One Year Bible.

The Red Heifer

¹Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, ²“This is the statute of the law that the LORD has commanded: Instruct the Israelites to bring you an unblemished red heifer that has no defect and has never been placed under a yoke. ³Give it to Eleazar the priest, and he will have it brought outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence.

⁴Eleazar the priest is to take some of its blood on his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the Tent of Meeting. ⁵Then the heifer must be burned in his sight. Its hide, its flesh, and its blood are to be burned, along with its dung. ⁶The priest is to take cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet wool and throw them onto the burning heifer.

⁷Then the priest must wash his clothes and bathe his body in water; after that he may enter the camp, but he will be ceremonially unclean until evening. ⁸The one who burned the heifer must also wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and he too will be ceremonially unclean until evening.

⁹Then a man who is ceremonially clean is to gather up the ashes of the heifer and store them in a ceremonially clean place outside the camp. They must be kept by the congregation of Israel for preparing the water of purification; this is for purification from sin. ¹⁰The man who has gathered up the ashes of the heifer must also wash his clothes, and he will be ceremonially unclean until evening. This is a permanent statute for the Israelites and for the foreigner residing among them.

Purification of the Unclean

¹¹Whoever touches any dead body will be unclean for seven days. ¹²He must purify himself with the water on the third day and on 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. ¹³Anyone who touches a human corpse and fails to purify himself defiles the tabernacle of the LORD. That person must be cut off from Israel. He remains unclean, because the water of purification has not been sprinkled on him, and his uncleanness is still on him.

¹⁴This is the law when a person dies in a tent: Everyone who enters the tent and everyone already in the tent will be unclean for seven days, ¹⁵and any open container without a lid fastened on it is unclean.

¹⁶Anyone in the open field who touches someone who has been killed by the sword or has died of natural causes, or anyone who touches a human bone or a grave, will be unclean for seven days.

¹⁷For the purification of the unclean person, take some of the ashes of the burnt sin offering, put them in a jar, and pour fresh water over them. ¹⁸Then a man who is ceremonially clean is to take some 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, or a person who has died or been slain.

¹⁹The man who is ceremonially clean is to sprinkle the unclean person on the third day and on the seventh day. After he purifies the unclean person on the seventh day, the one being cleansed must wash his clothes and bathe in water, and that evening he will be clean. ²⁰But if a person who is unclean does not purify himself, he will be cut off from the assembly, because he has defiled the sanctuary of the LORD. The water of purification has not been sprinkled on him; he is unclean.

²¹This is a permanent statute for the people: The one who sprinkles the water of purification must wash his clothes, and whoever touches the water of purification will be unclean until evening. ²²Anything the unclean person touches will become unclean, and anyone who touches it will be unclean until evening.”

Water from the Rock

¹In the first month, the whole congregation of Israel entered the Wilderness of Zin and stayed in Kadesh. There Miriam died and was buried.

²Now there was no water for the congregation, so they gathered against Moses and Aaron. ³The people quarreled with Moses and said, “If only we had perished with our brothers before the LORD! ⁴Why have you brought the LORD’s assembly into this wilderness for us and our livestock to die here? ⁵Why have you led us up out of Egypt to bring us to this wretched place? It is not a place of grain, figs, vines, or pomegranates — and there is no water to drink!”

⁶Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. They fell facedown, and the glory of the LORD appeared to them. ⁷And the LORD said to Moses, ⁸“Take the staff and assemble the congregation. You and your brother Aaron are to speak to the rock while they watch, and it will pour out its water. You will bring out water from the rock and provide drink for the congregation and their livestock.”

⁹So Moses took the staff from the LORD’s presence, just as he had been commanded. ¹⁰Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly in front of the rock, and Moses said to them, “Listen now, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” ¹¹Then Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff, so that a great amount of water gushed out, and the congregation and their livestock were able to drink.

¹²But 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 that I have given them.”

¹³These were the waters of Meribah, where the Israelites quarreled with the LORD, and He showed His holiness among them.

Edom Refuses Passage

¹⁴From Kadesh, Moses sent messengers to tell the king of Edom, “This is what your brother Israel says: You know all the hardship that has befallen us, ¹⁵how our fathers went down to Egypt, where we lived many years. The Egyptians mistreated us and our fathers, ¹⁶and 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 edge of your territory. ¹⁷Please let us pass through your land. We will not go through any field or vineyard, or drink water from any well. We will stay on the King’s Highway; we will not turn to the right or to the left until we have passed through your territory.”

¹⁸But Edom answered, “You may not travel through our land, or we will come out and confront you with the sword.”

