Cleansing from Skin Diseases

¹Then the LORD said to Moses,

²“This is the law for the one afflicted with a skin diseaseon the day of his cleansing, when he is brought to the priest.

³The priest is to go outside the camp to examine him, and if the skin disease of the afflicted person has healed,

⁴the priest shall order that two live clean birds, cedar wood, scarlet yarn, and hyssop be brought for the one to be cleansed.

⁵Then the priest shall command that one of the birds be slaughtered over fresh waterin a clay pot.

⁶And he is to take the live bird together with the cedar wood, scarlet yarn, and hyssop, and dip them into the blood of the bird that was slaughtered over the fresh water.

⁷Seven times he shall sprinkle the one to be cleansed of the skin disease. Then he shall pronounce him clean and release the live bird into the open field.

⁸The one being cleansed must wash his clothes, shave off all his hair, and bathe with water; then he will be ceremonially clean. Afterward, he may enter the camp, but he must remain outside his tent for seven days.

⁹On the seventh day he must shave off all his hair—his head, his beard, his eyebrows, and the rest of his hair. He must wash his clothes and bathe himself with water, and he will be clean.

¹⁰On the eighth day he is to bring two unblemished male lambs, an unblemished ewe lamb a year old, a grain offering of three-tenths of an ephah of fine flourmixed with olive oil, and one log of olive oil.

¹¹The priest who performs the cleansing shall present the one to be cleansed, together with these offerings, before the LORD at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.

¹²Then the priest is to take one of the male lambs and present it as a guilt offering, along with the log of olive oil; and he must wave them as a wave offering before the LORD.

¹³Then he is to slaughter the lamb in the sanctuary area where the sin offering and burnt offering are slaughtered. Like the sin offering, the guilt offering belongs to the priest; it is most holy.

¹⁴The priest is to take some of the blood from the guilt offering and put it on the right earlobe of the one to be cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot.

¹⁵Then the priest shall take some of the log of olive oil, pour it into his left palm,

¹⁶dip his right forefinger into the oil in his left palm, and sprinkle some of the oil with his finger seven times before the LORD.

¹⁷And the priest is to put some of the oil remaining in his palm on the right earlobe of the one to be cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot, on top of the blood of the guilt offering.

¹⁸The rest of the oil in his palm, the priest is to put on the head of the one to be cleansed, to make atonement for him before the LORD.

¹⁹Then the priest is to sacrifice the sin offering and make atonement for the one to be cleansed from his uncleanness. After that, the priest shall slaughter the burnt offering

²⁰and offer it on the altar, with the grain offering, to make atonement for him, and he will be clean.

²¹If, however, the person is poor and cannot afford these offerings, he is to take one male lamb as a guilt offering to be waved to make atonement for him, along with a tenth of an ephah of fine flourmixed with olive oil for a grain offering, a log of olive oil,

²²and two turtledoves or two young pigeons, whichever he can afford, one to be a sin offering and the other a burnt offering.

²³On the eighth day he is to bring them for his cleansing to the priest at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting before the LORD.

²⁴The priest shall take the lamb for the guilt offering, along with the log of olive oil, and wave them as a wave offering before the LORD.

²⁵And after he slaughters the lamb for the guilt offering, the priest is to take some of the blood of the guilt offering and put it on the right earlobe of the one to be cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot.

²⁶Then the priest is to pour some of the oil into his left palm

²⁷and sprinkle with his right forefinger some of the oil in his left palm seven times before the LORD.

²⁸The priest shall also put some of the oil in his palm on the right earlobe of the one to be cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot—on the same places as the blood of the guilt offering.

²⁹The rest of the oil in his palm, the priest is to put on the head of the one to be cleansed, to make atonement for him before the LORD.

³⁰Then he must sacrifice the turtledoves or young pigeons, whichever he can afford,

³¹one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering,together with the grain offering. In this way the priest will make atonement before the LORD for the one to be cleansed.

³²This is the law for someone who has a skin disease and cannot afford the cost of his cleansing.”

Signs of Home Contamination

³³Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron,

³⁴“When you enter the land of Canaan, which I am giving you as your possession, and I put a contamination of mildewinto a house in that land,

³⁵the owner of the house shall come and tell the priest, ‘Something like mildew has appeared in my house.’

³⁶The priest must order that the house be cleared before he enters it to examine the mildew, so that nothing in the house will become unclean. After this, the priest shall go in to inspect the house.

³⁷He is to examine the house, and if the mildew on the walls consists of green or red depressions that appear to be beneath the surface of the wall,

³⁸the priest shall go outside the doorway of the house and close it up for seven days.

³⁹On the seventh day the priest is to return and inspect the house. If the mildew has spread on the walls,

⁴⁰he must order that the contaminated stones be pulled out and thrown into an unclean place outside the city.

⁴¹And he shall have the inside of the house scraped completely and the plaster that is scraped off dumped into an unclean place outside the city.

⁴²So different stones must be obtained to replace the contaminated ones, as well as additional mortar to replaster the house.

