Beginning
Chapter 11
The People of Israel Complain. 1 The people complained about their hardships and the Lord heard and his anger flared up. Then the fire of the Lord burned up the outskirts of the camp. 2 The people cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to the Lord, and the fire was quenched. 3 He named that place Taberah,[a] for the fire of the Lord had burned in their midst.
4 Now the rabble[b] among them fell victim to their desires again, and the people of Israel said, “Who will give us meat to eat? 5 We remember the fish we ate freely in Egypt, along with the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. 6 But now our strength is fading away, all we ever see is this manna.” 7 Manna had the shape of coriander seed and it looked like resin. 8 The people would go around gathering it, and then they would grind it in a mill or beat it in a mortar. They cooked it in a pot or made it into cakes. It tasted something like fresh olive oil. 9 The manna would come down when the dew settled upon the camp at night.
10 Moses heard the people weeping, each family at the entrance to their tent. The Lord became exceedingly angry, and Moses was greatly displeased. 11 Moses said to the Lord, “Why are you torturing your servant? Have I not found favor in your sight, that you would burden me with this whole people? 12 Did I conceive this entire people? Did I give birth to them that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your arms like a nurse carries a small child to the land that I have promised to their ancestors?’ 13 Where can I get enough meat to give to all this people, for they cry to me saying, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ 14 I cannot carry this entire people by myself; they are too burdensome for me. 15 If this is the way that you are going to treat me, and if I have found favor in your sight, then please put me to death right now so I do not have to keep looking upon my misery.”
16 But the Lord said to Moses, “Bring me seventy men from among the elders of Israel whom you know to be elders and leaders of the people. Bring them to the tent of meeting, and have them stand there with yourself. 17 I will come down and speak to you there. I will take some of the Spirit that is upon you and put it upon them. They will carry the burden of the people with you, so that you do not have to carry it alone. 18 Say to the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow you will eat meat. You cried out in the hearing of the Lord, saying, “Who will give us meat to eat? We were better off when we were in Egypt.” Now the Lord will give you meat, and you will eat it. 19 You will not eat it for just one day, nor for two days, nor for five days, nor for ten days, nor for twenty days. 20 You will eat it for a whole month, until your faces overflow with it, and you become sick of it, for you have despised the Lord who is among you and whom you have confronted crying out, “Why did we come out of Egypt?” ’ ”
21 But Moses said, “I am standing among six hundred thousand people on foot, and you have said, ‘I will give them meat to eat for an entire month?’ 22 Shall the flocks and herds be slaughtered to satisfy their desires? Will all of the fish of the sea be gathered together to fill them?” 23 The Lord answered Moses, “Is the Lord’s power limited? Now you will see whether my word will be fulfilled or not.”
24 Seventy Elders. So Moses went out and proclaimed the words of the Lord to the people. He brought seventy of the elders of the people and placed them around the tabernacle. 25 Then the Lord came down in a cloud and spoke to him. He took some of the Spirit that was upon him and placed it upon the seventy elders. When the Spirit descended upon them, they began to prophesy,[c] although they did not do so again.
26 But two men had remained in the camp. One was named Eldad, and the other was named Medad. The Spirit descended upon them. They had been on the list, but they had not gone out to the tabernacle. They began to prophesy in the camp. 27 A young man ran and informed Moses, saying, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” 28 Joshua, the son of Nun, who had been an aide to Moses since he was young, said, “My lord Moses, stop them.” 29 But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for me? Would that all of the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them!” 30 Moses then returned to the camp, he and the elders of Israel.
31 Now a wind came forth from the Lord, and it brought quail from the sea, making them fall near the camp. They were all around the camp, a day’s journey on one side and a day’s journey on the other side. They were piled up on the surface of the land two cubits high.
32 The people stayed up all day, and all night, and all the next day gathering the quail. The least that any of them gathered was ten homers. They spread them out for themselves all around the camp. 33 But while the meat was still between their teeth and they were still chewing on it, the anger of the Lord arose against the people and the Lord struck the people with a horrible plague. 34 This is why that place was called Kibroth-hattaavah,[d] because they buried the people who had fallen victim to their desires there. 35 From Kibroth-hattaavah the people traveled to Hazeroth and they camped there.
Chapter 12
Miriam and Aaron Oppose Moses. 1 Miriam[e] and Aaron criticized Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married, for he had married an Ethiopian woman. 2 They said, “Has the Lord only spoken through Moses? Has he not also spoken through us?” And the Lord heard this.
