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Water that makes people clean
19 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 2 ‘This is another rule in the Lord's law that I am telling to you: Tell the Israelites that they must bring to you a young red cow. It must not have anything wrong with it. And nobody must have put a yoke on it. 3 They must take the cow outside the camp. They must kill it and then give it to Eleazar the priest. 4 Eleazar must take some of the blood from the cow. He must splash it seven times in front of the Tent of Meeting. 5 Then they must burn the whole cow while Eleazar is watching. They must burn its body with the skin, meat, blood and everything that is inside its body. 6 The priest must take some wood, some plants and some red wool. He must throw them on the fire. 7 Then he must wash his clothes and he must wash his body with water. After that, he can come into the camp, but he will not be clean until the evening. 8 And the man who burns the animal must also wash his clothes in water. And he must wash his body in water. He will not be clean until the evening.
9 Then a man who is clean must pick up all the ashes of the cow. And he must put them outside the camp in a clean place. Keep them safe there for all the Israelites. You must mix them with water to make special water. It will be water for someone who is not clean to make them holy again. It is water to remove sin. 10 The man who picks up the ashes must also wash his clothes. He will not be clean until evening. This rule is for the Israelites and for all the people who are living with them.
11 Any person who touches a dead body will not be clean for seven days. 12 He must use the water to wash himself on the third day and on the seventh day. Then he will be clean. If he does not wash himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not be clean. 13 A person might touch the body of a dead person. If he does not make himself clean, he has made the Lord's Tent of Meeting unclean. You must make that person separate from the Israelites. Because they did not splash the special water on him, he will not be clean. He will continue to be unclean.
14 This is the rule when a person dies in a tent. Any person who is in the tent will not be clean for seven days. 15 Any pot in the tent that does not have a lid will not be clean.
16 Also, a person might have killed someone with a sword out in the country. Or someone may have died because he was old or ill. Anyone who touches a dead body in the country will become unclean for seven days. Also if they touch a human bone, or a grave, that person will be unclean for seven days.
17 Then for the person who is not clean, you must take some of the ashes of the young red cow. That is the cow to make people clean. You must put these ashes into a pot and you must mix them with water from a river. 18 Then a person who is clean must take hyssop. He must put it into the water. Then he must use it to splash the water on the tent and on everything that is in it. He must also splash the water on all the people who have been there. And he must splash it on the person who touched the bone or the dead body or the grave. 19 And the clean person must splash the water on the unclean person on the third day too. And he must do it on the seventh day. On the seventh day he will make the person clean again. Then the person who had not been clean must wash his clothes. And he must wash himself in water. In the evening, that person will become clean. 20 The person who is not clean might not wash himself and his clothes. If he does not do it, you must make that person separate from the people. That is because he has made the Lord's Holy Place become unclean. Because the priest did not splash special water on him he will not be clean. 21 This rule is for now and for ever. The man who splashes the special water must also wash his clothes. Any person who touches the special water will not be clean until evening. 22 If an unclean person touches anything, that thing also becomes unclean. If anyone touches the unclean person, he also becomes unclean until evening.’
Water comes from a rock
20 In the first month, the Israelites came to the Zin desert. They put up their tents at Kadesh. Miriam died there and the people buried her.
2 The people did not have any water to drink. They complained to Moses and Aaron. 3 They said to Moses, ‘We would rather be dead! When the Lord killed our brothers, he should have killed us too. 4 We are the Lord's people. Have you brought us and our animals here to die? 5 You should not have brought us to this very bad place. When we were in Egypt, we had grain, figs, grapes and pomegranates. There is no food like that here! And there is no water to drink!’
6 Moses and Aaron went away from the people to the door of the Tent of Meeting. They threw themselves down with their faces towards the ground. The glory of the Lord appeared to them. 7 The Lord said to Moses, 8 ‘Get the stick. Take your brother Aaron with you and go to the whole group of the Israelites. Then speak to that rock that you can all see. Water will pour out from it. Then the people and their animals can drink it.’
9 So Moses did what the Lord had told him. He took the stick from its place in the Lord's Tent of Meeting. 10 Then Moses and Aaron brought all the people to meet in front of the rock. Moses said to them, ‘Listen now, you people who refuse to obey God. It seems that we must bring water out of this rock for you!’ 11 Moses lifted up his arm. He hit the rock twice with his stick. Water poured out from the rock. The people and their animals drank the water.
12 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ‘You did not trust me enough to show the Israelites that I am holy. So you will not lead them into the land that I have promised to give to them.’
13 The place where this happened was called ‘Meribah’, because the Israelites quarrelled with the Lord there.[a] But he showed them there that he was their holy God.
The Israelites want to travel through Edom
14 From Kadesh, Moses sent men to the king of Edom with this message: ‘We are Israelites, your relatives. We should be friendly to each other. You know about all the troubles that have happened to us. 15 Our ancestors went to Egypt. We lived there for many years. The people in Egypt were cruel to us. 16 But when we asked the Lord to help us, he heard us. He sent an angel and he brought us out from Egypt.
Now we are here at Kadesh, which is a town at the border of your land. 17 Please let us travel through your land. We will not go through any fields or through any vineyards. We will not even drink water from your wells. We will go along the main road. We will not leave that road on either side until we have gone through all your land.’
18 The king of Edom said, ‘You must not travel through my country. If you do, we will bring our army to attack you.’
19 The Israelites replied, ‘We will stay on the main road. If our animals drink your water, we will pay for it. We only want to travel through your country. We do not want anything else.’
