The Daily Audio Bible

Trumpets

10 The Lord spoke to Moses: ² Make two silver trumpets and make them from hammered metalwork. Use them for summoning the community and for breaking camp. ³ When both are blown, the entire community will meet you at the entrance of the meeting tent. ⁴ When one is blown, the chiefs, the leaders of Israel’s divisions, will meet you. ⁵ When you blow a series of short blasts, the camp on the east side will march. ⁶ And when you blow a second series of short blasts, the camp on the south side will march. You will blow a series of short blasts to announce their march.

⁷ To gather the assembly, blow a long blast, not a series of short blasts. ⁸ Aaron’s sons the priests will blow the trumpets. This will be a permanent regulation for you throughout time.

⁹ When you go to war in your land against an enemy who is attacking you, you will blow short blasts with the trumpets so that you may be remembered by the Lord your God and be saved from your enemies.

¹⁰ On your festival days, your appointed feasts, and at the beginning of your months, you will blow the trumpets over your entirely burned offerings and your well-being sacrifices. They will serve as a reminder of you to your God. I am the Lord your God.

Organization of the wilderness march

¹¹ On the twentieth day of the second month in the second year, the cloud ascended from the covenant dwelling. ¹² The Israelites set out on their march from the Sinai desert, and the cloud settled in the Paran desert.

¹³ They marched for the first time at the Lord’s command through Moses. ¹⁴ The banner of Judah’s camp marched first with its military units. Nahshon, Amminadab’s son, commanded its military. ¹⁵ Nethanel, Zuar’s son, commanded the military of the tribe of Issachar. ¹⁶ Eliab, Helon’s son, commanded the military of the tribe of Zebulun. ¹⁷ The dwelling was taken down, and the Gershonites and the Merarites, who carried the dwelling, marched. ¹⁸ The banner of Reuben’s camp marched with its military units. Elizur, Shedeur’s son, commanded its military. ¹⁹ Shelumiel, Zurishaddai’s son, commanded the military of the tribe of Simeon. ²⁰ Eliasaph, Deuel’s son, commanded the military of the tribe of Gad. ²¹ The Kohathites, who carried the holy things, marched. The dwelling would be set up before their arrival. ²² The banner of Ephraim’s camp marched with its military units. Elishama, Ammihud’s son, commanded its military. ²³ Gamaliel, Pedahzur’s son, commanded the military of the tribe of Manasseh. ²⁴ Abidan, Gideoni’s son, commanded the military of the tribe of Benjamin. ²⁵ The banner of Dan’s camp, at the rear of the whole camp, marched with its military units. Ahiezer, Ammishaddai’s son, commanded its military. ²⁶ Pagiel, Ochran’s son, commanded the military of the tribe of Asher. ²⁷ Ahira, Enan’s son, commanded the military of the tribe of Naphtali. ²⁸ This was the order of departure of the Israelites with their military units when they set out.

The chest leads

²⁹ Moses said to Hobab the Midianite, Reuel’s son and Moses’ father-in-law, “We’re marching to the place about which the Lord has said, ‘I’ll give it to you.’ Come with us and we’ll treat you well, for the Lord has promised to treat Israel well.”

³⁰ Hobab said to him, “I won’t go; I’d rather go to my land and to my folk.”

³¹ Moses said, “Please don’t abandon us, for you know where we can camp in the desert, and you can be our eyes. ³² If you go with us, whatever good the Lord does for us, we’ll do for you.”

³³ They marched from the Lord’s mountain for three days. The Lord’s chest containing the covenant marched ahead of them for three days to look for a resting place for them. ³⁴ Now the Lord’s cloud was over them by day when they marched from the camp. ³⁵ When the chest set out, Moses would say, “Arise, Lord, let your enemies scatter, and those who hate you flee.” ³⁶ When it rested, he would say, “Return, Lord of the ten thousand thousands of Israel.”

Complaint at Taberah

11 When the people complained intensely in the Lord’s hearing, the Lord heard and became angry. Then the Lord’s fire burned them and consumed the edges of the camp. ² When the people cried out to Moses, Moses prayed to the Lord, and the fire subsided. ³ The name of that place was called Taberah,^[a] because the Lord’s fire burned against them.

Complaint over the lack of meat

⁴ The riffraff among them had a strong craving. Even the Israelites cried again and said, “Who will give us meat to eat? ⁵ We remember the fish we ate in Egypt for free, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. ⁶ Now our lives are wasting away. There is nothing but manna in front of us.”

