1. יהוה spoke to Moses and to Aaron , saying,
2. This is the statute of the law which יהוה has commanded, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring you a red heifer without spot, in which is no blemish, and on which never came a yoke.
3. You shall give her to Eleazar , the priest, and he shall bring her forth outside of the camp, and one shall kill her before his face:
4. And Eleazar , the priest, shall take of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle her blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times.
5. One shall burn the heifer in his sight; her skin, and her flesh, and her blood, with her dung, shall he burn:
6. And the priest shall take cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet, and cast it into the midst of the burning of the heifer.
7. Then the priest shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp, and the priest shall be unclean until the evening.
8. He who burns her shall wash his clothes in water, and bathe his flesh in water, and shall be unclean until the evening.
9. A man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay them up outside of the camp in a clean place; and it shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for a water for impurity: it is a sin offering.
10. He who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the evening: and it shall be to the children of Israel, and to the stranger who lives as a foreigner among them, for a statute forever.
11. He who touches the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days:
12. The same shall purify himself therewith on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be clean: but if he doesn’t purify himself the third day, then the seventh day he shall not be clean.
13. Whoever touches a dead person, the body of a man who has died, and doesn’t purify himself, defiles the tent of יהוה; and that soul shall be cut off from Israel: because the water for impurity was not sprinkled on him, he shall be unclean; his uncleanness is yet on him.
14. This is the law when a man dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent, and everyone who is in the tent, shall be unclean seven days.
15. Every open vessel, which has no covering bound on it, is unclean.
16. Whoever in the open field touches one who is slain with a sword, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.
17. For the unclean they shall take of the ashes of the burning of the sin offering; and running water shall be put thereto in a vessel:
18. And a clean person shall take hyssop, and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, and on all the vessels, and on the persons who were there, and on him who touched the bone, or the slain, or the dead, or the grave:
19. 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 at evening.
20. But the man who shall be unclean, and shall not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly, because he has defiled the sanctuary of יהוה: the water for impurity has not been sprinkled on him; he is unclean.
21. It shall be a perpetual statute to 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.
22. Whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean; and the soul that touches it shall be unclean until evening.
Chapter 20
1. The children of Israel, even the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month: and the people abode in Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there.
2. There was no water for the congregation: and they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron .
3. The people strove with Moses , and spoke, saying, Would that we had died when our brothers died before יהוה!
4. Why have you brought the assembly of יהוה into this wilderness, that we should die there, we and our animals?
5. Why have you made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in to this evil place? it is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink.
6. Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the tent of meeting, and fell on their faces: and the glory of יהוה appeared to them.
7. יהוה spoke to Moses , saying,
8. Take the rod, and assemble the congregation, you, and Aaron your brother, and speak to the rock before their eyes, that it give forth its water; and you shall bring forth to them water out of the rock; so you shall give the congregation and their cattle drink.
9. Moses took the rod from before יהוה as he commanded him.
10. Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, Hear now, you rebels; shall we bring you forth water out of this rock?
11. Moses lifted up his hand, and struck the rock with his rod twice: and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their cattle.
12. יהוה said to Moses and Aaron , Because you didn’t believe in me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.
13. These are the waters of Meribah; because the children of Israel strove with יהוה, and he was sanctified in them.
14. Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom, Thus says your brother Israel, You know all the travail that has happened to us:
15. How our fathers went down into Egypt, and we lived in Egypt a long time; and the Egyptians dealt ill with us, and our fathers:
16. And when we cried to יהוה, he heard our voice, and sent an angel, and brought us forth out of Egypt: and behold, we are in Kadesh, a city in the uttermost of your border.
17. Please let us pass through your land: we will not pass through field or through vineyard, neither will we drink of the water of the wells: we will go along the king’s highway; we will not turn aside to the right hand nor to the left, until we have passed your border.
18. Edom said to him, You shall not pass through me, lest I come out with the sword against you.
19. The children of Israel said to him, We will go up by the highway; and if we drink of your water, I and my cattle, then will I give the price of it: let me only, without doing anything else, pass through on my feet.
