Now the Lord spoke to Moses in the tent of meeting in the wilderness of Sinai on the first day of the second month of the second year after the Israelites departed from the land of Egypt. He said:

"{Take a census of} the entire community of the {Israelites} according to their clans and {their families}, according to [the] number of names, every male individually

So all those who were counted from the {Israelites} according to {their families}, from {those twenty years old} and above, everyone in Israel who [is able] to go to war.

"You will not muster the tribe of Levi, and you will not {take a census of} them in the midst of the {Israelites}.

The {Israelites} will encamp, each in their own camp, and each by their own banner according to their divisions.

But the Levites will encamp around the tabernacle of the testimony, and there will not be wrath on the community of the {Israelites}; and the Levites will keep the requirements of the tabernacle of the testimony."

And the {Israelites} did thus; they did everything that Yahweh commanded Moses.

"The {Israelites} will encamp each with his standard, with a banner according to {their families}; they will encamp around the tent of assembly.

These [were] the ones counted of the {Israelites} according to {their families}; all those counted from the camps according to their divisions [were] six hundred and three thousand five hundred.

The Levites were not counted in the midst of the {Israelites}, just as Yahweh commanded Moses.

And the {Israelites} did everything that Yahweh commanded Moses. They encamped according to their standards, and they set out each one according to their clans among {their families}.

And they will keep all the vessels of the tent of assembly and the responsibilities of the {Israelites}, to do the work of the tabernacle.

You will give the Levites to Aaron and to his descendants; they [are] surely assigned to him from among the {Israelites}.

"I [myself] receive the Levites from the midst of the {Israelites} in the place of all [the] firstborn of [the] offspring of the womb from the {Israelites}. The Levites will be mine

Those encamped before the tabernacle to the east--before the tent of assembly to the east--[were] Moses and Aaron and his sons; they will keep the responsibility of the sanctuary {for the Israelites}; and the stranger who approaches will be put to death.

And Yahweh said to Moses, "Muster every firstborn male from the {Israelites} from {one month} and above and {count} their names.

And you will receive the Levites for me--I [am] Yahweh--in the place of all [the] firstborn among the {Israelites}, and the animals of the Levites in the place of all [the] firstborn among the animals among the {Israelites}."

So Moses mustered all the firstborn among the {Israelites} just as Yahweh commanded him.

"Receive the Levites in the place of all [the] firstborn among the {Israelites}, and the animals of the Levites in the place of their animals; the Levites will be mine. I [am] Yahweh.

And the ransom of the two hundred and seventy-three of the firstborn of the {Israelites} who are excessive over the Levites,

Give the money to Aaron and his sons as the redemption price for those who are in excess among the Israelites.”

From the firstborn of the {Israelites} he took the money, one thousand three hundred and sixty-five shekels, in the sanctuary shekel.

"Command the {Israelites}: they must send everyone from the camp who is afflicted with a rash, everyone with a fluid discharge, and everyone unclean through [contact with] a corpse.

So the {Israelites} did so. They sent them away {outside the camp}; just as Yahweh spoke to Moses, so did the {Israelites}.

"Speak to the {Israelites}: 'When a man or woman {commits} any of the sins of humankind by acting unfaithfully, [it is] a sin against Yahweh, and that person will be guilty;

And every contribution of all the holy objects of the {Israelites} that they bring to the priest for him will be his.

"Speak to the {Israelites} and say to them, 'If any man's wife goes astray and acts unfaithfully to him,

"Speak to the {Israelites} and say to them, 'When a man or a woman takes a special vow, a vow of a {Nazirite}, to keep separate for Yahweh,

"Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, 'You will bless the {Israelites}: You will say to them:

And they will put my name on the {Israelites}, and I will bless them."

"Take the Levites from the midst of the {Israelites} and purify them.

You will bring the Levites {before} the tent of assembly, and you will summon the entire community of the {Israelites}.

And you will bring the Levites {before Yahweh}, and the {Israelites} will lay their hands on the Levites,

and {Aaron will offer} the Levites [as] a wave offering {before Yahweh} from the {Israelites}, and they will do the work of Yahweh.

"And you will separate the Levites from the midst of the {Israelites}, and the Levites will be for me.

For they [are] given to me exclusively from the midst of the {Israelites}. I have taken them for myself in place of [the] firstborn of every womb, every firstborn from the {Israelites}.

