Daily Text and Bible Reading: Wednesday, February 12 [Press play below]

4.1 Jehovah now spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying:
4.2 “A census should be taken of the sons of Kohath from among the sons of Levi, by their families and by their paternal houses,
4.3 all those from 30 to 50 years old who are in the group assigned to work in the tent of meeting.
4.4 “This is the service of the sons of Kohath in the tent of meeting. It is something most holy:
4.5 Aaron and his sons will come in when the camp is departing and take down the screening curtain and cover the ark of the Testimony with it.
4.6 They will put a sealskin covering over it and spread out a solid blue cloth over it and put its carrying poles in place.
4.7 “They will also spread out a blue cloth over the table of showbread, and they will put on it the dishes, the cups, the bowls, and the pitchers of the drink offering; the regular offering of bread should remain on it.
4.8 They will spread out a scarlet cloth over them and cover it with a sealskin covering and put its carrying poles in place.
4.9 Then they will take a blue cloth and cover the lampstand for the light, along with its lamps, its snuffers, its fire holders, and all its containers for oil that are used to maintain it.
4.10 They will wrap it and all its utensils in a sealskin covering and put it on a carrying bar.
4.11 And they will spread out a blue cloth over the golden altar, cover it with a sealskin covering, and put its carrying poles in place.
4.12 They will then take all the utensils of the ministry with which they regularly minister in the holy place and put them in a blue cloth and cover them with a sealskin covering and put them on a carrying bar.
4.13 “They should remove the ashes from the altar and spread out a cloth of purple wool over it.
4.14 They will put on it all its utensils that are used when they minister at the altar: the fire holders, the forks, the shovels, and the bowls, all the utensils of the altar; and they are to spread a sealskin covering over it and put its carrying poles in place.
4.15 “Aaron and his sons must finish covering the holy place and all the equipment of the holy place when the camp is departing. Then the sons of Kohath will come in to carry them, but they must not touch the holy place or they will die. These things are the responsibility of the sons of Kohath in connection with the tent of meeting.
4.16 “Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest is responsible for overseeing the oil of the lighting, the perfumed incense, the regular grain offering, and the anointing oil. He has oversight of the entire tabernacle and all that is in it, including the holy place and its utensils.”
4.17 Jehovah spoke further to Moses and Aaron, saying:
4.18 “Do not let the tribe of the families of the Kohathites be cut off from among the Levites.
4.19 But do this for them that they may remain alive and not die because of approaching the most holy things. Aaron and his sons will go in and assign each of them to his service and what he is to carry.
4.20 They must not come in and see the holy things even for an instant, or they will die.”
4.21 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying:
4.22 “A census should be taken of the sons of Gershon by their paternal houses and their families.
4.23 You are to register all those from 30 to 50 years old who are in the group assigned to serve in the tent of meeting.
4.24 This is what the families of the Gershonites are assigned to care for and to carry:
4.25 They will carry the tent cloths of the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, its covering and the sealskin covering that is on top over it, the screen of the entrance of the tent of meeting,
4.26 the hanging curtains of the courtyard, the screen of the entrance of the courtyard that surrounds the tabernacle and the altar, their tent cords and all their utensils and everything used in its service. This is their assignment.
4.27 All the service and the loads of the Gershonites should be overseen by Aaron and his sons; you will assign all these loads as their responsibility.
4.28 This is the service that the families of the Gershonites are to carry out in the tent of meeting, and their responsibilities are under the direction of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest.
4.29 “As for the sons of Merari, you will register them by family and by their paternal house.
4.30 From 30 to 50 years old you will register them, all who are in the group assigned to the service of the tent of meeting.
4.31 This is what they are responsible for carrying in connection with their service at the tent of meeting: the panel frames of the tabernacle, its bars, its pillars, its socket pedestals;
4.32 the pillars of the surrounding courtyard, their socket pedestals, their tent pins, and their tent cords together with all their equipment and all the service connected with these. You will assign to them by name the equipment they are responsible for carrying.
4.33 This is how the families of the sons of Merari are to serve at the tent of meeting, under the direction of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest.”
4.34 Moses and Aaron and the chieftains of the assembly then registered the sons of the Kohathites by their families and by their paternal house,
4.35 all those from 30 to 50 years old who were in the group assigned to the service of the tent of meeting.
