¹Then the children of Israel, the whole congregation, came into the Wilderness of Zin in the first month, and the people stayed in Kadesh; and Miriam died there and was buried there. ²Now there was no water for the congregation; so they gathered together against Moses and Aaron. ³And the people contended with Moses and spoke, saying: “If only we had died when our brethren died before the Lᴏʀᴅ! ⁴Why have you brought up the assembly of the Lᴏʀᴅ into this wilderness, that we and our animals should die here? ⁵And why have you made us come up out of Egypt, to bring us to this evil place? It is not a place of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates; nor is there any water to drink.” ⁶So Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and they fell on their faces. And the glory of the Lᴏʀᴅ appeared to them. ⁷Then the Lᴏʀᴅ spoke to Moses, saying, ⁸“Take the rod; you and your brother Aaron gather the congregation together. Speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will yield its water; thus you shall bring water for them out of the rock, and give drink to the congregation and their animals.” ⁹So Moses took the rod from before the Lᴏʀᴅ as He commanded him. ¹⁰And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock; and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels! Must we bring water for you out of this rock?” ¹¹Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their animals drank. ¹²Then the Lᴏʀᴅ spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.” ¹³This was the water of Meribah, because the children of Israel contended with the Lᴏʀᴅ, and He was hallowed among them. ¹⁴Now Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom. “Thus says your brother Israel: ‘You know all the hardship that has befallen us, ¹⁵how our fathers went down to Egypt, and we dwelt in Egypt a long time, and the Egyptians afflicted us and our fathers. ¹⁶When we cried out to the Lᴏʀᴅ, He heard our voice and sent the Angel and brought us up out of Egypt; now here we are in Kadesh, a city on the edge of your border. ¹⁷Please let us pass through your country. We will not pass through fields or vineyards, nor will we drink water from wells; we will go along the King’s Highway; we will not turn aside to the right hand or to the left until we have passed through your territory.’ ” ¹⁸Then Edom said to him, “You shall not pass through my land, lest I come out against you with the sword.” ¹⁹So the children of Israel said to him, “We will go by the Highway, and if I or my livestock drink any of your water, then I will pay for it; let me only pass through on foot, nothing more.” ²⁰Then he said, “You shall not pass through.” So Edom came out against them with many men and with a strong hand. ²¹Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his territory; so Israel turned away from him. ²²Then the children of Israel, the whole congregation, journeyed from Kadesh and came to Mount Hor. ²³And the Lᴏʀᴅ 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 the land which I have given to the children of Israel, because you rebelled against My word at the water of Meribah. ²⁵Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up to Mount Hor; ²⁶and strip Aaron of his garments and put them on Eleazar his son; for Aaron shall be gathered to his people and die there.” ²⁷So Moses did just as the Lᴏʀᴅ commanded, and they went up to Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation. ²⁸Moses stripped Aaron of his garments and put them on Eleazar his son; and Aaron died there on the top of the mountain. Then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain. ²⁹Now when all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead, all the house of Israel mourned for Aaron thirty days.

¹To the Chief Musician. Set to ‘Do Not Destroy.’ A Michtam of David. Do you indeed speak righteousness, you silent ones? Do you judge uprightly, you sons of men? ²No, in heart you work wickedness; You weigh out the violence of your hands in the earth. ³The wicked are estranged from the womb; They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies. ⁴Their poison is like the poison of a serpent; They are like the deaf cobra that stops its ear, ⁵Which will not heed the voice of charmers, Charming ever so skillfully. ⁶Break their teeth in their mouth, O God! Break out the fangs of the young lions, O Lᴏʀᴅ! ⁷Let them flow away as waters which run continually; When he bends his bow, Let his arrows be as if cut in pieces. ⁸Let them be like a snail which melts away as it goes, Like a stillborn child of a woman, that they may not see the sun. ⁹Before your pots can feel the burning thorns, He shall take them away as with a whirlwind, As in His living and burning wrath. ¹⁰The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance; He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked, ¹¹So that men will say, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous; Surely He is God who judges in the earth.”

