NUMBERS 11
1 Now when the people complained in the hearing of the Lord about
their misfortunes, the Lord heard it and his anger was kindled. Then the fire
of the Lord burned against them, and consumed some outlying parts of the
camp.
2 But the people cried out to Moses; and Moses prayed to the Lord, and the
fire abated.
3 So that place was called Taberah, because the fire of the Lord
burned against them.
4 The rabble among them had a strong craving; and the Israelites
also wept again, and said, "If only we had meat to eat!
5 We remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt for nothing, the
cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic;
6 but now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but
this manna to look at."
7 Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its colour was like the
colour of gum resin.
8 The people went around and gathered it, ground it in mills or beat
it in mortars, then boiled it in pots and made cakes of it; and the taste of it
was like the taste of cakes baked with oil.
9 When the dew fell on the camp in the night, the manna would fall
with it.
10 Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, all at
the entrances of their tents. Then the Lord became very angry, and Moses was
displeased.
11 So Moses said to the Lord, "Why have you treated your servant
so badly? Why have I not found favour in your sight, that you lay the burden of
all this people on me?
12 Did I conceive all this people? Did I give birth to them, that you
should say to me, "Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a sucking
child,' to the land that you promised on oath to their ancestors?
13 Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they come
weeping to me and say, "give us meat to eat!'
14 I am not able to carry all this people alone, for they are too
heavy for me.
15 If this is the way you are going to treat me, put me to death at
once—if I have found favour in your sight—and do not let me see my
misery."
16 So the Lord said to Moses, "Gather for me seventy of the
elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers
over them; bring them to the tent of meeting, and have them take their place
there with you.
17 I will come down and talk with you there; and I will take some of
the spirit that is on you and put it on them; and they shall bear the burden of
the people along with you so that you will not bear it all by yourself.
18 And say to the people: Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you
shall eat meat; for you have wailed in the hearing of the Lord, saying,
"If only we had meat to eat! Surely it was better for us in Egypt.'
Therefore the Lord will give you meat, and you shall eat.
19 You shall eat not only one day, or two days, or five days, or ten
days, or twenty days,
20 but for a whole month—until it comes out of your nostrils and
becomes loathsome to you—because you have rejected the Lord who is among you,
and have wailed before him, saying, "Why did we ever leave Egypt?'
"
21 But Moses said, "The people I am with number six hundred
thousand on foot; and you say, "I will give them meat, that they may eat
for a whole month'!
22 Are there enough flocks and herds to slaughter for them? Are there
enough fish in the sea to catch for them?"
23 The Lord said to Moses, "Is the Lord's power limited? Now you
shall see whether my word will come true for you or not."
24 So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord; and
he gathered seventy elders of the people, and placed them all around the
tent.
25 Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took
some of the spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders; and when
the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But they did not do so
again.
26 Two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named
Medad, and the spirit rested on them; they were among those registered, but
they had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp.
27 And a young man ran and told Moses, "Eldad and Medad are
prophesying in the camp."
28 And Joshua son of Nun, the assistant of Moses, one of his chosen
men, said, "My lord Moses, stop them!"
29 But Moses said to him, "Are you jealous for my sake? Would
that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his
spirit on them!"
30 And Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp.
31 Then a wind went out from the Lord, and it brought quails from the sea
and let them fall beside the camp, about a day's journey on this side and a
day's journey on the other side, all around the camp, about two cubits deep on
the ground.
32 So the people worked all that day and night and all the next day,
gathering the quails; the least anyone gathered was ten homers; and they spread
them out for themselves all around the camp.
33 But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was
consumed, the anger of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord
struck the people with a very great plague.
34 So that place was called Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they
buried the people who had the craving.
35 From Kibroth-hattaavah the people journeyed to Hazeroth.
NUMBERS 12
1 While they were at Hazeroth, Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses
because of the Cushite woman whom he had married (for he had indeed married a
Cushite woman);
2 and they said, "Has the Lord spoken only through Moses? Has
he not spoken through us also?" And the Lord heard it.
