Old/New Testament

The Passover feast

9 The Lord spoke to Moses in the Sinai desert. The Israelites had left Egypt. It was the second year after the Israelites had left that country. It was the first month during that year. The Lord said, ² ‘The Israelites must eat the Passover meal at the proper time. They must eat it as the rules about it say. ³ The proper time is during the evening of the 14th day of this month. It is when it starts to become dark. That is when you must eat it. You must obey all its rules and its laws.’

⁴ So Moses told the Israelites that they should eat the Passover. ⁵ So they ate the Passover in the first month, on the 14th day when it started to become dark. That was in the Sinai desert. The Israelites did everything that the Lord had said to Moses about it.

⁶ But there were some people who were not clean. That was because they had touched a dead body. So they could not eat the Passover on that day. So they came to Moses and Aaron on that day. ⁷ And those people said to Moses, ‘We are not clean because of the dead body that we touched. But we would like to bring our gift to the Lord at the proper time with the other Israelites.’

⁸ So Moses said to them, ‘Wait here. Then I will ask the Lord about this.’

⁹ Then the Lord said to Moses, ¹⁰ ‘Say to the Israelites, “Anyone among you or your descendants may become not clean because of a dead body. Or they may be away because they are travelling. They can still eat the Passover meal to thank the Lord. ¹¹ They must eat it during the evening of the 14th day of the second month. They must eat it when it starts to become dark. They must eat it with bread and with bitter herbs. The bread must not have yeast in it. ¹² They must not keep any of the food until the next morning. And they must not break any of the bones of the lamb. And they must obey all the rules about the Passover. ¹³ But perhaps a clean person who is at home chooses not to eat the Passover meal. You must make that person separate from his people. That is because he did not offer the proper sacrifices to the Lord at the proper time. So that person must receive the punishment for his sin.

¹⁴ People from foreign countries may also eat the Lord's Passover meal, if they are living among you. But they must obey all the rules about the Passover festival. The rules are the same for a foreign person and for an Israelite.” ’

The cloud above the Tent of Meeting

¹⁵ On the day that Moses put up the Tent of Meeting, a cloud covered it. In the evening it became something like a fire over the Tent, until morning. ¹⁶ It was like that all the time. The cloud covered it during the day. But at night, the cloud seemed to have fire in it. ¹⁷ When the cloud went up from God's Tent, the Israelites started to travel. And when the cloud came down, the Israelites made their camp in that place. ¹⁸ The Lord decided when the Israelites should start to travel. And the Lord decided where they should stop and make their camp. During all the time that the cloud was over the tabernacle, they stayed in their camp. ¹⁹ Even when the cloud stayed over the tabernacle for many days, the Israelites obeyed the Lord. They did not start to travel. ²⁰ Sometimes the cloud stayed over God's Tent for a few days. Then they remained in their camp. When the Lord showed them that they should travel, they started to travel. ²¹ Sometimes the cloud stayed there from evening until morning. But, when the cloud went up in the morning, they started to travel. But sometimes it stayed for one day and one night. Then when the cloud went up, they started to travel again. ²² Sometimes the cloud continued to be over God's Tent for two days or for a month or for a year. It stayed above it. Then, the Israelites stayed in their camp. They did not start to travel. But when it went up, they did start to travel. ²³ The Lord decided when they should make their camp. And the Lord decided when they should start to travel. So they obeyed the Lord about everything that the Lord said to Moses.

The silver trumpets

10 The Lord said to Moses, ² ‘Make two trumpets from one piece of silver. Use a hammer to make them in the right shape. Make a noise with them to tell the people that they must come together. Also, use the trumpets to tell the people that they must move the camp. ³ When the people hear the sound from both trumpets, all the people must meet you. They must meet you at the door of the Tent of Meeting. ⁴ But you may want only the leaders of Israel's tribes to meet you. If you want that, a priest should make the sound from only one trumpet. ⁵ But when the sound is one short sound, the tribes on the east side of the camp must start to travel. ⁶ When they hear the next short sound, the tribes on the south side of the camp must start to travel. Short sounds from the trumpet will tell the people that they must start to travel. ⁷ But when you want everyone to meet together, make a different sound with the trumpet.

⁸ The priests, the sons of Aaron, must use the trumpets to make a noise. This is a rule for you and for all your descendants. ⁹ Use the trumpets to tell everyone when an enemy is attacking you in your own land. Make a sound with the trumpets to tell the people that they must fight the enemy. Then the Lord your God will hear and he will save you from your enemies. ¹⁰ You must make sounds with the trumpets on your happy days, too. And you must make sounds with the trumpets at your regular festivals and on the first days of your months. And you must make sounds with the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over your friendship offerings. God will hear and he will remember you. I am the Lord your God.’

The Israelites leave the Sinai desert

¹¹ In the second year, in the second month, on the 20th day of the month, the cloud went up. It went away from God's Tent of Meeting. ¹² So the Israelites started to travel on their journey away from the Sinai desert.^[a] Then the cloud stopped in the desert called Paran. ¹³ They started to travel for the first time, in the way that the Lord had told them to do, through Moses.

