Study Desk

to tell Aaron and his sons to use the following words in blessing the people of Israel:

"Dedicate the Levites as a special gift to me, and put Aaron and his sons in charge of them.

and I assign the Levites to Aaron and his sons, as a gift from the Israelites, to work in the Tent for the people of Israel and to protect the Israelites from the disaster that would strike them if they came too near the Holy Place."

The people did everything the Lord had commanded Moses concerning the Levites. And so the Levites were qualified to work in the Tent under Aaron and his sons.

"From the age of twenty-five each Levite shall perform his duties in the Tent of my presence,

After that, he may help his fellow Levites in performing their duties in the Tent, but he must not perform any service by himself. This is how you are to regulate the duties of the Levites."

The people broke camp at the command of the Lord , and at his command they set up camp. As long as the cloud stayed over the Tent, they stayed in the same camp.

Moses said to his brother-in-law Hobab son of Jethro the Midianite, "We are about to start out for the place which the Lord said he would give us. He has promised to make Israel prosperous, so come with us, and we will share our prosperity with you."

Moses answered, "Are you concerned about my interests? I wish that the Lord would give his spirit to all his people and make all of them shout like prophets!"

But because my servant Caleb has a different attitude and has remained loyal to me, I will bring him into the land which he explored, and his descendants will possess the land

because they have rejected what the Lord said and have deliberately broken one of his commands. They are responsible for their own death.

Then he said to Korah and his followers, "Tomorrow morning the Lord will show us who belongs to him; he will let the one who belongs to him, that is, the one he has chosen, approach him at the altar.

Each of you will take his fire pan, put incense on it, and then present it at the altar."

This was a warning to the Israelites that no one who was not a descendant of Aaron should come to the altar to burn incense for the Lord . Otherwise he would be destroyed like Korah and his men. All this was done as the Lord had commanded Eleazar through Moses.

Aaron obeyed, took his fire pan and ran into the middle of the assembled people. When he saw that the plague had already begun, he put the incense on the coals and performed the ritual of purification for the people.

"Tell the people of Israel to give you twelve walking sticks, one from the leader of each tribe. Write each man's name on his stick

Moses took all the sticks and showed them to the Israelites. They saw what had happened, and each leader took his own stick back.

When you have presented the best part, you may keep the rest, just as the farmer keeps what is left after he makes his offering.

and they will give it to Eleazar the priest. It is to be taken outside the camp and killed in his presence.

Then Eleazar is to take some of its blood and with his finger sprinkle it seven times in the direction of the Tent.