3 Now Moses was very humble, more so than anyone else upon the face of the earth. 4 Suddenly the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and Miriam, saying, “Come out, you three, from the tent of meeting.” And the three of them came out. 5 The Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance to the tabernacle and summoned Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forward. 6 [f]He said, “Hear now my words:
“If anyone among you is a prophet,
I, the Lord, make myself known to him in a vision,
I speak to him in a dream.
7 It is not that way with Moses,
who is entrusted with all my household.
8 I speak to him face to face,
clearly, and not in riddles.
He beholds the very form of the Lord.
Why then were you not afraid to criticize my servant Moses?” 9 Then the anger of the Lord blazed against them, and he departed.
10 Miriam’s Punishment. When the cloud lifted up off of the tabernacle, there stood Miriam, leprous, white as snow. Aaron turned toward Miriam and saw that she was a leper. 11 Aaron said to Moses, “Please, my lord, do not hold the sin against us that we have so foolishly committed! 12 Let her not be like a stillborn child who comes forth from its mother’s womb with its flesh half eaten away.” 13 Moses cried out to the Lord, “O God, I beseech you, heal her!” 14 The Lord replied to Moses, “If her father had only spit in her face, would she not have been shamed for seven days? Confine her outside of the camp for seven days. After that, let her be received back in.”
15 So Miriam was confined outside of the camp for seven days. The people did not move on until Miriam was brought back in. 16 After this, the people left Hazeroth and they camped in the Desert of Paran.
Chapter 13
Twelve Scouts.[g] 1 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Send some men out to explore the land of Canaan that I am giving to the people of Israel. Send one of the leaders from each of the ancestral tribes.”
3 So Moses sent them out from the Desert of Paran by command of the Lord, each of them being one of the heads of the people of Israel. 4 These are their names:
from the tribe of Reuben there was Shammua, the son of Zaccur;
5 from the tribe of Simeon there was Shaphat, the son of Hori;
6 from the tribe of Judah there was Caleb, the son of Jephunneh;
7 from the tribe of Issachar there was Igal, the son of Joseph;
8 from the tribe of Ephraim there was Hoshea, the son of Nun;
9 from the tribe of Benjamin there was Palti, the son of Raphu;
10 from the tribe of Zebulun there was Gaddiel, the son of Sodi;
11 from the tribe of Joseph, that is, from the tribe of Manasseh, there was Gaddi, the son of Susi;
12 from the tribe of Dan there was Ammiel, the son of Gemalli;
13 from the tribe of Asher there was Sethur, the son of Michael;
14 from the tribe of Naphtali there was Nahbi, the son of Vophsi;
15 and from the tribe of Gad there was Geuel, the son of Machi.
16 These are the names of those whom Moses sent to explore the land. Moses gave Hoshea, the son of Nun, the name Joshua.
17 Moses sent them to explore the land of Canaan. He said to them, “Go up into the Negeb,[h] then go up into the hill country. 18 See what the land is like. Discover whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many. 19 How is the land upon which they are living, is it good or bad? How are the cities in which they dwell, are they open camps or fortified? 20 How is the land, is it fertile or poor? Are there trees or not? Try to bring back some of the fruit of the land” (for it was the season of the first ripe grapes).
21 So they went up and explored the land, from the Desert of Zin up to Rehob, near the entrance to Lebo-hamath.[i] 22 They went up into the Negeb and came to Hebron where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, descendants of Anak dwelt. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) 23 Then they came to the Valley of Eshcol.[j] There they cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes. Two men carried it on a pole. They also brought along some pomegranates and figs. 24 That place was called the Valley of Eschol because of the cluster of grapes that the people of Israel cut there.
25 The Scouts’ Report. They returned from exploring the land at the end of forty days. 26 They left and went back to Moses and Aaron and the whole assembly of the people of Israel that was camped in Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. They brought back a report to them and showed the whole assembly the fruit of the land.
27 Then they told Moses, “We went into the land into which you sent us, and it truly flows with milk and honey. This is its fruit. 28 However, a powerful people dwells in that land, and the cities are highly fortified. Furthermore, we even saw the descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites live in the land of the Negeb, and the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites live in the hill country. The Canaanites live by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan.”
30 Then Caleb quieted the people who were standing before Moses and he said, “Let us go at once to take possession of it, for we shall surely conquer it.” 31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We will not be able to go up against the people for they are surely stronger than we are.” 32 Thus, they brought a negative report of the land which they had explored for the people of Israel saying, “The land which we went through to explore is a land that devours its inhabitants. All the people we saw in it were immense. 33 We saw giants there, the descendants of Anak (the Anak come from the Nephilim). We felt as if we were only grasshoppers, and we seemed like that to them.”[k]
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