Numbers 4-6

Numbers 4

¹And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron,

²Let the sons of Kohath, from among the sons of Levi, be numbered by their families, in the order of their fathers' houses;

³All those from thirty to fifty years old who are able to do the work of the Tent of meeting.

⁴And this is to be the work of the sons of Kohath in connection with the most holy things.

⁵When all the people go forward, Aaron is to go in with his sons, and take down the veil of the curtain, covering the ark of witness with it;

⁶And putting over it the leather cover and over that a blue cloth; and putting its rods in place.

⁷And on the table of the holy bread they are to put a blue cloth, and on it all the vessels, the spoons and the basins and the cups; and the holy bread with them;

⁸And over them they are to put a red cloth, covering it with a leather cover, and putting its rods in their places.

⁹And they are to take a blue cloth, covering with it the light-support with its lights and its instruments and its trays and all the oil vessels which are used for it:

¹⁰All these they are to put in a leather cover, and put it on the frame.

¹¹On the gold altar they are to put a blue cloth, covering it with a leather cover; and they are to put its rods in their places.

¹²All the vessels which are used in the holy place they are to put in a blue cloth, covering them with a leather cover, and put them on the frame.

¹³And they are to take away the burned waste from the altar, and put a purple cloth on it;

¹⁴Placing on the cloth all its vessels, the fire-baskets, the meat-hooks, the spades, and the basins; all the vessels of the altar; they are to put a leather cover over all these, and put its rods in their places.

¹⁵And after the holy place and all its vessels have been covered up by Aaron and his sons, when the tents of the people go forward, the sons of Kohath are to come and take it up; but the holy things may not be touched by them for fear of death.

¹⁶And Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, is to be responsible for the oil for the light, and the sweet perfumes for burning, and the regular meal offering, and the holy oil; the House and the holy place and everything in it will be in his care.

¹⁷And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron,

¹⁸Do not let the family of the Kohathites be cut off from among the Levites;

¹⁹But do this to them, so that life and not death may be theirs when they come near the most holy things; let Aaron and his sons go in and give to every one his work and that which he is to take up;

²⁰But they themselves are not to go in to see the holy place, even for a minute, for fear of death.

²¹And the Lord said to Moses,

²²Let the sons of Gershon be numbered by families, in the order of their fathers' houses;

²³All those from thirty to fifty years old who are able to do the work of the Tent of meeting.

²⁴This is to be the work of the Gershonites, the things they are to do and take up.

²⁵They are to take up the curtains of the House, and the Tent of meeting with its cover and the leather cover over it, and the hangings for the door of the Tent of meeting;

²⁶And the hangings for the open space round the House and the altar, and the curtain for its doorway, with the cords and all the things used for them; whatever is necessary for these, they are to do.

²⁷From the mouth of Aaron and his sons the Gershonites will have word about all the things they are to do and take up; you are to give them their orders.

²⁸This is the work of the family of the Gershonites in the Tent of meeting, and they will be under the direction of Ithamar, the son of Aaron the priest.

²⁹The sons of Merari are to be numbered by families, in the order of their fathers' houses;

³⁰Every one from thirty to fifty years old who is able to do the work of the Tent of meeting.

³¹And this is their part in the work of the Tent of meeting: the transport of the boards and the rods of the Tent, with the pillars and their bases;

³²And the pillars of the open space outside it, with their bases and their nails and cords and all the instruments used, and everything which has to be done there; all the instruments for which they are responsible are to be numbered by name.

³³This is the work which the sons of Merari are to do in connection with the Tent of meeting, under the direction of Ithamar, the son of Aaron the priest.

³⁴So Moses and Aaron and the chiefs of the people took in hand the numbering of the sons of the Kohathites, by families, in the order of their fathers' houses;

³⁵Numbering all those from thirty to fifty years old who were able to do the work in the Tent of meeting;

³⁶And the number of all these was two thousand, seven hundred and fifty.

³⁷This is the number of those of the Kohathites who did the work in the Tent of meeting, as they were numbered by Moses and Aaron at the order of the Lord.

³⁸And those of the sons of Gershon who were numbered by families,

³⁹All those from thirty to fifty years old who were able to do the work in the Tent of meeting,

⁴⁰Who were numbered by families in the order of their fathers' houses, were two thousand, six hundred and thirty.

⁴¹This is the number of the sons of Gershon who did the work in the Tent of meeting, as they were numbered by Moses and Aaron at the order of the Lord.

⁴²And those of the sons of Merari who were numbered by families, in the order of their fathers' houses,

⁴³All those from thirty to fifty years old who did the work in the Tent of meeting,

⁴⁴Who were numbered by families, were three thousand, two hundred.

⁴⁵This is the number of the sons of Merari, numbered by Moses and Aaron at the order of the Lord.

⁴⁶And all the Levites who were numbered by Moses and Aaron and the chiefs of the people, by families, in the order of their fathers' houses,

⁴⁷Those from thirty to fifty years old who were able to do the work of the Tent of meeting and of its transport,

⁴⁸Came to eight thousand, five hundred and eighty.

⁴⁹At the order of the Lord they were numbered by Moses, every one in relation to his work and to his part in the transport; so they were numbered by Moses at the order of the Lord.

Numbers 5

¹And the Lord said to Moses,

²Give orders to the children of Israel to put outside the tent-circle every leper, and anyone who has any sort of flow from his body, and anyone who is unclean from the touch of the dead;

³Male or female they are to be put outside the tent-circle, so that they may not make unclean my resting-place among them.

⁴So the children of Israel did as the Lord had said to Moses, and put them outside the tent-circle.

⁵And the Lord said to Moses,

⁶Say to the children of Israel, If a man or a woman does any of the sins of men, going against the word of the Lord, and is in the wrong;

⁷Let them say openly what they have done; and make payment for the wrong done, with the addition of a fifth part, and give it to him to whom the wrong was done.

