FROM SINAI TO PARAN

11 During the second year, in the second month on the twentieth day of the month, the cloud was lifted up above the tabernacle of the testimony. 12 The Israelites traveled on from the Wilderness of Sinai, moving from one place to the nexta until the cloud stopped in the Wilderness of Paran.b 13 They set out for the first time according to the Lord’s command through Moses.c

14 The military divisions of the camp of Judah’s descendants with their banner set out first, and Nahshon son of Amminadabd was over their divisions. 15 Nethanel son of Zuare was over the division of the tribe of Issachar’s descendants, 16 and Eliab son of Helon was over the division of the tribe of Zebulun’s descendants. 17 The tabernacle was then taken down, and the Gershonites and the Merarites set out, transporting the tabernacle.

18 The military divisions of the camp of Reuben with their banner set out, and Elizur son of Shedeur was over their divisions. 19 Shelumiel son of Zurishaddaif was over the division of the tribe of Simeon’s descendants, 20 and Eliasaph son of DeuelA was over the division of the tribe of Gad’s descendants. 21 The Kohathites then set out, transporting the holy objects;g the tabernacle was to be set up before their arrival.

22 Next the military divisions of the camp of Ephraim’s descendants with their banner set out, and Elishama son of Ammihudh was over their divisions. 23 Gamaliel son of Pedahzur was over the division of the tribe of Manasseh’s descendants, 24 and Abidan son of Gideoni was over the division of the tribe of Benjamin’s descendants.

25 The military divisions of the camp of Dan’s descendants with their banner set out, serving as rear guard for all the camps, and Ahiezer son of Ammishaddaii was over their divisions. 26 Pagiel son of Ochran was over the division of the tribe of Asher’s descendants, 27 and Ahira son of Enan was over the division of the tribe of Naphtali’s descendants. 28 This was the order of march for the Israelites by their military divisions as they set out.

29 Moses said to Hobab, descendant of Reuelj the Midianite and Moses’s relative by marriage, Reuel the Midianite, “We’re setting out for the place the Lord promised, ‘I will give it to you.’k Come with us, and we will treat you well, for the Lord has promised good things to Israel.”l

30 But he replied to him, “I don’t want to go. Instead, I will go to my own land and my relatives.”

31 “Please don’t leave us,” Moses said, “since you know where we should camp in the wilderness, and you can serve as our eyes. 32 If you come with us, whatever good the Lord does for us we will do for you.”m

33 They set out from the mountain of the Lord on a three-day journey with the ark of the Lord’s covenant traveling ahead of them for those three days to seek a resting place for them.n 34 Meanwhile, the cloud of the Lord was over them by day when they set out from the camp.

35 Whenever the ark set out, Moses would say:

Arise, Lord!

Let your enemies be scattered,

and those who hate you flee from your presence.o

36 When it came to rest, he would say:

Return, Lord,

to the countless thousands of Israel.p

COMPLAINTS ABOUT HARDSHIP

11 Now the people began complaining openly beforeB the Lord about hardship. When the Lord heard, his anger burned,q and firer from the Lord blazed among them and consumed the outskirts of the camp. 2 Then the people cried out to Moses, and he prayed to the Lord, and the fire died down. 3 So that place was named Taberah,C,s because the Lord’s fire had blazed among them.

COMPLAINTS ABOUT FOOD

4 The riffraffD among themt had a strong cravingu for other food. The Israelites wept again and said, “Who will feed us meat? 5 We remember the free fish we ate in Egypt,v along with the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic. 6 But now our appetite is gone;E there’s nothing to look at but this manna!”

7 The mannaw resembled coriander seed, and its appearance was like that of bdellium.F 8 The people walked around and gathered it. They ground it on a pair of grinding stones or crushed it in a mortar, then boiled it in a cooking pot and shaped it into cakes. It tasted like a pastry cooked with the finest oil. 9 When the dew fell on the camp at night, the manna would fall with it.x

10 Moses heard the people, family after family, weeping at the entrance of their tents. The Lord was very angry;a Moses was also provoked.A 11 So Moses asked the Lord, “Why have you brought such trouble on your servant? Why are you angry with me,B and why do you burden me with all these people?b 12 Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth so you should tell me, ‘Carry them at your breast, as a nursing mother carries a baby,’c to the land that you swore to give their ancestors?d 13 Where can I get meat to give all these people? For they are weeping to me, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ 14 I can’t carry all these people by myself. They are too much for me. 15 If you are going to treat me like this, please kill me right nowe if I have found favor with you, andf don’t let me see my miseryC anymore.”

