Old Testament · 36 chapters

Numbers

• No. 4 Numbers 31:1-16

  The book of Numbers covers Israel's forty years in the wilderness between Egypt and the promised land. By this chapter they are camped on the plains of Moab, across the Jordan from Jericho, near the end of the...

• No. 10 Numbers 4:29-33

  The book of Numbers opens with Israel camped at Sinai, getting organized for the long march to the promised land. God has them count the people and give every group its place and its task. The tribe of Levi is...

• No. 23 Numbers 1:11-15

  The English name of this book, Numbers, comes from the two great head counts that frame it. At Sinai, God tells Moses to count Israel tribe by tribe, both to organize the people for the march to the promised...

• No. 65 Numbers 16:8-14

  Israel is in the wilderness, and Korah, a Levite, has gathered two hundred and fifty leading men to challenge Moses and Aaron. Their complaint sounds democratic: the whole congregation is holy, so why do you...

• No. 88 Numbers 4:24-28

  Numbers assigns each Levite family its share of carrying the tabernacle whenever Israel breaks camp. An earlier reading in this series gave Merari the frame, the boards and bars and sockets. This passage gives...

• No. 104 Numbers 26:17-32

  This is the second census in Numbers, taken on the plains of Moab forty years after the first. The whole generation counted at Sinai has died in the wilderness, and this count is of their children, taken to...

• No. 117 Numbers 19:14-22

  Numbers 19 sets out the ritual of the red heifer, one of the strangest procedures in the law. A red cow without blemish is burned entirely outside the camp, with cedar, hyssop, and scarlet thrown into the...

• No. 126 Numbers 15:6-12

  Numbers 15 gives the grain and drink offerings that accompany animal sacrifices, and this passage is essentially a conversion table. For a lamb, one measure of flour, oil, and wine. For a ram, more. For a...

• No. 186 Numbers 7:68-73

  Numbers 7 is the longest chapter in the Torah, and it is the most repetitive passage in the Bible. At the dedication of the tabernacle, the leader of each tribe brings an offering. The offerings are identical:...

• No. 188 Numbers 11:16-20

  Moses has just told God he cannot carry this people alone, that the burden is too heavy, and that if this is how it is going to be, kill me now. This passage is the answer to that, and to a second complaint...

• No. 235 Numbers 32:31-42

  Israel is camped on the east bank of the Jordan, about to cross into the promised land. Two and a half tribes, Gad and Reuben and half of Manasseh, have large herds, and they have asked Moses to let them...

• No. 255 Numbers 7:80-89

  Numbers 7 is one of the most repetitive chapters in the whole Bible. Twelve tribal leaders come, one per day, to dedicate the new altar, and each brings an identical offering: the same silver platter, the same...

• No. 273 Numbers 3:11-15

  This is a short legal instruction resting on a very large memory. God tells Moses that the tribe of Levi now belongs to him in place of the firstborn sons of all Israel, and to feel the weight of it you have...

• No. 275 Numbers 7:6-10

  This is a small logistics note about moving the tabernacle through the wilderness, and it hides a lesson inside an unequal handout. Moses distributes the transport wagons and oxen among the Levite clans...

• No. 283 Numbers 16:1-7

  This is the start of the most serious rebellion against Moses in the wilderness. Korah, a Levite, together with Dathan and Abiram and two hundred and fifty respected leaders of the community, rises up against...

• No. 306 Numbers 21:23-30

  Israel, on its way toward the promised land, asks King Sihon of the Amorites for safe passage through his territory. He refuses, gathers his army, and attacks, and Israel defeats him and takes his land,...

• No. 320 Numbers 35:22-28

  This is part of the law of the cities of refuge, and it deals with the person who kills someone by accident. Not the murderer who lay in wait, but the one who shoved another in a sudden quarrel, or whose tool...

• No. 334 Numbers 29:17-22

  This is a page from the offering schedule for the Feast of Booths, and it is about as dry as Scripture gets: on the second day, twelve bulls, two rams, fourteen lambs; on the third day, eleven bulls, and so...

• No. 338 Numbers 11:28-35

  This passage sits in the middle of a hard stretch in the wilderness, when the people's complaining had worn Moses down to the point of despair. God's remedy was to take some of the Spirit that was on Moses and...

• No. 376 Numbers 8:20-26

  This passage is about the working life of the Levites, the men who did the physical labor of Israel's worship, and it contains a small, humane detail about growing older that is easy to miss. The Levites...

• No. 380 Numbers 24:20-25

  This is Balaam's final set of oracles, and after blessing Israel he turns and surveys the surrounding nations one by one, pronouncing their futures. What is striking is how uniform the futures are. He looks at...

• No. 381 Numbers 28:16-25

  This passage lays out the offerings for Passover and the week of Unleavened Bread that follows it, and to a modern reader it is a dense schedule of bulls and rams and lambs and measures of flour. But the...