3 Now the man Moses was very humble, more so than anyone else on the
face of the earth.
4 Suddenly the Lord said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, "Come
out, you three, to the tent of meeting." So the three of them came
out.
5 Then the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud, and stood at the
entrance of the tent, and called Aaron and Miriam; and they both came
forward.
6 And he said, "Hear my words: When there are prophets among
you, I the Lord make myself known to them in visions; I speak to them in
dreams.
7 Not so with my servant Moses; he is entrusted with all my
house.
8 With him I speak face to face—clearly, not in riddles; and he
beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my
servant Moses?"
9 And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, and he
departed.
10 When the cloud went away from over the tent, Miriam had become
leprous, as white as snow. And Aaron turned towards Miriam and saw that she was
leprous.
11 Then Aaron said to Moses, "Oh, my lord, do not punish us for
a sin that we have so foolishly committed.
12 Do not let her be like one stillborn, whose flesh is half consumed
when it comes out of its mother's womb."
13 And Moses cried to the Lord, "O God, please heal
her."
14 But the Lord said to Moses, "If her father had but spit in
her face, would she not bear her shame for seven days? Let her be shut out of
the camp for seven days, and after that she may be brought in
again."
15 So Miriam was shut out of the camp for seven days; and the people
did not set out on the march until Miriam had been brought in again.
16 After that the people set out from Hazeroth, and camped in the
wilderness of Paran.
NUMBERS 13
1 The Lord said to Moses,
2 "Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to
the Israelites; from each of their ancestral tribes you shall send a man,
everyone a leader among them."
3 So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran, according to the
command of the Lord, all of them leading men among the Israelites.
4 These were their names: From the tribe of Reuben, Shammua son of
Zaccur;
5 from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat son of Hori;
6 from the tribe of Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh;
7 from the tribe of Issachar, Igal son of Joseph;
8 from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea son of Nun;
9 from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti son of Raphu;
10 from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel son of Sodi;
11 from the tribe of Joseph (that is, from the tribe of Manasseh),
Gaddi son of Susi;
12 from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel son of Gemalli;
13 from the tribe of Asher, Sethur son of Michael;
14 from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi son of Vophsi;
15 from the tribe of Gad, Geuel son of Machi.
16 These were the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the
land. And Moses changed the name of Hoshea son of Nun to Joshua.
17 Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them,
"Go up there into the Negeb and go up into the hill country,
18 and see what the land is like, and whether the people who live in
it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many,
19 and whether the land they live in is good or bad, and whether the
towns that they live in are unwalled or fortified,
20 and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees
in it or not. Be bold, and bring some of the fruit of the land." Now it
was the season of the first ripe grapes.
21 So they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin
to Rehob, near Lebo-hamath.
22 They went up into the Negeb, and came to Hebron; and Ahiman,
Sheshai, and Talmai, the Anakites, were there. (Hebron was built seven years
before Zoan in Egypt.)
23 And they came to the Wadi Eshcol, and cut down from there a branch
with a single cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a pole between two of
them. They also brought some pomegranates and figs.
24 That place was called the Wadi Eshcol, because of the cluster that the
Israelites cut down from there.
25 At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the
land.
26 And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of
the Israelites in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to
them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land.
27 And they told him, "We came to the land to which you sent us;
it flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.
28 Yet the people who live in the land are strong, and the towns are
fortified and very large; and besides, we saw the descendants of Anak
there.
29 The Amalekites live in the land of the Negeb; the Hittites, the
Jebusites, and the Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live
by the sea, and along the Jordan."
30 But Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, "Let us
go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it."
31 Then the men who had gone up with him said, "We are not able
to go up against this people, for they are stronger than we."
32 So they brought to the Israelites an unfavourable report of the
land that they had spied out, saying, "The land that we have gone through
as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people that we saw
in it are of great size.
33 There we saw the Nephilim (the Anakites come from the Nephilim);
and to ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them."
NUMBERS 14
1 Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept
that night.
