Purification, Serpents, and Shipwreck Deliverance

1. Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 2. “This is the statute of the law which Yahweh has commanded. Tell the children of Israel to bring you a red heifer without spot, in which is no defect, and which was never yoked. 3. You shall give her to Eleazar the priest, and he shall bring her outside of the camp, and one shall kill her before his face. 4. Eleazar the priest shall take some of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle her blood toward the front of the Tent of Meeting seven times. 5. One shall burn the heifer in his sight; her skin, and her meat, and her blood, with her dung, shall he burn. 6. The priest shall take cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet, and cast it into the middle of the burning of the heifer. 7. Then the priest shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp, and the priest shall be unclean until the evening. 8. He who burns her shall wash his clothes in water, and bathe his flesh in water, and shall be unclean until the evening. 9. “A man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay them up outside of the camp in a clean place; and it shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for use in water for cleansing impurity. It is a sin offering. 10. He who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the evening. It shall be to the children of Israel, and to the stranger who lives as a foreigner among them, for a statute forever. 11. “He who touches the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days. 12. He shall purify himself with water on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be clean; but if he doesn’t purify himself the third day, then the seventh day he shall not be clean. 13. Whoever touches a dead person, the body of a man who has died, and doesn’t purify himself, defiles Yahweh’s tabernacle; and that soul shall be cut off from Israel; because the water for impurity was not sprinkled on him, he shall be unclean. His uncleanness is yet on him. 14. “This is the law when a man dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent, and everyone who is in the tent, shall be unclean seven days. 15. Every open vessel, which has no covering bound on it, is unclean. 16. “Whoever in the open field touches one who is slain with a sword, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days. 17. “For the unclean, they shall take of the ashes of the burning of the sin offering; and running water shall be poured into a vessel. 18. A clean person shall take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, on all the vessels, on the persons who were there, and on him who touched the bone, or the slain, or the dead, or the grave. 19. The clean person shall sprinkle on the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day. On the seventh day, he shall purify him. He shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean at evening. 20. But the man who shall be unclean, and shall not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off from among the assembly, because he has defiled the sanctuary of Yahweh. The water for impurity has not been sprinkled on him. He is unclean. 21. It shall be a perpetual statute to them. He who sprinkles the water for impurity shall wash his clothes, and he who touches the water for impurity shall be unclean until evening. 22. “Whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean; and the soul that touches it shall be unclean until evening.” 1. The children of Israel, even the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month. The people stayed in Kadesh. Miriam died there, and was buried there. 2. There was no water for the congregation; and they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. 3. The people quarreled with Moses, and spoke, saying, “We wish that we had died when our brothers died before Yahweh! 4. Why have you brought Yahweh’s assembly into this wilderness, that we should die there, we and our animals? 5. Why have you made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in to this evil place? It is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink.” 6. Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the Tent of Meeting, and fell on their faces. Yahweh’s glory appeared to them. 7. Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 8. “Take the rod, and assemble the congregation, you, and Aaron your brother, and speak to the rock before their eyes, that it pour out its water. You shall bring water to them out of the rock; so you shall give the congregation and their livestock drink.” 9. Moses took the rod from before Yahweh, as he commanded him. 10. Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels! Shall we bring water out of this rock for you?” 11. Moses lifted up his hand, and struck the rock with his rod twice, and water came out abundantly. The congregation and their livestock drank. 12. Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you didn’t believe in me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.” 13. These are the waters of Meribah; because the children of Israel strove with Yahweh, and he was sanctified in them. 14. Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom, saying: “Thus says your brother Israel: You know all the travail that has happened to us; 15. how our fathers went down into Egypt, and we lived in Egypt a long time. The Egyptians mistreated us and our fathers. 16. When we cried to Yahweh, he heard our voice, sent an angel, and brought us out of Egypt. Behold, we are in Kadesh, a city in the edge of your border. 17. “Please let us pass through your land. We will not pass through field or through vineyard, neither will we drink from the water of the wells. We will go along the king’s highway. We will not turn away to the right hand nor to the left, until we have passed your border.” 