February 12

Numbers 4:34 — 6:27

        34 And Moses and Aaron and the chieftains of the assembly proceeded to register the sons of the Kohathites by their families and by the house of their fathers, 35 from thirty years old upward to fifty years, all who entered into the service group for the service in the tent of meeting. 36 And the ones registered of them by their families came to be two thousand seven hundred and fifty. 37 These are the registered ones of the families of the Kohathites, all those serving in the tent of meeting, whom Moses and Aaron registered at the order of Jehovah by means of Moses.

38 As for the registered ones of the sons of Gershon by their families and by the house of their fathers, 39 from thirty years old upward to fifty years, all who entered into the service group for the service in the tent of meeting, 40 the ones registered of them by their families, by the house of their fathers, came to be two thousand six hundred and thirty. 41 These were the registered ones of the families of the sons of Gershon, all those serving in the tent of meeting, whom Moses and Aaron registered at the order of Jehovah.

42 As for the registered ones of the families of the sons of Merari by their families, by the house of their fathers, 43 from thirty years old upward to fifty years old, all those entering into the service group for the service in the tent of meeting, 44 the ones registered of them by their families came to be three thousand two hundred. 45 These were the registered ones of the families of the sons of Merari, whom Moses and Aaron registered at the order of Jehovah by means of Moses.

46 All the registered ones whom Moses and Aaron and the chieftains of Israel registered as Levites by their families and by the house of their fathers, 47 from thirty years old upward to fifty years old, all those coming to render the laborious service and the service of carrying loads in the tent of meeting, 48 their registered ones came to be eight thousand five hundred and eighty. 49 At the order of Jehovah they were registered by means of Moses, each one according to his service and his load; and they were registered just as Jehovah had commanded Moses.

5 And Jehovah spoke further to Moses, saying: 2 “Command the sons of Israel that they send out of the camp every leprous person and everyone having a running discharge and everyone unclean by a deceased soul. 3 Whether a male or a female YOU should send them out. YOU should send them outside the camp, that they may not contaminate the camps of those in the midst of whom I am tabernacling.” 4 And the sons of Israel proceeded to do so, even to send them outside the camp. Just as Jehovah had spoken to Moses, so the sons of Israel did.

5 And Jehovah continued speaking to Moses, saying: 6 “Speak to the sons of Israel, ‘As for a man or a woman, in case they do any of all the sins of mankind in committing an act of unfaithfulness against Jehovah, that soul has also become guilty. 7 And they must confess their sin that they have done, and he must return the amount of his guilt in its principal, also adding a fifth of it to it, and he must give it to the one against whom he did wrong. 8 But if the latter has no near relative to whom to return the amount of the guilt, the amount of the guilt that is being returned to Jehovah belongs to the priest, except the ram of atonement with which he will make atonement for him.

9 “‘And every contribution of all the holy things of the sons of Israel, which they will present to the priest, should become his. 10 And the holy things of each one will remain his own. Whatever each one may give to the priest, that will become his.’”

11 And Jehovah went on to speak to Moses, saying: 12 “Speak to the sons of Israel, and you must say to them, ‘In case any man’s wife turns aside in that she does commit an act of unfaithfulness against him, 13 and another man actually lies down with her and has an emission of semen, and it has been hidden from the eyes of her husband and has remained undiscovered, and she, on her part, has defiled herself but there is no witness against her, and she herself has not been caught; 14 and the spirit of jealousy has passed upon him, and he has become suspicious of his wife’s faithfulness, and she in fact has defiled herself, or the spirit of jealousy has passed upon him, and he has become suspicious of his wife’s faithfulness, but she in fact has not defiled herself; 15 then the man must bring his wife to the priest and bring her offering along with her, a tenth of an ephah of barley flour. He must not pour oil upon it nor put frankincense upon it, because it is a grain offering of jealousy, a memorial grain offering bringing error to remembrance.

16 “‘And the priest must bring her forward and make her stand before Jehovah. 17 And the priest must take holy water in an earthenware vessel, and the priest will take some of the dust that happens to be on the floor of the tabernacle, and he must put it in the water. 18 And the priest must make the woman stand before Jehovah and loosen the hair of the woman’s head and put upon her palms the memorial grain offering, that is, the grain offering of jealousy, and in the hand of the priest there should be the bitter water that brings a curse.

19 “‘And the priest must make her swear, and he must say to the woman: “If no man has lain down with you and if while under your husband you have not turned aside in any uncleanness, be free of the effect of this bitter water that brings a curse. 20 But you, in case you have turned aside while under your husband and in case you have defiled yourself and some man has put in you his seminal emission, besides your husband,—” 21 The priest must now make the woman swear with an oath involving cursing, and the priest must say to the woman: “May Jehovah set you for a cursing and an oath in the midst of your people by Jehovah’s letting your thigh fall away, and your belly swell. 22 And this water that brings a curse must enter into your intestines to cause your belly to swell and the thigh to fall away.” To this the woman must say: “Amen! Amen!”