20. He said, You shall not pass through. Edom came out against him with much people, and with a strong hand.
21. Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border: and Israel turned away from him.
22. They traveled from Kadesh: and the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, came to Mount Hor.
23. יהוה spoke to Moses and Aaron in Mount Hor, by the border of the land of Edom, saying,
24. 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.
25. Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up to Mount Hor;
26. And strip Aaron of his garments, and put them on Eleazar his son: and Aaron shall be gathered to his people, and shall die there.
27. Moses did as יהוה commanded: and they went up into Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation.
28. Moses stripped Aaron of his garments, and put them on Eleazar his son; and Aaron died there on the top of the mountain: and Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain.
29. When all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead, they wept for Aaron thirty days, even all the house of Israel.
Chapter 21
1. The Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the South, heard tell that Israel came by the way of Atharim; and he fought against Israel, and took some of them captive.
2. Israel vowed a vow to יהוה, and said, If you will indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities.
3. יהוה listened to the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their cities: and the name of the place was called Hormah.
4. They traveled from Mount Hor by the way to the Red Sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way.
5. 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 bread, and there is no water; and our soul loathes this light bread.
6. יהוה sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died.
7. The people came to Moses , and said, We have sinned, because we have spoken against יהוה, and against you; pray to יהוה, that he take away the serpents from us. Moses prayed for the people.
8. יהוה said to Moses , Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole: and it shall happen, that everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.
9. Moses made a serpent of brass, and set it on the standard: and it happened, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked to the serpent of brass, he lived.
10. The children of Israel traveled, and encamped in Oboth.
11. They traveled from Oboth, and encamped at Iyeabarim, in the wilderness which is before Moab, toward the sunrise.
12. From there they traveled, and encamped in the valley of Zered.
13. From there they traveled, 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.
14. Therefore it is said in the book of the Wars of יהוה, Vaheb in Suphah, The valleys of the Arnon,
15. The slope of the valleys That inclines toward the dwelling of Ar, Leans on the border of Moab.
16. From there they traveled to Beer: that is the well of which יהוה said to Moses , Gather the people together, and I will give them water.
17. Then sang Israel this song: Spring up, Oh well; sing to it:
18. The well, which the princes dug, Which the nobles of the people dug, With the scepter, and with their poles. From the wilderness they traveled to Mattanah;
19. And from Mattanah to Nahaliel; and from Nahaliel to Bamoth;
20. And from Bamoth to the valley that is in the field of Moab, to the top of Pisgah, which looks down on the desert.
21. Israel sent messengers to Sihon, the king of the Amorites, saying,
22. Let me pass through your land: we will not turn aside into field, or into vineyard; we will not drink of the water of the wells: we will go by the king’s highway, until we have passed your border.
23. Sihon would not allow Israel to pass through his border: but Sihon gathered all his people together, and went out against Israel into the wilderness, and came to Jahaz; and he fought against Israel.
24. Israel struck him with the edge of the sword, and possessed his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, even to the children of Ammon; for the border of the children of Ammon was strong.
25. Israel took all these cities: and Israel lived in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all the towns of it.
26. 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, even to the Arnon.
27. Therefore those who speak in proverbs say, Come you to Heshbon; Let the city of Sihon be built and established:
28. For a fire is gone out of Heshbon, A flame from the city of Sihon: It has devoured Ar of Moab, The lords of the high places of the Arnon.
29. Woe to you, Moab! You are undone, people of Chemosh: He has given his sons as fugitives, His daughters into captivity, To Sihon king of the Amorites.
30. We have shot at them; Heshbon is perished even to Dibon, We have laid waste even to Nophah, Which reaches to Medeba.
31. Thus Israel lived in the land of the Amorites.
32. Moses sent to spy out Jazer; and they took the towns of it, and drove out the Amorites who were there.
33. They turned and went up by the way of Bashan: and Og the king of Bashan went out against them, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei.
34. יהוה said to Moses , Don’t fear him: for I have delivered him into your hand, and all his people, and his land; and you shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.