18. Edom said to him, “You shall not pass through me, lest I come out with the sword against you.” 19. The children of Israel said to him, “We will go up by the highway; and if we drink your water, I and my livestock, then I will give its price. Only let me, without doing anything else, pass through on my feet.” 20. He said, “You shall not pass through.” Edom came out against him with many people, and with a strong hand. 21. Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border, so Israel turned away from him. 22. They traveled from Kadesh: and the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, came to Mount Hor. 23. Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron in Mount Hor, by the border of the land of Edom, saying, 24. “Aaron shall be gathered to his people; for he shall not enter into the land which I have given to the children of Israel, because you rebelled against my word at the waters of Meribah. 25. Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up to Mount Hor; 26. and strip Aaron of his garments, and put them on Eleazar his son. Aaron shall be gathered, and shall die there.” 27. Moses did as Yahweh commanded. They went up into Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation. 28. Moses stripped Aaron of his garments, and put them on Eleazar his son. Aaron died there on the top of the mountain, and Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain. 29. When all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead, they wept for Aaron thirty days, even all the house of Israel. 1. The Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the South, heard that Israel came by the way of Atharim. He fought against Israel, and took some of them captive. 2. Israel vowed a vow to Yahweh, and said, “If you will indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities.” 3. Yahweh listened to the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their cities. The name of the place was called Hormah. 4. They traveled from Mount Hor by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom The soul of the people was very discouraged because of the journey. 5. The people spoke against God, and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, and there is no water; and our soul loathes this disgusting bread.” 6. Yahweh sent venomous snakes among the people, and they bit the people. Many people of Israel died. 7. The people came to Moses, and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against Yahweh, and against you. Pray to Yahweh, that he take away the serpents from us.” Moses prayed for the people. 8. Yahweh said to Moses, “Make a venomous snake, and set it on a pole. It shall happen, that everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” 9. Moses made a serpent of brass, and set it on the pole. If a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked at the serpent of brass, he lived. 10. The children of Israel traveled, and encamped in Oboth. 11. They traveled from Oboth, and encamped at Iyeabarim, in the wilderness which is before Moab, toward the sunrise. 12. From there they traveled, and encamped in the valley of Zered. 13. From there they traveled, and encamped on the other side of the Arnon, which is in the wilderness, that comes out of the border of the Amorites: for the Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites. 14. Therefore it is said in the book of the Wars of Yahweh, “Vaheb in Suphah, the valleys of the Arnon, 15. the slope of the valleys that incline toward the dwelling of Ar, leans on the border of Moab.” 16. From there they traveled to Beer; that is the well of which Yahweh said to Moses, “Gather the people together, and I will give them water.” 17. Then Israel sang this song: “Spring up, well! Sing to it, 18. the well, which the princes dug, which the nobles of the people dug, with the scepter, and with their poles.” From the wilderness they traveled to Mattanah; 19. and from Mattanah to Nahaliel; and from Nahaliel to Bamoth; 20. and from Bamoth to the valley that is in the field of Moab, to the top of Pisgah, which looks down on the desert. 21. Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, saying, 22. “Let me pass through your land. We will not turn away into field or vineyard. We will not drink of the water of the wells. We will go by the king’s highway, until we have passed your border.” 23. Sihon would not allow Israel to pass through his border, but Sihon gathered all his people together, and went out against Israel into the wilderness, and came to Jahaz. He fought against Israel. 24. Israel struck him with the edge of the sword, and possessed his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, even to the children of Ammon; for the border of the children of Ammon was strong. 25. Israel took all these cities. Israel lived in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all its villages. 26. For Heshbon was the city of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab, and taken all his land out of his hand, even to the Arnon. 27. Therefore those who speak in proverbs say, “Come to Heshbon. Let the city of Sihon be built and established; 28. for a fire has gone out of Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon. It has devoured Ar of Moab, The lords of the high places of the Arnon. 29. Woe to you, Moab! You are undone, people of Chemosh! He has given his sons as fugitives, and his daughters into captivity, to Sihon king of the Amorites. 30. We have shot at them. Heshbon has perished even to Dibon. We have laid waste even to Nophah, Which reaches to Medeba.” 31. Thus Israel lived in the land of the Amorites. 32. Moses sent to spy out Jazer. They took its villages, and drove out the Amorites who were there. 33. They turned and went up by the way of Bashan. Og the king of Bashan went out against them, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei. 34. Yahweh said to Moses, “Don’t fear him, for I have delivered him into your hand, with all his people, and his land. You shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.” 35. So they struck him, with his sons and all his people, until there were no survivors; and they possessed his land.

