The Murmuring of Miriam and Aaron

12 Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married (for he had married a ^(A)Cushite woman); ^2 (B)and they said, “Is it a fact that the Lord has spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us as well?” And the Lord heard this. ³ (Now the man Moses was ^(C)very humble, more than any person who was on the face of the earth.) ⁴ And the Lord suddenly said to Moses and to Aaron and Miriam, “You three go out to the tent of meeting.” So the three of them went out. ^5 (D)Then the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the tent; and He called Aaron and Miriam. When they had both come forward, ⁶ He said,

⁹ And the anger of the Lord burned against them and ^(K)He departed. ¹⁰ But when the cloud had withdrawn from above the tent, behold, ^(L)Miriam was leprous, as ^(M)white as snow. As Aaron turned toward Miriam, behold, she was leprous. ¹¹ Then Aaron said to Moses, “Oh, my lord, I beg you, ^(N)do not ^[c]hold us responsible for this sin by which we have turned out to be foolish, and by which we have sinned. ¹² Oh, do not let her be like a dead person, whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes out of his mother’s womb!” ¹³ So Moses cried out to the Lord, saying, “God, ^(O)heal her, please!” ¹⁴ But the Lord said to Moses, “If her father had only ^(P)spit in her face, would she not be put to shame for seven days? Have her shut ^(Q)outside the camp for seven days, and afterward she may be received again.” ¹⁵ So ^(R)Miriam was shut outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on until Miriam was received again.

¹⁶ Afterward, however, the people moved on from Hazeroth and camped in the wilderness of Paran.

Spies View the Land

13 Then ^(S)the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “^(T)Send out men for yourself to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am going to give the sons of Israel; you shall send a man from each of their fathers’ tribes, every one a leader among them.” ³ So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran at the ^[d]command of the Lord, all of them men who were heads of the sons of Israel. ⁴ These then were their names: from the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur; ⁵ from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori; ⁶ from the tribe of Judah, ^(U)Caleb the son of Jephunneh; ⁷ from the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph; ⁸ from the tribe of Ephraim, ^(V)Hoshea the son of Nun; ⁹ from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu; ¹⁰ from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi; ¹¹ from the tribe of Joseph, from the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi; ¹² from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli; ¹³ from the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael; ¹⁴ from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi; ¹⁵ and from the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi. ¹⁶ These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land; but Moses called ^(W)Hoshea the son of Nun, ^[e]Joshua.

¹⁷ When Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, he said to them, “Go up there into ^(X)the ^[f]Negev; then go up into the hill country. ¹⁸ 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 how is the land in which they live, is it good or bad? And how are the cities in which they live, are the people in open camps or in fortifications? ²⁰ And ^(Y)how is the land, is it ^[g]productive or unproductive? Are there trees in it or not? And ^(Z)show yourselves courageous and get some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes.

²¹ So they went up and spied out the land from ^(AA)the wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob, ^[h](AB)at Lebo-hamath. ²² When they had gone up into ^(AC)the Negev, ^[i]they came to Hebron where ^(AD)Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the ^[j]descendants of ^(AE)Anak were. (Hebron was built seven years before ^(AF)Zoan in Egypt.)

²³ Then they came to the ^[k]Valley of ^[l](AG)Eshcol, and from there they cut off a branch with a single cluster of grapes; and they carried it on a pole between two men, with some of the pomegranates and the figs. ²⁴ That place was called the Valley of ^[m]Eshcol, because of the cluster which the sons of Israel cut off from there.

The Spies’ Reports

²⁵ When they returned from spying out the land, at the end of forty days, ²⁶ they went on and came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, ^[n]in the wilderness of Paran at ^(AH)Kadesh; and they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. ²⁷ So they reported to him and said, “We came into the land where you sent us, and ^(AI)it certainly does flow with milk and honey, and ^(AJ)this is its fruit. ²⁸ Nevertheless, ^(AK)the people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And indeed, we saw ^(AL)the ^[o]descendants of Anak there! ²⁹ Amalek is living in the land of ^(AM)the Negev, the Hittites, the Jebusites, and ^(AN)the Amorites are living in the hill country, and ^(AO)the Canaanites are living by the sea and by the side of the Jordan.”

³⁰ Then Caleb quieted the people ^[p]before Moses and said, “We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will certainly prevail over it.” ³¹ But the men who had gone up with him said, “^(AP)We are not able to go up against the people, because they are too strong for us.” ³² So they brought ^(AQ)a bad report of the land which they had spied out to the sons of Israel, saying, “The land through which we have gone to spy out is ^(AR)a land that devours its inhabitants; and ^(AS)all the people whom we saw in it are people of great stature. ³³ We also saw the ^[q](AT)Nephilim there (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and ^(AU)we were like ^[r]grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”

The Foolishness of Trusting in Riches.

For the music director. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.