So Moses did exactly what the LORD had commanded him to do.

Every one that comes at all near to the tabernacle of Jehovah shall die: shall we then expire altogether?

Therefore also thy brethren of the tribe of Levi the stem of thy father, bring thou near with thee, and let them be joined unto thee, and let them wait upon thee, - both on thee and on thy sons with thee, before the tent of the testimony.

And let them wait upon thee and upon all the tabernacle: only let them not come nigh the holy vessels and the altar, that both they and ye also die not.

They are to join you and guard the tent of meeting, doing all the work at the tent, but no unauthorized person may come near you.

Wait therefore upon the holy place and upon the altar, that there fall no more wrath upon the children of Israel:

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.

But you with your sons will keep your priesthood to perform your priestly duties for everything at the altar and for {the area behind the curtain}. I give you the priesthood as a gift, but the stranger who approaches will be put to death."

Then the Lord spoke to Aaron, “Now behold, I [the Lord] have entrusted you with My heave offerings, even all the holy gifts of the Israelites, I have given them to you as a portion, and to your sons as a continual allotment.

This shall be thine of the most holy things, reserved from the fire: every offering of theirs, of all their oblations, and of all their sin-offerings, and of all their trespass-offerings, which they render unto me, it is most holy for thee and for thy sons.

In the most holy place shalt thou eat it; every male shall eat it: it shall be holy unto thee.

And this is thine; the heave offering of their gift, with all the wave offerings of the children of Israel: I have given them unto thee, and to thy sons and to thy daughters with thee, by a statute for ever: every one that is clean in thy house shall eat of it.

All the best of the oil, and all the best of the wine, and of the wheat, the firstfruits of them which they shall offer unto the LORD, them have I given thee.

And whatsoever is first ripe in the land, which they shall bring unto the LORD, shall be thine; every one that is clean in thine house shall eat of it.

every devoted thing in Israel, thine, shall it be:

Every thing that openeth the matrix in all flesh, which they bring unto the LORD, whether it be of men or beasts, shall be thine: nevertheless the firstborn of man shalt thou surely redeem, and the firstling of unclean beasts shalt thou redeem.

And their ransomed ones from a son of a month, thou dost ransom with thy valuation, of silver, five shekels, by the shekel of the sanctuary, twenty gerahs it is.

But the first-born of a cow, or the first-born of a sheep, or the first-born of a goat, thou shalt not redeem; they are holy: their blood shalt thou pour out upon the altar, and their fat thou shalt burn a sacrifice for an odor of sweetness to Jehovah.

And the flesh of them shall be thine, as the wave-breast and as the right thigh, it shall be thine.

All the heave offerings of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer unto the LORD, have I given thee, and thy sons and thy daughters with thee, by a statute for ever: it is a covenant of salt for ever before the LORD unto thee and to thy seed with thee.

As to the descendants of Levi, certainly I've given all the tithes in Israel as their inheritance in return for their services that they perform at the Tent of Meeting.

But the Levites shall do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they shall bear their iniquity: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations, that among the children of Israel they have no inheritance.

Thus speak unto the Levites, and say unto them, When ye take of the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then ye shall offer up an heave offering of it for the LORD, even a tenth part of the tithe.

And this your heave offering shall be reckoned unto you, as though it were the corn of the threshingfloor, and as the fulness of the winepress.

so ye do lift up -- ye also -- the heave-offering of Jehovah from all your tithes which ye receive from the sons of Israel; and ye have given from it the heave-offering of Jehovah to Aaron the priest;

Out of all your gifts ye shall offer every heave offering of the LORD, of all the best thereof, even the hallowed part thereof out of it.

Therefore thou shalt say unto them, When ye have heaved the best thereof from it, then it shall be counted unto the Levites as the increase of the threshingfloor, and as the increase of the winepress.

And ye shall eat it in every place, ye and your households: for it is your reward for your service in the tabernacle of the congregation.

