Numbers 12–14

Chapter 12

And Mary and Aaron spoke against Moses, because of his wife the Ethiopian,

²And they said: Hath the Lord spoken by Moses only? Hath he not also spoken to us in like manner? And when the Lord heard this,

³(For Moses was a man exceeding meek above all men that dwelt upon earth)

⁴Immediately he spoke to him, and to Aaron and Mary: Come out you three only to the tabernacle of the covenant. And when they were come out,

⁵The Lord came down in a pillar of the cloud, and stood in the entry of the tabernacle calling to Aaron and Mary. And when they were come,

⁶He said to them: Hear my words: if there be among you a prophet of the Lord, I will appear to him in a vision, or I will speak to him in a dream.

⁷But it is not so with my servant Moses who is most faithful in all my house:

⁸For I speak to him mouth to mouth: and plainly, and not by riddles and figures doth he see the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak ill of my servant Moses?

⁹And being angry with them he went away:

¹⁰The cloud also that was over the tabernacle departed: and behold Mary appeared white as snow with a leprosy. And when Aaron had looked on her, and saw her all covered with leprosy,

¹¹He said to Moses: I beseech thee, my lord, lay not upon us this sin, which we have foolishly committed:

¹²Let her not be as one dead, and as an abortive that is cast forth from the mother’s womb. Lo, now one half of her flesh is consumed with the leprosy.

¹³And Moses cried to the Lord, saying O God, I beseech thee heal her.

¹⁴And the Lord answered him: If her father had spitten upon her face, ought she not to have been ashamed for seven days at least? Let her be separated seven days without the camp, and afterwards she shall be called again.

¹⁵Mary therefore was put out of the camp seven days: and the people moved not from that place until Mary was called again.

Chapter 13

And the people marched from Haseroth, and pitched their tents in the desert of Pharan.

²And there the Lord spoke to Moses, saying.

³Send men to view the land of Chanaan, which I will give to the children of Israel, one of every tribe, of the rulers.

⁴Moses did what the Lord had commanded, sending from the desert of Pharan, principal men, whose names are these:

⁵Of the tribe of Ruben, Sammua the son of Zechur.

⁶Of the tribe of Simeon, Saphat the son of Huri.

⁷Of the tribe of Juda, Caleb the son of Jephone.

⁸Of the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph.

⁹Of the tribe of Ephraim, Osee the son of Nun.

¹⁰Of the tribe of Benjamin, Phalti the son of Raphu.

¹¹Of the tribe of Zabulon, Geddiel the son of Sodi.

¹²Of the tribe of Joseph, of the sceptre of Manasses, Gaddi the son of Susi.

¹³Of the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli.

¹⁴Of the tribe of Aser, Sthur the son of Michael.

¹⁵Of the tribe of Nephtali, Nahabi the son of Vapsi.

¹⁶Of the tribe of Gad, Guel the son of Machi.

¹⁷These are the names of the men, whom Moses sent to view the land: and he called Osee the son of Nun, Josue.

¹⁸And Moses sent them to view the land of Chanaan, and said to them: Go you up by the south side. And when you shall come to the mountains,

¹⁹View the land, of what sort it is, and the people that are the inhabitants thereof, whether they be strong or weak: few in number or many:

²⁰The land itself, whether it be good or bad: what manner of cities, walled or without walls:

²¹The ground, fat or barren, woody or without trees. Be of good courage, and bring us of the fruits of the land. Now it was the time when the firstripe grapes are fit to be eaten.

²²And when they were gone up, they viewed the land from the desert of Sin, unto Rohob as you enter into Emath.

²³And they went up at the south side, and came to Hebron, where were Achiman and Sisai and Tholmai the sons of Enac. For Hebron was built seven years before Tanis the city of Egypt.

²⁴And forward as far as the torrent of the cluster of grapes, they cut off a branch with its cluster of grapes, which two men carried upon a lever. They took also of the pomegranates and of the figs of that place:

²⁵Which was called Nehelescol, that is to say, the torrent of the cluster of grapes, because from thence the children of Israel had carried a cluster of grapes.

²⁶And they that went to spy out the land returned after forty days, having gone round all the country,

²⁷And came to Moses and Aaron and to all the assembly of the children of Israel to the desert of Pharan, which is in Cades. And speaking to them and to all the multitude, they shewed them the fruits of the land:

²⁸And they related and said: We came into the land to which thou sentest us, which in very deed floweth with milk and honey as may be known by these fruits:

²⁹But it hath very strong inhabitants, and the cities are great and walled. We saw there the race of Enac.

