Beginning

Chapter 14

The People Rebel.^{[a] 1} The whole assembly cried out and wept loudly that night. ² All the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole assembly said to them, “Would that we would have died in Egypt, or we had died in this desert! ³ Why did the Lord bring us into this land so that we fall by the sword? Our wives and our children will be taken as plunder! Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” ⁴ They said to one another, “Let us choose a leader who will take us back to Egypt.”

⁵ Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before the whole assembly of the people of Israel gathered there. ⁶ Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, who had spied out the land, tore their clothes. ⁷ They spoke to the entire assembly of the people of Israel saying, “The land we passed through and explored is a tremendously good land. ⁸ If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land and give it to us, a land flowing with milk and honey. ⁹ Only do not rebel against the Lord, nor be afraid of the people of the land, for we will devour them. Their protection is gone, and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them!”

¹⁰ But the whole assembly decided to stone them. Then the glory of the Lord appeared in the tent of meeting in front of all of the people of Israel. ¹¹ The Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? How long before they trust me, in spite of all the signs that I have performed in their midst? ¹² I will strike them down with a plague and I will destroy them. Then I will make a nation arise from you that is greater and mightier than they are.”^[b]

¹³ But Moses said to the Lord, “The Egyptians will hear about it, for by your power you brought this people out from their midst. ¹⁴ They will report it to the people of this land. They have heard that you, O Lord, are in the midst of this people, for you, O Lord, are seen face to face. Your cloud stands over them, and you go before them as a cloud by day and as a pillar of fire by night. ¹⁵ Now if you kill this people as if it were a single man, then the nations that have heard of your fame will say, ¹⁶ ‘The Lord was not able to bring this people into the land that he promised them, so he killed them in the wilderness.’ ¹⁷ Therefore, my Lord, show your great power, for as you have declared, ¹⁸ ‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in mercy, forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of the father upon the sons to the third and fourth generation.’ ¹⁹ By your great mercy, I beseech you, forgive this people, just as you have forgiven this people ever since they left Egypt until now.”

²⁰ The Lord answered, “I have forgiven them, just as you have asked. ²¹ But assuredly, just as I live and the glory of the Lord fills the whole earth, ²² because this entire people has witnessed my glory and the miracles that I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet they have put me to the test these ten times and have not heeded my voice, ²³ none of them will see the land that I promised to their fathers. None of those who despised me will see it. ²⁴ But I will bring my servant Caleb into the land that he entered because he has a different spirit and wholeheartedly follows me. His descendants will inherit it. ²⁵ Turn back tomorrow and set out for the wilderness along the route to the Red Sea for the Amalekites and the Canaanites are living in the valley.”

²⁶ The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, ²⁷ “How long will this wicked assembly grumble against me? I have heard the complaints of the people of Israel that they grumble against me. ²⁸ So I declare to them: As I live, says the Lord, I will make the things you have said in my hearing happen: ²⁹ your dead bodies will fall to the ground in this wilderness. None of you who are twenty years or older and who have complained about me ³⁰ will enter the land in which I swore I would make you dwell except for Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, the son of Nun. ³¹ However, as for your little ones whom you said would become plunder, I will bring them in and they will come to know the land that you have despised. ³² But your dead bodies will fall to the ground in this wilderness. ³³ Your children will wander in this wilderness for forty years, and they will bear the burden of your unfaithfulness, until your dead bodies lie in the wilderness. ³⁴ The number of days that you explored the land was forty, and there will be one year for each day. You will bear the burden of your sins for forty years and you will come to know my rejection.^{[c] 35} I, the Lord, have proclaimed this. I will surely do this to this evil assembly that has gathered together against me. In this wilderness they will come to an end, there they will die.”

³⁶ The men whom Moses sent to explore the land, and who, when they returned, incited the assembly to complain against him by giving an evil report concerning the land, ³⁷ those men who brought the evil report concerning the land were struck down by a plague before the Lord. ³⁸ Of the men who went to explore the land, Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, survived.

³⁹ Doomed Invasion. When Moses reported these sayings to all the people of Israel, the people mourned bitterly. ⁴⁰ They rose up early the next morning and went to the top of the mountain and said, “Here we are! We have sinned, but we are ready to go up to the place that the Lord has promised.” ⁴¹ But Moses said, “Why are you now disobeying the command of the Lord? This will not succeed. ⁴² Do not go up, for the Lord is not with you. You will be defeated by your enemies. ⁴³ The Amalekites and the Canaanites are there in front of you. You will fall by the sword, because you turned away from the Lord. The Lord will not be with you.” ⁴⁴ In their presumption, they went up into the high hill country, but the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord and Moses did not go out from the camp. ⁴⁵ The Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in the hill country came down and attacked them and drove them back to Hormah.