4.36 The total of those registered by their families was 2,750.
4.37 These were registered from the families of the Kohathites, all those who were serving at the tent of meeting. Moses and Aaron registered them at the order of Jehovah through Moses.
4.38 The sons of Gershon were registered by their families and by their paternal house,
4.39 all those from 30 to 50 years old who were in the group assigned to the service at the tent of meeting.
4.40 The total of those registered by their families and by their paternal house was 2,630.
4.41 This was the registration of the families of the sons of Gershon, all those who were serving at the tent of meeting. Moses and Aaron had them registered at the order of Jehovah.
4.42 The sons of Merari were registered by their families and by their paternal house,
4.43 all those from 30 to 50 years old who were in the group assigned to the service at the tent of meeting.
4.44 The total of those registered of them by their families was 3,200.
4.45 This was the registration of the families of the sons of Merari, whom Moses and Aaron registered at the order of Jehovah through Moses.
4.46 Moses and Aaron and the chieftains of Israel registered all these Levites by their families and by their paternal houses;
4.47 they were from 30 to 50 years old, and all were assigned to serve and carry loads in connection with the tent of meeting.
4.48 The total of those registered was 8,580.
4.49 They were registered at the order of Jehovah through Moses, each according to his assigned service and his load; they were registered just as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
5.1 Jehovah spoke further to Moses, saying:
5.2 “Command the Israelites to send out of the camp every leprous person and everyone having a discharge and everyone unclean by a dead person.
5.3 Whether a male or a female, you should send them out. You should send them outside the camp, so that they may not contaminate the camps of those in whose midst I am dwelling.”
5.4 Therefore, the Israelites did so and sent them outside the camp. Just as Jehovah told Moses, so the Israelites did.
5.5 Jehovah continued speaking to Moses, saying:
5.6 “Tell the Israelites, ‘If a man or a woman commits any of the sins of mankind and acts unfaithfully toward Jehovah, that person has become guilty.
5.7 He must confess the sin that he has committed and return the full amount as compensation for his guilt and also add a fifth of its value; he is to give it to the one he wronged.
5.8 But if the victim does not have a close relative to receive the compensation, it should be returned to Jehovah and will belong to the priest, apart from the ram of atonement with which he will make atonement for him.
5.9 “‘Every holy contribution from the Israelites that is presented to the priest should become his.
5.10 The holy things of each person will remain his own. Whatever each one gives to the priest, that will belong to the priest.’”
5.11 Jehovah went on to speak to Moses, saying:
5.12 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘This is what should be done if a man’s wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him
5.13 and another man has sexual relations with her, but it was unknown to her husband and remains undiscovered, so that she has defiled herself but there is no witness against her and she has not been caught:
5.14 Whether the husband becomes jealous and suspicious of his wife’s faithfulness when she has defiled herself, or whether he is jealous and suspicious of his wife’s faithfulness when she has not defiled herself,
5.15 the man must bring his wife to the priest, along with an offering for her, a tenth of an ephah of barley flour. He must not pour oil on it nor put frankincense on it, because it is a grain offering of jealousy, a grain offering bringing guilt to mind.
5.16 “‘The priest will bring her forward and make her stand before Jehovah.
5.17 The priest will take holy water in an earthenware vessel, and the priest will take some of the dust from the floor of the tabernacle and put it in the water.
5.18 And the priest will make the woman stand before Jehovah and unbind the woman’s hair and put in her palms the grain offering for a reminder, that is, the grain offering of jealousy, and the priest will have in his hand the bitter water that brings a curse.
5.19 “‘The priest will then make her swear, saying to the woman: “If no other man had sexual relations with you while you were under your husband’s authority and you have not gone astray and become defiled, may you be free of the effect of this bitter water that brings a curse.
5.20 But if you have gone astray while under your husband’s authority by defiling yourself, and you have had sexual relations with another man besides your husband—”
5.21 The priest will then make the woman swear an oath that includes a curse, and the priest will say to the woman: “May Jehovah make you an object for cursing and for an oath among your people, as Jehovah makes your thigh fall away and causes your abdomen to swell.
5.22 This water that brings a curse will enter into your intestines to cause your abdomen to swell and make your thigh fall away.” To this the woman should say: “Amen! Amen!”
5.23 “‘Then the priest should write these curses in the book and wash them off into the bitter water.
5.24 He will then make the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and the water that brings a curse will enter into her and produce bitterness.