• No. 394 Numbers 5:23-31

  This is a genuinely strange and troubling passage, and it does not become less so by explaining it, so let me be honest first. It describes an ordeal for a wife whose husband suspects her of adultery but has...

• No. 494 Numbers 3:16-20

  On the surface this is one of the passages people skip: a list of names. Moses counts the Levites at God's command, and we get the sons of Levi, Gershon, Kohath, and Merari, and then their sons in turn, Libni...

• No. 615 Numbers 28:1-8

  This is instruction about the daily sacrifice, and the word that governs it is continual. God commands that two lambs be offered every single day, one in the morning and one at evening, with flour and oil and...

• No. 626 Numbers 17:6-13

  After a bitter dispute over who truly held God's calling to the priesthood, God chooses a strange way to settle it. Each tribe brings a rod, a staff, a dead piece of wood, twelve in all, with Aaron's among...

• No. 641 Numbers 23:1-5

  Balak, the king of Moab, is terrified of Israel, so he hires Balaam, a famous diviner, to curse them. They build seven altars, offer bulls and rams, and Balaam goes off to seek a word to hurl against God's...

• No. 657 Numbers 22:12-17

  Israel is camped in the plains of Moab at the end of the wilderness years, and the sight of them terrifies Balak, the king of Moab. He cannot beat them in the field, so he sends for Balaam, a seer with a name...

• No. 679 Numbers 26:1-16

  By this point in Numbers the wilderness years are nearly over, and the generation that left Egypt has almost all died under the sentence for their unbelief. So, after the plague at Peor, God orders a second...

• No. 682 Numbers 1:40-54

  Numbers takes its name from the two censuses that frame it, and this is the first, taken at Sinai before the march. It is a muster roll for war: every man twenty and older, tribe by tribe, who can bear arms....

• No. 684 Numbers 31:17-24

  This is the aftermath of the war against Midian, the campaign ordered because Midianite women had drawn Israel into the worship at Peor and a plague that killed twenty-four thousand. The soldiers have come...

• No. 753 Numbers 10:14-20

  When Israel finally leaves Sinai after nearly a year, Numbers does not describe a crowd streaming out in every direction. It describes a formation. The trumpets sound, and the tribes move in a fixed order,...

• No. 835 Numbers 1:6-10

  When God orders a census of Israel in the wilderness, he does not simply hand Moses a clipboard and tell him to count a nation by himself. He names helpers, one from each tribe: Shelumiel for Simeon, Nahshon...

• No. 852 Numbers 27:18-23

  Moses knows he will not enter the promised land; that door is closed to him. So rather than let his death leave the people leaderless, he asks God who should take his place, and God names Joshua, a man in whom...

• No. 864 Numbers 25:6-13

  This is one of the hardest scenes in the Bible, and it does not get easier by looking away from it. Israel is in the middle of a plague, twenty-four thousand already dead, sent because the people had been...

• No. 933 Numbers 3:33-37

  This is part of the census and assignment of the Levite clans around the tabernacle. The sons of Merari are counted and given their job. While other Levite clans carried the sacred furniture, the Merarites...

• No. 1040 Numbers 22:1-6

  Israel is camped on the plains of Moab, and Balak, the king of Moab, is terrified. He has watched Israel defeat the Amorites, and now this vast people is spread out at his border like an ox about to lick up...

• No. 1053 Numbers 23:11-15

  Balak brought Balaam to curse Israel, and instead Balaam has blessed them. Balak is furious: what have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, and you have done nothing but bless them. Balaam...

• No. 1054 Numbers 2:7-11

  This passage is part of God's arrangement of the tribes around the tabernacle in the wilderness. Each tribe has its assigned place, its leader named, its numbers counted, and its position relative to the tent...

• No. 1137 Numbers 14:6-10

  The spies have returned from Canaan, and ten of them have terrified the people with reports of giants and fortified cities. The whole congregation is in revolt, ready to choose a new leader and go back to...

• No. 1148 Numbers 26:57-65

  This is the second census, taken on the plains of Moab as the new generation prepares to enter Canaan, forty years after the first count at Sinai. Buried in the Levite genealogy is a note about Jochebed,...

• No. 1154 Numbers 31:25-30

  After a battle, God gives Moses instructions for dividing the plunder. It is to be split evenly between the soldiers who fought and the whole congregation who did not. But before anyone keeps their share, a...

• No. 1209 Numbers 4:17-23

  God gives careful instructions about how the Kohathites, the Levite clan responsible for carrying the most holy objects of the tabernacle, are to do their work. He warns Moses and Aaron to protect them: do not...

• No. 1236 Numbers 25:1-5

  Israel is camped at Shittim, on the very threshold of the promised land, and there they fall. The men begin to have sexual relations with the women of Moab, who then invite them to the sacrifices of their...

• No. 1252 Numbers 7:21-25

  This chapter records the offerings the twelve tribal leaders brought at the dedication of the tabernacle, and it does something curious: it lists each leader's gift separately, day by day, even though every...