¹⁴ The flag of the camp of Judah's tribe, started to travel first, with all their armies. And Nahshon the son of Amminadab was over all their armies. ¹⁵ Nethanel, the son of Zuar, was over the army of the tribe of Issachar. ¹⁶ Eliab, the son of Helon, was over the army of the tribe of Zebulun. ¹⁷ Then the Levites packed God's Tent. Then Gershon's clan and Merari's clan, who were carrying God's Tent, started to travel.

¹⁸ Next the flag of the camp of Reuben started to travel, with all their armies. Elizur, the son of Shedeur, was over all their armies. ¹⁹ Shelumiel, the son of Zurishaddai, was over the army of the tribe of Simeon. ²⁰ Eliasaph, the son of Deuel, was over the army of the tribe of Gad. ²¹ Then Kohath's clan started to travel. They were carrying the holy things. Before they arrived at the new camp, the other Levites would put up God's Tent.

²² Next the flag of the camp of the tribe of Ephraim started to travel, with all their armies. Elishama the son of Ammihud was over all their armies. ²³ And Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur was over the army of the tribe of Manasseh. ²⁴ And Abidan the son of Gideoni was over the army of the tribe of Benjamin.

²⁵ Then the flag of the camp of the tribe of Dan started to travel last, with all their armies. They could keep the Israelites safe if an enemy attacked them from behind them. Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai was over all their armies. ²⁶ And Pagiel the son of Ocran was over the army of the tribe of Asher. ²⁷ And Ahira the son of Enan was over the army of the tribe of Naphtali. ²⁸ The Israelites marched out like that every time that they started to travel.

²⁹ Moses spoke to Reuel's son, Hobab. He was the brother of Moses' wife. He was a Midianite. Moses said to Hobab, ‘We are leaving here now to go to another place. The Lord has said to us, “I will give that place to you.” The Lord has promised to help Israel's people with good things. So come with us and we will take care of you.’

³⁰ But Hobab said to him, ‘I will not come. Instead, I will return to my own country and to my family there.’

³¹ Moses said, ‘Please do not leave us. You know good places for us to put up our tents in the desert. So you can be our guide. ³² And if you come with us, we will share with you the good things that the Lord gives to us.’

³³ So the Israelites left the Lord's mountain. They travelled for three days. During that time, the Levites carried the Lord's Covenant Box in front of them. That was so that the Lord could show them where to make their camp. ³⁴ And the Lord's cloud was over them during the day, whenever they started to travel from the camp.

³⁵ Each time that the Covenant Box started to travel Moses said, ‘Be ready, Lord! Cause your enemies to run away in every direction!’ ³⁶ When they stopped travelling, Moses said, ‘Return, Lord, to be near to the thousands of Israel's people.’

The people complain

11 But the people started to complain about their problems.^[b] 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.^[c] 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.^[d]

³⁵ From Kibroth-Hattaavah the people travelled to Hazeroth, and they stayed at Hazeroth.

A man with many bad spirits

5 Jesus and his disciples came to the other side of the lake. They came to a place where the Gerasene people lived.^[a]

^2-4 Jesus got out of the boat. Immediately, a man with a bad spirit in him came to him. This man lived outside, among some graves. He was very strong and nobody could hold him. People often put chains around his ankles to hold him. They wanted to keep him in a safe place. But he broke the chains that held him. ⁵ The man often walked in the place where the dead people were and on the hills. Every day and every night, he screamed and he used stones to cut himself.

⁶ He saw Jesus a long way away and he ran to meet him. He went down on his knees in front of Jesus. ⁷ He screamed loudly, ‘Jesus, you are the Son of the Most High God! What are you doing here? Please, promise God that you will not hurt me.’ ⁸ He said that because Jesus had already said to the bad spirit, ‘Come out of this man.’

⁹ Then Jesus asked the man, ‘What is your name?’

The man replied, ‘My name is Army because there are so many bad spirits in me.’

¹⁰ He said to Jesus many times, ‘Please do not send these bad spirits away from this place.’

¹¹ A large group of pigs was eating on the hill. ¹² The bad spirits said, ‘Jesus, send us to the pigs. Let us go into them.’ ¹³ Jesus let them do this. So the bad spirits came out of the man and they went into the pigs. There were about 2,000 pigs. They rushed together down the hill into the lake. All the pigs died there in the water.

¹⁴ The men who were taking care of these pigs ran away. They told the people in the town and in the villages what had happened. Then those people came to see the place for themselves. ¹⁵ They came to Jesus. They saw the man that the army of bad spirits had ruled. He was now sitting there quietly. He was wearing clothes and his mind was well again. When the people saw this, they were afraid. ¹⁶ The people who had seen this told other people what had happened to the man. They also explained what happened to the pigs. ¹⁷ Then the people who lived there said to Jesus, ‘Please go away. Leave this place.’

¹⁸ Jesus got back into the boat. The man that the bad spirits had ruled spoke to him. He told Jesus that he wanted to go with him. ¹⁹ But Jesus did not let him do this. Jesus said to him, ‘Go to your home and to your friends. Tell them what the Lord has done for you. Tell them how he has been kind to you.’ ²⁰ So the man went away. He began to speak to many people in the region called ‘The ten cities’. He told them about the great things that Jesus had done for him. All the people were very surprised.