For every firstborn among the {Israelites} [is] mine, both humankind and animal. On the day I destroyed every firstborn in the land of Egypt I consecrated them to me,

and I have taken the Levites in the place of every firstborn among the {Israelites}.

And I have given the Levites; they are given to Aaron and his sons from the midst of the {Israelites} to do the work of the {Israelites} in the tent of the assembly and to make atonement for the {Israelites}, so a plague will not be among the {Israelites} when the {Israelites} come near the sanctuary."

And Moses and Aaron and the entire community of the {Israelites} did to the Levites; everything that Yahweh commanded Moses concerning the Levites, the {Israelites} did to them.

"Let the {Israelites} observe the Passover at its appointed time.

So Moses spoke to the {Israelites} to observe the Passover.

And they observed the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month {at twilight} in the desert of Sinai. According to all that Yahweh commanded Moses, thus the {Israelites} did.

And those men said to him, "[Although] we [are] unclean {by a dead person}, why are we hindered from presenting the offering of Yahweh at its appointed time in the midst of the {Israelites}?"

"Speak to the {Israelites}, saying, 'Each man that is unclean {by a dead person} or [is] on a far journey, you or your {descendants}, he will observe the Passover of Yahweh.

[Whenever] the cloud lifted up from on the tent, after that the {Israelites} would set out, and in the place where the cloud dwelled, there the {Israelites} camped.

On the {command of Yahweh} the {Israelites} would set out, and on the {command of Yahweh} they encamped; all the days that the cloud dwelled on the tabernacle they encamped.

And when the cloud prolonged on the tabernacle many days the {Israelites} kept the kept requirement of Yahweh and did not set out.

When [it was] two days, a month, {or a year} that the cloud prolonged to dwell on the tabernacle, the {Israelites} encamped, and they did not set out; when it lifted up they set out.

And the {Israelites} set out for their journey from the desert of Sinai, and the cloud dwelled in the desert of Paran.

These [were] the departures of the {Israelites} according to their divisions; and so they set out.

The riff-raff that [were] in their midst {had a strong desire}; and the {Israelites} turned back and also wept, and they said, "Who will feed us meat?

From Kibroth-hattaavah the people set out for Hazeroth, and they remained at Hazeroth.

"Send for yourself men, and let them explore the land of Canaan, which I [am about] to give to the {Israelites}; {from each tribe of his father send one man}, everyone a leader among them."

So Moses sent them from the desert of Paran on the command of Yahweh; all of the men [were] {leaders} of the {Israelites}.

That place he called the valley of Eshcol on account of the cluster of grapes that the {Israelites} cut off from there.

And they came to Moses and Aaron and to the entire community of the {Israelites} in the desert of Paran at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and [to] all the community, and they showed them the fruit of the land.

And they presented the report of the land that they explored to the {Israelites}, saying, "The land that we went through to explore [is] a land that eats its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in its midst [are] {men of great size}.

And all the {Israelites} grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and all the community said to them, "If only we had died in the land of Egypt or in this desert!

Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces {before} the assembly of the community of the {Israelites}.

And they said to all the community of the {Israelites}, "The land that we went through to explore [is] an {exceptionally good land}.

And all the community said to stone them with stones, but the glory of Yahweh appeared in the tent of assembly among the {Israelites}.

"How long [will I bear] this evil community who are grumbling against me? I have heard the grumbling of the {Israelites} which {they are making} against me.

And Moses spoke words to all the {Israelites}, and the people mourned greatly.

Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and struck the Israelites and scattered them as far as Hormah.

"Speak to the {Israelites} and say to them, 'When you come into the land of your dwellings that I [am about] to give to you,

“Every Israelite is to prepare these things in this way when he presents a fire offering as a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

"Speak to the {Israelites} and say to them, 'When you come into the land to which I [am about] to bring you,

The priest will make atonement for all of the community of the {Israelites}, and {they will be forgiven} because it [was] unintentional; they will bring their offering, an offering made by fire for Yahweh, their sin offering {before Yahweh} for their unintentional sin.

All of the community of the {Israelites} will be forgiven, as well as the alien that dwells in their midst, because the whole community [was involved] in the unintentional wrong.

[For] the native among the {Israelites} and the alien that dwells in their midst, there will be one law for anyone who commits an unintentional wrong.