• No. 1272 Numbers 29:35-40

  The instructions for the great autumn feast end with the eighth day, a solemn assembly of rest with its own offerings. And after listing all the required feast offerings, God adds a phrase: all these you shall...

• No. 1286 Numbers 14:11-19

  After the people refuse to enter the promised land, God is ready to strike them with plague, disinherit them, and make of Moses a greater nation. But Moses intercedes, and the shape of his prayer is...

• No. 1362 Numbers 36:1-13

  The heads of the tribe of Manasseh bring a concern to Moses. God had granted the daughters of Zelophehad, who had no brothers, the right to inherit their father's land, but now a difficulty arises: if these...

• No. 1371 Numbers 29:23-28

  This passage is part of the long schedule of offerings for the Feast of Tabernacles, listing the sacrifices appointed for the fourth and fifth days: so many bulls, rams, and lambs, each with its grain and...

• No. 1372 Numbers 24:1-9

  Balaam has been hired by Balak, king of Moab, to curse Israel, but three times now the curse has turned to blessing in his mouth. This third time, seeing that it pleases the LORD to bless Israel, he does not...

• No. 1378 Numbers 24:10-14

  Balak's patience has run out. He had hired Balaam to curse Israel, and three times Balaam has blessed them instead. Now the king's anger burns; he strikes his hands together and rounds on the prophet: I called...

• No. 1418 Numbers 31:31-46

  This passage is an accounting. After the war against Midian, Moses and Eleazar tally and divide the plunder: hundreds of thousands of sheep, tens of thousands of cattle and donkeys, and thousands of captive...

• No. 1432 Numbers 2:27-34

  This passage completes the arrangement of Israel's camp in the wilderness. Each tribe has its assigned place and its order of march, positioned around the tabernacle at the center: Asher and Naphtali with the...

• No. 1451 Numbers 22:36-41

  Balak, king of Moab, goes out to meet Balaam, whom he has hired to curse Israel, and greets him with a reproach: did I not send urgently to summon you? Why did you not come to me? Am I not able to promote you...

• No. 1460 Numbers 32:14-19

  The tribes of Reuben and Gad, who own much livestock, ask to settle in the good grazing land east of the Jordan rather than crossing into the promised land with the rest of Israel. Moses fears they mean to...

• No. 1471 Numbers 8:12-19

  This passage sets apart the Levites for the service of the tabernacle. Atonement is made for them with sin and burnt offerings, and they are presented before God as a kind of wave offering, given over to him....

• No. 1482 Numbers 13:1-5

  The LORD tells Moses to send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which, he says, I am giving to the children of Israel. One leader is chosen from each tribe, all of them heads of the people, and Moses sends...

• No. 1532 Numbers 18:25-32

  The Levites received no land of their own; instead they were supported by the tithes the people brought. But God gives them a further instruction: from the tithe they receive, they themselves are to give a...

• No. 1533 Numbers 7:44-49

  This passage is part of a long chapter recording the offerings brought by the leaders of the twelve tribes at the dedication of the tabernacle. Each leader brought an offering, and remarkably, every one of...

• No. 1584 Numbers 16:36-40

  After Korah and his followers were destroyed for presuming to offer incense before the LORD, a task reserved for the appointed priests, God gives a command about their censers. The bronze censers, though used...

• No. 1589 Numbers 1:28-33

  This passage is part of the great census taken at Sinai, in which each tribe of Israel was numbered. Tribe by tribe the count proceeds, Issachar, Zebulun, Ephraim, and the rest, each recorded by families and...

• No. 1595 Numbers 34:6-12

  God defines for Israel the exact borders of the land they are to inherit: the great sea on the west, a line running by Mount Hor and Hamath on the north, a boundary down to the Sea of Chinnereth and along the...

• No. 1612 Numbers 30:6-16

  This passage deals with vows, the solemn promises by which a person bound themselves before God. It gives detailed rules about when a woman's vow stands and when it may be annulled by her father or husband,...

• No. 1626 Numbers 7:26-31

  In the long record of the tribal leaders' offerings at the dedication of the tabernacle, this passage records the offerings of the third and fourth days: the leader of one tribe on his day, then the leader of...

• No. 1646 Numbers 3:27-32

  This passage describes the duties of the Kohathites, one of the Levite families. To them was entrusted the care of the most sacred objects of the tabernacle: the ark, the table, the lampstand, the altars, and...

• No. 1686 Numbers 18:14-19

  God assigns to Aaron and the priests their portion. The devoted things, the firstborn, the holy offerings brought by Israel, these are given to the priests as their share. Since the Levites received no...

• No. 1704 Numbers 15:32-36

  This is a hard passage. While Israel was in the wilderness, a man was found gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. He was brought to Moses and Aaron, and held in custody, because it was not yet clear what should...

• No. 1748 Numbers 28:9-15

  God lays out the appointed offerings that mark the rhythms of Israel's worship: the offerings for each Sabbath, and the offerings for the beginning of each month. And running through them is a recurring...