1. When it was determined that we should sail for Italy, they delivered Paul and certain other prisoners to a centurion named Julius, of the Augustan band. 2. Embarking in a ship of Adramyttium, which was about to sail to places on the coast of Asia, we put to sea; Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica, being with us. 3. The next day, we touched at Sidon. Julius treated Paul kindly, and gave him permission to go to his friends and refresh himself. 4. Putting to sea from there, we sailed under the lee of Cyprus, because the winds were contrary. 5. When we had sailed across the sea which is off Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra, a city of Lycia. 6. There the centurion found a ship of Alexandria sailing for Italy, and he put us on board. 7. When we had sailed slowly many days, and had come with difficulty opposite Cnidus, the wind not allowing us further, we sailed under the lee of Crete, opposite Salmone. 8. With difficulty sailing along it we came to a certain place called Fair Havens, near the city of Lasea. 9. When much time had passed and the voyage was now dangerous, because the Fast had now already gone by, Paul admonished them, 10. and said to them, “Sirs, I perceive that the voyage will be with injury and much loss, not only of the cargo and the ship, but also of our lives.” 11. But the centurion gave more heed to the master and to the owner of the ship than to those things which were spoken by Paul. 12. Because the haven was not suitable to winter in, the majority advised going to sea from there, if by any means they could reach Phoenix, and winter there, which is a port of Crete, looking northeast and southeast. 13. When the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, they weighed anchor and sailed along Crete, close to shore. 14. But before long, a stormy wind beat down from shore, which is called Euroclydon. 15. When the ship was caught, and couldn’t face the wind, we gave way to it, and were driven along. 16. Running under the lee of a small island called Clauda, we were able, with difficulty, to secure the boat. 17. After they had hoisted it up, they used cables to help reinforce the ship. Fearing that they would run aground on the Syrtis sand bars, they lowered the sea anchor, and so were driven along. 18. As we labored exceedingly with the storm, the next day they began to throw things overboard. 19. On the third day, they threw out the ship’s tackle with their own hands. 20. When neither sun nor stars shone on us for many days, and no small storm pressed on us, all hope that we would be saved was now taken away. 21. When they had been long without food, Paul stood up in the middle of them, and said, “Sirs, you should have listened to me, and not have set sail from Crete, and have gotten this injury and loss. 22. Now I exhort you to cheer up, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. 23. For there stood by me this night an angel, belonging to the God whose I am and whom I serve, 24. saying, ‘Don’t be afraid, Paul. You must stand before Caesar. Behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.’ 25. Therefore, sirs, cheer up! For I believe God, that it will be just as it has been spoken to me. 26. But we must run aground on a certain island.” 27. But when the fourteenth night had come, as we were driven back and forth in the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the sailors surmised that they were drawing near to some land. 28. They took soundings, and found twenty fathoms. After a little while, they took soundings again, and found fifteen fathoms. 29. Fearing that we would run aground on rocky ground, they let go four anchors from the stern, and wished for daylight. 30. As the sailors were trying to flee out of the ship, and had lowered the boat into the sea, pretending that they would lay out anchors from the bow, 31. Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers, “Unless these stay in the ship, you can’t be saved.” 32. Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the boat, and let it fall off. 33. While the day was coming on, Paul begged them all to take some food, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day that you wait and continue fasting, having taken nothing. 34. Therefore I beg you to take some food, for this is for your safety; for not a hair will perish from any of your heads.” 35. When he had said this, and had taken bread, he gave thanks to God in the presence of all, and he broke it, and began to eat. 36. Then they all cheered up, and they also took food. 37. In all, we were two hundred seventy-six souls on the ship. 38. When they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, throwing out the wheat into the sea. 39. When it was day, they didn’t recognize the land, but they noticed a certain bay with a beach, and they decided to try to drive the ship onto it. 40. Casting off the anchors, they left them in the sea, at the same time untying the rudder ropes. Hoisting up the foresail to the wind, they made for the beach. 41. But coming to a place where two seas met, they ran the vessel aground. The bow struck and remained immovable, but the stern began to break up by the violence of the waves. 42. The soldiers’ counsel was to kill the prisoners, so that none of them would swim out and escape. 43. But the centurion, desiring to save Paul, stopped them from their purpose, and commanded that those who could swim should throw themselves overboard first to go toward the land; 44. and the rest should follow, some on planks, and some on other things from the ship. So they all escaped safely to the land. 1. When we had escaped, then they learned that the island was called Malta. 