Numbers 12–13

Chapter 12

¹And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had taken; for he had taken a Cushite as wife. ²And they said, Has Jehovah indeed spoken only to Moses? has he not spoken also to us? And Jehovah heard it. ³But the man Moses was very meek, above all men that were upon the face of the earth.

⁴Then Jehovah spoke suddenly to Moses, and to Aaron, and to Miriam, Come out ye three unto the tent of meeting. And they went out, they three. ⁵And Jehovah came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood at the entrance of the tent, and called Aaron and Miriam; and they both came forth. ⁶And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I Jehovah will make myself known to him in a vision, I will speak to him in a dream. ⁷Not so my servant Moses: he is faithful in all my house. ⁸Mouth to mouth do I speak to him openly, and not in riddles; and the form of Jehovah doth he behold. Why then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant, against Moses? ⁹And the anger of Jehovah was kindled against them, and he went away;

¹⁰and the cloud departed from off the tent. And behold, Miriam was leprous as snow; and Aaron turned toward Miriam, and behold, she was leprous. ¹¹Then Aaron said to Moses, Alas, my lord, I beseech thee, lay not this sin upon us, wherein we have been foolish, and have sinned! ¹²Let her not be as one stillborn, half of whose flesh is consumed when he comes out of his mother’s womb. ¹³And Moses cried to Jehovah, saying, O •God, heal her, I beseech thee! ¹⁴And Jehovah said to Moses, But had her father anyways spat in her face, should she not be shamed seven days? She shall be shut outside the camp seven days, and afterwards she shall be received in again. ¹⁵And Miriam was shut outside the camp seven days; and the people did not journey till Miriam was received in again. ¹⁶And afterwards the people journeyed from Hazeroth, and encamped in the wilderness of Paran.

Chapter 13

¹And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying, ²Send thou men, that they may search out the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel. Ye shall send a man of every tribe of his fathers, each a prince among them. ³And Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran: according to the commandment of Jehovah, all of them heads of the children of Israel. ⁴And these are their names: for the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur; ⁵for the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori; ⁶for the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh; ⁷for the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph; ⁸for the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Nun; ⁹for the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu; ¹⁰for the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi; ¹¹for the tribe of Joseph, for the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi; ¹²for the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli; ¹³for the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael; ¹⁴for the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi; ¹⁵for the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi. ¹⁶These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to search out the land. And Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun, Jehoshua. ¹⁷And Moses sent them to search out the land of Canaan, and said to them, Go up this way by the south and go up into the hill-country, ¹⁸and ye shall see the land, what it is; and the people that dwell in it, whether they are strong or weak, few or many; ¹⁹and what the land is that they dwell in, whether it is good or bad; and what cities they are that they dwell in, whether in camps, or in strongholds; ²⁰and what the land is, whether it is fat or lean, whether there are trees in it, or not. And take courage, and bring of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the time of the first grapes.

²¹And they went up, and searched out the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, where one comes towards Hamath. ²²And they went up by the south, and came to Hebron; and Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were there. Now Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt. ²³And they came as far as the valley of Eshcol, and cut down thence a branch with one bunch of grapes, and they bore it between two upon a pole; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs. ²⁴That place was called the valley of Eshcol, because of the grapes which the children of Israel had cut down there. ²⁵And they returned from searching out the land after forty days.

²⁶And they came, and went to Moses and to Aaron, and to the whole assembly of the children of Israel, to the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word to them, and to the whole assembly; and shewed them the fruit of the land. ²⁷And they told him, and said, We came to the land to which thou didst send us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it. ²⁸Only, the people are strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, very great; moreover we saw the children of Anak there. ²⁹Amalek dwells in the land of the south; and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill-country; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the side of the Jordan. ³⁰And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up boldly and possess it, for we are well able to do it. ³¹But the men that went up with him said, We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we. ³²And they brought to the children of Israel an evil report of the land which they had searched out, saying, The land, which we have passed through to search it out, is a land that eateth up its inhabitants; and all the people that we have seen in it are men of great stature; ³³and there have we seen giants—the sons of Anak are of the giants—and we were in our sight as grasshoppers, and so we were also in their sight.