• No. 1791 Numbers 33:49-56

  As Israel prepares to enter Canaan, God gives a command about more than conquest. When you cross the Jordan, he says, drive out the inhabitants, and destroy all their idols, their molten images, and their high...

• No. 1802 Numbers 8:1-11

  God gives instructions for the lamps of the golden lampstand, and then for the setting apart of the Levites for his service. To dedicate them, they are first to be cleansed, sprinkled with the water of...

• No. 1859 Numbers 3:1-10

  The account of Aaron's sons carries a sober memory: Nadab and Abihu died before the LORD when they offered strange fire, fire he had not commanded, in the wilderness of Sinai. Their brothers Eleazar and...

• No. 1880 Numbers 18:20-24

  God tells Aaron that the priests and Levites will receive no inheritance of land like the other tribes: you shall have no portion among them. Instead, God says, I am your portion and your inheritance among the...

• No. 1963 Numbers 5:1-10

  The law addresses what a person must do when they have wronged another. When someone commits a sin and is guilty, he shall confess the sin he has done, and he shall make full restitution for his wrong, adding...

• No. 2027 Numbers 24:15-19

  Balaam, the hired diviner brought to curse Israel, instead speaks a prophecy God puts in his mouth. Looking far into the future, he says: I see him, but not now; I see him, but not near. A star will come out...

• No. 2040 Numbers 28:26-31

  Among the appointed feasts is the day of firstfruits, the Feast of Weeks. On it, Israel was to bring a new offering from the harvest to the LORD. But before the offerings are listed, one requirement is named:...

• No. 2041 Numbers 29:29-34

  The instructions for the Feast of Tabernacles prescribe the offerings for each day, bulls, rams, and lambs in their numbers. But a phrase recurs at the end of each day's list: in addition to the continual...

• No. 2048 Numbers 10:21-28

  As Israel sets out from Sinai, the tribes march in an appointed order, each division in its place. The Kohathites bear the sanctuary; the camps of Ephraim and the others follow their standards. And the camp of...

• No. 2070 Numbers 13:11-15

  As Israel nears the promised land, Moses sends twelve men, one from each tribe, to spy it out. The passage names them, tribe by tribe: Gaddi of Manasseh, Ammiel of Dan, Sethur of Asher, and the rest. Twelve...

• No. 2113 Numbers 10:8-13

  God instructs Israel about the silver trumpets and when to blow them. They were to be sounded in two very different circumstances. When you go to war against an adversary who oppresses you, God says, sound an...

• No. 2119 Numbers 20:17-21

  As Israel journeys toward the promised land, they seek to pass through the territory of Edom, their kinsmen. They send a courteous, reasonable request: let us pass through on the highway; we will not go...

• No. 2133 Numbers 4:34-41

  As Israel organizes the service of the tabernacle, the Levites are counted for their work, and a particular range is specified: from thirty years old to fifty, everyone who entered the service for work in the...

• No. 2139 Numbers 4:42-49

  As the Levites are counted for their service, the account concludes with a phrase that governs the whole census: everyone according to his service and according to his burden. Each Levite was numbered and...

• No. 2161 Numbers 10:29-36

  As Israel sets out from Sinai on the journey through the wilderness toward the promised land, the account notes how they were led. They set out from the mountain of the LORD a three days' journey, and the ark...

• No. 2164 Numbers 21:6-15

  When the people of Israel speak against God and Moses in the wilderness, venomous snakes come among them, and many are bitten and die. The people confess their sin and beg Moses to pray. And God gives a...

• No. 2246 Numbers 15:1-5

  While Israel is still in the wilderness, wandering and far from the promised land, God gives Moses instructions about offerings, and he prefaces them with a phrase full of quiet assurance: when you have come...

• No. 2275 Numbers 35:16-21

  Among the laws about the cities of refuge, God draws a sharp line about the taking of life. The one who strikes another with a deadly instrument out of hatred, who lies in wait, who kills in hostility, is a...

• No. 2282 Numbers 9:1-7

  As Israel keeps the Passover in the wilderness, a difficulty arises. Some men had become ceremonially unclean by contact with a dead body, and so could not keep the Passover on the appointed day. But rather...

• No. 2299 Numbers 1:34-39

  As Israel prepares for its journey and the battles ahead, God commands a census of the men able to serve. Tribe by tribe they are counted: Manasseh, Benjamin, Dan, and the rest, all who were twenty years old...

• No. 2305 Numbers 11:1-9

  In the wilderness, the people grow discontented with God's provision. They had the manna, the bread God rained down from heaven each day, a daily miracle of provision. But they crave meat, and they despise the...

• No. 2310 Numbers 15:22-26

  The law makes provision for a particular kind of sin: when the whole congregation errs together, sinning unintentionally against God's commandments without the community realizing it. For such corporate sin,...