⁸But if the man has no relation to whom the payment may be made, then the payment for sin made to the Lord will be the priest's, in addition to the sheep offered to take away his sin.

⁹And every offering lifted up of all the holy things which the children of Israel give to the priest, will be his.

¹⁰And every man's holy things will be his: whatever a man gives to the priest will be his.

¹¹And the Lord said to Moses,

¹²Say to the children of Israel, If any man's wife does wrong, sinning against him

¹³By taking as her lover another man, and keeps it secret so that her husband has no knowledge of it, and there is no witness against her, and she is not taken in the act;

¹⁴If the spirit of doubt comes into her husband's heart, and he has doubts of his wife, with good cause; or if he has doubts of her without cause:

¹⁵Then let him take her to the priest, offering for her the tenth part of an ephah of barley meal, without oil or perfume; for it is a meal offering of a bitter spirit, a meal offering keeping wrongdoing in mind.

¹⁶And the priest will make her come near and put her before the Lord;

¹⁷And the priest will take holy water in a pot and put in it dust from the floor of the House;

¹⁸And he will make the woman come before the Lord with her hair loose, and will put the meal offering, the offering of a bitter spirit, in her hands; and the priest will take in his hand the bitter water causing the curse;

¹⁹And he will make her take an oath, and say to her, If no man has been your lover and you have not been with another in place of your husband, you are free from this bitter water causing the curse;

²⁰But if you have been with another in place of your husband and have made yourself unclean with a lover:

²¹Then the priest will put the oath of the curse on the woman, and say to her, May the Lord make you a curse and an oath among your people, sending on you wasting of the legs and disease of the stomach;

²²And this water of the curse will go into your body, causing disease of your stomach and wasting of your legs: and the woman will say, So be it.

²³And the priest will put these curses in a book, washing out the writing with the bitter water;

²⁴And he will give to the woman the bitter water for drink; and the bitter water causing the curse will go into her.

²⁵And the priest will take from her hand the meal offering of doubt, waving it before the Lord, and will take it to the altar;

²⁶And he will take some of it in his hand, burning it on the altar as a sign, and then he will give the woman the bitter water.

²⁷And it will be that if the woman has become unclean, sinning against her husband, when she has taken the bitter water it will go into her body, causing disease of the stomach and wasting of the legs, and she will be a curse among her people.

²⁸But if she is clean she will be free and will have offspring.

²⁹This is the law for testing a wife who goes with another in place of her husband and becomes unclean;

³⁰Or for a husband who, in a bitter spirit, has doubts in his heart about his wife; let him take her to the priest, who will put in force this law.

³¹Then the man will be free from all wrong, and the woman's sin will be on her.

Numbers 6

¹And the Lord said to Moses,

²Say to the children of Israel, If a man or a woman takes an oath to keep himself separate and give himself to the Lord;

³He is to keep himself from wine and strong drink, and take no mixed wine or strong drink or any drink made from grapes, or any grapes, green or dry.

⁴All the time he is separate he may take nothing made from the grape-vine, from its seeds to its skin.

⁵All the time he is under his oath let no blade come near his head; till the days while he is separate are ended he is holy and his hair may not be cut.

⁶All the time he is separate he may not come near any dead body.

⁷He may not make himself unclean for his father or his mother, his sister or his brother, if death comes to them; because he is under an oath to keep himself separate for God.

⁸All the time he is separate he is holy to the Lord.

⁹If death comes suddenly to a man at his side, so that he becomes unclean, let his hair be cut off on the day when he is made clean, on the seventh day.

¹⁰And on the eighth day let him take to the priest, at the door of the Tent of meeting, two doves or two young pigeons;

¹¹And the priest will give one for a sin-offering and the other for a burned offering to take away the sin which came on him on account of the dead, and he will make his head holy that same day.

¹²And he will give to the Lord his days of being separate, offering a he-lamb of the first year as an offering for error: but the earlier days will be a loss, because he became unclean.

¹³And this is the law for him who is separate, when the necessary days are ended: he is to come to the door of the Tent of meeting,

¹⁴And make his offering to the Lord; one he-lamb of the first year, without a mark, for a burned offering, and one female lamb of the first year, without a mark, for a sin-offering, and one male sheep, without a mark, for peace-offerings,

¹⁵And a basket of unleavened bread, cakes of the best meal mixed with oil, and thin unleavened cakes covered with oil, with their meal offering and drink offerings.

¹⁶And the priest will take them before the Lord, and make his sin-offering and his burned offering;

¹⁷Giving the sheep of the peace-offerings, with the basket of unleavened bread; and at the same time, the priest will make his meal offering and his drink offering.

¹⁸Then let his long hair, the sign of his oath, be cut off at the door of the Tent of meeting, and let him put it on the fire on which the peace-offerings are burning.

¹⁹And the priest will take the cooked leg of the sheep and one unleavened cake and one thin cake out of the basket, and put them on the hands of the separate one after his hair has been cut,

²⁰Waving them for a wave offering before the Lord; this is holy for the priest, together with the waved breast and the leg which is lifted up; after that, the man may take wine.

²¹This is the law for him who takes an oath to keep himself separate, and for his offering to the Lord on that account, in addition to what he may be able to get; this is the law of his oath, which he will have to keep.

²²And the Lord said to Moses,

²³Say to Aaron and his sons, These are the words of blessing which are to be used by you in blessing the children of Israel; say to them,

²⁴May the Lord send his blessing on you and keep you:

²⁵May the light of the Lord's face be shining on you in grace:

²⁶May the Lord's approval be resting on you and may he give you peace.

²⁷So they will put my name on the children of Israel, and I will give them my blessing.