35. So they struck him, and his sons and all his people, until there was none left him remaining: and they possessed his land.
Chapter 22
1. The children of Israel traveled, and encamped in the plains of Moab beyond the Jordan at Jericho.
Haftarah -Judges 11:1-11:33
1. Now Jephthah, the Gileadite, was a mighty man of valor, and he was the son of a prostitute. Gilead became the father of Jephthah.
2. Gilead’s wife bore him sons. When his wife’s sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out, and said to him, “You will not inherit in our father’s house, for you are the son of another woman.”
3. Then Jephthah fled from his brothers, and lived in the land of Tob. And there were gathered vain fellows to Jephthah and they went out with him.
4. It happened after a while, that the children of Ammon made war against Israel.
5. It was so that when the children of Ammon made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah out of the land of Tob.
6. And they said to Jephthah, “Come and be our chief, that we may fight with the children of Ammon.”
7. Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “Didn’t you hate me, and drive me out of my father’s house? And why are you come to me now when you are in distress?”
8. The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “Therefore we are turned again to you now, that you may go with us, and fight with the children of Ammon. And you shall be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”
9. Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “If you bring me home again to fight with the children of Ammon, and יהוה deliver them before me, shall I be your head?”
10. The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “ יהוה shall be witness between us. Surely according to your word, we will do.”
11. Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and chief over them. Jephthah spoke all his words before יהוה in Mizpah.
12. Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon, saying, “What have you to do with me, that you are come to me to fight against my land?”
13. The king of the children of Ammon answered to the messengers of Jephthah, “Because Israel took away my land, when he came up out of Egypt, from the Arnon even to the Jabbok, and to the Jordan. Now therefore restore those lands again peaceably.”
14. Jephthah sent messengers again to the king of the children of Ammon;
15. And he said to him, “Thus says Jephthah: Israel didn’t take away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon,
16. But when they came up from Egypt, and Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea, and came to Kadesh;
17. Then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, ‘Please let me pass through your land;’ but the king of Edom didn’t listen. In the same way, he sent to the king of Moab; but he would not: and Israel abode in Kadesh.
18. Then they went through the wilderness, and went around the land of Edom, and the land of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of Moab, and they encamped on the other side of the Arnon; but they didn’t come within the border of Moab, for the Arnon was the border of Moab.
19. Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon; and Israel said to him, ‘Let us pass, we pray you, through your land to my place.’
20. But Sihon didn’t trust Israel to pass through his border; but Sihon gathered all his people together, and encamped in Jahaz, and fought against Israel.
21. יהוה, the God of Israel, delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they struck them. So Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that country.
22. They possessed all the border of the Amorites, from the Arnon even to the Jabbok, and from the wilderness even to the Jordan.
23. So now יהוה, the God of Israel, has dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and should you possess them?
24. Won’t you possess that which Chemosh, your god, gives you to possess? So whoever יהוה our God has dispossessed from before us, them will we possess.
25. Now are you anything better than Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever strive against Israel, or did he ever fight against them?
26. While Israel lived in Heshbon and its towns, and in Aroer and its towns, and in all the cities that are along by the side of the Arnon, three hundred years; why didn’t you recover them within that time?
27. I therefore have not sinned against you, but you do me wrong to war against me. יהוה, the Judge be judge this day between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon.”
28. However the king of the children of Ammon didn’t listen to the words of Jephthah which he sent him.
29. Then יהוה’s Spirit came on Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead and Manasseh, and passed over Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he passed over to the children of Ammon.
30. Jephthah vowed a vow to יהוה, and said, “If you will indeed deliver the children of Ammon into my hand,
31. Then it shall be, that whatever comes forth from the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, it shall be יהוה’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.”
32. So Jephthah passed over to the children of Ammon to fight against them; and יהוה delivered them into his hand.
33. He struck them from Aroer until you come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and to Abelcheramim, with a very great slaughter. So the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel.
ETZ CHAIM
It is a tree of life for those who cling to it, and those who uphold it are happy. Its ways are pleasant, and all of its paths peaceful.
Return us to you, Lord, so that we shall return, renew our days as of old.