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Where the tribes put up their tents
2 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 2 ‘The Israelites must put up their tents on each side of the Tent of Meeting. They must not be very near to it but they must be all around it. They must live together in their tribes. Each person must be with his own tribe. Each tribe must have its own flag.[a]
3 The people in Judah's tribe must be on the east side of the Tent. They must have their flag with them, and they must put up their tents in groups. The leader of the tribe of Judah is Nahshon, the son of Amminadab. 4 There will be 74,600 soldiers in his army.
5 The tribe of Issachar will put up their tents on one side of Judah's camp. The leader of the tribe of Issachar is Nethanel, the son of Zuar. 6 There will be 54,400 soldiers in his army.
7 The tribe of Zebulun will be on the other side of Judah's camp. The leader of the tribe of Zebulun is Eliab, the son of Helon. 8 There will be 57,400 soldiers in his army.
9 So there will be 186,400 soldiers in the three groups on Judah's side of the camp. When the people travel, these tribes will march first.
10 The tribe of Reuben must be on the south side of the Tent. They must have their flag with them, and they must put up their tents in groups. The leader of the tribe of Reuben is Elizur, the son of Shedeur. 11 There will be 46,500 soldiers in his army.
12 The tribe of Simeon will put up their tents on one side of Reuben's camp. The leader of the tribe of Simeon is Shelumiel, the son of Zurishaddai. 13 There will be 59,300 soldiers in his army.
14 The tribe of Gad will be on the other side of Reuben's camp. The leader of the tribe of Gad is Eliasaph, the son of Deuel. 15 There will be 45,650 soldiers in his army.
16 So there will be 151,450 soldiers in the three groups on Reuben's side of the camp. When the people travel, they will march second.
17 The Levites must march next. The Levites must carry the Tent of Meeting. They must march between the first two groups of tribes and the last two groups of tribes. Each man must be in his own place. They must march with their flag.
18 The tribe of Ephraim must be on the west side of the Tent. They must have their flag with them and they must live in groups. The leader of the tribe of Ephraim is Elishama, the son of Ammihud. 19 There will be 40,500 soldiers in his army.
20 The tribe of Manasseh will be on one side of Ephraim's camp. The leader of the tribe of Manasseh is Gamaliel, the son of Pedahzur. 21 There will be 32,200 soldiers in his army.
22 The tribe of Benjamin will be on the other side of Ephraim's camp. The leader of the tribe of Benjamin is Abidan, the son of Gideoni. 23 There will be 35,400 soldiers in his army.
24 So there will be 108,100 soldiers in the three groups on Ephraim's side of the camp. When the people travel, they will march third.
25 The tribe of Dan must be on the north side of the Tent. They must have their flag with them and they must live in groups. The leader of the tribe of Dan is Ahiezer, the son of Ammishaddai. 26 There will be 62,700 soldiers in his army.
27 The tribe of Asher will put up their tents on one side of Dan's camp. The leader of the tribe of Asher is Pagiel, the son of Ocran. 28 There will be 41,500 soldiers in his army.
29 The tribe of Naphtali will be on the other side of Dan's camp. The leader of the tribe of Naphtali is Ahira, the son of Enan. 30 There will be 53,400 soldiers in his army.
31 So there will be 157,600 soldiers in the three groups on Dan's side of the camp. They will march last with their flag.’
32 In that way, Moses and his helpers counted all the Israelite men who were able to fight. They counted them in groups, clan by clan. There were 603,550 soldiers. 33 They did not count the Levites among the other Israelites. That was what the Lord had told Moses.
34 The Israelites did everything that the Lord had told Moses. They put up their tents in groups, as the Lord wanted. Each tribe put up its tents under its own flag. When they started to travel, each man walked with his own clan and his own family.
The Levites
3 This is the list of the family of Aaron and Moses. This was at the time when the Lord spoke to Moses on Sinai mountain.
2 The names of the sons of Aaron were Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. Nadab was the firstborn son. 3 Aaron anointed them, and he gave authority to them to work as priests. 4 But Nadab and Abihu fell down and died in front of the Lord. That happened when they offered strange fire to the Lord in the Sinai desert.[b] They had no children. So only Eleazar and Ithamar worked as priests while their father Aaron was alive.
The Levites help the priests
5 Then the Lord said to Moses, 6 ‘Bring the tribe of Levi to Aaron the priest. They must help him. 7 They must serve him and all the Israelites. They must work at the Tent of Meeting and take care of it. 8 They must work on behalf of the Israelites. They must take care of the things that are in the Tent of Meeting. That is how they will serve God. 9 Give the Levites to Aaron and to his descendants. They will be the Israelites who help him. They do not have to do anything else. 10 But you must make a list of Aaron and his descendants. They will be the priests. If any other person comes near to the special Tent, they must die.’