"'And the soul that doth ought presumptuously, whether he be an Israelite or a stranger, the same hath despised the LORD. And that soul shall be destroyed from among his people,

When the {Israelites} were in the desert, they found a man who was gathering wood on the day of the Sabbath.

"Speak to the {Israelites}, and tell them to make for themselves tassels on the hems of their garments throughout their generations and to put a blue cord on the tassel of the hem.

took two hundred and fifty men from the {Israelites}, leaders of the community summoned from the assembly, {renowned men}, and {they confronted} Moses.

Isn’t it enough for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the Israelite community to bring you near to Himself, to perform the work at the Lord’s tabernacle, and to stand before the community to minister to them?

All the Israelites who were around them fled at their cry, for they said, "What if the earth swallows us too?"

The censers of these {who have sinned} at the cost of their lives, let them be made into gilded leafing plating for the altar; because they presented them {before Yahweh}, they are holy; and they will be a sign for the {Israelites}.'"

[it was] a memorial for the {Israelites}, so that {no strange man} who is not from {the offspring} of Aaron should approach the presence [of] Yahweh to burn a smoke offering; he will not be like Korah and his company, just as Yahweh had spoken to him by the hand of Moses.

The next day all the community of the {Israelites} grumbled against Moses and Aaron, saying, "You have killed the people of Yahweh!"

"Speak to the {Israelites}, and take from among them twelve staffs, {a staff from each family} from among all their leaders according to their families' households. Write the name of each man on his staff,

And it will happen, the man whom I will choose, his staff will blossom, and so I will rid from upon myself the grumblings of the {Israelites}, who [are] grumbling against you."

Moses spoke to the {Israelites}, and all their leaders gave him a staff for each leader, one from {each of their families}, twelve staffs, and the staff of Aaron [was] in the midst of their tribes.

Then Moses brought out to all the {Israelites} all the staffs before the presence of Yahweh, and they saw, and each man took his staff.

And the {Israelites} said to Moses, saying, "Look! We will die! We will be destroyed! All of us will perish!

You will keep the responsibility of the sanctuary and the responsibility of the altar, and there will no longer be wrath on the {Israelites}.

Look, I have selected your fellow Levites from the Israelites as a gift for you, assigned by the Lord to work at the tent of meeting.

Yahweh spoke to Aaron, "Behold, I myself have given to you the responsibility of my contributions for all the holy objects of the {Israelites}; I have given them as a portion to you and your sons as an eternal decree.

“The contribution of their gifts also belongs to you. I have given all the Israelites’ presentation offerings to you and to your sons and daughters as a permanent statute. Every ceremonially clean person in your house may eat it.

I am giving you all the best of the fresh olive oil, new wine, and grain, which the Israelites give to the Lord as their firstfruits.

All the contributions of holiness that the {Israelites} offer to Yahweh I have given to you and your sons and your daughters with you as an eternal decree; it [is] an eternal covenant of salt {before} Yahweh to you and your offspring with you."

Then Yahweh said to Aaron, "You will not receive an inheritance in their land, and there will not be a plot of ground for you in the midst of the {Israelites}.

The {Israelites} will not come near again to the tent of assembly, or {they will bear sin} and die.

The Levites will perform the service of the tent of assembly, and they will bear their guilt, an eternal decree for all your generations. But they will not receive an inheritance in the midst of the {Israelites}

because the tithes of the {Israelites} that are {offered} to Yahweh as a contribution, I have given to the Levites as an inheritance; therefore I said to them, 'They will not receive an inheritance in the midst of the {Israelites}.'"

"You will speak to the Levites and say to them, 'When you receive the tithe from the {Israelites} that I have given to you from them for your inheritance, {you will present} a contribution from it to Yahweh, a tithe from a tithe.

So {you will present} your own contribution to Yahweh from all your tithes that you receive from the {Israelites}; from it you will give the contribution of Yahweh to Aaron the priest.

You will not bear any sin because {you have presented} its fat; you will not defile the holy objects of the {Israelites}, or you will die.'"

"This [is] the decree of the law that Yahweh has commanded, saying, 'Speak to the {Israelites} and let them take to you a red heifer without a physical defect, on which a yoke {has not been placed}.

A clean man will gather the ashes of the heifer, and he will put [them] in a clean {place outside the camp}; it will be for the community of the {Israelites} as a requirement for waters of impurity; it [is] a purification [offering].