• No. 2317 Numbers 20:1-5

  Near the end of the wilderness years, the people come to Kadesh, and Miriam dies there. Then, finding no water, the congregation gathers against Moses and Aaron and quarrels with them. We wish we had died with...

• No. 2323 Numbers 15:27-31

  The law makes provision for the person who sins unintentionally: he brings an offering, and the priest makes atonement, and he is forgiven. But then it draws a sharp contrast. The person who sins with a high...

• No. 2325 Numbers 7:38-43

  When the tabernacle was dedicated, the leaders of the twelve tribes each brought an offering. Remarkably, each brought exactly the same gift: a silver platter and bowl full of flour and oil, a golden ladle of...

• No. 2339 Numbers 9:14-23

  As Israel journeys through the wilderness, their movements are governed entirely by the cloud over the tabernacle, the visible sign of God's presence. When the cloud lifted, they set out; when it settled, they...

• No. 2344 Numbers 22:18-25

  As Balaam sets out on his donkey, drawn by the promise of reward to curse Israel, God's anger burns against him, and the angel of the LORD stands in the road as an adversary, with a drawn sword. Balaam cannot...

• No. 2348 Numbers 11:21-27

  In Numbers the people crave meat, and God promises a whole month of it. Moses, leading six hundred thousand on foot, does the math and balks: shall the flocks and herds, shall all the fish of the sea, be...

• No. 2349 Numbers 7:11-15

  Numbers records the offerings brought for the dedication of the altar, one tribal leader each day. What follows is a list that repeats almost word for word: the same silver platter, the same bowl, the same...

• No. 2352 Numbers 10:1-7

  As Israel prepares to leave Sinai, God tells Moses to make two silver trumpets and assigns them distinct signals. One blast calls the leaders; two calls the whole assembly; an alarm sends a set of camps...

• No. 2378 Numbers 23:16-24

  Balak has hired Balaam to curse Israel, and this is the second time God turns the curse into a blessing. Balaam tells the king plainly: God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should...

• No. 2379 Numbers 34:1-5

  As Israel nears Canaan, God has Moses trace the borders of the land they will inherit, corner by corner: the southern line from the wilderness of Zin, west to the brook of Egypt and the sea. The chapter reads...

• No. 2389 Numbers 12:1-9

  Miriam and Aaron turn on their brother Moses. The stated complaint is his Cushite wife, but the real grievance surfaces fast: has the LORD spoken only through Moses? Hasn't he spoken through us too? It is a...

• No. 2404 Numbers 25:14-18

  This follows the disaster at Peor, where Israel was drawn into idolatry and immorality through its neighbors, and a plague broke out. Now the text names names, the Israelite man and the Midianite woman who...

• No. 2416 Numbers 27:1-11

  Five sisters, the daughters of Zelophehad, come and stand before Moses, the priest, and the whole assembly. Their father died leaving no sons, and under the custom his name and land would simply lapse. They...

• No. 2428 Numbers 2:1-6

  God gives Israel the plan for their camp: each tribe under its own banner, arranged by divisions, all of them pitched around the Tent of Meeting in the center. Judah on the east, Issachar beside them, and so...

• No. 2444 Numbers 7:32-37

  We are back in the long ledger of dedication gifts, one tribal leader per day, and the offerings are listed again in full: the silver platter, the golden ladle of incense, the bull and ram and lamb for a burnt...

• No. 2462 Numbers 16:41-45

  The very day after the ground swallowed Korah and his rebels, and fire consumed the men offering unauthorized incense, the whole congregation turns on Moses and Aaron: you have killed the LORD's people. They...

• No. 2474 Numbers 19:9-13

  Numbers describes a strange and specific rite: a red heifer is burned, its ashes gathered and kept outside the camp, and mixed with water to make a cleansing solution. Anyone who touched a dead body was...

• No. 2476 Numbers 29:12-16

  The instructions for the Feast of Tabernacles are lavish. On the first day alone, Israel is to bring thirteen young bulls, two rams, fourteen lambs, with their grain and drink offerings, plus a goat for a sin...

• No. 2477 Numbers 33:33-48

  This chapter is a travel log: they journeyed from here and camped there, from there and camped at the next place, stage after stage of Israel's forty years in the wilderness. Names most of us cannot place,...

• No. 2487 Numbers 6:13-20

  The law of the Nazirite describes not the vow's beginning but its end. When the days of separation are complete, the Nazirite comes to the Tent with offerings, shaves off the hair that had been the visible...

• No. 2496 Numbers 32:1-5

  The tribes of Reuben and Gad have large herds, and when they see the rich grazing land east of the Jordan, in Jazer and Gilead, they make a request to Moses: this is good land for livestock, and we have...

• No. 2518 Numbers 22:26-30

  Balaam, the famous seer hired to curse Israel, is riding to his work when his donkey stops, three times, because she sees the angel of the LORD standing in the road with a drawn sword. Balaam sees nothing....

