Numbers 5

The Purity of the Camp

5 The Lord said to Moses, ² “Command the Israelites to send away from the camp anyone who has a defiling skin disease^[a] or a discharge of any kind, or who is ceremonially unclean because of a dead body. ³ Send away male and female alike; send them outside the camp so they will not defile their camp, where I dwell among them. ” ⁴ The Israelites did so; they sent them outside the camp. They did just as the Lord had instructed Moses.

Restitution for Wrongs

⁵ The Lord said to Moses, ⁶ “Say to the Israelites: ‘Any man or woman who wrongs another in any way^[b] and so is unfaithful to the Lord is guilty ⁷ and must confess the sin they have committed. They must make full restitution for the wrong they have done, add a fifth of the value to it and give it all to the person they have wronged. ⁸ But if that person has no close relative to whom restitution can be made for the wrong, the restitution belongs to the Lord and must be given to the priest, along with the ram with which atonement is made for the wrongdoer. ⁹ All the sacred contributions the Israelites bring to a priest will belong to him.¹⁰ Sacred things belong to their owners, but what they give to the priest will belong to the priest. ’”

The Test for an Unfaithful Wife

¹¹ Then the Lord said to Moses, ¹² “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘If a man’s wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him ¹³ so that another man has sexual relations with her, and this is hidden from her husband and her impurity is undetected (since there is no witness against her and she has not been caught in the act), ¹⁴ and if feelings of jealousy come over her husband and he suspects his wife and she is impure—or if he is jealous and suspects her even though she is not impure— ¹⁵ then he is to take his wife to the priest. He must also take an offering of a tenth of an ephah^[c] of barley flour on her behalf. He must not pour olive oil on it or put incense on it, because it is a grain offering for jealousy, a reminder-offering to draw attention to wrongdoing.

¹⁶ “‘The priest shall bring her and have her stand before the Lord. ¹⁷ Then he shall take some holy water in a clay jar and put some dust from the tabernacle floor into the water. ¹⁸ After the priest has had the woman stand before the Lord, he shall loosen her hair and place in her hands the reminder-offering, the grain offering for jealousy, while he himself holds the bitter water that brings a curse. ¹⁹ Then the priest shall put the woman under oath and say to her, “If no other man has had sexual relations with you and you have not gone astray and become impure while married to your husband, may this bitter water that brings a curse not harm you.²⁰ But if you have gone astray while married to your husband and you have made yourself impure by having sexual relations with a man other than your husband”— ²¹ here the priest is to put the woman under this curse —“may the Lord cause you to become a curse^[d] among your people when he makes your womb miscarry and your abdomen swell. ²² May this water that brings a curse enter your body so that your abdomen swells or your womb miscarries.”

“‘Then the woman is to say, “Amen. So be it. ”

²³ “‘The priest is to write these curses on a scroll and then wash them off into the bitter water.²⁴ He shall make the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and this water that brings a curse and causes bitter suffering will enter her. ²⁵ The priest is to take from her hands the grain offering for jealousy, wave it before the Lord and bring it to the altar. ²⁶ The priest is then to take a handful of the grain offering as a memorial^[e] offering and burn it on the altar; after that, he is to have the woman drink the water. ²⁷ If she has made herself impure and been unfaithful to her husband, this will be the result: When she is made to drink the water that brings a curse and causes bitter suffering, it will enter her, her abdomen will swell and her womb will miscarry, and she will become a curse. ²⁸ If, however, the woman has not made herself impure, but is clean, she will be cleared of guilt and will be able to have children.

²⁹ “‘This, then, is the law of jealousy when a woman goes astray and makes herself impure while married to her husband, ³⁰ or when feelings of jealousy come over a man because he suspects his wife. The priest is to have her stand before the Lord and is to apply this entire law to her. ³¹ The husband will be innocent of any wrongdoing, but the woman will bear the consequences of her sin.’”

Psalm 110

¹ The Lord says to my lord:^[a]

“Sit at my right hand 
    until I make your enemies
    a footstool for your feet.”

² The Lord will extend your mighty scepter from Zion, saying,
    “Rule in the midst of your enemies!”
³ Your troops will be willing
    on your day of battle.
Arrayed in holy splendor, 
    your young men will come to you
    like dew from the morning’s womb.^[b]

⁴ The Lord has sworn
    and will not change his mind: 
“You are a priest forever, 
    in the order of Melchizedek. ”

⁵ The Lord is at your right hand^[c]; 
    he will crush kings on the day of his wrath. 
⁶ He will judge the nations, heaping up the dead 
    and crushing the rulers of the whole earth.
⁷ He will drink from a brook along the way,^[d]
    and so he will lift his head high.

