The Lost Books of the Bible: The Great Rejected Texts Read online

  12 And one kid of the goats for a sin offering.

  13 For a sacrifice of peace offering: two oxen, five rams, five male goats, five lambs of a year old.

  14 Thus did the twelve princes of Israel day by day, each man in his day.

  15 It was after this in the thirteenth day of the month, that Moses commanded the children of Israel to observe the Passover.

  16 And the children of Israel kept the Passover in its season in the fourteenth day of the month; as the Lord had commanded Moses, so did the children of Israel.

  17 And in the second month, on the first day thereof, the Lord spoke to Moses saying,

  18 Number the heads of all the males of the children of Israel from twenty years old and upward, you and your brother Aaron and the twelve princes of Israel.

  19 And Moses did so, and Aaron came with the twelve princes of Israel, and they counted the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai.

  20 And the number of the children of Israel by the houses of their fathers, from twenty years old and upward, were six hundred and three thousand, five hundred and fifty.

  21 But the children of Levi were not numbered among their brothers the children of Israel.

  22 And the number of all the males of the children of Israel from one month old and upward, was twenty-two thousand, two hundred and seventy-three.

  23 And the number of the children of Levi from one month old and above, was twenty-two thousand.

  24 Moses placed the priests and the Levites each man to his service and to his burden to serve the sanctuary of the tabernacle, as the Lord had commanded Moses.

  25 And on the twentieth day of the month, the cloud was taken away from the tabernacle of testimony.

  26 At that time the children of Israel continued their journey from the wilderness of Sinai, they took a journey of three days and the cloud rested on the wilderness of Paran; there the anger of the Lord was set ablaze against Israel, for they had provoked the Lord in asking him for meat to eat.

  27 And the Lord listened to their voice, and gave them meat which they ate for one month.

  28 But after this the anger of the Lord was set ablaze against them, and he struck them with a great slaughter, and they were buried there in that place.

  29 The children of Israel called that place Kebroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people that lusted flesh.

  30 And they departed from Kebroth Hattaavah and pitched in Hazeroth, which is in the wilderness of Paran.

  31 And while the children of Israel were in Hazeroth, the anger of the Lord was set ablaze against Miriam on account of Moses, and she became leprous, white as snow.

  32 She was confined outside the camp for seven days until she had been received again after her leprosy.

  33 The children of Israel afterward departed from Hazeroth and camped in the end of the wilderness of Paran.

  34 At that time, the Lord spoke to Moses to send twelve men from the children of Israel, one man to a tribe, to go and explore the land of Canaan.

  35 Moses sent the twelve men and they came to the land of Canaan to search and examine it, and they explored the whole land from the wilderness of Sin to Rechob as you come to Chamoth.

  36 At the end of forty days they came to Moses and Aaron, and they brought him word as it was in their hearts; ten of the men brought up an evil report to the children of Israel, of the land which they had explored saying, It is better for us to return to Egypt than to go to this land, a land that consumes its inhabitants.

  37 But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephuneh, who were of those that explored the land said, The land is very good.

  38 If the Lord delights in us, then he will bring us to this land and give it to us for it is a land flowing with milk and honey.

  39 But the children of Israel would not listen to them, and they listened to the words of the ten men who had brought up an evil report of the land.

  40 The Lord heard the murmurings of the children of Israel and he was angry and swore, saying,

  41 Certainly not one man of this wicked generation shall see the land from twenty years old and upward except Caleb the son of Jephuneh and Joshua the son of Nun.

  42 But certainly this wicked generation shall perish in this wilderness, and their children shall come to the land and they shall possess it. So the anger of the Lord was set ablaze against Israel and he made them wander in the wilderness for forty years until the end of that wicked generation because they did not follow the Lord.

  43 And the people lived in the wilderness of Paran a long time, and they afterward proceeded to the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.

  CHAPTER 84

  1 At that time Korah the son of Jetzer the son of Kehath the son of Levi, took many men of the children of Israel and they rose up and quarreled with Moses and Aaron and the whole congregation.

  2 And the Lord was angry with them and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their houses and all belonging to them, and all the men belonging to Korah.

  3 After this God made the people go round by the way of Mount Seir for a long time.

  4 At that time the Lord said to Moses, Provoke not a war against the children of Esau, for I will not give to you of any thing belonging to them, as much as the sole of the foot could tread on, for I have given Mount Seir for an inheritance to Esau.

  5 Therefore did the children of Esau fight against the children of Seir in former times, and the Lord had delivered the children of Seir into the hands of the children of Esau, and destroyed them from before them and the children of Esau lived in their stead to this day.

  6 So the Lord said to the children of Israel, Fight not against the children of Esau your brothers for nothing in their land belongs to you, but you may buy food of them for money and eat it, and you may buy water of them for money and drink it.

  7 And the children of Israel did according to the word of the Lord.

  8 The children of Israel wandered in the wilderness, going round by the way of Mount Sinai for a long time, and touched not the children of Esau; they continued in that district for nineteen years.

  9 At that time Latinus king of the children of Chittim died, in the forty-fifth year of his reign, which is the fourteenth year of the children of Israel's departure from Egypt.

