Water from the Rock

Aaron was to bring his relatives the Levites, the tribe of his father, to be joined to him and serve him. Aaron and his sons were to serve in front of the Tent of the Testimony. The Levites were to do as Aaron told them and take care of the whole Tent, all the work of the Tent of Meeting. But they were not to go near the holy objects of the sanctuary or the altar. If they did, they would die, and so would Aaron and his sons. No one else was to come near Aaron and his sons.

“You are to take care of the sanctuary and the altar,” the Lord said, “so that anger does not come on the Israelites again. Look, I myself have taken your relatives the Levites from among the Israelites. They are a gift to you, dedicated to the Lord, to serve at the Tent of Meeting. You and your sons are to do the work of priests for everything to do with the altar, and for what is behind the veil. You are to serve. I give you the work of the priesthood as a gift. If anyone else comes near, he is to be put to death.”

The wave offerings from the people’s gifts were Aaron’s too, for him and for his sons and daughters with him, as their share forever. So were the best of the oil and the best of the grape harvest and of the grain: the first fruits the people gave to the Lord. So were the first ripe fruits of everything in their land that they brought to the Lord. Anyone in Aaron’s household who was clean could eat them.

Everything devoted in Israel would be Aaron’s, and so would the first one born to every mother, human or animal, that the people offered to the Lord. But the human firstborn had to be bought back, and the firstborn of unclean animals too. Those who were to be bought back were to be paid for once they were a month old. The price was set at five shekels, about an ounce and three quarters, using the sanctuary’s shekel, which weighs twenty gerahs.

But a firstborn calf, lamb or young goat could not be bought back. They were holy. Their blood was to be sprinkled on the altar, and their fat was to be burned as an offering made by fire, with a smell that pleased the Lord. Their meat would be Aaron’s, just as the breast and the right thigh of the wave offering were.

“I have given you and your sons and daughters all the wave offerings of the holy things that the Israelites offer to the Lord,” the Lord said. “They are your share forever. It is a covenant of salt forever in the Lord’s presence, for you and for your offspring with you.”

The Lord said to Aaron, “You won’t inherit anything in their land, or have any share among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the Israelites.”

The Lord gave the Levites all the tithe in Israel to be their inheritance, in return for their work at the Tent of Meeting. From then on, the Israelites were not to come near the Tent of Meeting, so that they wouldn’t carry the guilt of sin and die. The Levites would serve at the Tent of Meeting, and they would carry their guilt. This was a law forever, for all the generations to come. The Levites would have no inheritance among the Israelites, because the Lord had given them the tithe the people offered him as a wave offering. That was their inheritance.

The Lord told Moses to speak to the Levites and tell them, “I have given you the tithe from the Israelites as your inheritance. When you take it from them, you are to give a tenth of it to the Lord as a wave offering. It is a tithe of the tithe. It will count for you as if it were grain from the threshing floor, or the full yield of the winepress. From every tithe you receive, you are to give the Lord’s wave offering to Aaron the priest. Give it from the best part of all you are given, the part that is holy.”

Moses was to tell them, “When you have lifted the best part out of it, it will count for you Levites as the harvest of the threshing floor and of the winepress. You and your households may eat it anywhere, because it is your reward for your work at the Tent of Meeting. Once you have lifted out the best of it, you won’t carry any sin because of it. Don’t treat the Israelites’ holy things as if they were ordinary, or you will die.”

Eleazar the priest was to take some of her blood with his finger and sprinkle it toward the front of the Tent of Meeting seven times. The heifer was then to be burned in front of him: her skin, her meat and her blood, and her dung too. The priest was to take cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet yarn and throw them into the middle of the fire where the heifer was burning.

Afterward the priest was to wash his clothes and bathe in water, and then he could come into the camp, but he would be unclean until evening. The one who burned the heifer was to wash his clothes and bathe in water too, and he would be unclean until evening.

A man who was clean was to gather up the heifer’s ashes and put them in a clean place outside the camp. They were to be kept for the community of Israel, to be used in the water for removing uncleanness. “It is a sin offering,” the Lord said. The man who gathered the ashes was to wash his clothes, and he would be unclean until evening. This was a law forever, for the Israelites and for any foreigner who lived among them.

