rsv Numbers:18-20 SEEK
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So the LORD said to Aaron , "
You and your sons and your fathers '
house with you shall bear iniquity in connection with the sanctuary ;
and you and your sons with you shall bear iniquity in connection with your priesthood .
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And with you bring your brethren also ,
the tribe of Levi ,
the tribe of your father ,
that they may join you ,
and minister to you while you and your sons with you are before the tent of the testimony .
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They shall attend you and attend to all duties of the tent ;
but shall not come near to the vessels of the sanctuary or to the altar ,
lest they ,
and you ,
die .
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They shall join you ,
and attend to the tent of meeting ,
for all the service of the tent ;
and no one else shall come near you .
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And you shall attend to the duties of the sanctuary and the duties of the altar ,
that there be wrath no more upon the people of Israel .
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And behold ,
I have taken your brethren the Levites from among the people of Israel ;
they are a gift to you ,
given to the LORD ,
to do the service of the tent of meeting .
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And you and your sons with you shall attend to your priesthood for all that concerns the altar and that is within the veil ;
and you shall serve .
I give your priesthood as a gift ,
and any one else who comes near shall be put to death ."
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Then the LORD said to Aaron , "
And behold ,
I have given you whatever is kept of the offerings made to me ,
all the consecrated things of the people of Israel ;
I have given them to you as a portion ,
and to your sons as a perpetual due .
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This shall be yours of the most holy things ,
reserved from the fire ;
every offering of theirs ,
every cereal offering of theirs and every sin offering of theirs and every guilt offering of theirs ,
which they render to me ,
shall be most holy to you and to your sons .
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In a most holy place shall you eat of it ;
every male may eat of it ;
it is holy to you .
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This also is yours ,
the offering of their gift ,
all the wave offerings of the people of Israel ;
I have given them to you ,
and to your sons and daughters with you ,
as a perpetual due ;
every one who is clean in your house may eat of it .
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All the best of the oil ,
and all the best of the wine and of the grain ,
the first fruits of what they give to the LORD ,
I give to you .
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The first ripe fruits of all that is in their land ,
which they bring to the LORD ,
shall be yours ;
every one who is clean in your house may eat of it .
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Every devoted thing in Israel shall be yours .
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Everything that opens the womb of all flesh ,
whether man or beast ,
which they offer to the LORD ,
shall be yours ;
nevertheless the first-born of man you shall redeem ,
and the firstling of unclean beasts you shall redeem .
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And their redemption price (
at a month old you shall redeem them )
you shall fix at five shekels in silver ,
according to the shekel of the sanctuary ,
which is twenty gerahs .
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But the firstling of a cow ,
or the firstling of a sheep ,
or the firstling of a goat ,
you shall not redeem ;
they are holy .
You shall sprinkle their blood upon the altar ,
and shall burn their fat as an offering by fire ,
a pleasing odor to the LORD ;
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but their flesh shall be yours ,
as the breast that is waved and as the right thigh are yours .
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All the holy offerings which the people of Israel present to the LORD I give to you ,
and to your sons and daughters with you ,
as a perpetual due ;
it is a covenant of salt for ever before the LORD for you and for your offspring with you ."
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And the LORD said to Aaron , "
You shall have no inheritance in their land ,
neither shall you have any portion among them ;
I am your portion and your inheritance among the people of Israel .
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To the Levites I have given every tithe in Israel for an inheritance ,
in return for their service which they serve ,
their service in the tent of meeting .
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And henceforth the people of Israel shall not come near the tent of meeting ,
lest they bear sin and die .
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But the Levites shall do the service of the tent of meeting ,
and they shall bear their iniquity ;
it shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations ;
and among the people of Israel they shall have no inheritance .
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For the tithe of the people of Israel ,
which they present as an offering to the LORD ,
I have given to the Levites for an inheritance ;
therefore I have said of them that they shall have no inheritance among the people of Israel ."
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And the LORD said to Moses ,
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Moreover you shall say to the Levites , `
When you take from the people of Israel the tithe which I have given you from them for your inheritance ,
then you shall present an offering from it to the LORD ,
a tithe of the tithe .
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And your offering shall be reckoned to you as though it were the grain of the threshing floor ,
and as the fulness of the wine press .
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So shall you also present an offering to the LORD from all your tithes ,
which you receive from the people of Israel ;
and from it you shall give the LORD '
s offering to Aaron the priest .
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Out of all the gifts to you ,
you shall present every offering due to the LORD ,
from all the best of them ,
giving the hallowed part from them .'
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Therefore you shall say to them , `
When you have offered from it the best of it ,
then the rest shall be reckoned to the Levites as produce of the threshing floor ,
and as produce of the wine press ;
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and you may eat it in any place ,
you and your households ;
for it is your reward in return for your service in the tent of meeting .
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And you shall bear no sin by reason of it ,
when you have offered the best of it .
And you shall not profane the holy things of the people of Israel ,
lest you die .'"
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Now the LORD said to Moses and to Aaron ,
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This is the statute of the law which the LORD has commanded :
Tell the people of Israel to bring you a red heifer without defect ,
in which there is no blemish ,
and upon which a yoke has never come .
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And you shall give her to Elea '
zar the priest ,
and she shall be taken outside the camp and slaughtered before him ;
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and Elea '
zar the priest shall take some of her blood with his finger ,
and sprinkle some of her blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times .
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And the heifer shall be burned in his sight ;
her skin ,
her flesh ,
and her blood ,
with her dung ,
shall be burned ;
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and the priest shall take cedarwood and hyssop and scarlet stuff ,
and cast them into the midst of the burning of the heifer .
