Numbers 8; Numbers 9; Numbers 10

1 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

2 Speak to Aaron, and thou shalt say to him: When thou shalt place the seven lamps, let the candlestick be set up on the south side. Give orders therefore that the lamps look over against the north, towards the table of the loaves of proposition, over against that part shall they give light, towards which the candlestick looketh.

3 And Aaron did so, and he put the lamps upon the candlestick, as the Lord had commanded Moses.

4 Now this was the work of the candlestick, it was of beaten gold, both the shaft in the middle, and all that came out of both sides of the branches: according to the pattern which the Lord had shewn to Moses, so he made the candlestick.

5 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

6 Take the Levites out of the midst of the children of Israel, and thou shalt purify them,

7 According to this rite: Let them be sprinkled with the water of purification, and let them shave all the hairs of their flesh. And when they shall have washed their garments, and are cleansed,

8 They shall take an ox of the herd, and for the offering thereof fine flour tempered with oil: and thou shalt take another ox of the herd for a sin offering:

9 And thou shalt bring the Levites before the tabernacle of the covenant, calling together all the multitude of the children of Israel:

10 And when the Levites are before the Lord, the children of Israel shall put their hands upon them:

11 And Aaron shall offer the Levites, as a gift in the sight of the Lord from the children of Israel, that they may serve in his ministry.

12 The Levites also shall put their hands upon the heads of the oxen, of which thou shalt sacrifice one for sin, and the other for a holocaust to the Lord, to pray for them.

13 And thou shalt set the Levites in the sight of Aaron and of his, and shalt consecrate them being offered to the Lord,

14 And shalt separate them from the midst of the children of Israel, to be mine.

15 And afterwards they shall enter into the tabernacle of the covenant, to serve me. And thus shalt thou purify and consecrate them for an oblation of the Lord: for as a gift they were given me by the children of Israel.

16 I have taken them instead of the firstborn that open every womb in Israel,

17 For all the firstborn of the children of Israel, both of men and of beasts, are mine. From the day that I slew every firstborn in the land of Egypt, have I sanctified them to myself:

18 And I have taken the Levites for all the firstborn of the children of Israel:

19 And have delivered them for a gift to Aaron and his sons out of the midst of the people, to serve me for Israel in the tabernacle of the covenant, and to pray for them, lest there should be a plague among the people, if they should presume to approach unto my sanctuary.

20 And Moses and Aaron and all the multitude of the children of Israel did with the Levites all that the Lord had commanded Moses

21 And they were purified, and washed their garments. And Aaron lifted them up in the sight of the Lord, and prayed for them,

22 That being purified they might go into the tabernacle of the covenant to do their services before Aaron and his sons. As the Lord had commanded Moses touching the Levites, so was it done.

23 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

24 This is the law of the Levites: From twenty-five years old and upwards, they shall go in to minister in the tabernacle of the covenant.

25 And when they shall have accomplished the fiftieth year of their age, they shall cease to serve:

26 And they shall be the ministers of their brethren in the tabernacle of the covenant, to keep the things that are committed to their care, but not to do the works. Thus shalt thou order the Levites touching their charge.

1 The Lord spoke to Moses in the desert of Sinai, the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, in the first month, saying:

2 Let the children of Israel make the phase in its due time,

3 The fourteenth day of this month in the evening, according to all the ceremonies and justifications thereof.

4 And Moses commanded the children of Israel that they should make the phase.

5 And they made it in its proper time: the fourteenth day of the month at evening, in mount Sinai. The children of Israel did according to all things that the Lord had commanded Moses.

6 But behold some who were unclean by occasion of the soul of a man, who could not make the phase on that day, coming to Moses and Aaron,

7 Said to them: We are unclean by occasion of the soul of a man. Why are we kept back that we may not offer in its season the offering to the Lord among the children of Israel?

8 And Moses answered them: Stay that I may consult the Lord what he will ordain concerning you.

9 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

10 Say to the children of Israel: The man that shall be unclean by occasion of one that is dead, or shall be in a journey afar off in your nation, let him make the phase to the Lord.

11 In the second month, on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening, they shall eat it with unleavened bread and wild lettuce:

12 They shall not leave any thing thereof until morning, nor break a bone thereof, they shall observe all the ceremonies of the phase.

13 But if any man is clean, and was not on a journey, and did not make the phase, that soul shall be cut off from among his people, because he offered not sacrifice to the Lord in due season: he shall bear his sin.

14 The sojourner also and the stranger if they be among you, shall make the phase to the Lord according to the ceremonies and justifications thereof. The same ordinances shall be with you both for the stranger, and for him that was born in the land.

15 Now on the day that the tabernacle was reared up, a cloud covered it. But from the evening there was over the tabernacle, as it were, the appearance of fire until the morning.

