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.^{(A) 11} So Moses said to the Lord, “Why have you treated your servant so badly? Why have I not found favor 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 wet nurse carries a nursing child, to the land that you promised on oath to their ancestors’?^{(B) 13} Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they come weeping to me, saying, ‘Give us meat to eat!’^{(C) 14} I am not able to carry all this people alone, for they are too heavy for me.^{(D) 15} If this is the way you are going to treat me, put me to death at once—if I have found favor in your sight—and do not let me see my misery.”^(E)

The Seventy Elders

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.^{(F) 17} I will come down and speak 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.^{(G) 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.^{(H) 19} You shall eat not only one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days,^{(I) 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?”^{(J) 23} The Lord said to Moses, “Is the Lord’s power limited?^[a] Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not.”^(K)

²⁴ So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord, and he gathered seventy of the elders of the people and placed them all around the tent.^{(L) 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.^(M)

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, so they prophesied in the camp.^{(N) 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,^[b] said, “My lord Moses, stop them!”^{(O) 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!”^{(P) 30} And Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp.

The Quails

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.^{(Q) 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.^(R)

The Death of Lazarus

11 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.^{(A) 2} Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill.^{(B) 3} So the sisters sent a message to Jesus,^[a] “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” ⁴ But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather, it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”^{(C) 5} Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, ⁶ after having heard that Lazarus^[b] was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

⁷ Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.”^{(D) 8} The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?”^{(E) 9} Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble because they see the light of this world. ¹⁰ But those who walk at night stumble because the light is not in them.” ¹¹ After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” ¹² The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.”^{[c] 13} Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. ¹⁴ Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. ¹⁵ For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” ¹⁶ Thomas, who was called the Twin,^[d] said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

Jesus the Resurrection and the Life

¹⁷ When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus^[e] had already been in the tomb four days. ¹⁸ Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, ¹⁹ and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother.^{(F) 20} When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. ²¹ Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²² But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.”^{(G) 23} Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” ²⁴ Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”^{(H) 25} Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.^[f] Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live,^{(I) 26} and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” ²⁷ She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah,^[g] the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”^(J)

Jesus Weeps

²⁸ When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” ²⁹ And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. ³⁰ Now Jesus had not yet come to the village but was still at the place where Martha had met him. ³¹ The Jews who were with her in the house consoling her saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. ³² When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”^{(K) 33} When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. ³⁴ He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” ³⁵ Jesus began to weep.^{(L) 36} So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” ³⁷ But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”^(M)

Jesus Raises Lazarus to Life

³⁸ Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it.^{(N) 39} Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.”^{(O) 40} Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?”^{(P) 41} So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me.^{(Q) 42} I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.”^{(R) 43} When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” ⁴⁴ The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”^(S)

Aaron and Miriam Jealous of Moses

12 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),^{(A) 2} and they said, “Has the Lord spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?” And the Lord heard it.^{(B) 3} Now the man Moses was very humble, more so than anyone else on the face of the earth.^{(C) 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.^{(D) 6} And he said, “Hear my words:

“Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?”^{(G) 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’s skin had become diseased, as white as snow. And Aaron turned toward Miriam and saw that she was diseased.^{(H) 11} Then Aaron said to Moses, “Oh, my lord, do not punish us^[a] for a sin that we have so foolishly committed.^{(I) 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, saying, “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.”^{(J) 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.