Study Desk

"‘Suppose a foreigner or visitor among you becomes rich. If someone in your country becomes so poor that he has to sell himself as a slave to the foreigner living among you or to a member of the foreigner's family,

I will send wild animals to attack you, and they will take your children away from you and destroy your cattle. They will make you so few in number the roads will be empty.

You broke my agreement, and I will punish you. I will bring armies against you, and if you go into your cities for safety, I will cause diseases to spread among you so that your enemy will defeat you.

I will make the land empty so that your enemies who come to live in it will be shocked at it.

So those who are left alive will rot away in their enemies' countries because of their sins. They will also rot away because of their ancestors' sins.

But even though this is true, I will not turn away from them when they are in the land of their enemies. I will not hate them so much that I completely destroy them and break my agreement with them, because I am the Lord their God.

For their good I will remember the agreement with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt so I could become their God; the other nations saw these things. I am the Lord .'"

"‘If an animal is the first one born to its parent, it already belongs to the Lord , so people may not give it again. If it is a cow or a sheep, it is the Lord 's.

But the Levites must make their camp around the Holy Tent of the Agreement so that I will not be angry with the Israelites. The Levites will take care of the Holy Tent of the Agreement."

So the Israelites did everything just as the Lord commanded Moses.

So the Israelites obeyed everything the Lord commanded Moses. They camped under their flags and marched out by families and family groups.

But Nadab and Abihu died in the presence of the Lord when they offered the wrong kind of fire before the Lord in the Desert of Sinai. They had no sons. So Eleazar and Ithamar served as priests during the lifetime of their father Aaron.

So Moses obeyed the Lord and counted them all.

So Moses did what the Lord commanded and counted all the firstborn sons of the Israelites.

So Moses collected the money for the people the Levites could not replace.

Do this for the Kohathites so that they may go near the Most Holy Place and not die: Aaron and his sons must go in and show each Kohathite what to do and what to carry.

So Moses, Aaron, and the leaders of Israel counted all the Levites by families and family groups.

Send both men and women outside the camp so that they won't spread the disease there, where I am living among you."

So Israel obeyed the Lord 's command and sent those people outside the camp. They did just as the Lord had told Moses.

But if that person is dead and does not have any close relatives to receive the payment, the one who did wrong owes the Lord and must pay the priest. In addition, the priest must sacrifice a male sheep to remove the wrong so that the person will belong to the Lord .