Bible-Reading.comNumbers 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.
Numbers 15
1The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
2“Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘When you have come into the land of your habitations, which I give to you,
3and will make an offering by fire to the LORD—a burnt offering, or a sacrifice, to accomplish a vow, or as a free will offering, or in your set feasts, to make a pleasant aroma to the LORD, of the herd, or of the flock—
4then he who offers his offering shall offer to the LORD a meal offering of one tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with one fourth of a hin of oil.
5You shall prepare wine for the drink offering, one fourth of a hin, with the burnt offering or for the sacrifice, for each lamb.
6“‘For a ram, you shall prepare for a meal offering two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with the third part of a hin of oil;
7and for the drink offering you shall offer the third part of a hin of wine, of a pleasant aroma to the LORD.
8When you prepare a bull for a burnt offering or for a sacrifice, to accomplish a vow, or for peace offerings to the LORD,
9then he shall offer with the bull a meal offering of three tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with half a hin of oil;
10and you shall offer for the drink offering half a hin of wine, for an offering made by fire, of a pleasant aroma to the LORD.
11Thus it shall be done for each bull, for each ram, for each of the male lambs, or of the young goats.
12According to the number that you shall prepare, so you shall do to everyone according to their number.
13“‘All who are native-born shall do these things in this way, in offering an offering made by fire, of a pleasant aroma to the LORD.
14If a stranger lives as a foreigner with you, or whoever may be among you throughout your generations, and will offer an offering made by fire, of a pleasant aroma to the LORD, as you do, so he shall do.
15For the assembly, there shall be one statute for you and for the stranger who lives as a foreigner, a statute forever throughout your generations. As you are, so the foreigner shall be before the LORD.
16One law and one ordinance shall be for you and for the stranger who lives as a foreigner with you.’”
17The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
18“Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘When you come into the land where I bring you,
19then it shall be that when you eat of the bread of the land, you shall offer up a wave offering to the LORD.
20Of the first of your dough you shall offer up a cake for a wave offering. As the wave offering of the threshing floor, so you shall heave it.
21Of the first of your dough, you shall give to the LORD a wave offering throughout your generations.
22“‘When you err, and don’t observe all these commandments which the LORD has spoken to Moses—
23even all that the LORD has commanded you by Moses, from the day that the LORD gave commandment and onward throughout your generations—
24then it shall be, if it was done unwittingly, without the knowledge of the congregation, that all the congregation shall offer one young bull for a burnt offering, for a pleasant aroma to the LORD, with its meal offering and its drink offering, according to the ordinance, and one male goat for a sin offering.
25The priest shall make atonement for all the congregation of the children of Israel, and they shall be forgiven; for it was an error, and they have brought their offering, an offering made by fire to the LORD, and their sin offering before the LORD, for their error.
26All the congregation of the children of Israel shall be forgiven, as well as the stranger who lives as a foreigner among them; for with regard to all the people, it was done unwittingly.
27“‘If a person sins unwittingly, then he shall offer a female goat a year old for a sin offering.
28The priest shall make atonement for the soul who errs when he sins unwittingly before the LORD. He shall make atonement for him; and he shall be forgiven.
29You shall have one law for him who does anything unwittingly, for him who is native-born among the children of Israel, and for the stranger who lives as a foreigner among them.
30“‘But the soul who does anything with a high hand, whether he is native-born or a foreigner, blasphemes the LORD. That soul shall be cut off from among his people.
31Because he has despised the LORD’s word, and has broken his commandment, that soul shall be utterly cut off. His iniquity shall be on him.’”
32While the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day.
33Those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron, and to all the congregation.
34They put him in custody, because it had not been declared what should be done to him.
35The LORD said to Moses, “The man shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him with stones outside of the camp.”
36All the congregation brought him outside of the camp, and stoned him to death with stones, as the LORD commanded Moses.
37The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
38“Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them that they should make themselves fringes on the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put on the fringe of each border a cord of blue.
39It shall be to you for a fringe, that you may see it, and remember all the LORD’s commandments, and do them; and that you don’t follow your own heart and your own eyes, after which you used to play the prostitute;
40so that you may remember and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God.
41I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the LORD your God.”
Numbers 16
1Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, with Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took some men.
2They rose up before Moses, with some of the children of Israel, two hundred fifty princes of the congregation, called to the assembly, men of renown.
3They assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said to them, “You take too much on yourself, since all the congregation are holy, everyone of them, and the LORD is among them! Why do you lift yourselves up above the LORD’s assembly?”