Anyone who touched a dead body would be unclean for seven days. He was to make himself clean with water on the third day, and then on the seventh day he would be clean. But if he didn’t make himself clean on the third day, he wouldn’t be clean on the seventh. Anyone who touched a dead person and didn’t make himself clean made the Lord’s tabernacle unclean, and he was to be cut off from Israel. The water for removing uncleanness had not been sprinkled on him, so he was unclean. His uncleanness was still on him.

When someone died in a tent, everyone who came into the tent, and everyone who was already in it, would be unclean seven days. Every open jar or pot with no cover fastened over it was unclean. Out in the open country, anyone who touched someone killed with a sword, or a dead body, or a human bone, or a grave, would be unclean seven days.

For anyone who was unclean, some of the ashes from the burning of the sin offering were to be put in a jar, with running water poured over them. A clean person was to dip hyssop in the water and sprinkle it on the tent, on all the jars and pots, on the people who had been there, and on whoever had touched the bone, the one killed, the dead body or the grave. The clean person was to sprinkle the unclean one on the third day and on the seventh. On the seventh day he was to make him clean. Then the one being made clean was to wash his clothes and bathe in water, and in the evening he would be clean.

But anyone who was unclean and didn’t make himself clean was to be cut off from the assembly, because he had made the Lord’s sanctuary unclean. The water for removing uncleanness had not been sprinkled on him. He was unclean. This was a law for them forever. The one who sprinkled the water for removing uncleanness was to wash his clothes, and anyone who touched that water would be unclean until evening. Anything an unclean person touched became unclean, and anyone who touched it would be unclean until evening.

The community had no water, and they came together against Moses and against Aaron.

They quarreled with Moses. “We wish we had died when our brothers died in the Lord’s presence!” they said. “Why did you bring the Lord’s assembly out here into this wilderness, so that we would die here with our animals? Why did you make us come up out of Egypt and bring us into this awful place? Nothing grows here: no grain, no figs, no grapevines, no pomegranates, and there isn’t any water to drink!”

The Lord said to Moses, “Take the staff. You and your brother Aaron are to gather the community together. Speak to the rock while they watch, so that it pours out its water. You will bring them water out of the rock. That is how you will give the community and their livestock a drink.”

Moses took the staff from the Lord’s presence, as the Lord had commanded him.

Moses and Aaron brought the assembly together in front of the rock. “Listen now, you rebels!” Moses said to them. “Are we going to bring water out of this rock for you?”

Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came pouring out, a great deal of it. The community and their livestock drank.

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “You didn’t believe in me, and so you didn’t show the Israelites that I am holy. Because of that, you will not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”

These were the waters of Meribah, a name that means “quarreling”. They had that name because the Israelites quarreled with the Lord, and he was shown to be holy among them.

“Please let us go through your land. We’ll stay out of the fields and the vineyards, and we won’t drink the water from the wells. We’ll go along the king’s highway, without turning to the right or the left, until we are past your border.”

Edom answered, “You won’t pass through my land, or I’ll come out against you with the sword.”

The Israelites said to him, “We’ll go up along the highway. If we drink any of your water, or our animals do, we’ll pay for it. Only let us walk through. We won’t do anything else.”

“You won’t pass through,” Edom said. And Edom came out against Israel with many people and great strength. So Edom refused to let Israel pass through his land, and Israel turned away from him.

“Aaron is going to join his ancestors,” he said. “He will not enter the land which I have given to the Israelites, because you rebelled against my word at the waters of Meribah. Bring Aaron and Eleazar his son up onto Mount Hor. Take Aaron’s garments off him and put them on Eleazar his son. Aaron will join his ancestors; he will die there.”

Moses did as the Lord commanded. They went up onto Mount Hor with the whole community watching. Moses took off Aaron’s garments and dressed Aaron’s son Eleazar in them. There on the mountaintop Aaron died, and Moses and Eleazar came down the mountain.

When the whole community saw that Aaron was dead, all the people of Israel wept for Aaron for thirty days.