⁴³If the mildew reappears in the house after the stones have been torn out and the house has been scraped and replastered,

⁴⁴the priest must come and inspect it.If the mildew has spread in the house, it is a destructive mildew; the house is unclean.

⁴⁵It must be torn down with its stones, its timbers, and all its plaster, and taken outside the city to an unclean place.

⁴⁶Anyone who enters the house during any of the days that it is closed up will be unclean until evening.

⁴⁷And anyone who sleeps in the house or eats in it must wash his clothes.

Cleansing a Home

⁴⁸If, however, the priest comes and inspects it, and the mildew has not spread after the house has been replastered, he shall pronounce the house clean, because the mildew is gone.

⁴⁹He is to take two birds, cedar wood, scarlet yarn, and hyssop to purify the house;

⁵⁰and he shall slaughter one of the birds over fresh water in a clay pot.

⁵¹Then he shall take the cedar wood, the hyssop, the scarlet yarn, and the live bird, dip them in the blood of the slaughtered bird and the fresh water, and sprinkle the house seven times.

⁵²And he shall cleanse the house with the bird’s blood, the fresh water, the live bird, the cedar wood, the hyssop, and the scarlet yarn.

⁵³Finally, he is to release the live bird into the open fields outside the city. In this way he will make atonement for the house, and it will be clean.

⁵⁴This is the law for any infectious skin disease, for a scaly outbreak,

⁵⁵for mildew in clothing or in a house,

⁵⁶and for a swelling, rash, or spot,

⁵⁷to determine when something is clean or unclean. This is the law regarding skin diseases and mildew.”

Israel’s Rebellion

¹Then the whole congregation lifted up their voices and cried out, and that night the people wept.

²All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this wilderness!

³Why is the LORD bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and children will become plunder. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?”

⁴So they said to one another, “Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt.”

⁵Then Moses and Aaron fell facedown before the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel.

⁶Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes

⁷and said to the whole congregation of Israel, “The land we passed through and explored is an exceedingly good land.

⁸If the LORD delights in us, He will bring us into this land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and He will give it to us.

⁹Only do not rebel against the LORD, and do not be afraid of the people of the land, for they will be like bread for us. Their protection has been removed, and the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them!”

¹⁰But the whole congregation threatened to stone Joshua and Caleb.Then the glory of the LORD appeared to all the Israelites at the Tent of Meeting.

¹¹And the LORD said to Moses, “How long will this people treat Me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in Me, despite all the signs I have performed among them?

¹²I will strike them with a plague and destroy them—and I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they are.”

Moses Intercedes for Israel

¹³But Moses said to the LORD, “The Egyptians will hear of it, for by Your strength You brought this people from among them.

¹⁴And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have already heard that You, O LORD, are in the midst of this people, that You, O LORD, have been seen face to face, that Your cloud stands over them, and that You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

¹⁵If You kill this people as one man, the nations who have heard of Your fame will say,

¹⁶‘Because the LORD was unable to bring this people into the land He swore to give them, He has slaughtered them in the wilderness.’

¹⁷So now I pray, may the power of my Lord be magnified, just as You have declared:

¹⁸‘The LORD is slow to anger and abounding in loving devotion,forgiving iniquity and transgression. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; He will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon their children to the third and fourth generation.’

¹⁹Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people, in keeping with the greatness of Your loving devotion, just as You have forgiven them ever since they left Egypt.”

God’s Forgiveness and Judgment

²⁰“I have pardoned them as you requested,” the LORD replied.

²¹“Yet as surely as I live and as surely as the whole earth is filled with the glory of the LORD,

²²not one of the men who have seen My glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness—yet have tested Me and disobeyed Me these ten times—

²³not one will ever see the land that I swore to give their fathers. None of those who have treated Me with contempt will see it.

²⁴But because My servant Caleb has a different spirit and has followed Me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he has entered, and his descendants will inherit it.

²⁵Now since the Amalekites and Canaanites are living in the valleys, turn back tomorrow and head for the wilderness along the route to the Red Sea.”

²⁶Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron,

²⁷“How long will this wicked congregation grumble against Me? I have heard the complaints that the Israelites are making against Me.

²⁸So tell them: As surely as I live, declares the LORD, I will do to you exactly as I heard you say.

²⁹Your bodies will fall in this wilderness—all who were numbered in the census, everyone twenty years of age or older—because you have grumbled against Me.

³⁰Surely none of you will enter the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.

³¹But I will bring your children, whom you said would become plunder, into the land you have rejected—and they will enjoy it.

³²As for you, however, your bodies will fall in this wilderness.

³³Your children will be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness.

³⁴In keeping with the forty days you spied out the land, you shall bear your guilt forty years—a year for each day—and you will experience My alienation.

³⁵I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will surely do these things to this entire wicked congregation, which has conspired against Me. They will meet their end in the wilderness, and there they will die.”

The Plague on the Ten Spies

³⁶So the men Moses had sent to spy out the land, who had returned and made the whole congregation grumble against him by bringing out a bad report about the land—

³⁷those men who had brought out the bad report about the land—were struck down by a plague before the LORD.

