Beginning
The people complain
11 But the people started to complain about their problems.[a] The Lord heard them and he became very angry. He sent fire. The Lord sent his fire to burn among them. It destroyed some parts of the camp at the edge. 2 So the people asked Moses to help them. And Moses prayed to the Lord, and the fire stopped. 3 So that place was called Taberah, because the Lord's fire burned among them there.
4 Some foreign people were travelling with the Israelites.[b] Those people wanted very much to eat better food. So the Israelites wept again. They said, ‘We want meat to eat! 5 We remember the fish that we ate in Egypt. We had as much as we wanted. And we remember all the nice vegetables, cucumbers, leeks, onions and garlic. And we remember the melons. 6 But now our mouths are dry and we do not want to eat this food. There is not even anything to look at, except this manna.’ 7 The manna was like small seeds called coriander. Its colour was yellow and white. 8 The people walked about and they picked it up from the ground. They used stones to make it into flour. Or they beat it with a stick. They boiled it in pots, and they made cakes with it. The taste of the cakes was like olive oil. 9 At night, dew fell on the ground in the camp. The manna fell with the dew.
10 People in every family were crying at the doors of their tents. And Moses heard them. The Lord became very angry with the people. Moses too was not happy. 11 So Moses said to the Lord, ‘I am your servant. But you have given this problem to me! It seems that you are not pleased with me. You have given to me the hard job to be leader of all these people. 12 They are not my children! But you have said to me, “Take care of them like parents take care of their babies. Carry them to the land that I have promised to their ancestors.” 13 They are complaining to me. They are saying, “Give us meat that we can eat!” But I cannot get meat to feed all these people! 14 I cannot be the leader of all these people unless I receive help. This job is too difficult for me. 15 So if you do not want to help me, please kill me now. I do not want to continue to be so upset. So please be kind to me.’
16 So the Lord said to Moses, ‘Choose 70 leaders of the Israelites and bring them to the Tent of Meeting. You must know that they are leaders and officers that the people respect. Bring them to stand there with you. 17 Then I will come down and I will speak with you there. I will take some of the authority of my Spirit that I gave to you. I will share it with them. Then they will help you to lead the people. So you will not be the only man who is doing that job.
18 Then say to the people, “The Lord heard you when you were weeping. You said, ‘We want someone to give us meat to eat! Life was better when we were in Egypt.’ So the Lord will give you meat and you will eat it. So make yourselves clean for tomorrow, and then you will eat meat. 19 You will not eat it only for one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or 20 days. 20 You will eat it every day for a whole month! You will hate the smell of it and it will seem disgusting to you. This is because you have turned against the Lord. He is near to you and you have wept in front of him. You have said, ‘We should never have left Egypt.’ ” ’
21 Moses said to the Lord, ‘There are 600,000 men here. But you have said, “I will give to them meat to eat for a whole month.” 22 Even if we killed all our sheep and cows, we would not have enough meat for them. If we caught every fish in the sea, we still would not have enough!’
23 Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Do you think that I, the Lord, do not have enough power to do this? I have promised you to do it. So now you will see me do it!’
24 So Moses went out from God's Tent and he told the people the Lord's message. He chose 70 leaders of the Israelites and he put them round the Tent. 25 Then the Lord came down in the cloud to speak to them. He took some of the authority of his Spirit that he had given to Moses. And he shared it with the 70 leaders. While God's Spirit stayed on them, they prophesied. But they did not do it again after that.
26 But two men had stayed in the camp. Their names were Eldad and Medad. They were among the men that Moses had chosen. But they had not gone to meet with God in the special Tent. God's Spirit also came on them. So they prophesied in the camp. 27 A young man ran to Moses and he said, ‘Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.’
28 Nun's son Joshua was there. Since he was a boy, he had been Moses' servant. Joshua said to Moses, ‘Moses, my master, stop them.’
29 But Moses said to him, ‘Perhaps you think that I might be jealous of them. But I would be happy if the Lord would give his Spirit to all his people. I would like them all to be prophets!’ 30 Then Moses and the leaders returned to the camp.
The Lord sends birds to feed the Israelites
31 Then the Lord sent a wind. It blew in birds called quails from the sea. They fell to the ground everywhere round the camp. There were birds everywhere as far as a person could walk in one day in any direction. They were about 1 metre deep all over the ground. 32 The people were picking up the birds all day and all night and all the next day. Each person got at least 220 litres of birds. They put their dead bodies on the ground everywhere round the camp. 33 But the Lord became very angry with the people. They had not even started to eat the meat when the Lord sent a very bad disease among them.
34 They buried there the bodies of people who had wanted better food. So the people called that place Kibroth-Hattaavah.[c]
35 From Kibroth-Hattaavah the people travelled to Hazeroth, and they stayed at Hazeroth.
Miriam and Aaron speak against Moses
12 Moses had married a woman who was a descendant of Cush. Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because he had married that woman.[d] 2 They said, ‘We do not believe that the Lord has really spoken only by Moses. We believe that he has spoken by us too.’ The Lord heard what they said.