  10 They buried him in his place which he had built for himself in the land of Chittim, and Abimnas reigned in his place for thirty-eight years.

  11 The children of Israel passed the boundary of the children of Esau in those days, at the end of nineteen years, and they came and passed the road of the wilderness of Moab.

  12 And the Lord said to Moses, Besiege not Moab, and do not fight against them, for I will give you nothing of their land.

  13 And the children of Israel passed the road of the wilderness of Moab for nineteen years, and they did not fight against them.

  14 In the thirty-sixth year of the children of Israel's departing from Egypt the Lord struck the heart of Sihon, king of the Amorites; he waged war and went forth to fight against the children of Moab.

  15 And Sihon sent messengers to Beor the son of Janeas, the son of Balaam, counsellor to the king of Egypt and to Balaam his son, to curse Moab in order that it might be delivered into the hand of Sihon.

  16 And the messengers went and brought Beor the son of Janeas, and Balaam his son, from Pethor in Mesopotamia; so Beor and Balaam his son came to the city of Sihon and they cursed Moab and their king in the presence of Sihon king of the Amorites.

  17 So Sihon went out with his whole army and he went to Moab and fought against them; he subdued them and the Lord delivered them into his hands, and Sihon killed the king of Moab.

  18 Sihon took all the cities of Moab in the battle; he also took Heshbon from them, for Heshbon was one of the cities of Moab, and Sihon placed his princes and his nobles in Heshbon, and Heshbon belonged to Sihon in those days.

  19 Therefore the parable speakers (wise men), Beor and Balaam his son, uttered these words, saying, C
ome to Heshbon, the city of Sihon will be built and established.

  20 Woe to you Moab! You are lost, O people of Kemosh! Behold it is written on the book of the law of God.

  21 And when Sihon had conquered Moab, he placed guards in the cities which he had taken from Moab, and a considerable number of the children of Moab fell in battle into the hand of Sihon; he made a great capture of them, sons and daughters, and he killed their king; so Sihon turned back to his own land.

  22 And Sihon gave numerous presents of silver and gold to Beor and Balaam his son, and he dismissed them, and they went to Mesopotamia to their home and country.

  23 At that time all the children of Israel passed from the road of the wilderness of Moab, and returned and surrounded the wilderness of Edom.

  24 So the whole congregation came to the wilderness of Sin in the first month of the fortieth year from their departure from Egypt, and the children of Israel lived there in Kadesh of the wilderness of Sin, and Miriam died there and she was buried there.

  25 At that time Moses sent messengers to Hadad king of Edom, saying, Thus says your brother Israel, Let me pass I pray you through your land, we will not pass through field or vineyard, we will not drink the water of the well; we will walk in the king's road.

  26 And Edom said to him, You shall not pass through my country. And Edom went forth to meet the children of Israel with a mighty people.

  27 And the children of Esau refused to let the children of Israel pass through their land, so the Israelites left them and did not fight against them.

  28 For before this the Lord had commanded the children of Israel, saying, You shall not fight against the children of Esau. Therefore the Israelites went away from them and did not fight against them.

  29 So the children of Israel departed from Kadesh, and all the people came to Mount Hor.

  30 At that time the Lord said to Moses, Tell your brother Aaron that he shall die there, for he shall not come to the land which I have given to the children of Israel.

  31 And Aaron went up at the command of the Lord to Mount Hor, in the fortieth year, in the fifth month, in the first day of the month.

  32 And Aaron was one hundred and twenty-three years old when he died in Mount Hor.

  CHAPTER 85

  1 The king Arad the Canaanite, who lived in the south, heard that the Israelites had come by the way of the spies, and he arranged his forces to fight against the Israelites.

  2 And the children of Israel were greatly afraid of him, for he had a great and courageous army, so the children of Israel resolved to return to Egypt.

  3 The children of Israel turned back about the distance of three days' journey to Maserath Beni Jaakon, for they were greatly afraid on account of the king Arad.

  4 And the children of Israel would not get back to their places, so they remained in Beni Jaakon for thirty days.

  5 When the children of Levi saw that the children of Israel would not turn back, they were zealous for the sake of the Lord; they rose up and fought against the Israelites their brothers, and killed of them a great many and forced them to turn back to their place, Mount Hor.

  6 And when they returned, king Arad was still arranging his host for battle against the Israelites.

  7 Israel vowed a vow saying, If you will deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities.

  8 The Lord listened to the voice of Israel, and he delivered the Canaanites into their hands; he utterly destroyed them and their cities, and he called the name of the place Hormah.

  9 The children of Israel journeyed from Mount Hor and camped in Oboth, and they journeyed from Oboth and they camped at Ije-abarim, in the border of Moab.

  10 And the children of Israel sent to Moab, saying, Let us pass now through your land into our place, but the children of Moab would not allow the children of Israel to pass through their land, for the children of Moab were greatly afraid that the children of Israel should do to them as Sihon king of the Amorites had done to them, who had taken their land and had slain many of them.