2 And all the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron; the
whole congregation said to them, "Would that we had died in the land of
Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness!
3 Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword?
Our wives and our little ones will become booty; would it not be better for us
to go back to Egypt?"
4 So they said to one another, "Let us choose a captain, and go
back to Egypt."
5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly
of the congregation of the Israelites.
6 And Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among
those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes
7 and said to all the congregation of the Israelites, "The land
that we went through as spies is an exceedingly good land.
8 If the Lord is pleased with us, he will bring us into this land
and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey.
9 Only, do not rebel against the Lord; and do not fear the people of
the land, for they are no more than bread for us; their protection is removed
from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them."
10 But the whole congregation threatened to stone them. Then the
glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the Israelites.
11 And the Lord said to Moses, "How long will this people
despise me? And how long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the
signs that I have done among them?
12 I will strike them with pestilence and disinherit them, and I will
make of you a nation greater and mightier than they."
13 But Moses said to the Lord, "Then the Egyptians will hear of
it, for in your might you brought up this people from among them,
14 and they will tell the inhabitants of this land. They have heard
that you, O Lord, are in the midst of this people; for you, O Lord, are seen
face to face, and your cloud stands over them and you go in front of them, in a
pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night.
15 Now if you kill this people all at one time, then the nations who have
heard about you will say,
16 "It is because the Lord was not able to bring this people
into the land he swore to give them that he has slaughtered them in the
wilderness.'
17 And now, therefore, let the power of the Lord be great in the way
that you promised when you spoke, saying,
18 "The Lord is slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love,
forgiving iniquity and transgression, but by no means clearing the guilty,
visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children to the third and the
fourth generation.'
19 Forgive the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of
your steadfast love, just as you have pardoned this people, from Egypt even
until now."
20 Then the Lord said, "I do forgive, just as you have
asked;
21 nevertheless—as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with
the glory of the Lord—
22 none of the people who have seen my glory and the signs that I did
in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have tested me these ten times and have
not obeyed my voice,
23 shall see the land that I swore to give to their ancestors; none
of those who despised me shall see it.
24 But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has
followed me wholeheartedly, I will bring into the land into which he went, and
his descendants shall possess it.
25 Now, since the Amalekites and the Canaanites live in the valleys
turn tomorrow and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red
Sea."
26 And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying:
27 How long shall this wicked congregation complain against me? I
have heard the complaints of the Israelites, which they complain against me.
28 Say to them, "As I live," says the Lord, "I will do
to you the very things I heard you say:
29 your dead bodies shall fall in this very wilderness; and of all
your number, included in the census, from twenty years old and upward, who have
complained against me,
30 not one of you shall come into the land in which I swore to settle
you, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.
31 But your little ones, who you said would become booty, I will
bring in, and they shall know the land that you have despised.
32 But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this
wilderness.
33 And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness for forty
years, and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead
bodies lies in the wilderness.
34 According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land,
forty days, for every day a year, you shall bear your iniquity, forty years,
and you shall know my displeasure."
35 I the Lord have spoken; surely I will do thus to all this wicked
congregation gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come
to a full end, and there they shall die.
36 And the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and
made all the congregation complain against him by bringing a bad report about
the land—
37 the men who brought an unfavourable report about the land died by
a plague before the Lord.
38 But Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh alone remained
alive, of those men who went to spy out the land.
39 When Moses told these words to all the Israelites, the people
mourned greatly.
40 They rose early in the morning and went up to the heights of the
hill country, saying, "Here we are. We will go up to the place that the
Lord has promised, for we have sinned."
41 But Moses said, "Why do you continue to transgress the
command of the Lord? That will not succeed.
42 Do not go up, for the Lord is not with you; do not let yourselves
be struck down before your enemies.
43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites will confront you there, and
you shall fall by the sword; because you have turned back from following the
Lord, the Lord will not be with you."
44 But they presumed to go up to the heights of the hill country,
even though the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and Moses, had not left the
camp.
45 Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill
country came down and defeated them, pursuing them as far as Hormah.
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