• No. 2537 Numbers 7:1-5

  On the day the tabernacle is finished and anointed, the tribal leaders bring an offering that is entirely practical: six covered wagons and twelve oxen, a wagon for every two leaders and an ox from each. God...

• No. 2560 Numbers 7:62-67

  We are deep in the twelve days of dedication offerings, and by now the pattern is unmistakable: each tribal leader brings exactly the same gift, the same silver platter and bowl, the same bull, ram, and lamb,...

• No. 2572 Numbers 2:12-16

  The ordering of Israel's camp continues, tribe by tribe. Simeon and Gad take their assigned places beside Reuben, each with its leader and its number counted, and together they form the camp on the south side....

• No. 2642 Numbers 23:25-30

  Balak, the king who hired Balaam to curse Israel, is growing frustrated. Every time Balaam opens his mouth, blessings come out instead of curses. So Balak tries a new tactic: if you will not do it, at least...

• No. 2644 Numbers 19:1-8

  The ritual of the red heifer is one of the strangest in the law. A flawless red cow that has never been yoked is taken outside the camp and killed, then burned entirely, skin, flesh, blood, and all, with...

• No. 2675 Numbers 35:6-15

  God commands Israel to set aside six cities of refuge, places a person who has killed someone unintentionally can flee to. There the accidental killer is safe from the avenger of blood, the family member who...

• No. 2690 Numbers 7:74-79

  The altar is being dedicated, and it takes twelve days, one tribe each day. Every single leader brings the exact same offering: a silver platter, a silver bowl, incense, the same bulls and rams and lambs and...

• No. 2691 Numbers 11:10-15

  The people are weeping for meat, tired of manna, wailing at their tent doors, and the whole camp's discontent lands on Moses. Worn past his limit, he turns to God and lets it all out. Why have you treated your...

• No. 2702 Numbers 17:1-5

  Israel has just been through a bitter revolt over who has the right to lead and to serve at the altar. Rather than settle it with another confrontation, God gives a quiet test. Take twelve rods, one for each...

• No. 2707 Numbers 1:22-27

  The book of Numbers takes its name from passages like this one, the muster of Israel for the wilderness march. Tribe by tribe the count is taken: Simeon, Gad, Judah, each numbered by families and fathers'...

• No. 2823 Numbers 6:6-12

  The Nazirite vow set a person apart to God, marked by uncut hair and, among other things, keeping away from any dead body, even that of a parent or sibling. But this passage faces a hard case: what if someone...

• No. 2853 Numbers 3:38-43

  The Levites camp directly before the tabernacle, guarding the sanctuary, and any outsider who approaches it is to die. They are counted, and then God does something that sounds like an accounting entry but...

• No. 2888 Numbers 33:17-32

  This passage is a travel log. They journeyed from Kibroth-hattaavah to Hazeroth, from Hazeroth to Rithmah, from Rithmah to Rimmon-perez, and on it goes, campsite after campsite through the wilderness, a string...

• No. 2932 Numbers 16:15-19

  Korah has led a rebellion against Moses and Aaron, and Moses, deeply angry, sets a test. Let Korah and his two hundred fifty followers each bring a censer of incense before the LORD tomorrow, along with Aaron,...

• No. 2962 Numbers 32:20-24

  The tribes of Reuben and Gad want to settle east of the Jordan, and Moses makes a deal with them. If you arm yourselves and cross over to fight before the LORD until the land is subdued, he says, then you may...

• No. 3006 Numbers 21:16-22

  Israel comes to a place called Beer, which means the well, and there God says, gather the people together and I will give them water. And Israel does something rare in the wilderness story: they sing. Spring...

• No. 3034 Numbers 33:1-16

  The record of Israel's journeys opens with the departure from Egypt. They set out from Rameses the day after the Passover, going out boldly, with a high hand, in full view of the Egyptians who were still...

• No. 3035 Numbers 3:21-26

  As the Levites are counted and assigned, the clan of the Gershonites is given its place and its charge. They camp on the west side of the tabernacle, and their duty is the fabric of it: the tabernacle...

• No. 3037 Numbers 1:1-5

  The book of Numbers opens with God speaking to Moses in the tent of meeting, in the wilderness of Sinai, commanding a census: take a count of all the congregation, by their families, every man of fighting age,...

• No. 3048 Numbers 7:50-55

  This continues the dedication offerings for the altar, each tribe bringing the same silver platter and bowl, the same bulls and rams and lambs. Here Ephraim's leader gives his gift, and then, on the eighth...

• No. 3074 Numbers 14:41-45

  Having just refused, in fear, to enter the land God gave them, Israel now swings to the opposite error. They presumptuously charge up the mountain, though Moses warns them plainly: do not go up, for the LORD...

• No. 3095 Numbers 20:22-29

  At Mount Hor, God tells Moses that Aaron will die and will not enter the promised land, because of the rebellion at the waters of Meribah. Moses takes Aaron and his son Eleazar up the mountain, and there, in...