¹To the Chief Musician. Set to ‘Do Not Destroy.’ A Michtam of David when Saul sent men, and they watched the house in order to kill him. Deliver me from my enemies, O my God; Defend me from those who rise up against me. ²Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, And save me from bloodthirsty men. ³For look, they lie in wait for my life; The mighty gather against me, Not for my transgression nor for my sin, O Lᴏʀᴅ. ⁴They run and prepare themselves through no fault of mine. Awake to help me, and behold! ⁵You therefore, O Lᴏʀᴅ God of hosts, the God of Israel, Awake to punish all the nations; Do not be merciful to any wicked transgressors. Selah ⁶At evening they return, They growl like a dog, And go all around the city. ⁷Indeed, they belch with their mouth; Swords are in their lips; For they say, “Who hears?” ⁸But You, O Lᴏʀᴅ, shall laugh at them; You shall have all the nations in derision. ⁹I will wait for You, O You his Strength; For God is my defense; ¹⁰My God of mercy shall come to meet me; God shall let me see my desire on my enemies. ¹¹Do not slay them, lest my people forget; Scatter them by Your power, And bring them down, O Lᴏʀᴅ our shield. ¹²For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips, Let them even be taken in their pride, And for the cursing and lying which they speak. ¹³Consume them in wrath, consume them, That they may not be; And let them know that God rules in Jacob To the ends of the earth. Selah ¹⁴And at evening they return, They growl like a dog, And go all around the city. ¹⁵They wander up and down for food, And howl if they are not satisfied. ¹⁶But I will sing of Your power; Yes, I will sing aloud of Your mercy in the morning; For You have been my defense And refuge in the day of my trouble. ¹⁷To You, O my Strength, I will sing praises; For God is my defense, My God of mercy.

¹Nevertheless the gloom will not be upon her who is distressed, As when at first He lightly esteemed The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, And afterward more heavily oppressed her, By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, In Galilee of the Gentiles. ²The people who walked in darkness Have seen a great light; Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, Upon them a light has shined. ³You have multiplied the nation And increased its joy; They rejoice before You According to the joy of harvest, As men rejoice when they divide the spoil. ⁴For You have broken the yoke of his burden And the staff of his shoulder, The rod of his oppressor, As in the day of Midian. ⁵For every warrior’s sandal from the noisy battle, And garments rolled in blood, Will be used for burning and fuel of fire. ⁶For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. ⁷Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lᴏʀᴅ of hosts will perform this. ⁸The Lᴏʀᴅ sent a word against Jacob, And it has fallen on Israel. ⁹All the people will know— Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria— Who say in pride and arrogance of heart: ¹⁰“The bricks have fallen down, But we will rebuild with hewn stones; The sycamores are cut down, But we will replace them with cedars.” ¹¹Therefore the Lᴏʀᴅ shall set up The adversaries of Rezin against him, And spur his enemies on, ¹²The Syrians before and the Philistines behind; And they shall devour Israel with an open mouth. For all this His anger is not turned away, But His hand is stretched out still. ¹³For the people do not turn to Him who strikes them, Nor do they seek the Lᴏʀᴅ of hosts. ¹⁴Therefore the Lᴏʀᴅ will cut off head and tail from Israel, Palm branch and bulrush in one day. ¹⁵The elder and honorable, he is the head; The prophet who teaches lies, he is the tail. ¹⁶For the leaders of this people cause them to err, And those who are led by them are destroyed. ¹⁷Therefore the Lᴏʀᴅ will have no joy in their young men, Nor have mercy on their fatherless and widows; For everyone is a hypocrite and an evildoer, And every mouth speaks folly. For all this His anger is not turned away, But His hand is stretched out still. ¹⁸For wickedness burns as the fire; It shall devour the briers and thorns, And kindle in the thickets of the forest; They shall mount up like rising smoke. ¹⁹Through the wrath of the Lᴏʀᴅ of hosts The land is burned up, And the people shall be as fuel for the fire; No man shall spare his brother. ²⁰And he shall snatch on the right hand And be hungry; He shall devour on the left hand And not be satisfied; Every man shall eat the flesh of his own arm. ²¹Manasseh shall devour Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh; Together they shall be against Judah. For all this His anger is not turned away, But His hand is stretched out still.

¹My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. ²For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. ³Indeed, we put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. ⁴Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. ⁵Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! ⁶And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. ⁷For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. ⁸But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. ⁹With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. ¹⁰Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. ¹¹Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? ¹²Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh. ¹³Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. ¹⁴But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. ¹⁵This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. ¹⁶For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. ¹⁷But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. ¹⁸Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.