11 The Lord also said to Moses, 12 ‘I will not take the firstborn son of every woman in Israel to belong to me. I will take the Levites instead of them. 13 I killed all the firstborn sons of the Egyptians. But I kept the firstborn sons of every person and animal among the Israelites for myself. They belong to me. I am the Lord!’
The Levite families
14 The Lord said to Moses in the Sinai desert, 15 ‘Put the Levites into clans and families and count them. Make a list of every male who is a month old or older.’ 16 Moses obeyed the Lord. So Moses recorded them as the Lord said.
17 The names of the sons of Levi were Gershon, Kohath and Merari.
18 Gershon had two sons. Their names were Libni and Shimei.
19 Kohath's sons were called Amram, Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel.
20 Merari's sons were called Mahli and Mushi.
Those were the sons and grandsons of Levi. They became the leaders of the clans of Levi's tribe.
Gershon's clan
21 There were two families in Gershon's clan. They were the families of Libni and Shimei. 22 There were 7,500 males who were one month or older in their list. 23 Gershon's clan had to put up their tents on the west side of the special Tent. 24 The leader of the clan of Gershon was Eliasaph the son of Lael.
25 Gershon's clan had to take care of the Tent of Meeting, with the cloth that covered it, and the curtain at its door. 26 There was a yard round the outside of the tabernacle and the altar. Gershon's family took care of the curtains that hung round the yard, with their ropes. They also took care of the curtain at the entrance to the yard. They took care of all those kinds of things.
Kohath's clan
27 There were four families in Kohath's clan. They were the families of Amram, Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel. 28 There were 8,600 males who were one month old or older in this clan. They had to take care of the things inside the special Tent. 29 Kohath's clan had to put up their tents on the south side of the tabernacle. 30 The leader of Kohath's descendants was Elizaphan the son of Uzziel.
31 Kohath's family had to take care of the Covenant Box, the table and the lampstands. They had to take care of the altars and the tools that the priests used in the special Tent. They also took care of the curtain in front of the Most Holy Place in the Tent. They did all the work with those things.
32 Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, was the most important leader of the Levites. He ruled over those people who took care of God's special Tent.
Merari's clan
33 There were two families in Merari's clan. They were the families of Mahli and Mushi. 34 There were 6,200 males in that list. They were one month old or older when Moses counted them. 35 The leader of Merari's clan was Zuriel, the son of Abihail. They had to put up their tents on the north side of the special tabernacle.
36 Merari's family had to take care of all the wood parts of the tabernacle. They took care of the heavy things that stood on the ground to hold the poles. 37 They also took care of the poles that held the cloth round the yard, their ropes and other things that held the Tent in its place.
38 Moses, Aaron and Aaron's sons had to put up their tents in front of the tabernacle, on the east side. They were the only people who could go into the Holy Place in the Tent. Any other person who went near it had to die.
39 So Moses and Aaron obeyed the Lord. They counted the Levites by their clans. There were 22,000 males who were one month old or older.
The firstborn sons belong to the Lord
40 The Lord said to Moses, ‘Record all the firstborn sons of the Israelites. Record every male who is one month old or older. Make a list of their names. 41 The Israelites' firstborn sons belong to me. I am the Lord. But I will accept all the males among the Levites instead. The Israelites' firstborn animals also belong to me. But I will accept the animals of the Levites instead.’
42 So Moses counted all the firstborn males among the Israelites as the Lord had said. 43 He counted 22,273 firstborn males who were one month old or older. He made a list of their names.
44 Then the Lord said to Moses, 45 ‘Do not take the firstborn males among the people to belong to me. Accept the Levites instead. Do not use the firstborn animals of the people. Accept the animals of the Levites instead. The Levites will belong to me. I am the Lord. 46 There are 273 more firstborn males of the people than there are Levites. So the people must pay for the extra firstborn sons. 47 You must accept five shekels for each extra firstborn male. The shekel must have the same weight as the shekel that the Levites use in God's tabernacle. There are 20 gerahs in one shekel. 48 Give that money to Aaron and his sons.’
49 So Moses took the money to buy back the extra 273 firstborn sons. That was because the number of firstborn sons was more than the number of Levites. 50 He took 1,365 shekels from them. The shekels had the same weight as the shekel that the Levites used in God's tabernacle. 51 Moses did what the Lord had told him to do. He gave the money to Aaron and his sons.
Jesus talks about his authority
27 Jesus and his disciples arrived again in Jerusalem. Jesus was walking about in the yard at the temple. The leaders of the priests, the teachers of God's Law and the important Jews came to him. 28 They asked him, ‘What authority do you have to do these things? Who gave you the authority to do them?’
