2  This is the ritual law that Hashem has commanded: Instruct B’nei Yisrael to bring you a red cow without blemish, in which there is no defect and on which no yoke has been laid.

3  You shall give it to Elazar the Kohen. It shall be taken outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence.

4  Elazar the Kohen shall take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the Tent of Meeting.

5  The cow shall be burned in his sight—its hide, flesh, and blood shall be burned, its dung included—

6  and the Kohen shall take cedar wood, hyssop, and crimson stuff, and throw them into the fire consuming the cow.

7  The Kohen shall wash his garments and bathe his body in water; after that the Kohen may reenter the camp, but he shall be unclean until evening.

8  He who performed the burning shall also wash his garments in water, bathe his body in water, and be unclean until evening.

9  A man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the cow and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place, to be kept for water of lustration for the Israelite community. It is for cleansing.

10  He who gathers up the ashes of the cow shall also wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. This shall be a permanent law for the Israelites and for the strangers who reside among you.

12  He shall cleanse himself with it on the third day and on the seventh day, and then be clean; if he fails to cleanse himself on the third and seventh days, he shall not be clean.

13  Whoever touches a corpse, the body of a person who has died, and does not cleanse himself, defiles Hashem‘s Mishkan; that person shall be cut off from Yisrael. Since the water of lustration was not dashed on him, he remains unclean; his uncleanness is still upon him.

14  This is the ritual: When a person dies in a tent, whoever enters the tent and whoever is in the tent shall be unclean seven days;

15  and every open vessel, with no lid fastened down, shall be unclean.

16  And in the open, anyone who touches a person who was killed or who died naturally, or human bone, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.

17  Some of the ashes from the fire of cleansing shall be taken for the unclean person, and fresh water shall be added to them in a vessel.

18  A person who is clean shall take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle on the tent and on all the vessels and people who were there, or on him who touched the bones or the person who was killed or died naturally or the grave.

19  The clean person shall sprinkle it upon the unclean person on the third day and on the seventh day, thus cleansing him by the seventh day. He shall then wash his clothes and bathe in water, and at nightfall he shall be clean.

20  If anyone who has become unclean fails to cleanse himself, that person shall be cut off from the congregation, for he has defiled Hashem‘s sanctuary. The water of lustration was not dashed on him: he is unclean.

21  That shall be for them a law for all time. Further, he who sprinkled the water of lustration shall wash his clothes; and whoever touches the water of lustration shall be unclean until evening.

22  Whatever that unclean person touches shall be unclean; and the person who touches him shall be unclean until evening.

20:1  The Israelites arrived in a body at the wilderness of Zin on the first new moon, and the people stayed at Kadesh. Miriam died there and was buried there.

2  The community was without water, and they joined against Moshe and Aharon.

3  The people quarreled with Moshe, saying, “If only we had perished when our brothers perished at the instance of Hashem!

4  Why have you brought Hashem‘s congregation into this wilderness for us and our beasts to die there?

5  Why did you make us leave Egypt to bring us to this wretched place, a place with no grain or figs or vines or pomegranates? There is not even water to drink!”

6  Moshe and Aharon came away from the congregation to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, and fell on their faces. The Presence of Hashem appeared to them,

7  and Hashem spoke to Moshe, saying,

8  “You and your brother Aharon take the rod and assemble the community, and before their very eyes order the rock to yield its water. Thus you shall produce water for them from the rock and provide drink for the congregation and their beasts.”

9  Moshe took the rod from before Hashem, as He had commanded him.

10  Moshe and Aharon assembled the congregation in front of the rock; and he said to them, “Listen, you rebels, shall we get water for you out of this rock?”

11  And Moshe raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod. Out came copious water, and the community and their beasts drank.

13  Those are the Waters of Meribah—meaning that the Israelites quarrelled with Hashem—through which He affirmed His sanctity.

14  From Kadesh, Moshe sent messengers to the king of Edom: “Thus says your brother Yisrael: You know all the hardships that have befallen us;

15  that our ancestors went down to Egypt, that we dwelt in Egypt a long time, and that the Egyptians dealt harshly with us and our ancestors.

16  We cried to Hashem and He heard our plea, and He sent a messenger who freed us from Egypt. Now we are in Kadesh, the town on the border of your territory.

17  Allow us, then, to cross your country. We will not pass through fields or vineyards, and we will not drink water from wells. We will follow the king’s highway, turning off neither to the right nor to the left until we have crossed your territory.”

18  But Edom answered him, “You shall not pass through us, else we will go out against you with the sword.”

19  “We will keep to the beaten track,” the Israelites said to them, “and if we or our cattle drink your water, we will pay for it. We ask only for passage on foot—it is but a small matter.”

