Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

David wrote this psalm when he was in the Judah wilderness.

A morning song^[a]

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.’

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.)^[a]

The people turn against Moses

14 Then all the people started to weep loudly. And they cried all night. ² All the Israelites spoke bad words against Moses and Aaron. All the people said to them, ‘We would rather have died in Egypt, or even in this desert! ³ Why has the Lord brought us into this land? Its people will kill us all with swords. They will take our wives and our children for themselves. We think that it would be better for us to return to Egypt.’ ⁴ So they said to each other, ‘We should choose a new leader instead of Moses. Then we should return to Egypt.’

⁵ Then Moses and Aaron threw themselves on the ground in front of the whole group of the Israelites. ⁶ Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, were two of the men who had explored the land. They were very upset and they tore their clothes.^{[b] 7} Joshua and Caleb said to all the Israelites, ‘The land that we travelled through to explore is a very good land. ⁸ If the Lord is happy with us, he will bring us into this land. And he will give it to us. In that land there is plenty of food and drink, enough for everyone. ⁹ But do not refuse to obey the Lord. Do not be afraid of the people in that land. They are ready for us to fight against them and win! They have no place to hide! The Lord is with us to help us. So do not be afraid of them.’

²² When Jesus and his disciples all met together in Galilee, he said, ‘Soon they will deliver the Son of Man to powerful people. ²³ They will kill him. But three days after that, he will become alive again.’ When the disciples heard that, they were very sad.

²⁴ After that, Jesus and his disciples arrived at Capernaum. Some men who received taxes for the temple went to talk to Peter. They asked him, ‘Does your teacher pay the tax for the temple?’^[a]

²⁵ Peter answered them, ‘Yes, my teacher does pay the tax.’

Then Peter returned to the house where Jesus was staying. Before Peter could say anything, Jesus spoke to him first. He said, ‘Here is a question for you to answer, Simon. Who are the people who must pay taxes and money to the kings in this world? Do the rulers take taxes from their own people? Or do they take taxes from other people?’

²⁶ ‘They take the taxes from other people,’ Peter replied.

Jesus said to him, ‘This means that people from the ruler's own country do not need to pay anything.^{[b] 27} But we do not want to make these men who take the tax angry. So go to the lake and throw out a line to catch fish. Pull up the first fish that you catch on your line. Open the mouth of the fish and you will find a coin inside it. Take the coin and give it to those who receive taxes for the temple. This will be enough money for both my tax and yours.’