  11 Therefore Moab would not permit the Israelites to pass through his land, and the Lord commanded the children of Israel, saying that they should not fight against Moab, so the Israelites removed themselves from Moab.

  12 And the children of Israel journeyed from the border of Moab; they came to the other side of Arnon, the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites, and they camped on the border of Sihon, king of the Amorites, in the wilderness of Kedemoth.

  13 The children of Israel sent messengers to Sihon, king of the Amorites, saying,

  14 Let us pass through your land; we will not turn into the fields or into the vineyards; we will go along by the king's highway until we shall have passed your border. But Sihon would not let the Israelites pass.

  15 So Sihon collected all the people of the Amorites and went forth into the wilderness to meet the children of Israel, and he fought against Israel in Jahaz.

  16 The Lord delivered Sihon king of the Amorites into the hands of the children of Israel, and Israel struck all the people of Sihon with the edge of the sword and avenged the cause of Moab.

  17 The children of Israel took possession of the land of Sihon from Aram to Jabuk, to the children of Ammon, and they took all the booty of the cities.

  18 Israel took all these cities, and Israel lived in all the cities of the Amorites.

  19 All the children of Israel resolved to fight against the children of Ammon, to take their land also.

  20 So the Lord said to the children of Israel, Do not besiege the children of Ammon, neither stir up battle against them, for I will give nothing to you of their land; the children of Israel listened to the word of the Lord, and did not fight against the children of Ammon.

  21 The children of Israel turned and went up by the way of Bashan to the land of Og, king of Bashan, and Og the king of Bashan went out to meet the Israelites in battle; he had with him many courageous men, and a very strong force from the people of the Amorites.

  22 And Og king of Bashan was a very powerful man, but Naaron his son was greatly powerful, even stronger than he was.

  23 And Og said in his heart, Behold now the whole camp of Israel takes up a space of several miles. Now will I strike them at once without sword or spear.

  24 Og went up Mount Jahaz and took from there one large stone, the length of which was three parsa, and he placed it on his head, and resolved to throw it on the camp of the children of Israel to strike all the Israelites with that stone.

  25 And the angel of the Lord came and pierced the stone on the head of Og, and the stone fell on the neck of Og so that Og fell to the earth on account of the weight of the stone on his neck.

  26 At that time the Lord said to the children of Israel, Be not afraid of him for I have given him and all his people and all his land into your hands, and you shall do to him as you did to Sihon.

  27 Moses went down to him with a small number of the children of Israel, and Moses struck Og with a stick at the ankles of his feet and killed him.

  28 The children of Israel afterward pursued the children of Og and all his people; they beat and destroyed them till there was no remnant left of them.

  29 Moses afterward sent some of the children of Israel to spy out Jaazer, for Jaazer was a very famous city.

  30 The spies went to Jaazer and explored it, and the spies trusted in the Lord; they fought against the men of Jaazer.

  31 These men took Jaazer and its villages and the Lord delivered them into their hands, and they drove out the Amorites who had been there.

  32 And the children of Israel took the land of the two kings of the Amorites, sixty cities which were on the other side of Jordan, from the brook of Arnon to Mount Herman.

  33 The children of Israel journeyed and came into the plain of Moab which is on this side of Jordan, by Jericho.

  34 And the children of Moab heard all the evil which the children of Israel had done to the two kings of the Amorites, to Sihon and Og; so all the men o
f Moab were greatly afraid of the Israelites.

  35 The elders of Moab said, Behold the two kings of the Amorites, Sihon and Og, who were more powerful than all the kings of the earth, if they could not stand against the children of Israel how then can we stand before them?

  36 Certainly they sent us a message before now to pass through our land on their way, and we would not allow them; now they will turn on us with their heavy swords and destroy us. Moab was distressed on account of the children of Israel and they were greatly afraid of them, and they counselled together what was to be done to the children of Israel.

  37 The elders of Moab decided and took one of their men, Balak the son of Zippor the Moabite, and made him king over them at that time, and Balak was a very wise man.

  38 And the elders of Moab rose up and sent to the children of Midian to make peace with them, for a great battle and enmity had been in those days between Moab and Midian, from the days of Hadad the son of Bedad king of Edom, who struck Midian in the field of Moab, to these days.

  39 The children of Moab sent to the children of Midian and made peace with them, and the elders of Midian came to the land of Moab to make peace on behalf of the children of Midian.

  40 And the elders of Moab counselled with the elders of Midian what to do in order to save their lives from Israel.

  41 All the children of Moab said to the elders of Midian, The children of Israel shall lick up all that are round about us, as the ox licks up the grass of the field, for thus did they do to the two kings of the Amorites who are stronger than we are.

  42 The elders of Midian said to Moab, We have heard that at the time when Sihon king of the Amorites fought against you, when he prevailed over you and took your land, he had sent to Beor the son of Janeas and to Balaam his son from Mesopotamia, and they came and cursed you; therefore did the hand of Sihon prevail over you, that he took your land.

  43 Now therefore you send also to Balaam his son for he still remains in his land and give him his wage, that he may come and curse all the people of whom you are afraid; so the elders of Moab heard this thing, and it pleased them to send to Balaam the son of Beor.