³⁸Of those men who had gone to spy out the land, only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh remained alive.

³⁹And when Moses relayed these words to all the Israelites, the people mourned bitterly.

The Defeat at Hormah

⁴⁰Early the next morning they got up and went up toward the ridge of the hill country. “We have indeed sinned,” they said, “but we will go to the place the LORD has promised.”

⁴¹But Moses said, “Why are you transgressing the commandment of the LORD? This will not succeed!

⁴²Do not go up, lest you be struck down by your enemies, because the LORD is not among you.

⁴³For there the Amalekites and Canaanites will face you, and you will fall by the sword. Because you have turned away from the LORD, He will not be with you.”

⁴⁴But they dared to go up to the ridge of the hill country, though neither Moses nor the ark of the covenant of the LORD moved from the camp.

⁴⁵Then the Amalekites and Canaanites who lived in that part of the hill country came down, attacked them, and routed them all the way to Hormah.

The Dedication of the Firstborn

¹Then the LORD said to Moses,

²“Consecrate to Me every firstborn male.The firstborn from every womb among the Israelites belongs to Me, both of man and beast.”

³So Moses told the people, “Remember this day, the day you came out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; for the LORD brought you out of it by the strength of His hand. And nothing leavened shall be eaten.

⁴Today, in the month of Abib,you are leaving.

⁵And when the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites, and Jebusites—the land He swore to your fathers that He would give you, a land flowing with milk and honey—you shall keep this service in this month.

⁶For seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the LORD.

⁷Unleavened bread shall be eaten during those seven days. Nothing leavened may be found among you, nor shall leaven be found anywhere within your borders.

⁸And on that day you are to explain to your son, ‘This is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.’

⁹It shall be a sign for you on your hand and a reminder on your forehead that the Law of the LORD is to be on your lips. For with a mighty hand the LORD brought you out of Egypt.

¹⁰Therefore you shall keep this statute at the appointed time year after year.

¹¹And after the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites and gives it to you, as He swore to you and your fathers,

¹²you are to present to the LORD the firstborn male of every womb. All the firstborn males of your livestock belong to the LORD.

¹³You must redeem every firstborn donkey with a lamb, and if you do not redeem it, you are to break its neck. And every firstborn of your sons you must redeem.

¹⁴In the future, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you are to tell him, ‘With a mighty hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

¹⁵And when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the LORD killed every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both of man and beast. This is why I sacrifice to the LORD the firstborn male of every womb, but I redeem all the firstborn of my sons.’

¹⁶So it shall serve as a sign on your hand and a symbol on your forehead, for with a mighty hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt.”

The Pillars of Cloud and Fire

¹⁷When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them along the road through the land of the Philistines, though it was shorter. For God said, “If the people face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.”

¹⁸So God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea.And the Israelites left the land of Egypt arrayed for battle.

¹⁹Moses took the bones of Joseph with him because Joseph had made the sons of Israel swear a solemn oath when he said, “God will surely attend to you, and then you must carry my bones with you from this place.”

²⁰They set out from Succoth and camped at Etham on the edge of the wilderness.

²¹And the LORD went before them in a pillar of cloud to guide their way by day, and in a pillar of fire to give them light by night, so that they could travel by day or night.

²²Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place before the people.

Give Praise, O Servants of the LORD

¹Hallelujah!Praise the name of the LORD.Give praise, O servants of the LORD,

²who stand in the house of the LORD,in the courts of the house of our God.

³Hallelujah, for the LORD is good;sing praises to His name, for it is lovely.

⁴For the LORD has chosen Jacob as His own,Israel as His treasured possession.

⁵For I know that the LORD is great;our Lord is above all gods.

⁶The LORD does all that pleases Himin the heavens and on the earth,in the seas and in all their depths.

⁷He causes the clouds to risefrom the ends of the earth.He generates the lightning with the rainand brings forth the wind from His storehouses.

⁸He struck down the firstborn of Egypt,of both man and beast.

⁹He sent signs and wonders into your midst, O Egypt,against Pharaoh and all his servants.

¹⁰He struck down many nationsand slaughtered mighty kings:

¹¹Sihon king of the Amorites,Og king of Bashan,and all the kings of Canaan.

¹²He gave their land as an inheritance,as a heritage to His people Israel.

¹³Your name, O LORD, endures forever,Your renown, O LORD, through all generations.

¹⁴For the LORD will vindicate His peopleand will have compassion on His servants.

¹⁵The idols of the nations are silver and gold,made by the hands of men.

¹⁶They have mouths, but cannot speak;they have eyes, but cannot see;

¹⁷they have ears, but cannot hear;nor is there breath in their mouths.

¹⁸Those who make them become like them,as do all who trust in them.

¹⁹O house of Israel, bless the LORD;O house of Aaron, bless the LORD;

²⁰O house of Levi, bless the LORD;you who fear the LORD, bless the LORD!

²¹Blessed be the LORD from Zion—He who dwells in Jerusalem.Hallelujah!