Psalm 109

Vengeance Invoked upon Adversaries.

For the choir director. A Psalm of David.

109 O God of my praise,

Do not be silent!
² For they have opened the ^[a]wicked and deceitful mouth against me;
They have spoken ^[b]against me with a lying tongue.
³ They have also surrounded me with words of hatred,
And fought against me without cause.
⁴ In return for my love they act as my accusers;
But I am in prayer.
⁵ Thus they have ^[c] repaid me evil for good
And hatred for my love.

⁶ Appoint a wicked man over him,
And let an ^[d] accuser stand at his right hand.
⁷ When he is judged, let him come forth guilty,
And let his prayer become sin.
⁸ Let his days be few;
Let another take his office.
⁹ Let his children be fatherless
And his wife a widow.
¹⁰ Let his children wander about and beg;
And let them seek sustenance ^[e]far from their ruined homes.
¹¹ Let the creditor ^[f]seize all that he has,
And let strangers plunder the product of his labor.
¹² Let there be none to ^[g] extend lovingkindness to him,
Nor any to be gracious to his fatherless children.
¹³ Let his posterity be ^[h]cut off;
In a following generation let their name be blotted out.

¹⁴ Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered ^[i]before the Lord,
And do not let the sin of his mother be blotted out.
¹⁵ Let them be before the Lord continually,
That He may cut off their memory from the earth;
¹⁶ Because he did not remember to show lovingkindness,
But persecuted the afflicted and needy man,
And the despondent in heart, to put them to death.
¹⁷ He also loved cursing, so it came to him;
And he did not delight in blessing, so it was far from him.
¹⁸ But he clothed himself with cursing as with his garment,
And it entered into ^[j]his body like water
And like oil into his bones.
¹⁹ Let it be to him as a garment with which he covers himself,
And for a belt with which he constantly girds himself.
^20 [k]Let this be the reward of my accusers from the Lord,
And of those who speak evil against my soul.

²¹ But You, O ^[l]God, the Lord, deal kindly with me for Your name’s sake;
Because Your lovingkindness is good, deliver me;
²² For I am afflicted and needy,
And ^[m]my heart is wounded within me.
²³ I am passing like a shadow when it lengthens;
I am shaken off like the locust.
²⁴ My knees ^[n]are weak from fasting,
And my flesh has grown lean, without fatness.
²⁵ I also have become a reproach to them;
When they see me, they wag their head.

²⁶  Help me, O Lord my God;
Save me according to Your lovingkindness.
^27 [o]And let them know that this is Your hand;
You, Lord, have done it.
²⁸  Let them curse, but You bless;
When they arise, they shall be ashamed,
But Your servant shall be glad.
^29 [p]Let my accusers be clothed with dishonor,
And ^[q]let them cover themselves with their own shame as with a robe.

³⁰ With my mouth I will give thanks abundantly to the Lord;
And in the midst of many I will praise Him.
³¹ For He stands at the right hand of the needy,
To save him from those who judge his soul.

numbers 4

Duties of the Kohathites

4 Then the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, ² “Take ^[a]a census of the ^[b]descendants of Kohath from among the sons of Levi, by their families, by their fathers’ households, ³ from thirty years and upward, even to fifty years old, all who enter the service to do the work in the tent of meeting. ⁴ This is the work of the ^[c]descendants of Kohath in the tent of meeting, concerning the most holy things.

⁵ “When the camp sets out, Aaron and his sons shall go in and they shall take down the veil of the screen and cover the ark of the testimony with it; ⁶ and they shall lay a covering of porpoise skin on it, and shall spread over it a cloth of pure ^[d]blue, and shall insert its poles. ⁷ Over the table of the bread of the Presence they shall also spread a cloth of ^[e]blue and put on it the dishes and the pans and the sacrificial bowls and the jars for the drink offering, and the continual bread shall be on it. ⁸ They shall spread over them a cloth of scarlet material, and cover the same with a covering of porpoise skin, and they shall insert its poles. ⁹ Then they shall take a ^[f]blue cloth and cover the lampstand for the light, along with its lamps and its snuffers, and its ^[g]trays and all its oil vessels, by which they serve it; ¹⁰ and they shall put it and all its utensils in a covering of porpoise skin, and shall put it on the carrying bars. ¹¹ Over the golden altar they shall spread a ^[h]blue cloth and cover it with a covering of porpoise skin, and shall insert its poles; ¹² and they shall take all the utensils of service, with which they serve in the sanctuary, and put them in a ^[i]blue cloth and cover them with a covering of porpoise skin, and put them on the carrying bars. ¹³ Then they shall take away the ^[j]ashes from the altar, and spread a purple cloth over it. ¹⁴ They shall also put on it all its utensils by which they serve in connection with it: the firepans, the forks and shovels and the basins, all the utensils of the altar; and they shall spread a cover of porpoise skin over it and insert its poles. ¹⁵ When Aaron and his sons have finished covering the holy objects and all the furnishings of the sanctuary, when the camp is to set out, after that the sons of Kohath shall come to carry them, so that they will not touch the holy objects and die. These are the ^[k]things in the tent of meeting which the sons of Kohath are to carry.
¹⁶ “The responsibility of Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest is the oil for the light and the fragrant incense and the continual grain offering and the anointing oil—the responsibility of all the ^[l]tabernacle and of all that is in it, with the sanctuary and its furnishings.”
¹⁷ Then the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, ¹⁸ “Do not let the tribe of the families of the Kohathites be cut off from among the Levites. ¹⁹ But do this to them that they may live and not die when they approach the most holy objects: Aaron and his sons shall go in and assign each of them to his work and to his load; ²⁰ but they shall not go in to see the holy objects even for a moment, or they will die.”