SEVENTY ELDERS ANOINTED

16 The Lord answered Moses, “Bring me seventy men from Israel known to you as elders and officers of the people. Take them to the tent of meeting and have them stand there with you. 17 Then I will come down and speak with you there. I will take some of the Spirit who is on you and put the Spirit on them.g They will help you bear the burden of the people, so that you do not have to bear it by yourself.h

18 “Tell the people: Consecrate yourselves in readiness for tomorrow, and you will eat meat because you wept in the Lord’s hearing, ‘Who will feed us meat? We were better off in Egypt.’ The Lord will give you meat and you will eat. 19 You will eat, not for 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 becomes nauseating to you—because you have rejected the Lord who is among you, and wept before him, ‘Why did we ever leave Egypt?’ ”i

21 But Moses replied, “I’m in the middle of a people with six hundred thousand foot soldiers,j yet you say, ‘I will give them meat, and they will eat for a month.’ 22 If flocks and herds were slaughtered for them, would they have enough? Or if all the fish in the sea were caught for them, would they have enough?”k

23 The Lord answered Moses, “Is the Lord’s arm weak?D,l Now you will see whether or not what I have promised will happen to you.”

24 Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord. He brought seventy men from the elders of the people and had them stand around the tent. 25 Then the Lord descended in the cloud and spoke to him.m He took some of the Spirit who was on Moses and placed the Spirit on the seventy elders. As the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied,n but they never did it again. 26 Two men had remained in the camp, one named Eldad and the other Medad; the Spirit rested on them—they were among those listed, but had not gone out to the tent—and they prophesied in the camp. 27 A young man ran and reported to Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.”

28 Joshua son of Nun, assistant to Moses since his youth,E responded, “Moses, my lord, stop them!”

29 But Moses asked him, “Are you jealous on my account?o If only all the Lord’s people were prophets and the Lord would place his Spirit on them!” 30 Then Moses returned to the camp along with the elders of Israel.

QUAIL IN THE CAMP

31 A wind sent by the Lordp came up and blew quail in from the sea; it dropped them all around the camp. They were flying three feetF offG the ground for about a day’s journey in every direction.q 32 The people were up all that day and night and all the next day gathering the quail—the one who took the least gathered sixty bushelsH—and they spread them out all around the camp.* r

33 While the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the Lord’s anger burneds against the people, and the Lord struck them with a very severe plague.t 34 So they named that place Kibroth-hattaavah,J because there they buried the people who had craved the meat.

35 From Kibroth-hattaavah the people moved on to Hazeroth* u and remained there.

MIRIAM AND AARON REBEL

12 Miriamv and Aaron criticized Moses because of the Cushite woman he married (for he had married a Cushite woman). 2 They said, “Does the Lord speak only through Moses? Does he not also speak through us?” And the Lord heard it. 3 Moses was a very humble man, more so than anyone on the face of the earth.

4 Suddenly the Lord said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, “You three come out to the tent of meeting.” So the three of them went out. 5 Then the Lord descended in a pillar of cloud,a stood at the entrance to the tent, and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When the two of them came forward, 6 he said:

“Listen to what I say:

If there is a prophet among you from the Lord,

I make myself known to him in a vision;b

I speak with him in a dream.

7 Not so with my servant Moses;

he is faithful inA all my household.c

8 I speak with himd directly,B

openly, and not in riddles;

he sees the form of the Lord.e

So why were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” 9 The Lord’s anger burned against them,f and he left.

10 As the cloud moved away from the tent, Miriam’s skin suddenly became diseased, resembling snow.C When Aaron turned toward her, he saw that she was diseased 11 and said to Moses, “My lord, please don’t hold against us this sin we have so foolishly committed. 12 Please don’t let her be like a dead babyD whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes out of his mother’s womb.”

13 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “God, please heal her!”g

14 The Lord answered Moses, “If her father had merely spit in her face, wouldn’t she remain in disgrace for seven days? Let her be confined outside the camph for seven days;i after that she may be brought back in.” 15 So Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on until Miriam was brought …