4When Moses heard it, he fell on his face.
5He said to Korah and to all his company, “In the morning, the LORD will show who are his, and who is holy, and will cause him to come near to him. Even him whom he shall choose, he will cause to come near to him.
6Do this: have Korah and all his company take censers,
7put fire in them, and put incense on them before the LORD tomorrow. It shall be that the man whom the LORD chooses, he shall be holy. You have gone too far, you sons of Levi!”
8Moses said to Korah, “Hear now, you sons of Levi!
9Is it a small thing to you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to himself, to do the service of the LORD’s tabernacle, and to stand before the congregation to minister to them;
10and that he has brought you near, and all your brothers the sons of Levi with you? Do you seek the priesthood also?
11Therefore you and all your company have gathered together against the LORD! What is Aaron that you complain against him?”
12Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab; and they said, “We won’t come up!
13Is it a small thing that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, but you must also make yourself a prince over us?
14Moreover you haven’t brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, nor given us inheritance of fields and vineyards. Will you put out the eyes of these men? We won’t come up.”
15Moses was very angry, and said to the LORD, “Don’t respect their offering. I have not taken one donkey from them, neither have I hurt one of them.”
16Moses said to Korah, “You and all your company go before the LORD, you, and they, and Aaron, tomorrow.
17Each man take his censer and put incense on it, and each man bring before the LORD his censer, two hundred fifty censers; you also, and Aaron, each with his censer.”
18They each took his censer, and put fire in it, and laid incense on it, and stood at the door of the Tent of Meeting with Moses and Aaron.
19Korah assembled all the congregation opposite them to the door of the Tent of Meeting. The LORD’s glory appeared to all the congregation.
20The LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,
21“Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment!”
22They fell on their faces, and said, “God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and will you be angry with all the congregation?”
23The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
24“Speak to the congregation, saying, ‘Get away from around the tent of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram!’”
25Moses rose up and went to Dathan and Abiram; and the elders of Israel followed him.
26He spoke to the congregation, saying, “Depart, please, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest you be consumed in all their sins!”
27So they went away from the tent of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, on every side. Dathan and Abiram came out, and stood at the door of their tents with their wives, their sons, and their little ones.
28Moses said, “Hereby you shall know that the LORD has sent me to do all these works; for they are not from my own mind.
29If these men die the common death of all men, or if they experience what all men experience, then the LORD hasn’t sent me.
30But if the LORD makes a new thing, and the ground opens its mouth, and swallows them up with all that belong to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then you shall understand that these men have despised the LORD.”
31As he finished speaking all these words, the ground that was under them split apart.
32The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up with their households, all of Korah’s men, and all their goods.
33So they, and all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol. The earth closed on them, and they perished from among the assembly.
34All Israel that were around them fled at their cry; for they said, “Lest the earth swallow us up!”
35Fire came out from the LORD, and devoured the two hundred fifty men who offered the incense.
36The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
37“Speak to Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, that he take up the censers out of the burning, and scatter the fire away from the camp; for they are holy,
38even the censers of those who sinned against their own lives. Let them be beaten into plates for a covering of the altar, for they offered them before the LORD. Therefore they are holy. They shall be a sign to the children of Israel.”
39Eleazar the priest took the bronze censers which those who were burned had offered; and they beat them out for a covering of the altar,
40to be a memorial to the children of Israel, to the end that no stranger who isn’t of the offspring of Aaron, would come near to burn incense before the LORD, that he not be as Korah and as his company; as the LORD spoke to him by Moses.
41But on the next day all the congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and against Aaron, saying, “You have killed the LORD’s people!”
42When the congregation was assembled against Moses and against Aaron, they looked toward the Tent of Meeting. Behold, the cloud covered it, and the LORD’s glory appeared.
43Moses and Aaron came to the front of the Tent of Meeting.
44The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
45“Get away from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment!” They fell on their faces.
46Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer, put fire from the altar in it, lay incense on it, carry it quickly to the congregation, and make atonement for them; for wrath has gone out from the LORD! The plague has begun.”
47Aaron did as Moses said, and ran into the middle of the assembly. The plague had already begun among the people. He put on the incense, and made atonement for the people.
48He stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed.
49Now those who died by the plague were fourteen thousand seven hundred, in addition to those who died about the matter of Korah.
50Aaron returned to Moses to the door of the Tent of Meeting, and the plague was stopped.