is to offer one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering to make atonement on behalf of the Nazirite, since he sinned because of the corpse. On that day he must consecrate his head again.

“The Nazirite is to shave his consecrated head at the entrance to the tent of meeting, take the hair from his head, and put it on the fire under the fellowship sacrifice.

The priest is to take the boiled shoulder from the ram, one unleavened cake from the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and put them into the hands of the Nazirite after he has shaved his consecrated head.

So Aaron did this; he set up its lamps to give light in front of the lampstand just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

This is the way the lampstand was made: it was a hammered work of gold, hammered from its base to its flower petals. The lampstand was made according to the pattern the Lord had shown Moses.

After that, the Levites came to do their work at the tent of meeting in the presence of Aaron and his sons. So they did to them as the Lord had commanded Moses concerning the Levites.

and they observed it in the first month on the fourteenth day at twilight in the Wilderness of Sinai. The Israelites did everything as the Lord had commanded Moses.

Whenever the ark set out, Moses would say:

Arise, Lord!
Let Your enemies be scattered,
and those who hate You flee from Your presence.

So that place was named Taberah, because the Lord’s fire had blazed among them.

Contemptible people among them had a strong craving for other food. The Israelites cried again and said, “Who will feed us meat?

“Tell the people: Purify yourselves in readiness for tomorrow, and you will eat meat because you cried before the Lord: ‘Who will feed us meat? We really had it good in Egypt.’ The Lord will give you meat and you will eat.

Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord. He brought 70 men from the elders of the people and had them stand around the tent.

Two men had remained in the camp, one named Eldad and the other Medad; the Spirit rested on them—they were among those listed, but had not gone out to the tent—and they prophesied in the camp.

So they named that place Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had craved the meat.

Miriam and Aaron criticized Moses because of the Cushite woman he married (for he had married a Cushite woman).

The Lord answered Moses, “If her father had merely spit in her face, wouldn’t she remain in disgrace for seven days? Let her be confined outside the camp for seven days; after that she may be brought back in.”

But the men who had gone up with him responded, “We can’t go up against the people because they are stronger than we are!”

So they gave a negative report to the Israelites about the land they had scouted: “The land we passed through to explore is one that devours its inhabitants, and all the people we saw in it are men of great size.

All the Israelites complained about Moses and Aaron, and the whole community told them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this wilderness!

Since the Amalekites and Canaanites are living in the lowlands, turn back tomorrow and head for the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea.”

They placed him in custody because it had not been decided what should be done to him.

So the entire community brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the Lord had commanded Moses.

So Eleazar the priest took the bronze firepans that those who were burned had presented, and they were hammered into plating for the altar,

So Aaron took his firepan as Moses had ordered, ran into the middle of the assembly, and saw that the plague had begun among the people. After he added incense, he made atonement for the people.

Aaron then returned to Moses at the entrance to the tent of meeting, since the plague had been halted.

Write Aaron’s name on Levi’s staff, because there must be one staff for the head of each ancestral house.

The next day Moses entered the tent of the testimony and saw that Aaron’s staff, representing the house of Levi, had sprouted, formed buds, blossomed, and produced almonds!

The cow must be burned in his sight. Its hide, flesh, and blood, are to be burned along with its dung.

A person who is clean is to take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle the tent, all the furnishings, and the people who were there. He is also to sprinkle the one who touched a bone, a grave, a corpse, or a person who had been killed.

The people quarreled with Moses and said, “If only we had perished when our brothers perished before the Lord.

So Moses took the staff from the Lord’s presence just as He had commanded him.

When the whole community saw that Aaron had passed away, the entire house of Israel mourned for him 30 days.

Heshbon was the city of Sihon king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab and had taken control of all his land as far as the Arnon.

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

When the donkey saw the Angel of the Lord standing on the path with a drawn sword in His hand, she turned off the path and went into the field. So Balaam hit her to return her to the path.

The donkey saw the Angel of the Lord and pressed herself against the wall, squeezing Balaam’s foot against it. So he hit her once again.

Balaam answered the donkey, “You made me look like a fool. If I had a sword in my hand, I’d kill you now!”

The donkey saw Me and turned away from Me these three times. If she had not turned away from Me, I would have killed you by now and let her live.”

The name of the slain Midianite woman was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur, a tribal head of an ancestral house in Midian.

“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.”

Zelophehad son of Hepher had no sons—only daughters. The names of Zelophehad’s daughters were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.

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.

For the Lord had said to them that they would all die in the wilderness. None of them was left except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.

“Our father died in the wilderness, but he was not among Korah’s followers, who gathered together against the Lord. Instead, he died because of his own sin, and he had no sons.

Why should the name of our father be taken away from his clan? Since he had no son, give us property among our father’s brothers.”

Moses did as the Lord commanded him. He took Joshua, had him stand before Eleazar the priest and the entire community,

laid his hands on him, and commissioned him, as the Lord had spoken through Moses.

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

They waged war against Midian, as the Lord had commanded Moses, and killed every male.

So now, kill all the male children and kill every woman who has had sexual relations with a man,

but keep alive for yourselves all the young females who have not had sexual relations.

Then Eleazar the priest said to the soldiers who had gone to battle, “This is the legal statute the Lord commanded Moses:

The captives remaining from the plunder the army had taken totaled:

675,000 sheep and goats,

and 32,000 people, all the females who had not had sexual relations with a man.

Moses gave the tribute to Eleazar the priest as a contribution for the Lord, as the Lord had commanded Moses.

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.

Each of the soldiers had taken plunder for himself.

The Reubenites and Gadites had a very large number of livestock. When they surveyed the lands of Jazer and Gilead, they saw that the region was a good one for livestock.

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.

The Lord’s anger burned against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness 40 years until the whole generation that had done what was evil in the Lord’s sight was gone.

Meanwhile, the Egyptians were burying every firstborn male the Lord had struck down among them, for the Lord had executed judgment against their gods.

And what I had planned to do to them, I will do to you.”