¹⁹“We will stay on the main road,” the Israelites replied, “and if we or our herds drink your water, we will pay for it. There will be no problem; only let us pass through on foot.”

²⁰But Edom insisted, “You may not pass through.” And they came out to confront the Israelites with a large army and a strong hand. ²¹So Edom refused to allow Israel to pass through their territory, and Israel turned away from them.

The Death of Aaron

²²After they had set out from Kadesh, the whole congregation of Israel came to Mount Hor. ²³And at Mount Hor, near the border of the land of Edom, the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, ²⁴“Aaron will be gathered to his people; he will not enter the land that I have given the Israelites, because both of you rebelled against My command at the waters of Meribah. ²⁵Take Aaron and his son Eleazar and bring them up Mount Hor. ²⁶Remove Aaron’s priestly garments and put them on his son Eleazar. Aaron will be gathered to his people and will die there.”

²⁷So Moses did as the LORD had commanded, and they climbed Mount Hor in the sight of the whole congregation. ²⁸After Moses had 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. ²⁹When the whole congregation saw that Aaron had died, the entire house of Israel mourned for him thirty days.

A Lament for the Princes of Israel

¹“As for you, take up a lament for the princes of Israel ²and say:

‘What was your mother?

A lioness among the lions!

She lay down among the young lions;

she reared her cubs.

³She brought up one of her cubs,

and he became a young lion.

After learning to tear his prey,

he devoured men.

⁴When the nations heard of him,

he was trapped in their pit.

With hooks they led him away

to the land of Egypt.

⁵When she saw that she had waited in vain,

that her hope was lost,

she took another of her cubs

and made him a young lion.

⁶He prowled among the lions,

and became a young lion.

After learning to tear his prey,

he devoured men.

⁷He broke down their strongholds

and devastated their cities.

The land and everything in it

shuddered at the sound of his roaring.

⁸Then the nations set out against him

from the provinces on every side.

They spread their net over him;

he was trapped in their pit.

⁹With hooks they caged him

and brought him to the king of Babylon.

They brought him into captivity

so that his roar was heard no longer

on the mountains of Israel.

¹⁰Your mother was like a vine in your vineyard,

planted by the water;

it was fruitful and full of branches

because of the abundant waters.

¹¹It had strong branches, fit for a ruler’s scepter.

It towered high above the thick branches,

conspicuous for its height

and for its dense foliage.

¹²But it was uprooted in fury,

cast down to the ground,

and the east wind dried up its fruit.

Its strong branches were stripped off

and they withered;

the fire consumed them.

¹³Now it is planted in the wilderness,

in a dry and thirsty land.

¹⁴Fire has gone out from its main branch

and devoured its fruit;

on it no strong branch remains

fit for a ruler’s scepter.’

This is a lament and shall be used as a lament.”

144,000 Sealed

¹After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back its four winds so that no wind would blow on land or sea or on any tree. ²And I saw another angel ascending from the east, with the seal of the living God. And he called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea: ³“Do not harm the land or sea or trees until we have placed a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.”

⁴And I heard the number of those who were sealed, 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel:

⁵From the tribe of Judah 12,000 were sealed,

from the tribe of Reuben 12,000,

from the tribe of Gad 12,000,

⁶from the tribe of Asher 12,000,

from the tribe of Naphtali 12,000,

from the tribe of Manasseh 12,000,

⁷from the tribe of Simeon 12,000,

from the tribe of Levi 12,000,

from the tribe of Issachar 12,000,

⁸from the tribe of Zebulun 12,000,

from the tribe of Joseph 12,000,

and from the tribe of Benjamin 12,000.

Praise from the Great Multitude

⁹After this I looked and saw a multitude too large to count, from every nation and tribe and people and tongue, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands. ¹⁰And they cried out in a loud voice:

“Salvation to our God,

who sits on the throne,

and to the Lamb!”

¹¹And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. And they fell facedown before the throne and worshiped God, ¹²saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

¹³Then one of the elders addressed me: “These in white robes,” he asked, “who are they, and where have they come from?”

¹⁴“Sir,” I answered, “you know.”

So he replied, “These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. ¹⁵For this reason,

they are before the throne of God

and serve Him day and night in His temple;

and the One seated on the throne

will spread His tabernacle over them.

¹⁶‘Never again will they hunger,

and never will they thirst;

nor will the sun beat down upon them,

nor any scorching heat.’

¹⁷For the Lamb in the center of the throne

will be their shepherd.

‘He will lead them to springs of living water,’

and ‘God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’”