Numbers 11-14

Numbers 11

¹The people were complaining in the ears of the LORD. When the LORD heard it, his anger burned; and the LORD’s fire burned among them, and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp.

²The people cried to Moses; and Moses prayed to the LORD, and the fire abated.

³The name of that place was called Taberah, because the LORD’s fire burned among them.

⁴The mixed multitude that was among them lusted exceedingly; and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, “Who will give us meat to eat?

⁵We remember the fish, which we ate in Egypt for nothing; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic;

⁶but now we have lost our appetite. There is nothing at all except this manna to look at.”

⁷The manna was like coriander seed, and it looked like bdellium.

⁸The people went around, gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in mortars, and boiled it in pots, and made cakes of it. Its taste was like the taste of fresh oil.

⁹When the dew fell on the camp in the night, the manna fell on it.

¹⁰Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, every man at the door of his tent; and the LORD’s anger burned greatly; and Moses was displeased.

¹¹Moses said to the LORD, “Why have you treated your servant so badly? Why haven’t I found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me?

¹²Have I conceived all this people? Have I brought them out, that you should tell me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a nursing infant, to the land which you swore to their fathers’?

¹³Where could I get meat to give all these people? For they weep before me, saying, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’

¹⁴I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me.

¹⁵If you treat me this way, please kill me right now, if I have found favor in your sight; and don’t let me see my wretchedness.”

¹⁶The LORD said to Moses, “Gather to me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them; and bring them to the Tent of Meeting, that they may stand there with you.

¹⁷I will come down and talk with you there. I will take of the Spirit which is on you, and will put it on them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you don’t bear it yourself alone.

¹⁸“Say to the people, ‘Sanctify yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, and you will eat meat; for you have wept in the ears of the LORD, saying, “Who will give us meat to eat? For it was well with us in Egypt.” Therefore the LORD will give you meat, and you will eat.

¹⁹You will not eat just one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days,

²⁰but a whole month, until it comes out at your nostrils, and it is loathsome to you; because you have rejected the LORD who is among you, and have wept before him, saying, “Why did we come out of Egypt?”’”

²¹Moses said, “The people, among whom I am, are six hundred thousand men on foot; and you have said, ‘I will give them meat, that they may eat a whole month.’

²²Shall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, to be sufficient for them? Shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to be sufficient for them?”

²³The LORD said to Moses, “Has the LORD’s hand grown short? Now you will see whether my word will happen to you or not.”

²⁴Moses went out, and told the people the LORD’s words; and he gathered seventy men of the elders of the people, and set them around the Tent.

²⁵The LORD came down in the cloud, and spoke to him, and took of the Spirit that was on him, and put it on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but they did so no more.

²⁶But two men remained in the camp. The name of one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad; and the Spirit rested on them. They were of those who were written, but had not gone out to the Tent; and they prophesied in the camp.

²⁷A young man ran, and told Moses, and said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp!”

²⁸Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his chosen men, answered, “My lord Moses, forbid them!”

²⁹Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the LORD’s people were prophets, that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!”

³⁰Moses went into the camp, he and the elders of Israel.

³¹A wind from the LORD went out and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, about a day’s journey on this side, and a day’s journey on the other side, around the camp, and about two cubits above the surface of the earth.

³²The people rose up all that day, and all of that night, and all the next day, and gathered the quails. He who gathered least gathered ten homers; and they spread them all out for themselves around the camp.

³³While the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the LORD’s anger burned against the people, and the LORD struck the people with a very great plague.

³⁴The name of that place was called Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who lusted.

³⁵From Kibroth Hattaavah the people traveled to Hazeroth; and they stayed at Hazeroth.

Numbers 12

¹Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married; for he had married a Cushite woman.

²They said, “Has the LORD indeed spoken only with Moses? Hasn’t he spoken also with us?” And the LORD heard it.

³Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all the men who were on the surface of the earth.

⁴The LORD spoke suddenly to Moses, to Aaron, and to Miriam, “You three come out to the Tent of Meeting!” The three of them came out.

⁵The LORD came down in a pillar of cloud, and stood at the door of the Tent, and called Aaron and Miriam; and they both came forward.

⁶He said, “Now hear my words. If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, will make myself known to him in a vision. I will speak with him in a dream.

⁷My servant Moses is not so. He is faithful in all my house.

⁸With him, I will speak mouth to mouth, even plainly, and not in riddles; and he shall see the LORD’s form. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant, against Moses?”

⁹The LORD’s anger burned against them; and he departed.

¹⁰The cloud departed from over the Tent; and behold, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow. Aaron looked at Miriam, and behold, she was leprous.

¹¹Aaron said to Moses, “Oh, my lord, please don’t count this sin against us, in which we have done foolishly, and in which we have sinned.

¹²Let her not, I pray, be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he comes out of his mother’s womb.”

¹³Moses cried to the LORD, saying, “Heal her, God, I beg you!”

¹⁴The LORD said to Moses, “If her father had but spit in her face, shouldn’t she be ashamed seven days? Let her be shut up outside of the camp seven days, and after that she shall be brought in again.”

¹⁵Miriam was shut up outside of the camp seven days, and the people didn’t travel until Miriam was brought in again.

¹⁶Afterward the people traveled from Hazeroth, and encamped in the wilderness of Paran.

Numbers 13

¹The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

²“Send men, that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel. Of every tribe of their fathers, you shall send a man, every one a prince among them.”

³Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran according to the commandment of the LORD. All of them were men who were heads of the children of Israel.

⁴These were their names: Of the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur.

⁵Of the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori.

⁶Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh.

⁷Of the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph.

