Beginning
Israel Refuses to Enter Canaan
14 And the whole assembly lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. 2 All the children of Israel grumbled against Moses and against Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, “O that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or that we had died in this wilderness! 3 And why has the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should become prey? Is it not better for us to return to Egypt?” 4 And they said one to another, “Let us select a leader, and let us return to Egypt.”
5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the congregation of the assembly of the children of Israel. 6 Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, from the ones who explored the land, tore their clothes. 7 And they spoke to all the assembly of the children of Israel, saying, “The land which we passed through to explore it is a very, very good land. 8 If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land which flows with milk and honey. 9 Only do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land because they are bread for us. Their defense is gone from them, and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them.”
10 But all the assembly said, “Stone them with stones.” And the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting before all the children of Israel. 11 The Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people disgrace Me? And how long will they not believe Me, in spite of all the signs which I have done among them? 12 I will strike them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make from you a nation greater and mightier than they.”
Moses Intercedes for the People
13 Moses said to the Lord, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for by Your power You brought this people up from among them, 14 and they will say to the inhabitants of this land that they heard that You, Lord, are among this people, that You, Lord, are seen face to face, and Your cloud stands over them, and in the pillar of cloud You go before them by day and by a pillar of fire at night. 15 Now if You kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of You will speak, saying, 16 ‘The Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which He swore to them, so He slaughtered them in the wilderness.’
17 “So now, I pray, let the power of my Lord be great, just as You have spoken, saying, 18 ‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation.’ 19 Pardon the iniquity of this people, I pray, according to the greatness of Your grace, just as You have pardoned this people, from Egypt even until now.”
20 The Lord said, “I have forgiven according to your word. 21 But truly as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord. 22 Because all those men seeing My glory and My signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted Me now these ten times, and have not listened to My voice, 23 surely they will not see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor will any of them who disgraced Me see it. 24 But My servant Caleb, because he had a different spirit with him and followed Me fully, I will bring him into the land where he went, and his seed will possess it. 25 Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites lived in the valley. Tomorrow you will turn, and you will set out for the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.”
Death of Rebels Predicted
26 The Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying: 27 How long will this evil assembly be murmuring against Me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel which they murmur against Me. 28 Say to them, “As I live,” says the Lord, “just as you have spoken in My ears, so I will do to you. 29 In this wilderness your corpses will fall, and all who were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against Me, 30 you will not go into the land which I swore by My hand to cause you to dwell in it, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. 31 But your children, whom you said would be a prey, I will bring them in and they will know the land, which you rejected. 32 But as for you, your corpses will fall in this wilderness. 33 Your children will be shepherds in the wilderness forty years, and they will suffer for your fornications, until your corpses are in the wilderness. 34 According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a year for each day you will bear your iniquity, forty years, and you will know My displeasure.” 35 I the Lord have spoken. I will surely do this to all this evil assembly gathered against Me. In this wilderness they will be finished, and there they will die.
36 The men whom Moses sent to explore the land, who returned and made all the assembly murmur against him by bringing up an evil report about the land, 37 the men who brought an evil report about the land, died by the pestilence before the Lord. 38 But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, from the men that went to explore the land, lived.
Defeat in Battle
39 Moses spoke these words to all the children of Israel, and the people mourned greatly. 40 They rose up early in the morning, and they went up to the top of the mountain, saying, “Here we are. We will go up to the place which the Lord has promised, for we have sinned.”
41 Moses said, “Why do you now transgress the commandment of the Lord? This will not prosper. 42 Do not go up, for the Lord is not among you; do not let yourselves be defeated by your enemies. 43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you will fall by the sword because you are turned from the Lord, and the Lord will not be with you.”
44 But they presumed to go up to the top of the mountain. But the ark of the covenant of the Lord and Moses did not depart from the midst of the camp. 45 Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who dwelt on that mountain went down and defeated them, pursuing them as far as Hormah.
