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:

The Lord had said to Moses,

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Number all the firstborn males of the Israelites from a month old and upward, and take the number of their names.

For the Lord said to Moses, "They must present their offering, one leader for each day, for the dedication of the altar."

And those men said to him, "We are ceremonially defiled by the dead body of a man; why are we kept back from offering the Lord's offering at its appointed time among the Israelites?"

So Moses said to them, "Remain here and I will hear what the Lord will command concerning you."

Moses said to Hobab son of Reuel, the Midianite, Moses' father-in-law, "We are journeying to the place about which the Lord said, 'I will give it to you.' Come with us and we will treat you well, for the Lord has promised good things for Israel."

But Hobab said to him, "I will not go, but I will go instead to my own land and to my kindred."

Moses said, "Do not leave us, because you know places for us to camp in the wilderness, and you could be our guide.

Now the mixed multitude who were among them craved more desirable foods, and so the Israelites wept again and said, "If only we had meat to eat!

And Moses said to the Lord, "Why have you afflicted your servant? Why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of this entire people on me?

The Lord said to Moses, "Gather to me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know are elders of the people and officials over them, and bring them to the tent of meeting; let them take their position there with you.

Moses said, "The people around me are 600,000 on foot; but you say, 'I will give them meat, that they may eat for a whole month.'

And the Lord said to Moses, "Is the Lord's hand shortened? Now you will see whether my word to you will come true or not!"

Joshua son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his choice young men, said, "My lord Moses, stop them!"

Moses said to him, "Are you jealous for me? I wish that all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!"

They said, "Has the Lord only spoken through Moses? Has he not also spoken through us?" And the Lord heard it.

The Lord said, "Hear now my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known to him in a vision; I will speak with him in a dream.

So Aaron said to Moses, "O my lord, please do not hold this sin against us, in which we have acted foolishly and have sinned!

The Lord said to Moses, "If her father had only spit in her face, would she not have been disgraced for seven days? Shut her out from the camp seven days, and afterward she can be brought back in again."

But the men who had gone up with him said, "We are not able to go up against these people, because they are stronger than we are!"

And all the Israelites murmured against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, "If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had perished in this wilderness!

So they said to one another, "Let's appoint a leader and return to Egypt."

They said to the whole community of the Israelites, "The land we passed through to investigate is an exceedingly good land.

The Lord said to Moses, "How long will this people despise me, and how long will they not believe in me, in spite of the signs that I have done among them?

Moses said to the Lord, "When the Egyptians hear it -- for you brought up this people by your power from among them --

So now, let the power of my Lord be great, just as you have said,

Then the Lord said, "I have forgiven them as you asked.

But I will bring in your little ones, whom you said would become victims of war, and they will enjoy the land that you have despised.

I, the Lord, have said, "I will surely do so to all this evil congregation that has gathered together against me. In this wilderness they will be finished, and there they will die!"'"

But Moses said, "Why are you now transgressing the commandment of the Lord? It will not succeed!

Then the Lord said to Moses, "The man must surely be put to death; the whole community must stone him with stones outside the camp."

Then he said to Korah and to all his company, "In the morning the Lord will make known who are his, and who is holy. He will cause that person to approach him; the person he has chosen he will cause to approach him.

Moses said to Korah, "Listen now, you sons of Levi!

Then Moses summoned Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, but they said, "We will not come up.

Moses was very angry, and he said to the Lord, "Have no respect for their offering! I have not taken so much as one donkey from them, nor have I harmed any one of them!"

Then Moses said to Korah, "You and all your company present yourselves before the Lord -- you and they, and Aaron -- tomorrow.

Then they threw themselves down with their faces to the ground and said, "O God, the God of the spirits of all people, will you be angry with the whole community when only one man sins?"

And he said to the community, "Move away from the tents of these wicked men, and do not touch anything they have, lest you be destroyed because of all their sins."

Then Moses said, "This is how you will know that the Lord has sent me to do all these works, for I have not done them of my own will.

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

Then Moses said to Aaron, "Take the censer, put burning coals from the altar in it, place incense on it, and go quickly into the assembly and make atonement for them, for wrath has gone out from the Lord -- the plague has begun!"

The Lord said to Moses, "Bring Aaron's staff back before the testimony to be preserved for a sign to the rebels, so that you may bring their murmurings to an end before me, that they will not die."

The Israelites said to Moses, "We are bound to die! We perish, we all perish!

The Lord said to Aaron, "You and your sons and your tribe with you must bear the iniquity of the sanctuary, and you and your sons with you must bear the iniquity of your priesthood.

But I have given to the Levites for an inheritance the tithes of the Israelites that are offered to the Lord as a raised offering. That is why I said to them that among the Israelites they are to have no inheritance."

Then Moses and Aaron gathered the community together in front of the rock, and he said to them, "Listen, you rebels, must we bring water out of this rock for you?"

But Edom said to him, "You will not pass through me, or I will come out against you with the sword."

Then the Israelites said to him, "We will go along the highway, and if we or our cattle drink any of your water, we will pay for it. We will only pass through on our feet, without doing anything else."

