I, Yahweh, have spoken. I swear that I will do this to the entire evil community that has conspired against Me. They will come to an end in the wilderness, and there they will die.”

When Moses reported these words to all the Israelites, the people were overcome with grief.

But Moses responded, “Why are you going against the Lord’s command? It won’t succeed.

The Amalekites and Canaanites are right in front of you, and you will fall by the sword. The Lord won’t be with you, since you have turned from following Him.”

Then the Amalekites and Canaanites who lived in that part of the hill country came down, attacked them, and routed them as far as Hormah.

“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you enter the land I am giving you to settle in,

the one presenting his offering to the Lord must also present a grain offering of two quarts of fine flour mixed with a quart of oil.

Prepare a quart of wine as a drink offering with the burnt offering or sacrifice of each lamb.

Also present a third of a gallon of wine for a drink offering as a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

Also present two quarts of wine as a drink offering. It is a fire offering of pleasing aroma to the Lord.

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

When a foreigner resides with you or someone else is among you and wants to prepare a fire offering as a pleasing aroma to the Lord, he is to do exactly as you do throughout your generations.

you are to offer a contribution to the Lord when you eat from the food of the land.

“When you sin unintentionally and do not obey all these commands that the Lord spoke to Moses—

and if it was done unintentionally without the community’s awareness, the entire community is to prepare one young bull for a burnt offering as a pleasing aroma to the Lord, with its grain offering and drink offering according to the regulation, and one male goat as a sin offering.

The priest must then make atonement for the entire Israelite community so that they may be forgiven, for the sin was unintentional. They are to bring their offering, one made by fire to the Lord, and their sin offering before the Lord for their unintentional sin.

“If one person sins unintentionally, he is to present a year-old female goat as a sin offering.

The priest must then make atonement before the Lord on behalf of the person who acts in error sinning unintentionally, and when he makes atonement for him, he will be forgiven.

You are to have the same law for the person who acts in error, whether he is an Israelite or a foreigner who lives among you.

He will certainly be cut off, because he has despised the Lord’s word and broken His command; his guilt remains on him.”

While the Israelites were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day.

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

“Speak to the Israelites and tell them that throughout their generations they are to make tassels for the corners of their garments, and put a blue cord on the tassel at each corner.

These will serve as tassels for you to look at, so that you may remember all the Lord’s commands and obey them and not become unfaithful by following your own heart and your own eyes.

Now Korah son of Izhar, son of Kohath, son of Levi, with Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took

250 prominent Israelite men who were leaders of the community and representatives in the assembly, and they rebelled against Moses.

They came together against Moses and Aaron and told them, “You have gone too far! Everyone in the entire community is holy, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the Lord’s assembly?”

When Moses heard this, he fell facedown.

Then he said to Korah and all his followers, “Tomorrow morning the Lord will reveal who belongs to Him, who is set apart, and the one He will let come near Him. He will let the one He chooses come near Him.

place fire in them and put incense on them before the Lord. Then the man the Lord chooses will be the one who is set apart. It is you Levites who have gone too far!”

Is it not enough that you brought us up from a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness? Do you also have to appoint yourself as ruler over us?

Furthermore, you didn’t bring us to a land flowing with milk and honey or give us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Will you gouge out the eyes of these men? We will not come!”

Then Moses became angry and said to the Lord, “Don’t respect their offering. I have not taken one donkey from them or mistreated a single one of them.”

Each of you is to take his firepan, place incense on it, and present his firepan before the Lord—250 firepans. You and Aaron are each to present your firepan also.”

Each man took his firepan, placed fire in it, put incense on it, and stood at the entrance to the tent of meeting along with Moses and Aaron.

But Moses and Aaron fell facedown and said, “God, God of the spirits of all flesh, when one man sins, will You vent Your wrath on the whole community?”

Then Moses said, “This is how you will know that the Lord sent me to do all these things and that it was not of my own will:

As for the firepans of those who sinned at the cost of their own lives, make them into hammered sheets as plating for the altar, for they presented them before the Lord, and the firepans are holy. They will be a sign to the Israelites.”

When the community assembled against them, Moses and Aaron turned toward the tent of meeting, and suddenly the cloud covered it, and the Lord’s glory appeared.

Then Moses told Aaron, “Take your firepan, place fire from the altar in it, and add incense. Go quickly to the community and make atonement for them, because wrath has come from the Lord; the plague has begun.”

But those who died from the plague numbered 14,700, in addition to those who died because of the Korah incident.

“Speak to the Israelites and take one staff from them for each ancestral house, 12 staffs from all the leaders of their ancestral houses. Write each man’s name on his staff.

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

Then place them in the tent of meeting in front of the testimony where I meet with you.

So Moses spoke to the Israelites, and each of their leaders gave him a staff, one for each of the leaders of their ancestral houses, 12 staffs in all. Aaron’s staff was among them.

Moses placed the staffs before the Lord in the tent of the testimony.

Moses then brought out all the staffs from the Lord’s presence to all the Israelites. They saw them, and each man took his own staff.

The Lord told Moses, “Put Aaron’s staff back in front of the testimony to be kept as a sign for the rebels, so that you may put an end to their complaints before Me, or else they will die.”

But also bring your relatives with you from the tribe of Levi, your ancestral tribe, so they may join you and assist you and your sons in front of the tent of the testimony.

“You are to guard the sanctuary and the altar so that wrath may not fall on the Israelites again.

