Then Jehovah spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,

This is the statute of the law which Jehovah has commanded, saying, Tell the children of Israel to bring you a  ¹red heifer without defect, in which is no blemish and upon which a yoke has never come.

And you shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and someone shall bring it  ¹outside the camp and slaughter it in his presence.

And Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle its blood toward the front of the Tent of Meeting seven times.

And the heifer shall be burned in his sight; its skin and its flesh and its blood, with its dung, shall be burned.

And the priest shall take  ¹cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet strands, and cast them into the midst of the burning of the heifer.

Then the priest shall wash his clothes and bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp; but the priest shall be unclean until the evening.

And he who burns  ¹the heifer shall wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water, and shall be unclean until the evening.

And a man who is clean shall gather up the  ¹ashes of the heifer and place them outside the camp in a clean place, and it shall be kept for the assembly of the children of Israel as water for  ²impurity; it is a sin offering.

And he who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes and be unclean until the evening. And it shall be a perpetual statute to the children of Israel and to the stranger who sojourns among them.

One who touches the dead body of any human being shall be unclean seven days.

He shall purify himself with it on the  ¹third day and on the  ¹seventh day, and then he shall be clean; but if he does not purify himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he shall not be clean.

Whoever touches a dead person, the body of a human being who has died, and does not purify himself, defiles the tabernacle of Jehovah; and that person shall be cut off from Israel. Because the water for impurity was not sprinkled upon him, he shall be unclean; his uncleanness is still on him.

This is the law when a man dies in a tent: Anyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent shall be unclean seven days.

And every open vessel, which has no covering tied down on it, is unclean.

And whoever in the open field touches one who has been slain with a sword or a dead body or a human bone or a grave shall be unclean seven days.

And for the unclean they shall take of the ashes of the burning of the sin offering, and  ¹running water shall be added to them in a vessel;

And a clean person shall take hyssop, and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent and on all the furnishings and on the persons who were there, or on the one who touched the bone or the one slain or the one who died or the grave.

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

But the man who shall be unclean and does not purify himself, that person shall be cut off from the midst of the congregation, because he has defiled the sanctuary of Jehovah; the water for impurity has not been sprinkled on him; he is unclean.

So it shall be a perpetual statute for them. And he who sprinkles the water for impurity shall wash his clothes, and he who touches the water for impurity shall be unclean until evening.

And whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean; and the person who touches it shall be unclean until evening.

Then the children of Israel, the whole assembly, came to the wilderness of Zin in the first month, and the people stayed at Kadesh; and Miriam  ¹died there and was buried there.

And there was no  ¹water for the assembly, and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron.

And the people contended with Moses and spoke, saying, If only we had expired when our brothers expired before Jehovah!

Why then have you brought the congregation of Jehovah into this wilderness for us and our livestock to die there?

Why then did you bring us up out of Egypt, to bring us to this wretched place? It is not a place of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, and there is not even water to drink.

And Moses and Aaron went from before the congregation to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting and fell upon their faces, and the glory of Jehovah appeared to them.

Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,

Take the rod, and gather the assembly, you and Aaron your brother, and speak to the  ¹rock before their eyes, so that it yields its water. Thus you shall bring forth water for them out of the rock and give the assembly and their livestock something to drink.

And Moses took the rod from before Jehovah, as He had commanded him.

And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said to them, Listen now, you  ¹rebels: Shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?

Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his rod twice; and abundant water came forth, and the assembly and their livestock drank.

And Jehovah said to Moses and Aaron, Because you did not believe in Me, to  ¹sanctify Me in the sight of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.

These are the waters of  ¹Meribah, where the children of Israel contended with Jehovah, and He was sanctified among them.

Now Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of  ¹Edom: Thus says your brother Israel, You know all the hardship that has befallen us;

How our fathers went down to Egypt, and we dwelt in Egypt a long time; and the Egyptians ill-treated us and our fathers;

And when we cried to Jehovah, He heard our voice and sent an Angel and brought us forth out of Egypt; and now we are in Kadesh, a city on the edge of your border.

Please let us pass through your land. We will not pass through field or through vineyard, nor will we drink water from any well; we will go along the King's Highway, not turning aside to the right or to the left, until we pass through your territory.

But Edom said to him, You shall not pass through  ¹my territory, or else I will come out against you with the sword.

Then the children of Israel said to him, We will go up by the highway, and if I and my livestock drink some of your water, then I will pay its price. Allow me only this one thing, to pass through on foot.