2. The natives showed us uncommon kindness; for they kindled a fire, and received us all, because of the present rain, and because of the cold. 3. But when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat, and fastened on his hand. 4. When the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he has escaped from the sea, yet Justice has not allowed to live.” 5. However he shook off the creature into the fire, and wasn’t harmed. 6. But they expected that he would have swollen or fallen down dead suddenly, but when they watched for a long time and saw nothing bad happen to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god. 7. Now in the neighborhood of that place were lands belonging to the chief man of the island, named Publius, who received us, and courteously entertained us for three days. 8. The father of Publius lay sick of fever and dysentery. Paul entered in to him, prayed, and laying his hands on him, healed him. 9. Then when this was done, the rest also who had diseases in the island came, and were cured. 10. They also honored us with many honors, and when we sailed, they put on board the things that we needed. 11. After three months, we set sail in a ship of Alexandria which had wintered in the island, whose sign was “The Twin Brothers.” 12. Touching at Syracuse, we stayed there three days. 13. From there we circled around and arrived at Rhegium. After one day, a south wind sprang up, and on the second day we came to Puteoli, 14. where we found brothers, and were entreated to stay with them for seven days. So we came to Rome. 15. From there the brothers, when they heard of us, came to meet us as far as The Market of Appius and The Three Taverns. When Paul saw them, he thanked God, and took courage. 16. When we entered into Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard, but Paul was allowed to stay by himself with the soldier who guarded him. 17. After three days Paul called together those who were the leaders of the Jews. When they had come together, he said to them, “I, brothers, though I had done nothing against the people, or the customs of our fathers, still was delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans, 18. who, when they had examined me, desired to set me free, because there was no cause of death in me. 19. But when the Jews spoke against it, I was constrained to appeal to Caesar, not that I had anything about which to accuse my nation. 20. For this cause therefore I asked to see you and to speak with you. For because of the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain.” 21. They said to him, “We neither received letters from Judea concerning you, nor did any of the brothers come here and report or speak any evil of you. 22. But we desire to hear from you what you think. For, as concerning this sect, it is known to us that everywhere it is spoken against.” 23. When they had appointed him a day, many people came to him at his lodging. He explained to them, testifying about God’s Kingdom, and persuading them concerning Jesus, both from the law of Moses and from the prophets, from morning until evening. 24. Some believed the things which were spoken, and some disbelieved. 25. When they didn’t agree among themselves, they departed after Paul had spoken one word, “The Holy Spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah, the prophet, to our fathers, 26. saying, ‘Go to this people, and say, in hearing, you will hear, but will in no way understand. In seeing, you will see, but will in no way perceive. 27. For this people’s heart has grown callous. Their ears are dull of hearing. Their eyes they have closed. Lest they should see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and would turn again, and I would heal them.’ 28. “Be it known therefore to you, that the salvation of God is sent to the nations, and they will listen.” 29. When he had said these words, the Jews departed, having a great dispute among themselves. 30. Paul stayed two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who were coming to him, 31. preaching God’s Kingdom, and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness, without hindrance.

1. Blessed is he who considers the poor. Yahweh will deliver him in the day of evil. 2. Yahweh will preserve him, and keep him alive. He shall be blessed on the earth, and he will not surrender him to the will of his enemies. 3. Yahweh will sustain him on his sickbed, and restore him from his bed of illness. 4. I said, “Yahweh, have mercy on me! Heal me, for I have sinned against you.” 5. My enemies speak evil against me: “When will he die, and his name perish?” 6. If he comes to see me, he speaks falsehood. His heart gathers iniquity to itself. When he goes abroad, he tells it. 7. All who hate me whisper together against me. They imagine the worst for me. 8. “An evil disease”, they say, “has afflicted him. Now that he lies he shall rise up no more.” 9. Yes, my own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, who ate bread with me, has lifted up his heel against me. 10. But you, Yahweh, have mercy on me, and raise me up, that I may repay them. 11. By this I know that you delight in me, because my enemy doesn’t triumph over me. 12. As for me, you uphold me in my integrity, and set me in your presence forever. 13. Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, from everlasting and to everlasting! Amen and amen.