• No. 3119 Numbers 5:11-22

  This is a difficult, ancient law for a husband seized by jealousy who suspects his wife of unfaithfulness but has no witness and no proof. He brings her to the priest, who sets her before the LORD and...

• No. 3125 Numbers 7:56-61

  This continues the twelve days of dedication offerings, Manasseh's completed and Benjamin's begun, each tribe bringing the same silver platter and bowl, the same bulls and rams and lambs and goats.

• No. 3130 Numbers 31:47-54

  After a costly battle, the officers come to Moses and report something remarkable: your servants have counted the men of war under our command, and not one of us is missing. And in response to this...

• No. 3145 Numbers 27:12-17

  God tells Moses to climb the mountain and see the promised land, for he will die there without entering it, because of the rebellion at the waters of Meribah. And Moses' response is not self-pity but concern...

• No. 3159 Numbers 18:1-7

  God speaks to Aaron about the priesthood. You and your sons, he says, will bear the responsibility for the sanctuary, guarding its holiness; the Levites are given to help you, but they must not touch the holy...

• No. 3161 Numbers 21:1-5

  The Canaanite king of Arad attacks Israel and takes some captive. Israel vows to the LORD, and when God gives them the victory, they name the place Hormah. But then, on the long detour around Edom, the people...

• No. 3223 Numbers 22:31-35

  At last the LORD opens Balaam's eyes, and he sees what his donkey had seen all along: the angel of the LORD standing in the road with a drawn sword. Balaam falls on his face. The angel rebukes him: why have...

• No. 3253 Numbers 14:36-40

  The ten spies who spread the fearful report die by plague, and only Joshua and Caleb are left alive. When the people hear that their generation is now sentenced to the wilderness, they mourn deeply, and then,...

• No. 3265 Numbers 16:46-50

  In the aftermath of Korah's rebellion, wrath breaks out and a plague begins sweeping through the congregation. Moses sends Aaron running into the midst of it with a censer of incense to make atonement. Aaron...

• No. 3286 Numbers 12:10-16

  After Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses, the cloud lifts and Miriam is struck with leprosy, white as snow. Aaron immediately confesses: my lord, do not hold this sin against us, in which we have done...

• No. 3314 Numbers 1:16-21

  The census of Israel begins, counting the men able to go out to war, registered by clans and fathers' houses, each one listed by name, one by one, from twenty years old and upward. Reuben's tribe is counted...

• No. 3334 Numbers 4:1-6

  The sons of Kohath are given the honor of carrying the most holy things, the ark and the sacred furniture, as the camp moves. But there is a careful order to it: they may carry these objects only after Aaron...

• No. 3336 Numbers 4:12-16

  The instructions for moving the sanctuary continue: the sacred vessels wrapped in cloth and sealskin, carried but never touched directly, on pain of death. And Eleazar the priest is given oversight of the oil...

• No. 3349 Numbers 15:13-21

  In the middle of instructions about offerings comes a striking principle of equality: you shall have one law for the native-born and for the foreigner who lives among you. As you are, so shall the sojourner be...

• No. 3391 Numbers 13:21-33

  The spies return from the promised land carrying its astonishing fruit, a cluster of grapes so large it takes two men to carry on a pole, and they confirm the land flows with milk and honey. But then most of...

• No. 3402 Numbers 29:1-6

  The first day of the seventh month was marked by the blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation with rest from work and appointed offerings. The trumpet blast was a call, summoning the people to attention, to...

• No. 3404 Numbers 13:6-10

  This is the roster of the twelve men sent to scout the promised land, one leader chosen from each tribe. Among the names are two that history would remember: Caleb of the tribe of Judah, and Hoshea the son of...

• No. 3425 Numbers 6:1-5

  The Nazirite vow was a way for an ordinary Israelite, man or woman, to set themselves apart to the LORD for a season by a special devotion. It involved visible, tangible signs: abstaining from wine and...

• No. 3433 Numbers 23:6-10

  Hired by Balak to curse Israel, Balaam finds that he cannot: how can I curse whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce whom the LORD has not denounced? He is compelled to bless instead. No human curse can...

• No. 3463 Numbers 13:16-20

  Moses sends the twelve to scout Canaan with careful instructions: see the land, whether it is good or bad, the people strong or weak, the cities fortified or open, and, he adds, be of good courage, and bring...

• No. 3469 Numbers 35:29-34

  These laws underscore how seriously God regards the taking of human life. A deliberate murderer is not to be ransomed with money; the shedding of innocent blood cannot simply be paid off and set aside. Justice...

• No. 3578 Numbers 9:8-13

  Some men, unclean because of contact with a dead body, could not keep the Passover at the appointed time, and they asked Moses whether they must simply miss it altogether. Moses inquires of the LORD, and God...

• No. 3618 Numbers 14:1-5

  Hearing the fearful report of the spies, the whole congregation weeps all night and turns on Moses and Aaron, wishing they had died back in Egypt or in the wilderness, and proposing to choose a leader and go...