But he said, "You may not pass through." Then Edom came out against them with a large and powerful force.

And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in Mount Hor, by the border of the land of Edom. He said:

So Israel made a vow to the Lord and said, "If you will indeed deliver this people into our hand, then we will utterly destroy their cities."

Then the people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that he would take away the snakes from us." So Moses prayed for the people.

The Lord said to Moses, "Make a poisonous snake and set it on a pole. When anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will live."

This is why it is said in the Book of the Wars of the Lord, "Waheb in Suphah and the wadis, the Arnon

And the Lord said to Moses, "Do not fear him, for I have delivered him and all his people and his land into your hand. You will do to him what you did to King Sihon of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon.

So the Moabites said to the elders of Midian, "Now this mass of people will lick up everything around us, as the bull devours the grass of the field. Now Balak son of Zippor was king of the Moabites at this time.

And God came to Balaam and said, "Who are these men with you?"

Balaam said to God, "Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, has sent a message to me, saying,

But God said to Balaam, "You must not go with them; you must not curse the people, for they are blessed."

So Balaam got up in the morning, and said to the princes of Balak, "Go to your land, for the Lord has refused to permit me to go with you."

So the princes of Moab departed and went back to Balak and said, "Balaam refused to come with us."

And they came to Balaam and said to him, "Thus says Balak son of Zippor: 'Please do not let anything hinder you from coming to me.

God came to Balaam that night, and said to him, "If the men have come to call you, get up and go with them; but the word that I will say to you, that you must do."

Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, "What have I done to you that you have beaten me these three times?"

And Balaam said to the donkey, "You have made me look stupid; I wish there were a sword in my hand, for I would kill you right now."

The donkey said to Balaam, "Am not I your donkey that you have ridden ever since I was yours until this day? Have I ever attempted to treat you this way?" And he said, "No."

The angel of the Lord said to him, "Why have you beaten your donkey these three times? Look, I came out to oppose you because what you are doing is perverse before me.

Balaam said to the angel of the Lord, "I have sinned, for I did not know that you stood against me in the road. So now, if it is evil in your sight, I will go back home."

But the angel of the Lord said to Balaam, "Go with the men, but you may only speak the word that I will speak to you." So Balaam went with the princes of Balak.

Balak said to Balaam, "Did I not send again and again to you to summon you? Why did you not come to me? Am I not able to honor you?"

Balaam said to Balak, "Look, I have come to you. Now, am I able to speak just anything? I must speak only the word that God puts in my mouth."

Balaam said to Balak, "Build me seven altars here, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams."

So Balak did just as Balaam had said. Balak and Balaam then offered on each altar a bull and a ram.

Balaam said to Balak, "Station yourself by your burnt offering, and I will go off; perhaps the Lord will come to meet me, and whatever he reveals to me I will tell you." Then he went to a deserted height.

Then God met Balaam, who said to him, "I have prepared seven altars, and I have offered on each altar a bull and a ram."

Then the Lord put a message in Balaam's mouth and said, "Return to Balak, and speak what I tell you."

Then Balak said to Balaam, "What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but on the contrary you have only blessed them!"

Balak said to him, "Please come with me to another place from which you can observe them. You will see only a part of them, but you will not see all of them. Curse them for me from there."

And Balaam said to Balak, "Station yourself here by your burnt offering, while I meet the Lord there.

Then the Lord met Balaam and put a message in his mouth and said, "Return to Balak, and speak what I tell you."

When Balaam came to him, he was still standing by his burnt offering, along with the princes of Moab. And Balak said to him, "What has the Lord spoken?"

Balaam uttered his oracle, and said, "Rise up, Balak, and hear; Listen to me, son of Zippor:

God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a human being, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not make it happen?

For there is no spell against Jacob, nor is there any divination against Israel. At this time it must be said of Jacob and of Israel, 'Look at what God has done!'

Balak said to Balaam, "Neither curse them at all nor bless them at all!"

Balak said to Balaam, "Come, please; I will take you to another place. Perhaps it will please God to let you curse them for me from there."

Then Balaam said to Balak, "Build seven altars here for me, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams."

So Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

Then Balak became very angry at Balaam, and he struck his hands together. Balak said to Balaam, "I called you to curse my enemies, and look, you have done nothing but bless them these three times!

So now, go back where you came from! I said that I would greatly honor you; but now the Lord has stood in the way of your honor."

Balaam said to Balak, "Did I not also tell your messengers whom you sent to me,

The Lord said to Moses, "Arrest all the leaders of the people, and hang them up before the Lord in broad daylight, so that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel."

So Moses said to the judges of Israel, "Each of you must execute those of his men who were joined to Baal-peor."

After the plague the Lord said to Moses and to Eleazar son of Aaron the priest,

So Moses and Eleazar the priest spoke with them in the plains of Moab, by the Jordan River across from Jericho. They said,

For the Lord had said of them, "They will surely die in the wilderness." And there was not left a single man of them, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.

And they stood before Moses and Eleazar the priest and the leaders of the whole assembly at the entrance to the tent of meeting and said,

The Lord said to Moses:

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