And ye shall bear no sin by reason of it, when ye have heaved from it the best of it: neither shall ye pollute the holy things of the children of Israel, lest ye die.

and ye shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and he shall bring it outside the camp, and one shall slaughter it before him.

Next Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle some of it toward the front of the Tent of Meeting (tabernacle) seven times.

And the priest shall take cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet, and cast it into the midst of the burning of the heifer.

and he that hath burned it shall wash his garments in water, and bathe his flesh in water, and shall be unclean until the even.

And a man that is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay them up without the camp in a clean place, and it shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for a water of separation: it is a purification for sin.

And he that gathereth the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even: and it shall be unto the children of Israel, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among them, for a statute for ever.

He shall purify himself with it on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be clean: but if he purify not himself the third day, then the seventh day he shall not be clean.

Whosoever toucheth the dead body of any man that is dead, and purifieth not himself, defileth the tabernacle of the LORD; and that soul shall be cut off from Israel: because the water of separation was not sprinkled upon him, he shall be unclean; his uncleanness is yet upon him.

"This is the procedure to follow when a man dies in his tent: Everyone who enters the tent and everyone in it is to remain unclean for seven days.

And every open vessel, which hath no covering bound upon it, is unclean.

Whoever is out in an open field and touches the body of someone who was killed by a sword, or a dead body, or someone's bones, or a grave, he is to be considered unclean for seven days.

and they have taken for the unclean person of the ashes of the burning of the cleansing, and he hath put upon it running water unto a vessel;

And a clean person shall take hyssop, and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it upon the tent, and upon all the vessels, and upon the persons that were there, and upon him that touched a bone, or one slain, or one dead, or a grave:

And the clean person shall sprinkle upon the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day: and on the seventh day he shall purify himself, and wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean at even.

But in the ease of the man who shall be unclean and shall not cleanse himself from sin, that person shall be cut off, out of the midst of the convocation, - for, the sanctuary of Yahweh, hath he made unclean, the water of separation, hath not been dashed upon him unclean, he is.

And it shall be a perpetual statute unto them, that he that sprinkleth the water of separation shall wash his clothes; and he that toucheth the water of separation shall be unclean until even.

And whatsoever the unclean person toucheth shall be unclean; and the soul that toucheth it shall be unclean until even.

And the children of Israel, the whole assembly, came into the wilderness of Zin, in the first month; and the people abode at Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there.

And for what brought ye the gathering of Jehovah into this desert to die there, we and our cattle

And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in unto this evil place? it is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink.

Then Moses and Aaron went into the presence of the community at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and fell on their faces. Then the glory of the LORD appeared to them.

Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink.

And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?

And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.

Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom, “This is what your brother Israel says, ‘You know all the hardships that have overtaken us.

And when we cried unto the LORD, he heard our voice, and sent an angel, and hath brought us forth out of Egypt: and, behold, we are in Kadesh, a city in the uttermost of thy border:

Let us pass, I pray thee, through thy country; we will not pass through fields, or through vineyards, neither will we drink water out of the wells: we will go by the king's road; we will not turn to the right hand nor to the left, until we have passed thy border.

And Edom said unto him, Thou shalt not pass by me, lest I come out against thee with the sword.

And the children of Israel said unto him, We will go by the high way: and if I and my cattle drink of thy water, then I will pay for it: I will only, without doing any thing else, go through on my feet.

And he said, Thou shalt not go through. And Edom came out against him with much people, and with a strong hand.

And they set out from Kadesh. The {Israelites}, the whole community, came [to] Mount Hor.

Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron at Mount Hor, by the border of the land of Edom, saying,

Aaron shall be gathered unto his people: for he shall not enter into the land which I have given unto the children of Israel, because ye rebelled against my word at the water of Meribah.

and strip Aaron out of his vestments and put them upon Eleazar his son, and let Aaron be put unto his people and die there."

So Moses did just what the LORD had commanded. They ascended Mount Hor right in front of the entire community.