• No. 3664 Numbers 21:31-35

  As Israel advances, Og the king of Bashan comes out against them with all his people. It is a fearful confrontation, but God speaks the word that steadies them: do not fear him, for I have given him into your...

• No. 3742 Numbers 3:44-51

  This passage records a striking arrangement. The firstborn of Israel belonged to God, who had spared them in Egypt, and now God takes the tribe of Levi in their place to serve him; and where the firstborn...

• No. 3757 Numbers 22:7-11

  The elders of Moab come to the seer Balaam bearing fees for divination, hired by King Balak to curse Israel. Balaam tells them to stay the night while he inquires of the LORD, and God comes to him with a...

• No. 3759 Numbers 2:22-26

  This passage continues the careful arrangement of Israel's camp, tribe by tribe, each in its appointed place around the tabernacle, each with its leader and its counted number. Benjamin here, Dan there, the...

• No. 3796 Numbers 2:17-21

  As Israel's camp is arranged, one detail governs everything: the Tent of Meeting, the place of God's presence, is set in the very middle of the camp, with the tribes ordered around it. And the passage adds a...

• No. 3808 Numbers 34:13-29

  As Israel prepares to enter Canaan, God names the men, a leader from each tribe, who will oversee dividing the land, so that every tribe receives its allotted inheritance. It is an administrative passage, but...

• No. 3853 Numbers 14:20-35

  After the people, terrified by the spies' report, refuse to enter the promised land, God pardons them from immediate destruction, yet declares that the unbelieving generation will not see the land; they will...

• No. 3871 Numbers 20:6-11

  The people are again grumbling for water, and God gives Moses a clear instruction: take the staff, gather the people, and speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will pour out water. But Moses, worn down...

• No. 3872 Numbers 35:1-5

  Unlike the other tribes, the Levites received no large territory of their own in the promised land. Instead, God commanded that they be given cities to live in, scattered throughout the inheritance of all the...

• No. 3899 Numbers 29:7-11

  This passage describes the observances of the Day of Atonement, the solemn day set apart each year for Israel to be made right with God. On this day the people were to afflict their souls, to humble...

• No. 3953 Numbers 32:6-13

  When the tribes of Gad and Reuben ask to settle on the near side of the Jordan, Moses fears they will discourage the rest of Israel from crossing over to take the land, and he reminds them of a painful...

• No. 3974 Numbers 32:25-30

  The tribes of Gad and Reuben, who had asked to settle on the near side of the Jordan, make a commitment that answers Moses' earlier concern: your servants will do as our lord commands. They pledge that, though...

• No. 4003 Numbers 16:31-35

  This passage records the dramatic judgment that fell on Korah and those who joined his rebellion against Moses and Aaron: the ground opened and swallowed them, and fire consumed the two hundred fifty men who...

• No. 4060 Numbers 20:12-16

  At the waters of Meribah, after Moses failed to trust and honor God before the people, God delivers a hard verdict: because you did not believe me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people, you shall not...

• No. 4135 Numbers 16:20-24

  As God's judgment is about to fall on Korah's rebellion, God speaks to Moses and Aaron with a fearful word: separate yourselves from this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment. But Moses and Aaron...

• No. 4138 Numbers 4:7-11

  As the tabernacle is prepared for transport through the wilderness, God gives careful instructions for how the sacred furniture, the table of the bread, the lampstand, the golden altar, is to be handled. Each...

• No. 4159 Numbers 26:49-56

  After the second census in the wilderness, God gives instructions for how the promised land is to be divided among the tribes: to the larger tribe a larger inheritance, to the smaller a smaller one, each...

• No. 4173 Numbers 26:33-48

  In the middle of this census, a small detail is recorded that would prove significant: Zelophehad had no sons, only daughters, and their names are given, Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. In a society...

• No. 4181 Numbers 6:21-27

  God gives Aaron and the priests words to speak over his people, one of the tender blessings in all of Scripture: the LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to...

• No. 4201 Numbers 18:8-13

  Because the priests and Levites had no tribal land of their own to farm, God made a special provision for them: the offerings the people brought to him would be the priests' portion. I have given you the...

• No. 4286 Numbers 7:16-20

  At the dedication of the tabernacle, the leader of each tribe brought an offering, and remarkably, each brought exactly the same gifts: the same silver platter and bowl, the same golden dish of incense, the...

• No. 4309 Numbers 30:1-5

  This passage sets out the seriousness of vows and promises made before God. When a person makes a vow to the LORD or binds himself by a pledge, the command is clear: he shall not break his word; he shall do...

• No. 4314 Numbers 15:37-41

  God instructs the Israelites to make tassels on the corners of their garments, with a cord of blue, for a specific purpose: that you may look at it and remember all the commandments of the LORD, to do them,...

• No. 4317 Numbers 16:25-30

  As Korah, Dathan, and Abiram rebel against God's appointed leadership, Moses warns the rest of the congregation: depart from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest you be swept away...