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Then the priest shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water ,
and afterwards he shall come into the camp ;
and the priest shall be unclean until evening .
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He who burns the heifer shall wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water ,
and shall be unclean until evening .
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And a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer ,
and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place ;
and they shall be kept for the congregation of the people of Israel for the water for impurity ,
for the removal of sin .
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And he who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes ,
and be unclean until evening .
And this shall be to the people of Israel ,
and to the stranger who sojourns among them ,
a perpetual statute .
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He who touches the dead body of any person shall be unclean seven days ;
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he shall cleanse himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day ,
and so be clean ;
but if he does not cleanse himself on the third day and on the seventh day ,
he will not become clean .
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Whoever touches a dead person ,
the body of any man who has died ,
and does not cleanse himself ,
defiles the tabernacle of the LORD ,
and that person shall be cut off from Israel ;
because the water for impurity was not thrown upon him ,
he shall be unclean ;
his uncleanness is still on him .
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This is the law when a man dies in a tent :
every one who comes into the tent ,
and every one who is in the tent ,
shall be unclean seven days .
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And every open vessel ,
which has no cover fastened upon it ,
is unclean .
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Whoever in the open field touches one who is slain with a sword ,
or a dead body ,
or a bone of a man ,
or a grave ,
shall be unclean seven days .
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For the unclean they shall take some ashes of the burnt sin offering ,
and running water shall be added in a vessel ;
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then a clean person shall take hyssop ,
and dip it in the water ,
and sprinkle it upon the tent ,
and upon all the furnishings ,
and upon the persons who were there ,
and upon him who touched the bone ,
or the slain ,
or the dead ,
or the grave ;
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and the clean person shall sprinkle upon the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day ;
thus on the seventh day he shall cleanse him ,
and he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water ,
and at evening he shall be clean .
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But the man who is unclean and does not cleanse himself ,
that person shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly ,
since he has defiled the sanctuary of the LORD ;
because the water for impurity has not been thrown upon him ,
he is unclean .
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And it shall be a perpetual statute for them .
He who sprinkles the water for impurity shall wash his clothes ;
and he who touches the water for impurity shall be unclean until evening .
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And whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean ;
and any one who touches it shall be unclean until evening ."
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And the people of Israel ,
the whole congregation ,
came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month ,
and the people stayed in Kadesh ;
and Miriam died there ,
and was buried there .
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Now there was no water for the congregation ;
and they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron .
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And the people contended with Moses ,
and said , "
Would that we had died when our brethren died before the LORD !
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Why have you brought the assembly of the LORD into this wilderness ,
that we should die here ,
both we and our cattle ?
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And why have you made us come up out of Egypt ,
to bring us to this evil place ?
It is no place for grain ,
or figs ,
or vines ,
or pomegranates ;
and there is no water to drink ."
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Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the tent of meeting ,
and fell on their faces .
And the glory of the LORD appeared to them ,
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and the LORD said to Moses ,
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Take the rod ,
and assemble the congregation ,
you and Aaron your brother ,
and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water ;
so you shall bring water out of the rock for them ;
so you shall give drink to the congregation and their cattle ."
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And Moses took the rod from before the LORD ,
as he commanded him .
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And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock ,
and he said to them , "
Hear now ,
you rebels ;
shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock ?"
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And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his rod twice ;
and water came forth abundantly ,
and the congregation drank ,
and their cattle .
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And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron , "
Because you did not believe in me ,
to sanctify me in the eyes of the people of Israel ,
therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them ."
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These are the waters of Mer '
ibah ,
where the people of Israel contended with the LORD ,
and he showed himself holy among them .
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Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom , "
Thus says your brother Israel :
You know all the adversity that has befallen us :
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how our fathers went down to Egypt ,
and we dwelt in Egypt a long time ;
and the Egyptians dealt harshly with us and our fathers ;
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and when we cried to the LORD ,
he heard our voice ,
and sent an angel and brought us forth out of Egypt ;
and here we are in Kadesh ,
a city on the edge of your territory .
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Now let us pass through your land .
We will not pass through field or vineyard ,
neither will we drink water from a well ;
we will go along the King '
s Highway ,
we will not turn aside to the right hand or to the left ,
until we have passed through your territory ."
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But Edom said to him , "
You shall not pass through ,
lest I come out with the sword against you ."
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And the people of Israel said to him , "
We will go up by the highway ;
and if we drink of your water ,
I and my cattle ,
then I will pay for it ;
let me only pass through on foot ,
nothing more ."
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But he said , "
You shall not pass through ."
And Edom came out against them with many men ,
and with a strong force .
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Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his territory ;
so Israel turned away from him .
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And they journeyed from Kadesh ,
and the people of Israel ,
the whole congregation ,
came to Mount Hor .
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And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron at Mount Hor ,
on the border of the land of Edom ,
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Aaron shall be gathered to his people ;
for he shall not enter the land which I have given to the people of Israel ,
because you rebelled against my command at the waters of Mer '
ibah .
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Take Aaron and Elea '
zar his son ,
and bring them up to Mount Hor ;
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and strip Aaron of his garments ,
and put them upon Elea '
zar his son ;
and Aaron shall be gathered to his people ,
and shall die there ."
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Moses did as the LORD commanded ;
and they went up Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation .
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And Moses stripped Aaron of his garments ,
and put them upon Elea '
zar his son ;
and Aaron died there on the top of the mountain .
Then Moses and Elea '
zar came down from the mountain .
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And when all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead ,
all the house of Israel wept for Aaron thirty days .
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When the Canaanite ,
the king of Arad ,
who dwelt in the Negeb ,
heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim ,
he fought against Israel ,
and took some of them captive .