3 Moses was a very humble man. He was the most humble person in the whole world.
4 Immediately, the Lord said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, ‘You three people come out to the Tent of Meeting.’ So the three people went there. 5 Then the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud. He stood at the door of the tent. He said that Aaron and Miriam should come nearer. They both came nearer. 6 Then he said, ‘Listen to my words! If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, will show myself to him in a vision. Or I will speak to him in a dream. 7 But it is different when I speak to Moses. He is the one that I trust to lead all my people. 8 I speak clearly to him, as I come near to him. I do not say things to him that are hard to understand. He even sees the shape of the Lord. So you should have been afraid to speak against my servant Moses!’
9 So the Lord was very angry with Aaron and Miriam and he left them. 10 But when the cloud had gone away from over the tent, Miriam's skin became white, like snow. She now had the bad disease called leprosy in her skin. Aaron looked at her and he saw that she had leprosy.
11 Then Aaron said to Moses, ‘My master, please do not punish us because we have done this very silly thing. We have done a bad thing. 12 But do not let Miriam be like a baby that is born dead, with a body that is only half there.’
13 So Moses called loudly to the Lord, ‘Please God, make her well again!’ 14 But the Lord said to Moses, ‘Even if her father had spat on her face, she would have to be ashamed for seven days. So you must keep her outside the camp for seven days. After that you can let her come back inside the camp.’
15 So Moses kept Miriam outside the camp for seven days. The people did not start to travel again until they had brought Miriam back into the camp again.
16 After that, the people left Hazeroth. They went to the Paran desert and they put up their tents there.
Moses sends men to explore Canaan
13 Then the Lord said to Moses, 2 ‘I will give the land of Canaan to the Israelites. Now you must send men to explore that land. Choose one man from each tribe of your ancestors. Each man must be a leader among his tribe.’
3 So Moses obeyed the Lord's command. He sent the men from the Paran desert into Canaan. Each man was a leader among the Israelites. 4 This is a list of their names:
From Reuben's tribe: Shammua, the son of Zaccur.
5 From Simeon's tribe: Shaphat, the son of Hori.
6 From Judah's tribe: Caleb, the son of Jephunneh.
7 From Issachar's tribe: Igal, the son of Joseph.
8 From Ephraim's tribe: Hoshea, the son of Nun.
9 From Benjamin's tribe: Palti, the son of Raphu.
10 From Zebulun's tribe: Gaddiel, the son of Sodi.
11 From Manasseh's tribe: Gaddi, the son of Susi.
12 From Dan's tribe: Ammiel, the son of Gemalli.
13 From Asher's tribe: Sethur, the son of Michael.
14 From Naphtali's tribe: Nahbi, the son of Vophsi.
15 From Gad's tribe: Geuel, the son of Maki.
16 Those are the names of the men that Moses sent to explore the land. Moses changed the name of Hoshea, the son of Nun, to Joshua.[e]
17 Moses sent them to explore the land of Canaan. He said to them, ‘Go north from here, through the Negev desert. Then continue to go north, into the place where there are hills. 18 Look at the land to see what it is like. See whether the people who live there are strong or weak. See whether few people or many people live there. 19 See whether their land is good or bad. Look at the towns where the people live. See if they have strong walls or they are in the open. 20 See whether the land is able to make good food grow there, or not. See whether there are forests that grow there. Then try to get some fruit from the land and bring it back here.’ (It was the time of year for the first grapes to be ready to eat.)
21 So the men went and they explored the land of Canaan. They started in the desert called Zin, and they continued to Rehob, near Lebo-Hamath. 22 When they had gone up through the Negev desert in the south of the land, they arrived at Hebron. That was where Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, were living. They had built Hebron seven years before the Egyptians built Zoan.
23 Then the men came to the valley called Eshcol. They cut a branch which had one group of grapes on it. It was so large that two men carried it between them on a pole. They also brought some other fruits called pomegranates and figs. 24 They called that valley ‘Eshcol’ because of the large group of grapes that the Israelites cut down there.
25 The men returned after they had explored the land for 40 days.
The men bring news to Moses
26 The men came back to Kadesh in the Paran desert. They brought their message to Moses and Aaron and to all the Israelites there. They told them all about the land of Canaan and they showed its fruit to them. 27 They said to Moses, ‘We went to look at the land where you sent us. It is certainly a land where there is plenty of food and drink, enough for everyone. This is some of its fruit. 28 But the people who live in the land are strong. Their towns are very big, and strong walls keep them safe. Also, we saw some descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites are living in Negev, the land in the south of the country. The Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hills. And the Canaanites live by the sea and by the edge of Jordan River.’
30 Then Caleb stood in front of Moses and he told the Israelites to be quiet. He said, ‘We should go into the land and get power over it. We will certainly be able to do it!’
31 But the men who had gone into Canaan with him said, ‘These people are stronger than we are. So we cannot go and fight against them.’ 32 Those men gave to the Israelites a bad report about the land that they had explored. They said, ‘We went through that whole land and we explored it. The land seems to eat the people who live there! All the people that we saw there were very big and strong. 33 We also saw descendants of the Nephilites there. And we felt like very small insects when we looked at them. And we seemed like very small insects to them too.’ (The descendants of Anak are also descendants of the Nephilites.)[f]
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