5.25 And the priest should take the grain offering of jealousy from the woman’s hand and wave the grain offering back and forth before Jehovah, and he will bring it near the altar.
5.26 The priest will take a handful of the grain offering as a token offering and make it smoke on the altar, and afterward he will make the woman drink the water.
5.27 When he makes her drink the water, if she has defiled herself and committed an act of unfaithfulness toward her husband, the water that brings a curse will then enter into her and become something bitter, and her abdomen will swell, and her thigh will fall away, and the woman will become an object of cursing among her people.
5.28 However, if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, she will then be free from such punishment, and she will be able to conceive and produce offspring.
5.29 “‘This is the law about jealousy, when a woman may go astray and defile herself while under her husband’s authority,
5.30 or in the case of a man who becomes jealous and suspects his wife of unfaithfulness; he should make his wife stand before Jehovah, and the priest must carry out toward her all this law.
5.31 The man will be free from guilt, but his wife will answer for her guilt.’”
6.1 Jehovah spoke further to Moses and said:
6.2 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘If a man or a woman takes a special vow to live as a Nazirite to Jehovah,
6.3 he should keep away from wine and other alcoholic beverages. He should not drink the vinegar of wine or the vinegar of anything alcoholic. He should not drink any liquid made from grapes, nor eat grapes, whether fresh or dried.
6.4 All the days of his Naziriteship he should not eat anything made from the grapevine, from the unripe grapes to the skins.
6.5 “‘All the days of the vow of his Naziriteship no razor should pass over his head. He is to remain holy by letting the hair of his head grow until the days of his being set apart to Jehovah are completed.
6.6 He should not approach a dead person during all the days he remains separated to Jehovah.
6.7 Even if his father or his mother or his brother or his sister should die, he may not defile himself, because the sign of his Naziriteship to his God is upon his head.
6.8 “‘He is holy to Jehovah all the days of his Naziriteship.
6.9 But if someone should suddenly die alongside him and he defiles the hair symbolizing his separation to God, he must shave his head on the day he establishes his purification. He should shave it on the seventh day.
6.10 And on the eighth day, he should bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the priest at the entrance of the tent of meeting.
6.11 The priest will prepare one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering and make atonement for him for his sin in connection with the dead person. Then he must sanctify his head on that day.
6.12 And he must separate himself again to Jehovah for the days of his Naziriteship, and he will bring a young ram in its first year as a guilt offering. However, the former days will go uncounted because he defiled his Naziriteship.
6.13 “‘Now this is the law about the Nazirite: When he completes the days of his Naziriteship, he will be brought to the entrance of the tent of meeting.
6.14 There he must present his offering to Jehovah: one sound young ram in its first year as a burnt offering, one sound female lamb in its first year as a sin offering, one sound ram as a communion sacrifice,
6.15 a basket of unleavened ring-shaped loaves of fine flour mixed with oil, unleavened wafers smeared with oil, and their grain offering and their drink offerings.
6.16 The priest will present them before Jehovah and will offer up his sin offering and his burnt offering.
6.17 He will offer the ram as a communion sacrifice to Jehovah along with the basket of unleavened loaves, and the priest will present its grain offering and its drink offering.
6.18 “‘The Nazirite must then shave the uncut hair of his head at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and he will take the hair of his head grown during his Naziriteship and put it on the fire that is under the communion sacrifice.
6.19 And the priest must take a boiled shoulder from the ram, one unleavened ring-shaped loaf from the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and put them on the palms of the Nazirite after he has had the sign of his Naziriteship shaved off.
6.20 And the priest must wave them back and forth as a wave offering before Jehovah. It is something holy for the priest, along with the breast of the wave offering and the leg of the contribution. Afterward, the Nazirite may drink wine.
6.21 “‘This is the law about the Nazirite who makes a vow: If he vows and can afford to make an offering to Jehovah that is beyond the requirements of his Naziriteship, he must then carry out his vow out of regard for the law of his Naziriteship.’”
6.22 Then Jehovah said to Moses:
6.23 “Tell Aaron and his sons, ‘This is the way you should bless the people of Israel. Say to them:
6.24 “May Jehovah bless you and safeguard you.
6.25 May Jehovah make his face shine upon you, and may he favor you.
6.26 May Jehovah lift up his face toward you and grant you peace.”’
6.27 And they must place my name upon the people of Israel, that I may bless them.”