And Moses stripped Aaron of his garments and put them upon Eleazar his son, and Aaron died there, in the top of the mount, - and Moses and Eleazar came down out of the mount.

And Moses and Eleazar came down out of the mount. And all the house of Israel mourned for Aaron thirty days.

When the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the Negev (the South country) heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim [the route traveled by the spies sent out by Moses], he fought against Israel and took some of them captive.

When the LORD heard what Israel had decided to do, he delivered the Canaanites to them, and Israel exterminated them and their cities. They named the place Hormah.

They set out from Mount Hor [by] the way of the {Red Sea} to go around the land of Edom; but {the people became impatient} along the way.

And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.

And Yahweh sent among the people the poisonous serpents, and they bit the people, - and much people out of Israel died.

Then the people came to Moses and said, We have done wrong in crying out against the Lord and against you: make prayer to the Lord to take away the snakes from us. So Moses made prayer for the people.

And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.

And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.

Now the sons of Israel moved out and camped at Oboth.

And they journeyed from Oboth, and pitched at Ijeabarim, in the wilderness which is before Moab, toward the sunrising.

From thence they removed, and encamped at the torrent Zered.

From thence they removed, and pitched on the other side of Arnon, which is in the wilderness that cometh out of the coasts of the Amorites: for Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.

Wherefore it is said in the book of the wars of the LORD, What he did in the Red sea, and in the brooks of Arnon,

And at the stream of the brooks that goeth down to the dwelling of Ar, and lieth upon the border of Moab.

And from thence they journeyed to Beer; it is the well concerning which Jehovah said to Moses, 'Gather the people, and I give to them -- water.'

Then Israel sang this song, Spring up, O well; sing ye unto it:

The princes digged the well, the nobles of the people digged it, by the direction of the lawgiver, with their staves. And from the wilderness they went to Mattanah:

and from Bamoth to the valley that is in the land of Moab, at the top of Pisgah which overlooks the wasteland.

Let us pass through thy land; we will not turn into the fields, or into the vineyards; we will not drink water out of the wells; on the king's road will we go until we have passed thy border.

And Sihon would not suffer Israel to pass through his border: but Sihon gathered all his people together, and went out against Israel into the wilderness: and he came to Jahaz, and fought against Israel.

Israel struck him with the sword and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, but only up to the Ammonite border, because it was fortified.

And Israel took all these cities, and Israel dwelt in all the cities of the Amorites, at Heshbon, and in all its dependent villages.

For Heshbon was the city of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab, and taken all his land out of his hand, even unto Arnon.

Thus the ones who quote proverbs say, "Come [to] Heshbon! Let it be built! And let the city of Sihon be established.

For there is a fire gone out of Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon: it hath consumed Ar of Moab, and the lords of the high places of Arnon.

We have shot at them; Heshbon is perished even unto Dibon, and we have laid them waste even unto Nophah, which reacheth unto Medeba.

And Moses sent to spy out Jaazer, and they took the villages thereof, and drove out the Amorites that were there.

And they turned and went up by the way of Bashan: and Og the king of Bashan went out against them, he, and all his people, to the battle at Edrei.

And the LORD said unto Moses, Fear him not: for I have delivered him into thy hand, and all his people, and his land; and thou shalt do to him as thou didst unto Sihon king of the Amorites, which dwelt at Heshbon.

So they overcame him and his sons and his people, driving them all out: and they took his land for their heritage.

And the children of Israel journeyed, and encamped in the plains of Moab beyond the Jordan at Jericho.

Now Balak, the son of Zippor, saw what Israel had done to the Amorites.

and Moab is exceedingly afraid of the presence of the people, for it is numerous; and Moab is vexed by the presence of the sons of Israel,

And Moab said unto the elders of Midian, Now shall this company lick up all that are round about us, as the ox licketh up the grass of the field. And Balak the son of Zippor was king of the Moabites at that time.