Numbers 12–13

MIRIAM AND AARON REBEL

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

⁴Suddenly the Lord said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, “You three come out to the tent of meeting.” So the three of them went out. ⁵Then 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, ⁶he 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.

⁷Not so with my servant Moses;

he is faithful in^A all my household.^c

⁸I speak with him^d 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?” ⁹The Lord’s anger burned against them,^f and he left.

¹⁰As 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 ¹¹and said to Moses, “My lord, please don’t hold against us this sin we have so foolishly committed. ¹²Please don’t let her be like a dead baby^D whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes out of his mother’s womb.”

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

¹⁴The 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 camp^h for seven days;ⁱ after that she may be brought back in.” ¹⁵So Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on until Miriam was brought back in.^{j 16}After that, the people set out from Hazeroth and camped in the Wilderness of Paran.

SCOUTING OUT CANAAN

13The Lord spoke to Moses: ²“Send men to scout out the land of Canaan^k I am giving to the Israelites. Send one man who is a leader among them from each of their ancestral tribes.” ³Moses sent them from the Wilderness of Paran at the Lord’s command. All the men were leaders in Israel.^{l 4}These were their names:

Shammua son of Zaccur from the tribe of Reuben;

⁵Shaphat son of Hori from the tribe of Simeon;

⁶Caleb^m son of Jephunneh from the tribe of Judah;

⁷Igal son of Joseph from the tribe of Issachar;

⁸Hoshea son of Nunⁿ from the tribe of Ephraim;

⁹Palti son of Raphu from the tribe of Benjamin;

¹⁰Gaddiel son of Sodi from the tribe of Zebulun;

¹¹Gaddi son of Susi from the tribe of Manasseh (from the tribe of Joseph);

¹²Ammiel son of Gemalli from the tribe of Dan;

¹³Sethur son of Michael from the tribe of Asher;

¹⁴Nahbi son of Vophsi from the tribe of Naphtali;

¹⁵Geuel son of Machi from the tribe of Gad.

¹⁶These were the names of the men Moses sent to scout out the land, and Moses renamed Hoshea son of Nun, Joshua.

¹⁷When Moses sent them to scout out the land of Canaan, he told them, “Go up this way to the Negev, then go up into the hill country. ¹⁸See what the land is like, and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many. ¹⁹Is the land they live in good^o or bad? Are the cities they live in encampments or fortifications?^{p 20}Is the land fertile or unproductive?^q Are there trees in it or not? Be courageous. Bring back some fruit from the land.” It was the season for the first ripe grapes.^r

²¹So they went up and scouted out the land from the Wilderness of Zin^A as far as Rehob near the entrance to Hamath.^{B 22}They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak,^s were living. Hebron was built seven years before Zoan^t in Egypt. ²³When they came to Eshcol^u Valley, they cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes, which was carried on a pole by two men. They also took some pomegranates and figs.^{v 24}That place was called ^Cthe Valley of Eshcol because of the cluster of grapes the Israelites cut there. ²⁵At the end of forty days^a they returned from scouting out the land.

REPORT ABOUT CANAAN

²⁶The men went back to Moses, Aaron, and the entire Israelite community in the Wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. They brought back a report for them and the whole community, and they showed them the fruit of the land.^{b 27}They reported to Moses, “We went into the land where you sent us. Indeed it is flowing with milk and honey,^c and here is some of its fruit. ²⁸However, the people living in the land are strong, and the cities are large and fortified.^d We also saw the descendants of Anak^e there. ²⁹The Amalekites^f are living in the land of the Negev; the Hethites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live by the sea and along the Jordan.”

³⁰Then Caleb^g quieted the people in the presence of Moses and said, “Let’s go up now and take possession of the land because we can certainly conquer it!”

³¹But the men who had gone up with him responded, “We can’t attack the people because they are stronger than we are!” ³²So they gave a negative report to the Israelites about the land they had scouted: “The land we passed through to explore is one that devours its inhabitants, and all the people we saw in it are men of great size. ³³We even saw the Nephilim^h there—the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim!ⁱ To ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and we must have seemed the same to them.”