20 The king of Edom said, ‘No, you must not travel through our country.’ He sent many strong soldiers to attack the Israelites. 21 In that way, the Edomites stopped the Israelites from travelling through Edom. So the Israelites turned away from there.
Aaron dies
22 All the Israelites went from Kadesh to Hor mountain. 23 When they were there, at the border of Edom's land, the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron. 24 He said, ‘Aaron will soon die. He will not go in to the land that I am giving to the Israelites. That is because you both refused to obey me at Meribah. 25 Moses, you must take Aaron and his son Eleazar to climb up Hor mountain. 26 Take the priest's clothes from Aaron and put them on Eleazar. Aaron will die there.’
27 Moses did what the Lord told him to do. Moses, Aaron and Eleazar climbed up Hor mountain, while the Israelites watched. 28 Moses took the priest's clothes from Aaron and he put them on Eleazar. Then Aaron died there, at the top of the mountain. Moses and Eleazar walked back down the mountain.[b] 29 The Israelites wept for 30 days because Aaron died.
Luke writes the facts about Jesus
1 Many people have written about the things that have happened in our country. 2 Some people were present when these things started to happen. They saw everything that happened and they told us about it. They are the people who wrote down the Good News for us. 3 I have checked the facts about what really happened. So now, I know about all the things that happened from the beginning. I am writing to make the facts clear to you, my important friend Theophilus. 4 People have already taught you about these things. Now you can be sure that they are true.
What happened before John the Baptist was born
5 There was a man whose name was Zechariah. He lived when Herod was king of Judea.[a] Zechariah was a priest and he belonged to a group of priests from the family of Abijah. He had a wife called Elizabeth. She also was from the family of the priest called Aaron.[b]
6 Zechariah and Elizabeth obeyed God's commands and rules. God saw that they were righteous people. They did not do wrong things. 7 But they had no children. Elizabeth could not give birth and they were both getting old.[c]
8 One day, Zechariah's group of priests was working at the temple. He had a special job to do there. 9 The priests chose one of their group to go into the holy place in the temple. This time they chose Zechariah.[d] His job was to burn incense there.
10 While Zechariah was burning incense in the special room, many men were outside in the yard.[e] They were praying to God.
11 The incense was burning on a special altar, when one of God's angels appeared to Zechariah. The angel was standing at the right hand side of the altar.[f]
12 When Zechariah saw the angel, he was very surprised and very afraid. 13 The angel said to him, ‘Zechariah, do not be afraid. God has heard what you prayed. He will give you what you asked for. Your wife Elizabeth will give birth to a baby boy. You will give him the name “John”. 14-15 He will be very important to the Lord God. So he will make you very happy. Many other people will also be very happy because he has been born. He must never drink anything with alcohol in it. From the time that he is born, the Holy Spirit will live inside him.
16 He will teach many people in Israel.[g] Then they will turn their lives back to the Lord their God and they will obey God again. 17 John will prepare the people for the Lord to come to them. The Holy Spirit will lead John as he led Elijah.[h] John will do powerful things as Elijah did. He will help fathers to love their children. He will teach people who do not obey God. Then they will know what things are right. And they will do them. Then they will be ready when the Lord comes.’
18 Zechariah asked the angel, ‘How can I be sure about this? You know that I am an old man. My wife is also old.’
19 The angel answered, ‘I am called Gabriel. My place is to stand in front of God. I am always ready to work for God. He has sent me to speak to you. He told me that I should tell you this good news. 20 Now listen to me. Because you did not believe my message, you will not be able to speak. You will not speak again until the time that your son is born. My message will really become true at the right time.’
21 While this was happening, the people outside were waiting for Zechariah. They were thinking, ‘Why has Zechariah stayed for such a long time in the special room? Why has he not come out yet?’ 22 When he did come out, he tried to talk to them. But he could not speak. So they knew that God had showed him something special in the room. He was moving his head and his hands about, to tell them what had happened. But still he could not speak.
23 When Zechariah had finished his work in the temple, he returned home. 24 Soon, a baby was growing inside his wife Elizabeth. She stayed in her house for five months. 25 ‘The Lord has now given me a baby,’ she said. ‘He has been kind to me. Because of this, other people cannot say bad things about me now.’
This is for the music leader, and he should use special music.
David wrote this prayer when the Philistines took hold of him in Gath.
Trust in God[a]
56 God, please be kind to me, and help me,
because people are fighting me.
My enemies are attacking me every day.
2 They chase me all the time!
Those proud people want to catch me,
and there are many of them!
3 But when I am afraid,
I will trust in you.
4 By God's help, I will praise his word.
By God's help, I will trust in him.
I will not be afraid.
People can do nothing to hurt me![b]
5 All the time, they bring trouble on me.
They are always thinking of ways to hurt me.
6 They hide and they watch me.
They watch me wherever I go,
and they hope to kill me.
7 God, they want to do wicked things,
so punish them!
Destroy these people,
because you are angry with them.
8 Every time that I am upset,
you know about it.
Put all my tears in your bottle!
Yes, write down every tear in your book.[c]
9 When I call to you for help,
my enemies will turn back.
I am sure of this: God is with me,
to fight for me.
10 By God's help, I will praise his promise.
Yes, by the Lord's help,
I will praise his word.
11 I am not afraid,
because I trust in God.
People can do nothing to hurt me.
12 I have made special promises to you, God,
and I will do what I have promised.
I will offer to you a sacrifice to say ‘thank you’.
13 You have saved my life from death.
You keep me safe so that I do not fall.
As a result, I will serve you, God,
as you give me light to live here on earth.
8 Righteous people escape from trouble.
The trouble happens to wicked people instead.
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