⁸Of the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Nun.

⁹Of the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu.

¹⁰Of the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi.

¹¹Of the tribe of Joseph, of the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi.

¹²Of the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli.

¹³Of the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael.

¹⁴Of the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi.

¹⁵Of the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi.

¹⁶These are the names of the men who Moses sent to spy out the land. Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun Joshua.

¹⁷Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, “Go up this way by the South, and go up into the hill country.

¹⁸See the land, what it is; and the people who dwell therein, whether they are strong or weak, whether they are few or many;

¹⁹and what the land is that they dwell in, whether it is good or bad; and what cities they are that they dwell in, whether in camps, or in strongholds;

²⁰and what the land is, whether it is fertile or poor, whether there is wood therein, or not. Be courageous, and bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the time of the first-ripe grapes.

²¹So they went up, and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, to the entrance of Hamath.

²²They went up by the South, and came to Hebron; and Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were there. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)

²³They came to the valley of Eshcol, and cut down from there a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bore it on a staff between two. They also brought some of the pomegranates and figs.

²⁴That place was called the valley of Eshcol, because of the cluster which the children of Israel cut down from there.

²⁵They returned from spying out the land at the end of forty days.

²⁶They went and came to Moses, to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, to the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word to them and to all the congregation. They showed them the fruit of the land.

²⁷They told him, and said, “We came to the land where you sent us. Surely it flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.

²⁸However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. Moreover, we saw the children of Anak there.

²⁹Amalek dwells in the land of the South. The Hittite, the Jebusite, and the Amorite dwell in the hill country. The Canaanite dwells by the sea, and along the side of the Jordan.”

³⁰Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, “Let’s go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it!”

³¹But the men who went up with him said, “We aren’t able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.”

³²They brought up an evil report of the land which they had spied out to the children of Israel, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that eats up its inhabitants; and all the people who we saw in it are men of great stature.

³³There we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim. We were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.”

Numbers 14

¹All the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.

²All the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “We wish that we had died in the land of Egypt, or that we had died in this wilderness!

³Why does the LORD bring us to this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will be captured or killed! Wouldn’t it be better for us to return into Egypt?”

⁴They said to one another, “Let’s choose a leader, and let’s return into Egypt.”

⁵Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.

⁶Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were of those who spied out the land, tore their clothes.

⁷They spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, “The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land.

⁸If the LORD delights in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it to us: a land which flows with milk and honey.

⁹Only don’t rebel against the LORD, neither fear the people of the land; for they are bread for us. Their defense is removed from over them, and the LORD is with us. Don’t fear them.”

¹⁰But all the congregation threatened to stone them with stones. The LORD’s glory appeared in the Tent of Meeting to all the children of Israel.

¹¹The LORD said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? How long will they not believe in me, for all the signs which I have worked among them?

¹²I will strike them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”

¹³Moses said to the LORD, “Then the Egyptians will hear it; for you brought up this people in your might from among them.

¹⁴They will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you LORD are among this people; for you LORD are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them, and you go before them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night.

¹⁵Now if you killed this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of you will speak, saying,

¹⁶‘Because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land which he swore to them, therefore he has slain them in the wilderness.’

¹⁷Now please let the power of the Lord be great, according as you have spoken, saying,

¹⁸‘The LORD is slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, forgiving iniquity and disobedience; and he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation.’

¹⁹Please pardon the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your loving kindness, and just as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.”

²⁰The LORD said, “I have pardoned according to your word;

²¹but in very deed—as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the LORD’s glory—

²²because all those men who have seen my glory and my signs, which I worked in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tempted me these ten times, and have not listened to my voice;

²³surely they shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers, neither shall any of those who despised me see it.

²⁴But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and has followed me fully, him I will bring into the land into which he went. His offspring shall possess it.

²⁵Since the Amalekite and the Canaanite dwell in the valley, tomorrow turn and go into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.”

²⁶The LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,

²⁷“How long shall I bear with this evil congregation that complain against me? I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel, which they complain against me.

²⁸Tell them, ‘As I live, says the LORD, surely as you have spoken in my ears, so I will do to you.

²⁹Your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and all who were counted of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, who have complained against me,

³⁰surely you shall not come into the land concerning which I swore that I would make you dwell therein, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.

³¹But I will bring in your little ones that you said should be captured or killed, and they shall know the land which you have rejected.

³²But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness.

³³Your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your prostitution, until your dead bodies are consumed in the wilderness.

³⁴After the number of the days in which you spied out the land, even forty days, for every day a year, you will bear your iniquities, even forty years, and you will know my alienation.’

³⁵I, the LORD, have spoken. I will surely do this to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against me. In this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.”

³⁶The men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation to murmur against him by bringing up an evil report against the land,

³⁷even those men who brought up an evil report of the land, died by the plague before the LORD.

³⁸But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive of those men who went to spy out the land.

³⁹Moses told these words to all the children of Israel, and the people mourned greatly.

⁴⁰They rose up early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, “Behold, we are here, and will go up to the place which the LORD has promised; for we have sinned.”

⁴¹Moses said, “Why now do you disobey the commandment of the LORD, since it shall not prosper?

⁴²Don’t go up, for the LORD isn’t among you; that way you won’t be struck down before your enemies.

⁴³For there the Amalekite and the Canaanite are before you, and you will fall by the sword because you turned back from following the LORD; therefore the LORD will not be with you.”

⁴⁴But they presumed to go up to the top of the mountain. Nevertheless, the ark of the LORD’s covenant and Moses didn’t depart out of the camp.

⁴⁵Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites who lived in that mountain, and struck them and beat them down even to Hormah.