Laws of Grain and Drink Offerings
15 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2 Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: When you come into the land of your dwelling, which I am giving to you, 3 when you make an offering by fire to the Lord, a burnt offering, or a sacrifice in performing a vow, or as a freewill offering, or in your appointed feasts, to make a pleasing aroma to the Lord, of the herd or of the flock, 4 then he who brings his offering to the Lord will bring a grain offering of a tenth of an ephah[a] of flour mixed with the fourth part of a hin[b] of oil. 5 One-fourth of a hin of wine as a drink offering you will prepare with the burnt offering or sacrifice, for each lamb.
6 Or for a ram, you will make a grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah[c] of flour mixed with one-third of a hin[d] of oil. 7 As a drink offering you will offer one-third of a hin of wine, as a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
8 When you prepare a bull as a burnt offering, or as a sacrifice in performing a vow, or as a peace offering to the Lord, 9 then shall be brought with the bull a grain offering of three-tenths of an ephah[e] of flour mixed with one-half a hin[f] of oil. 10 You will bring as a drink offering one-half a hin of wine, as a fire offering, as a pleasing aroma to the Lord. 11 Thus it will be done for one herd animal, or for one ram, or for a flock animal, whether from the sheep or from the goats. 12 According to the number that you will make, so you will do for every one according to their number.
13 Every native Israelite will do these things in this manner, in offering a fire offering as a pleasing aroma to the Lord. 14 A foreigner who lives with you, or who resides among you throughout your generations, and would present a fire offering, a pleasing aroma to the Lord, shall do as you do. 15 One ordinance will be for you of the assembly and for the foreigner who lives with you, an ordinance forever throughout your generations. As you are, so will the foreigner be before the Lord. 16 One law and one justice will be for you and for the foreigner who lives with you.
17 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 18 Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: When you come into the land where I bring you, 19 then it will be, when you eat of the bread of the land you will offer up an offering to the Lord. 20 From the first of your dough you will offer a cake as an offering. As you make the offering of the threshing floor, so will you offer it. 21 Of the first of your dough you will give to the Lord an offering throughout your generations.
Laws About Unintentional Sins
22 If you have erred and not observed all these commandments which the Lord has spoken to Moses, 23 even all that the Lord has commanded you by the hand of Moses, from the day that the Lord commanded Moses and onward through your generations, 24 then it will be, if it is committed by ignorance without the knowledge of the assembly, that all the assembly will offer one young bull as a burnt offering, as a pleasing aroma to the Lord, with its grain offering and its drink offering, according to the rule, and one kid of the goats as a sin offering. 25 The priest will make atonement for all the assembly of the children of Israel, and it will be forgiven them because it is ignorance, and they will bring their offering, a sacrifice made by fire to the Lord, and their sin offering before the Lord, for their ignorance. 26 And it will be forgiven all the assembly of the children of Israel and the foreigner who lives among them, because all the people were in ignorance.
27 If a person sins unintentionally, then he will bring a year-old female goat as a sin offering. 28 The priest will make an atonement for the person who sins unintentionally, when he sins by ignorance before the Lord, to make an atonement for him; and it will be forgiven him. 29 You shall have one law for the person who acts through ignorance, for the natural-born citizen among the children of Israel and foreigner who lives in your midst.
Laws About Intentional Sins
30 But the person who acts by a high hand, the natural-born citizen or the foreigner, the same reviles the Lord, and that person will be cut off from among his people. 31 Because he has despised the word of the Lord and has broken His commandment, that person will be totally cut off. His iniquity will be on him.
The Sabbath-Breaker Executed
32 While the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man who gathered sticks on the Sabbath day. 33 The ones who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the assembly. 34 They put him in confinement because it was not declared what should be done to him. 35 The Lord said to Moses, “The man will surely die. All the assembly will stone him with stones outside the camp.” 36 All the assembly brought him outside the camp and stoned him with stones, and he died as the Lord commanded Moses.
Tassels on Garments
37 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 38 Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them to make for themselves tassels on the corners of their garments throughout the generations to come, and they will put a ribbon of blue on the corners of their garments. 39 And it will be for you a tassel, and you will see it, and you will remember all the commandments of the Lord, and you will do them, and you will not follow the lust of your own heart and your own eyes. 40 So shall you remember and do all My commandments, and be holy to your God. 41 I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the Lord your God.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.