⁷ The manna was like coriander seed and its color was like resin. ⁸ The people would roam around and collect it and grind it with millstones or pound it in a mortar. Then they would boil it in pots and make it into cakes. It tasted like cakes baked in olive oil. ⁹ When the dew fell on the camp during the night, the manna would fall with it.

Moses’ complaint about leadership

¹⁰ Moses heard the people crying throughout their clans, each at his tent’s entrance. The Lord was outraged, and Moses was upset. ¹¹ Moses said to the Lord, “Why have you treated your servant so badly? And why haven’t I found favor in your eyes, for you have placed the burden of all these people on me? ¹² Did I conceive all these people? Did I give birth to them, that you would say to me, ‘Carry them at the breast, as a nurse carries an unweaned child,’ to the fertile land that you promised their ancestors? ¹³ Where am I to get meat for all these people? They are crying before me and saying, ‘Give us meat, so we can eat.’ ¹⁴ I can’t bear this people on my own. They’re too heavy for me. ¹⁵ If you’re going to treat me like this, please kill me. If I’ve found favor in your eyes, then don’t let me endure this wretched situation.”

¹⁶ The Lord said to Moses, “Gather before me seventy men from Israel’s elders, whom you know as elders and officers of the people. Take them to the meeting tent, and let them stand there with you. ¹⁷ Then I’ll descend and speak with you there. I’ll take some of the spirit that is on you and place it on them. Then they will carry the burden of the people with you so that you won’t bear it alone. ¹⁸ To the people you will say, ‘Make yourselves holy for tomorrow; then you will eat meat, for you’ve cried in the Lord’s hearing, “Who will give us meat to eat? It was better for us in Egypt.” The Lord will give you meat, and you will eat. ¹⁹ You won’t eat for just one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, ²⁰ but for a whole month until it comes out of your nostrils and nauseates you. You’ve rejected the Lord who’s been with you and you have cried before him, saying, “Why did we leave Egypt?” ’”

²¹ Moses said, “The people I’m with are six hundred thousand on foot and you’re saying, ‘I will give them meat, and they will eat for a month.’ ²² Can flocks and herds be found and slaughtered for them? Or can all the fish in the sea be found and caught for them?”

²³ The Lord said to Moses, “Is the Lord’s power too weak? Now you will see whether my word will come true for you or not.”

Preparation for burial

14 It was two days before Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and legal experts through cunning tricks were searching for a way to arrest Jesus and kill him. ² But they agreed that it shouldn’t happen during the festival; otherwise, there would be an uproar among the people.

³ Jesus was at Bethany visiting the house of Simon, who had a skin disease. During dinner, a woman came in with a vase made of alabaster and containing very expensive perfume of pure nard. She broke open the vase and poured the perfume on his head. ⁴ Some grew angry. They said to each other, “Why waste the perfume? ⁵ This perfume could have been sold for almost a year’s pay^[a] and the money given to the poor.” And they scolded her.

⁶ Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why do you make trouble for her? She has done a good thing for me. ⁷ You always have the poor with you; and whenever you want, you can do something good for them. But you won’t always have me. ⁸ She has done what she could. She has anointed my body ahead of time for burial. ⁹ I tell you the truth that, wherever in the whole world the good news is announced, what she’s done will also be told in memory of her.”

Passover meal

¹⁰ Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to give Jesus up to them. ¹¹ When they heard it, they were delighted and promised to give him money. So he started looking for an opportunity to turn him in.

¹² On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb was sacrificed, the disciples said to Jesus, “Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover meal?”

¹³ He sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the city. A man carrying a water jar will meet you. Follow him. ¹⁴ Wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house, ‘The teacher asks, “Where is my guest room where I can eat the Passover meal with my disciples?”’ ¹⁵ He will show you a large room upstairs already furnished. Prepare for us there.” ¹⁶ The disciples left, came into the city, found everything just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover meal.

¹⁷ That evening, Jesus arrived with the Twelve. ¹⁸ During the meal, Jesus said, “I assure you that one of you will betray me—someone eating with me.”

¹⁹ Deeply saddened, they asked him, one by one, “It’s not me, is it?”

²⁰ Jesus answered, “It’s one of the Twelve, one who is dipping bread with me into this bowl. ²¹ The Human One^[b] goes to his death just as it is written about him. But how terrible it is for that person who betrays the Human One!^[c] It would have been better for him if he had never been born.”

Psalm 51

For the music leader. A psalm of David, when the prophet Nathan came to him just after he had been with Bathsheba.