23 “‘And the priest must write these cursings in the book and must wipe them out into the bitter water. 24 And he must make the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and the water that brings a curse must enter into her as something bitter. 25 And the priest must take the grain offering of jealousy from the woman’s hand and wave the grain offering to and fro before Jehovah, and he must bring it near the altar. 26 And the priest must grasp some of the grain offering as a remembrancer of it and must make it smoke upon the altar, and afterward he will make the woman drink the water. 27 When he has made her drink the water, it must also occur that if she has defiled herself in that she committed an act of unfaithfulness toward her husband, the water that brings a curse must then enter into her as something bitter, and her belly must swell, and her thigh must fall away, and the woman must become a cursing in among her people. 28 However, if the woman has not defiled herself but she is clean, she must then be free from such punishment; and she must be made pregnant with semen.

29 “‘This is the law about jealousy, where a woman may turn aside while under her husband, and she does defile herself, 30 or in the case of a man where the spirit of jealousy may pass upon him, and he does suspect his wife of unfaithfulness; and he must make the wife stand before Jehovah, and the priest must carry out toward her all this law. 31 And the man must be innocent of error, but that wife will answer for her error.’”


6 And Jehovah spoke further to Moses, saying: 2 “Speak to the sons of Israel and you must say to them, ‘In case a man or a woman takes a special vow to live as a Nazirite to Jehovah, 3 he should keep away from wine and intoxicating liquor. He should not drink the vinegar of wine or the vinegar of intoxicating liquor, nor drink any liquid made from grapes, nor eat grapes either fresh or dried. 4 All the days of his Naziriteship he should not eat anything at all that is made from the wine vine, from the unripe grapes to the skins.

5 “‘All the days of the vow of his Naziriteship no razor should pass over his head; until the days that he should be separated to Jehovah come to the full, he should prove holy by letting the locks of the hair of his head grow. 6 All the days of his keeping separate to Jehovah he may not come toward any dead soul. 7 Not even for his father or his mother or his brother or his sister may he defile himself when they die, because the sign of his Naziriteship to his God is upon his head.

8 “‘All the days of his Naziriteship he is holy to Jehovah. 9 But in case anyone dying should die quite suddenly alongside him so that he has defiled the head of his Naziriteship, he must then shave his head in the day of establishing his purification. On the seventh day he should shave it. 10 And on the eighth day he should bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the priest to the entrance of the tent of meeting. 11 And the priest must handle one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering and make atonement for him, since he has sinned because of the [dead] soul. Then he must sanctify his head on that day. 12 And he must live as a Nazirite to Jehovah for the days of his Naziriteship, and he must bring a young ram in its first year as a guilt offering; and the former days will go uncounted because he defiled his Naziriteship.

13 “‘Now this is the law about the Nazirite: On the day that the days of his Naziriteship come to the full, he will be brought to the entrance of the tent of meeting. 14 And he must present as his offering to Jehovah one sound young ram in its first year as a burnt offering and one sound female lamb in its first year as a sin offering and one sound ram as a communion sacrifice, 15 and a basket of unfermented ring-shaped cakes of fine flour, moistened with oil, and unfermented wafers smeared with oil, and their grain offering and their drink offerings. 16 And the priest must present them before Jehovah and render up his sin offering and his burnt offering. 17 And he will render up the ram as a communion sacrifice to Jehovah along with the basket of unfermented cakes; and the priest must render up its grain offering and its drink offering.

18 “‘And the Nazirite must shave the head of his Naziriteship at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and he must take the hair of the head of his Naziriteship and put it upon the fire that is under the communion sacrifice. 19 And the priest must take a boiled shoulder from the ram and one unfermented ring-shaped cake out of the basket, and one unfermented wafer, and put them upon the palms of the Nazirite after he has had the sign of his Naziriteship shaved off. 20 And the priest must wave them to and fro as a wave offering before Jehovah. It is something holy for the priest, along with the breast of the wave offering and the leg of the contribution. And afterward the Nazirite may drink wine.

21 “‘This is the law about the Nazirite who vows—his offering to Jehovah over his Naziriteship, besides that which he can afford. According to his vow that he may make, so he should do because of the law of his Naziriteship.’”

22 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying: 23 “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, ‘This is the way YOU should bless the sons of Israel, saying to them:

24 “May Jehovah bless you and keep you.

25 May Jehovah make his face shine toward you, and may he favor you.

26 May Jehovah lift up his face toward you and assign peace to you.”’

27 And they must place my name upon the sons of Israel, that I myself may bless them.”