20  But they replied, “You shall not pass through!” And Edom went out against them in heavy force, strongly armed.

21  So Edom would not let Yisrael cross their territory, and Yisrael turned away from them.

22  Setting out from Kadesh, the Israelites arrived in a body at Mount Hor.

23  At Mount Hor, on the boundary of the land of Edom, Hashem said to Moshe and Aharon,

24  “Let Aharon be gathered to his kin: he is not to enter the land that I have assigned to B’nei Yisrael, because you disobeyed my command about the waters of Meribah.

26  Strip Aharon of his vestments and put them on his son Elazar. There Aharon shall be gathered unto the dead.”

27  Moshe did as Hashem had commanded. They ascended Mount Hor in the sight of the whole community.

28  Moshe stripped Aharon of his vestments and put them on his son Elazar, and Aharon died there on the summit of the mountain. When Moshe and Elazar came down from the mountain,

29  the whole community knew that Aharon had breathed his last. All the house of Yisrael bewailed Aharon thirty days.

21:1  When the Canaanite, king of Arad, who dwelt in the Negev, learned that Yisrael was coming by the way of Atharim, he engaged Yisrael in battle and took some of them captive.

2  Then Yisrael made a vow to Hashem and said, “If You deliver this people into our hand, we will proscribe their towns.”

3  Hashem heeded Yisrael‘s plea and delivered up the Canaanites; and they and their cities were proscribed. So that place was named Hormah.

4  They set out from Mount Hor by way of the Sea of Reeds to skirt the land of Edom. But the people grew restive on the journey,

6  Hashem sent seraph serpents against the people. They bit the people and many of the Israelites died.

7  The people came to Moshe and said, “We sinned by speaking against Hashem and against you. Intercede with Hashem to take away the serpents from us!” And Moshe interceded for the people.

8  Then Hashem said to Moshe, “Make a seraph figure and mount it on a standard. And if anyone who is bitten looks at it, he shall recover.”

9  Moshe made a copper serpent and mounted it on a standard; and when anyone was bitten by a serpent, he would look at the copper serpent and recover.

10  The Israelites marched on and encamped at Oboth.

11  They set out from Oboth and encamped at Iye-Avarim, in the wilderness bordering on Moab to the east.

12  From there they set out and encamped at the wadi Zered.

13  From there they set out and encamped beyond the Arnon, that is, in the wilderness that extends from the territory of the Amorites. For the Arnon is the boundary of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.

14  Therefore the Book of the Wars of Hashem speaks of “…Waheb in Suphah, and the wadis: the Arnon

15  with its tributary wadis, stretched along the settled country of Ar, hugging the territory of Moab…”

16  And from there to Beer, which is the well where Hashem said to Moshe, “Assemble the people that I may give them water.”

17  Then Yisrael sang this song: Spring up, O well—sing to it—

18  The well which the chieftains dug, Which the nobles of the people started With maces, with their own staffs. And from Midbar to Mattanah,

19  and from Mattanah to Nahaliel, and from Nahaliel to Bamoth,

20  and from Bamoth to the valley that is in the country of Moab, at the peak of Pisgah, overlooking the wasteland.

21  Yisrael now sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, saying,

22  Let me pass through your country. We will not turn off into fields or vineyards, and we will not drink water from wells. We will follow the king’s highway until we have crossed your territory.”

23  But Sihon would not let Yisrael pass through his territory. Sihon gathered all his people and went out against Yisrael in the wilderness. He came to Jahaz and engaged Yisrael in battle.

24  But Yisrael put them to the sword, and took possession of their land, from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as [Az] of the Ammonites, for Az marked the boundary of the Ammonites.

25  Yisrael took all those towns. And Yisrael settled in all the towns of the Amorites, in Heshbon and all its dependencies.

26  Now Heshbon was the city of Sihon king of the Amorites, who had fought against a former king of Moab and taken all his land from him as far as the Arnon.

27  Therefore the bards would recite: “Come to Heshbon; firmly built And well founded is Sihon’s city.

28  For fire went forth from Heshbon, Flame from Sihon’s city, Consuming Ar of Moab, The lords of Bamoth by the Arnon.

29  Woe to you, O Moab! You are undone, O people of Chemosh! His sons are rendered fugitive And his daughters captive By an Amorite king, Sihon.”

30  Yet we have cast them down utterly, Heshbon along with Dibon; We have wrought desolation at Nophah, Which is hard by Medeba.

31  So Yisrael occupied the land of the Amorites.

32  Then Moshe sent to spy out Jazer, and they captured its dependencies and dispossessed the Amorites who were there.

33  They marched on and went up the road to Bashan, and King Og of Bashan, with all his people, came out to Edrei to engage them in battle.

34  But Hashem said to Moshe, “Do not fear him, for I give him and all his people and his land into your hand. You shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites who dwelt in Heshbon.”

22:1  The Israelites then marched on and encamped in the steppes of Moab, across the Yarden from Yericho.