29 Jesus replied, ‘I will ask you one question and you should answer me. If you do that, then I will answer your question. I will tell you what authority I have to do these things. 30 John baptized people. Did God give him authority to do this? Or did men tell him to do it? Now, tell me your answer.’
31 Then the Jewish leaders talked to each other. They said, ‘We could say that God gave John his authority. But, if we say that, Jesus will say to us, “Then you should have believed John.” 32 But we do not want to say that only men gave John his authority.’ The Jewish leaders were afraid of the crowd. All the people thought that John really was a prophet from God.
33 So the Jewish leaders answered Jesus: ‘We do not know who gave John his authority.’
So Jesus said to them, ‘You will not answer my question. So I will not tell you what authority I have to do these things.’
Jesus tells a story about a garden
12 Then Jesus began to speak again to the important Jews. He told them stories. He said, ‘There was a man who made a garden. He planted vines to grow grapes there. He built a wall around the garden. He dug a hole in the ground where he could make the grapes into wine. He also built a tall building to watch over the garden.[a] He found some farmers who would work in the garden for him. Then he went away to another country.[b]
2 At the time for the harvest, the man sent a servant to speak to the farmers.[c] He wanted them to give him some fruit from the garden. 3 But the farmers took hold of the servant and they hit him with sticks. They sent him away with nothing. 4 So the man sent another servant to the farmers. They also hit this servant on the head, and they did other bad things to him. 5 The man then sent another servant, but the farmers killed this servant. He sent many other servants to them. The farmers hit some of these servants with sticks and they killed other servants.
6 The man had only one person that he could still send. This was his own son. The man loved him very much.[d] So, last of all, he sent his son to the farmers. He thought, “The farmers will surely respect my son.”
7 But those farmers said to each other, “This is the son of our master. The garden will belong to him when his father dies. We should kill the son and then the garden will be ours.” 8 So the farmers took the son and they killed him. Then they threw his dead body out of the garden.’[e]
9 Jesus then asked, ‘What will the master of the garden do then? I tell you, he will come and he will kill those farmers. Then he will give the garden to other people to take care of it. 10 I am sure that you have read these words in the Bible:[f]
“The builders refused to use a certain stone. [g]
They thought that it had no value.
But now that stone has become the most important stone at the corner of the building.
11 The Lord God did this.
And we can see that he did something great.” ’
12 The Jewish leaders knew that Jesus had told this story about them. They were the bad farmers in the story. So they wanted to take hold of Jesus. But they were afraid of the crowd. So they left him and they went away.
The Pharisees ask about the money that Caesar demanded
13 Then the leaders sent some Pharisees to Jesus. They also sent some men who were friends of King Herod. They tried to use Jesus' words to cause trouble for him. 14 These men came to Jesus and they said, ‘Teacher, we know that you only say true things. It does not matter to you what other people think. If someone is important, you do not change your answers to make them happy. You really do teach us what God wants us to do. Tell us, should we pay our taxes to the Roman ruler, Caesar? Is it right to give that money to him, or not?’
15 Jesus knew that those men were not honest. So he said, ‘You just ask that question to cause trouble for me. Now, bring me a coin. I want to see it.’ 16 So they brought a coin to him. Jesus asked them, ‘Whose picture is on this coin? Whose name is on it?’
They replied, ‘It is Caesar's picture and Caesar's name.’
17 Jesus then said to them, ‘So you should give to Caesar the things that belong to him. And give to God the things that belong to God.’
They were very surprised at his answer.
The sons of Korah wrote this psalm for the music leader.
God rules the earth!
47 People from every nation,
clap your hands together.
Shout aloud to God,
with the sound of happy songs.
2 The Lord, the Most High God, is wonderful.
He is the great King
who rules over the whole earth.
3 He has won the battle against our enemies,
and those nations are now under our power.
4 He chose a special land to belong to us.
Jacob's descendants are proud of that land.
They are his own people that he loves.
Selah.
5 God has gone up to sit on his throne,
while the people shout aloud.
The Lord has gone up there,
while the trumpets make a loud noise.
6 Sing to praise God! Yes, sing!
Sing to praise our king! Sing!
7 God is the King who rules over the whole earth!
So sing a special song to praise him!
8 God rules over the nations.
God is sitting on his holy throne.
9 The leaders of the nations have met together.
They have joined with the people who serve Abraham's God.[a]
God has authority over all the world's rulers
and their armies.
Everyone should praise him,
for he is great!
24 The trouble that wicked people are afraid of will certainly happen to them.
But righteous people will receive the things that they want.
25 When the storm has finished, wicked people are no longer there.
But righteous people are still standing safely.
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