16 So it was always: by day the cloud covered it, and by night as it were the appearance of fire.

17 And when the cloud that covered the tabernacle was taken up, then the children of Israel marched forward: and in the place where the cloud stood still, there they camped.

18 At the commandment of the Lord they marched, and at his commandment they pitched the tabernacle. All the days that the cloud abode over the tabernacle, they remained in the same place:

19 And if it was so that it continued over it a long time, the children of Israel kept the watches of the Lord, and marched not,

20 For as many days soever as the cloud stayed over the tabernacle. At the commandment of the Lord they pitched their tents, and at his commandment they took them down.

21 If the cloud tarried from evening until morning, and immediately at break of day left the tabernacle, they marched forward: and if it departed after a day and a night, they took down their tents.

22 But if it remained over the tabernacle for two days or a month or a longer time, the children of Israel remained in the same place, and marched not: but immediately as soon as it departed, they removed the camp.

23 By the word of the Lord they pitched their tents, and by his word they marched: and kept the watches of the Lord according to his commandment by the hand of Moses.

1 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

2 Make thee two trumpets of beaten silver, wherewith thou mayest call together the multitude when the camp is to be removed.

3 And when thou shalt sound the trumpets, all the multitude shall gather unto thee to the door of the tabernacle of the covenant.

4 If thou sound but once, the princes and the heads of the multitude of Israel shall come to thee.

5 But if the sound of the trumpets be longer, and with interruptions, they that are on the east side, shall first go forward.

6 And at the second sounding and like noise of the trumpet, they who lie on the south side shall take up their tents. And after this manner shall the rest do, when the trumpets shall sound for a march.

7 But when the people is to be gathered together, the sound of the trumpets shall be plain, and they shall not make a broken sound.

8 And the sons of Aaron the priest shall sound the trumpets: and this shall be an ordinance for ever in your generations.

9 If you go forth to war out of your land against the enemies that fight against you, you shall sound aloud with the trumpets, and there shall be a remembrance of you before the Lord your God, that you may be delivered out of the hands of your enemies.

10 If at any time you shall have a banquet, and on your festival days, and on the first days of your months, you shall sound the trumpets over the holocausts, and the sacrifices of peace offerings, that they may be to you for a remembrance of your God. I am the Lord your God.

11 The second year, in the second month, the twentieth day of the month, the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle of the covenant.

12 And the children of Israel marched by their troops from the desert of Sinai, and the cloud rested in the wilderness of Pharan.

13 And the first went forward according to the commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses.

14 The sons of Juda by their troops: whose prince was Nahasson the son of Aminadab.

15 In the tribe of the sons of Issachar, the prince was Nathanael the son of Suar.

16 In the tribe of Zabulon, the prince was Eliab the son of Helon.

17 And the tabernacle was taken down, and the sons of Gerson and Merari set forward, bearing it.

18 And the sons of Ruben also marched, by their troops and ranks, whose prince was Helisur the son of Sedeur.

19 And in the tribe of Simeon, the prince was Salamiel the son of Surisaddai.

20 And in the tribe of Gad, the prince was Eliasaph the son of Duel.

21 Then the Caathites also marched carrying the sanctuary. So long was the tabernacle carried, till they came to the place of setting it up.

22 The sons of Ephraim also moved their camp by their troops, in whose army the prince was Elisama the son of Ammiud.

23 And in the tribe of the sons of Manasses, the prince was Gamaliel the son of Phadassur.

24 And in the tribe of Benjamin, the prince was Abidan the son of Gedeon.

25 The last of all the camp marched the sons of Dan by their troops, in whose army the prince was Ahiezer the son of Ammisaddai.

26 And in the tribe of the sons of Aser, the prince was Phegiel the son of Ochran.

27 And in the tribe of the sons of Nephtali, the prince was Ahira the son of Enan.

28 This was the order of the camps, and marches of the children of Israel by their troops, when they set forward.

29 And Moses said to Hobab the son of Raguel the Madianite, his kinsman: We are going towards the place which the Lord will give us: come with us, that we may do thee good: for the Lord hath promised good things to Israel.

30 But he answered him: I will not go with thee, but I will return to my country, wherein I was born.

31 And he said: Do not leave us: for thou knowest in what places we should encamp in the wilderness, and thou shalt be our guide.

32 And if thou comest with us, we will give thee what is the best of the riches which the Lord shall deliver to us.

33 So they marched from the mount of the Lord three days’ journey, and the ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them, for three days providing a place for the camp.

34 The cloud also of the Lord was over them by day when they marched.

35 And when the ark was lifted up, Moses said: Arise, O Lord, and let thy enemies be scattered, and let them that hate thee, flee from before thy face.

36 And when it was set down, he said: Return, O Lord, to the multitude of the host of Israel.