However he said, You shall not pass through. And Edom came out against him with a large number of people and with a mighty hand.

So Edom refused to give Israel passage through his territory, and Israel turned away from him.

Now when they journeyed from Kadesh, the children of Israel, the whole assembly, came to Mount Hor.

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

Aaron shall be gathered to his people, for he shall not enter into the land which I have given to the children of Israel, because you rebelled against My word at the waters of Meribah.

Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up Mount Hor;

And strip Aaron of his garments and put them upon Eleazar his son; so Aaron will be gathered to his people, and will die there.

So Moses did just as Jehovah had commanded, and they went up Mount Hor in the sight of the whole assembly.

And when Moses had stripped Aaron of his garments and put them on Eleazar his son, Aaron  ¹died there on the top of the mountain. Then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain.

And when the whole assembly saw that Aaron had expired, all the house of Israel wept for Aaron thirty days.

And when the  ¹Canaanite, the king of  ²Arad, who dwelt in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim, he fought against Israel and took some of them captive.

And Israel made a vow to Jehovah and said, If You will indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities.

And Jehovah listened to the voice of Israel and delivered up the Canaanites, and they utterly destroyed them and their cities. Thus the name of the place was called  ¹Hormah.

Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and  ¹the people became impatient on the way.

And the people spoke against God and against Moses, Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and there is no water; and our soul loathes this  ¹light bread.

Then Jehovah sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.

And the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned, because we have spoken against Jehovah and against you; pray to Jehovah, that He may take away the serpents from us. So Moses prayed for the people.

Then Jehovah said to Moses, Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a  ¹pole; and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.

And Moses made a  ¹bronze serpent and set it on the pole; and if a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.

And the children of Israel journeyed and encamped at Oboth.

And they journeyed from Oboth and encamped at Iye-abarim in the wilderness which faces Moab toward the sunrise.

From there they journeyed and encamped in the valley of Zered.

From there they journeyed and encamped on the other side of the Arnon, which is in the wilderness that comes out of the border of the Amorites; for the Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.

Therefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of Jehovah,
Waheb in Suphah,
And the valleys of the Arnon,

And the slope of the valleys
That inclines toward the seat of Ar
And leans toward the border of Moab.

And from there they journeyed to  ¹Beer; that is the well where Jehovah said to Moses, Gather the people together, and I will give them water.

Then Israel sang this song:
Spring up, O well! Sing to it!

The well, which the  ¹leaders sank,
Which the  ¹nobles of the people dug,
With the scepter, with their staffs.
And from the wilderness they journeyed to Mattanah;

And from Mattanah to Nahaliel, and from Nahaliel to Bamoth;

And from Bamoth to the valley that is in the land of Moab, to the top of Pisgah, which looks down upon the desert.

And Israel sent messengers to Sihon the king of the  ¹Amorites, saying,

Let me pass through your land. We will not turn aside into field or into vineyard; we will not drink water from any well. We will go by the King's Highway until we have passed through your territory.

But Sihon would not allow Israel to pass through his territory. And Sihon gathered all his people together and went out against Israel into the wilderness, and he came to Jahaz and fought against Israel.

And Israel struck him with the edge of the sword and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as the children of Ammon; for the border of the children of Ammon was strong.

And Israel took all these cities, and Israel settled in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon and in all her 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, as far as the Arnon.

Therefore those who speak in proverbs say,
Come to Heshbon; let it be built,
And let the city of Sihon be established.

For fire has gone forth from Heshbon,
A flame from the city of Sihon;
It has consumed Ar of Moab
 ¹And swallowed up the high places of the Arnon.

Woe to you, O Moab!
You have perished, O people of Chemosh;
He has given his sons as fugitives,
And his daughters have gone into captivity,
To an Amorite king, Sihon.

We have shot at them;
Heshbon is ruined as far as Dibon,
And we have laid waste as far as Nophah,
 ¹Fire spreads as far as Medeba.

Thus Israel settled in the land of the Amorites.

And Moses sent some to spy out Jazer. And they captured its villages and dispossessed the Amorites who were there.

And they turned and went up on the way that leads to Bashan; and Og the king of  ¹Bashan went out against them, he and all his people, for battle at Edrei.

And Jehovah said to Moses, Do not fear him, for I have given him and all his people and his land into your hand; and you shall do to him as you did to Sihon the king of the Amorites, who was dwelling at Heshbon.

So they struck him and his sons and all his people until there was no survivor left to him, and they possessed his land.