Duties of the Gershonites

²¹ Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²² “Take ^[m]a census of the sons of Gershon ^[n]also, by their fathers’ households, by their families; ²³ from thirty years and upward to fifty years old, you shall ^[o]number them; all who enter to perform the service to do the work in the tent of meeting. ²⁴ This is the service of the families of the Gershonites, in serving and in carrying: ²⁵ they shall carry the curtains of the tabernacle and the tent of meeting with its covering and the covering of porpoise skin that is on top of it, and the screen for the doorway of the tent of meeting, ²⁶ and the hangings of the court, and the screen for the doorway of the gate of the court which is around the tabernacle and the altar, and their cords and all the equipment for their service; and all that is to be done, ^[p]they shall perform. ²⁷ All the service of the sons of the Gershonites, in all their loads and in all their work, shall be performed at the ^[q]command of Aaron and his sons; and you shall assign to them as a duty all their loads. ²⁸ This is the service of the families of the sons of the Gershonites in the tent of meeting, and their duties shall be ^[r]under the direction of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest.

Duties of the Merarites

²⁹ “As for the sons of Merari, you shall number them by their families, by their fathers’ households; ³⁰ from thirty years and upward even to fifty years old, you shall number them, everyone who enters the service to do the work of the tent of meeting. ³¹ Now this is the duty of their loads, for all their service in the tent of meeting: the boards of the tabernacle and its bars and its pillars and its ^[s]sockets, ³² and the pillars around the court and their ^[t]sockets and their pegs and their cords, with all their equipment and with all their service; and you shall assign each man by name the items ^[u]he is to carry. ³³ This is the service of the families of the sons of Merari, according to all their service in the tent of meeting, ^[v]under the direction of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest.”
³⁴ So Moses and Aaron and the leaders of the congregation numbered the sons of the Kohathites by their families and by their fathers’ households, ³⁵ from thirty years and upward even to fifty years old, everyone who entered the service for work in the tent of meeting. ³⁶ Their numbered men by their families were 2,750. ³⁷ These are the numbered men of the Kohathite families, everyone who was serving in the tent of meeting, whom Moses and Aaron numbered according to the ^[w]commandment of the Lord ^[x]through Moses.
³⁸ The numbered men of the sons of Gershon by their families and by their fathers’ households, ³⁹ from thirty years and upward even to fifty years old, everyone who entered the service for work in the tent of meeting. ⁴⁰ Their numbered men by their families, by their fathers’ households, were 2,630. ⁴¹ These are the numbered men of the families of the sons of Gershon, everyone who was serving in the tent of meeting, whom Moses and Aaron numbered according to the ^[y]commandment of the Lord.
⁴² The numbered men of the families of the sons of Merari by their families, by their fathers’ households, ⁴³ from thirty years and upward even to fifty years old, everyone who entered the service for work in the tent of meeting. ⁴⁴ Their numbered men by their families were 3,200. ⁴⁵ These are the numbered men of the families of the sons of Merari, whom Moses and Aaron numbered according to the ^[z]commandment of the Lord ^[aa]through Moses.
⁴⁶ All the numbered men of the Levites, whom Moses and Aaron and the leaders of Israel numbered, by their families and by their fathers’ households, ⁴⁷ from thirty years and upward even to fifty years old, everyone who could enter to do the work of service and the work of carrying in the tent of meeting. ⁴⁸ Their numbered men were 8,580. ⁴⁹ According to the ^[ab]commandment of the Lord ^[ac]through Moses, they were numbered, everyone by his serving or carrying; thus these were his numbered men, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.