³⁰Amalec dwelleth in the south, the Hethite and the Jebusite and the Amorrhite in the mountains: but the Chanaanite abideth by the sea and near the streams of the Jordan.

³¹In the mean time Caleb, to still the murmuring of the people that rose against Moses, said: Let us go up and possess the land, for we shall be able to conquer it.

³²But the others, that had been with him, said: No, we are not able to go up to this people, because they are stronger than we.

³³And they spoke ill of the land, which they had viewed, before the children of Israel, saying: The land which we have viewed, devoureth its inhabitants: the people, that we beheld are of a tall stature.

³⁴There we saw certain monsters of the sons of Enac, of the giant kind: in comparison of whom, we seemed like locusts.

Chapter 14

Therefore the whole multitude crying wept that night.

²And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying:

³Would God that we had died in Egypt: and would God we may die in this vast wilderness, and that the Lord may not bring us into this land, lest we fall by the sword, and our wives and children be led away captives. Is it not better to return into Egypt?

⁴And they said one to another: Let us appoint a captain, and let us return into Egypt.

⁵And when Moses and Aaron heard this, they fell down flat upon the ground before the multitude of the children of Israel.

⁶But Josue the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephone, who themselves also had viewed the land, rent their garments,

⁷And said to all the multitude of the children of Israel: The land which we have gone round is very good:

⁸If the Lord be favourable, he will bring us into it, and give us a land flowing with milk and honey.

⁹Be not rebellious against the Lord: and fear ye not the people of this land, for we are able to eat them up as bread. All aid is gone from them: the Lord is with us, fear ye not.

¹⁰And when all the multitude cried out, and would have stoned them, the glory of the Lord appeared over the tabernacle of the covenant to all the children of Israel.

¹¹And the Lord said to Moses: How long will this people detract me? how long will they not believe me for all the signs that I have wrought before them?

¹²I will strike them therefore with pestilence, and will consume them: but thee I will make a ruler over a great nation, and a mightier than this is.

¹³And Moses said to the Lord: That the Egyptians, from the midst of whom thou hast brought forth this people,

¹⁴And the inhabitants of this land, (who have heard that thou, O Lord, art among this people, and art seen face to face, and thy cloud protecteth them, and thou goest before them in a pillar of a cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night,)

¹⁵May hear that thou hast killed so great a multitude as it were one man and may say:

¹⁶He could not bring the people into the land for which he had sworn, therefore did he kill them in the wilderness.

¹⁷Let then the strength of the Lord be magnified, as thou hast sworn, saying:

¹⁸The Lord is patient and full of mercy, by taking away iniquity and wickedness, and leaving no man clear, who visitest the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.

¹⁹Forgive, I beseech thee, the sins of this people, according to the greatness of thy mercy, as thou hast been merciful to them from their going out of Egypt unto this place.

²⁰And the Lord said: I have forgiven according to thy word.

²¹As I live: and the whole earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.

²²But yet all the men that have seen my majesty, and the signs that I have done in Egypt, and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now ten times, and have not obeyed my voice,

²³Shall not see the land for which I swore to their fathers, neither shall any one of them that hath detracted me behold it.

²⁴My servant Caleb, who being full of another spirit hath followed me, I will bring into this land which he hath gone round: and his seed shall possess it.

²⁵For the Amalecite and the Chanaanite dwell in the valleys. To morrow remove the camp, and return into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.

²⁶And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying:

²⁷How long doth this wicked multitude murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel.

²⁸Say therefore to them: As I live, saith the Lord: According as you have spoken in my hearing, so will I do to you.

²⁹In the wilderness shall your carcasses lie. All you that were numbered from twenty years old and upward, and have murmured against me,

³⁰Shall not enter into the land, over which I lifted up my hand to make you dwell therein, except Caleb the son of Jephone, and Josue the son of Nun.

³¹But your children, of whom you said, that they should be a prey to the enemies, will I bring in: that they may see the land which you have despised.

³²Your carcasses shall lie in the wilderness.

³³Your children shall wander in the desert forty years, and shall bear your fornication, until the carcasses of their fathers be consumed in the desert,

³⁴According to the number of the forty days, wherein you viewed the land: a year shall be counted for a day. And forty…