But you and your sons will carry out your priestly responsibilities for everything concerning the altar and for what is inside the veil, and you will do that work. I am giving you the work of the priesthood as a gift, but an unauthorized person who comes near the sanctuary will be put to death.”

Then the Lord spoke to Aaron, “Look, I have put you in charge of the contributions brought to Me. As for all the holy offerings of the Israelites, I have given them to you and your sons as a portion and a permanent statute.

A portion of the holiest offerings kept from the fire will be yours; every one of their offerings that they give Me, whether the grain offering, sin offering, or restitution offering will be most holy for you and your sons.

“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.

The firstfruits of all that is in their land, which they bring to the Lord, belong to you. Every clean person in your house may eat them.

“Everything in Israel that is permanently dedicated to the Lord belongs to you.

The firstborn of every living thing, man or animal, presented to the Lord belongs to you. But you must certainly redeem the firstborn of man, and redeem the firstborn of an unclean animal.

“However, you must not redeem the firstborn of an ox, a sheep, or a goat; they are holy. You are to sprinkle their blood on the altar and burn their fat as a fire offering for a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

The Lord told Aaron, “You will not have an inheritance in their land; there will be no portion among them for you. I am your portion and your inheritance among the Israelites.

“Look, I have given the Levites every tenth in Israel as an inheritance in return for the work they do, the work of the tent of meeting.

The Levites will do the work of the tent of meeting, and they will bear the consequences of their sin. The Levites will not receive an inheritance among the Israelites; this is a permanent statute throughout your generations.

For I have given them the tenth that the Israelites present to the Lord as a contribution for their inheritance. That is why I told them that they would not receive an inheritance among the Israelites.”

“Speak to the Levites and tell them: When you receive from the Israelites the tenth that I have given you as your inheritance, you must present part of it as an offering to the Lord—a tenth of the tenth.

You are to present an offering to the Lord from every tenth you receive from the Israelites. Give some of it to Aaron the priest as an offering to the Lord.

then you and your household may eat it anywhere. It is your wage in return for your work at the tent of meeting.

“This is the legal statute that the Lord has commanded: Instruct the Israelites to bring you an unblemished red cow that has no defect and has never been yoked.

Give it to Eleazar the priest, and he will have it brought outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence.

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

Then the priest must wash his clothes and bathe his body in water; after that he may enter the camp, but he will remain ceremonially unclean until evening.

The one who burned the cow must also wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and he will remain unclean until evening.

“A man who is clean is to gather up the cow’s ashes and deposit them outside the camp in a ceremonially clean place. The ashes must be kept by the Israelite community for preparing the water to remove impurity; it is a sin offering.

Then the one who gathers up the cow’s ashes must wash his clothes, and he will remain unclean until evening. This is a permanent statute for the Israelites and for the foreigner who resides among them.

He is to purify himself with the water on the third day and the seventh day; then he will be clean. But if he does not purify himself on the third and seventh days, he will not be clean.

Anyone who touches a body of a person who has died, and does not purify himself, defiles the tabernacle of the Lord. That person will be cut off from Israel. He remains unclean because the water for impurity has not been sprinkled on him, and his uncleanness is still on him.

“This is the law when a person dies in a tent: everyone who enters the tent and everyone who is already in the tent will be unclean for seven days,

and any open container without a lid tied on it is unclean.

Anyone in the open field who touches a person who has been killed by the sword or has died, or who even touches a human bone, or a grave, will be unclean for seven days.

For the purification of the unclean person, they are to take some of the ashes of the burnt sin offering, put them in a jar, and add fresh water to them.

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 one who is clean is to sprinkle the unclean person on the third day and the seventh day. After he purifies the unclean person on the seventh day, the one being purified must wash his clothes and bathe in water, and he will be clean by evening.

But a person who is unclean and does not purify himself, that person will be cut off from the assembly because he has defiled the sanctuary of the Lord. The water for impurity has not been sprinkled on him; he is unclean.

The entire Israelite community entered the Wilderness of Zin in the first month, and they settled in Kadesh. Miriam died and was buried there.

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

Moses and Aaron summoned the assembly in front of the rock, and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels! Must we bring water out of this rock for you?”

But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust Me to show My holiness in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this assembly into the land I have given them.”

Our fathers went down to Egypt, and we lived in Egypt many years, but the Egyptians treated us and our fathers badly.

When we cried out to the Lord, He heard our voice, sent an angel, and brought us out of Egypt. Now look, we are in Kadesh, a city on the border of your territory.

Please let us travel through your land. We won’t travel through any field or vineyard, or drink any well water. We will travel the King’s Highway; we won’t turn to the right or the left until we have traveled through your territory.’”

“We will go on the main road,” the Israelites replied to them, “and if we or our herds drink your water, we will pay its price. There will be no problem; only let us travel through on foot.”

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron at Mount Hor on the border of the land of Edom,

Remove Aaron’s garments and put them on his son Eleazar. Aaron will be gathered to his people and die there.”

So Moses did as the Lord commanded, and they climbed Mount Hor in the sight of the whole community.

After Moses removed Aaron’s garments and put them on his son Eleazar, Aaron died there on top of the mountain. Then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain.

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

When the Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming on the Atharim road, he fought against Israel and captured some prisoners.

The people spoke against God and Moses: “Why have you led us up from Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread or water, and we detest this wretched food!”

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake image and mount it on a pole. When anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will recover.”

So Moses made a bronze snake and mounted it on a pole. Whenever someone was bitten, and he looked at the bronze snake, he recovered.

They set out from Oboth and camped at Iye-abarim in the wilderness that borders Moab on the east.