Chapter 15

Additional Offerings. ¹ The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: ‘When you come into the land of your dwelling that I will give you ³ and you make an offering by fire to the Lord, either a burnt offering or a sacrifice, whether to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering or on your appointed feast days, whether it be from the herd or the flock, in order to make a pleasing fragrance to the Lord, ⁴ then the person bringing his offering to the Lord should bring a cereal offering of a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a fourth of a hin of oil.^{[d] 5} With each burnt offering or sacrifice of a lamb you are to make a drink offering of a quarter of a hin of wine. ⁶ For a ram, you are to make a cereal offering of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a third of a hin of oil, ⁷ and for a drink offering you are to offer a third of a hin of wine, a pleasing fragrance to the Lord.

⁸ “ ‘When you prepare a young bull as a burnt offering or a sacrifice, whether to fulfill a vow or to make a peace offering to the Lord, ⁹ you will offer a cereal offering of three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour, mixed with half a hin of oil along with the young bull, ¹⁰ and you will bring a drink offering of half a hin of wine. It will be an offering made by fire, a pleasing fragrance to the Lord. ¹¹ Each young bull or each ram, each lamb or each kid goat is to be prepared in this way. ¹² Whatever number you prepare, you shall do this with each one.

¹³ “ ‘All who were born in the land will do things this way when they present an offering by fire, a pleasing fragrance to the Lord. ¹⁴ If there is a foreigner living among you or a person living among you for generations, and he wishes to make an offering by fire, a pleasing fragrance to the Lord, let him do it as you have done it. ¹⁵ For the community, there is one ordinance for you and for the foreigner living in your midst, it is a perpetual ordinance for all your generations. Thus, you and the foreigner are the same before the Lord. ¹⁶ The same laws and statutes apply to you and the foreigner who is living in your midst.’ ”

¹⁷ The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁸ “Speak to the people of Israel and tell them, ‘When you enter into the land to which I am bringing you, ¹⁹ then when you eat the food of the land, you shall lift up an offering to the Lord. ²⁰ You shall lift up a cake from the first^[e] of your dough as an offering just as you present an offering from your threshing floor. ²¹ You shall give an offering to the Lord from the first of your dough for all your generations.

²² Atonement Offerings.“ ‘If by mistake you have not observed all the commandments that the Lord proclaimed through Moses, ²³ all that the Lord commanded through Moses, from the day that the Lord gave the commandments and onward through all your generations, ²⁴ this is what will be done: if the action was committed unintentionally and without the knowledge of the assembly, then the whole assembly is to offer up one young bull as a burnt offering, a pleasing fragrance to the Lord, along with its cereal and drink offerings, according to custom, as well as one kid goat as a sin offering. ²⁵ The priest shall make atonement for the whole assembly of the people of Israel, and it will be forgiven them, for it was unintentional. They will have brought a sacrifice by fire to the Lord, a sin offering to the Lord for their mistake. ²⁶ All of the assembly of the people of Israel and even the foreigner living among them shall be forgiven, for all the people participated in the mistake.

²⁷ “ ‘If a person sins unintentionally, then he is to offer up a year-old she-goat as a sin offering. ²⁸ The priest is to make atonement before the Lord for the one who has sinned unintentionally. When atonement has been made for him, he will be forgiven. ²⁹ You shall have one law for those who sin unintentionally, whether they were born among the people of Israel or they are foreigners living in your midst.

³⁰ “ ‘But if someone does anything defiantly, whether he be native born or a foreigner, then that person blasphemes the Lord and is to be cut off from among his people. ³¹ Because he has despised the word of the Lord and has broken his commandment, let that person be completely cut off, and let his guilt remain upon him.’ ”

³² Sabbath-breaker Punished.^[f] Now, while the people of Israel were in the desert, they came upon a man gathering wood on the Sabbath. ³³ Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and to the whole assembly ³⁴ and they put him under guard, for it had not yet been established what was to be done to him. ³⁵ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Surely the man is to be put to death! Let the whole assembly stone him outside of the camp!” ³⁶ So the whole assembly took him outside of the camp, and they stoned him to death, as the Lord had commanded Moses.

³⁷ Tassels on Garments.^[g] The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ³⁸ “Speak to the people of Israel and tell them to have tassels on the corners of their garments throughout all their generations. Let them put a blue cord on the tassels of each corner. ³⁹ When you look at the tassels, you will remember the commandments of the Lord and keep them. Thus you will not prostitute yourselves by following after the lusts in your own heart or your own eyes. ⁴⁰ Then you will remember to obey all the commandments and you will 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.”