Numbers 9–11

Chapter 9

The Lord spoke to Moses in the desert of Sinai, the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, in the first month, saying:

²Let the children of Israel make the phase in its due time,

³The fourteenth day of this month in the evening, according to all the ceremonies and justifications thereof.

⁴And Moses commanded the children of Israel that they should make the phase.

⁵And they made it in its proper time: the fourteenth day of the month at evening, in mount Sinai. The children of Israel did according to all things that the Lord had commanded Moses.

⁶But behold some who were unclean by occasion of the soul of a man, who could not make the phase on that day, coming to Moses and Aaron,

⁷Said to them: We are unclean by occasion of the soul of a man. Why are we kept back that we may not offer in its season the offering to the Lord among the children of Israel?

⁸And Moses answered them: Stay that I may consult the Lord what he will ordain concerning you.

⁹And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

¹⁰Say to the children of Israel: The man that shall be unclean by occasion of one that is dead, or shall be in a journey afar off in your nation, let him make the phase to the Lord.

¹¹In the second month, on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening, they shall eat it with unleavened bread and wild lettuce:

¹²They shall not leave any thing thereof until morning, nor break a bone thereof, they shall observe all the ceremonies of the phase.

¹³But if any man is clean, and was not on a journey, and did not make the phase, that soul shall be cut off from among his people, because he offered not sacrifice to the Lord in due season: he shall bear his sin.

¹⁴The sojourner also and the stranger if they be among you, shall make the phase to the Lord according to the ceremonies and justifications thereof. The same ordinances shall be with you both for the stranger, and for him that was born in the land.

¹⁵Now on the day that the tabernacle was reared up, a cloud covered it. But from the evening there was over the tabernacle, as it were, the appearance of fire until the morning.

¹⁶So it was always: by day the cloud covered it, and by night as it were the appearance of fire.

¹⁷And when the cloud that covered the tabernacle was taken up, then the children of Israel marched forward: and in the place where the cloud stood still, there they camped.

¹⁸At the commandment of the Lord they marched, and at his commandment they pitched the tabernacle. All the days that the cloud abode over the tabernacle, they remained in the same place:

¹⁹And if it was so that it continued over it a long time, the children of Israel kept the watches of the Lord, and marched not,

²⁰For as many days soever as the cloud stayed over the tabernacle. At the commandment of the Lord they pitched their tents, and at his commandment they took them down.

²¹If the cloud tarried from evening until morning, and immediately at break of day left the tabernacle, they marched forward: and if it departed after a day and a night, they took down their tents.

²²But if it remained over the tabernacle for two days or a month or a longer time, the children of Israel remained in the same place, and marched not: but immediately as soon as it departed, they removed the camp.

²³By the word of the Lord they pitched their tents, and by his word they marched: and kept the watches of the Lord according to his commandment by the hand of Moses.

Chapter 10

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

²Make thee two trumpets of beaten silver, wherewith thou mayest call together the multitude when the camp is to be removed.

³And when thou shalt sound the trumpets, all the multitude shall gather unto thee to the door of the tabernacle of the covenant.

⁴If thou sound but once, the princes and the heads of the multitude of Israel shall come to thee.

⁵But if the sound of the trumpets be longer, and with interruptions, they that are on the east side, shall first go forward.

⁶And at the second sounding and like noise of the trumpet, they who lie on the south side shall take up their tents. And after this manner shall the rest do, when the trumpets shall sound for a march.

⁷But when the people is to be gathered together, the sound of the trumpets shall be plain, and they shall not make a broken sound.

⁸And the sons of Aaron the priest shall sound the trumpets: and this shall be an ordinance for ever in your generations.

⁹If you go forth to war out of your land against the enemies that fight against you, you shall sound aloud with the trumpets, and there shall be a remembrance of you before the Lord your God, that you may be delivered out of the hands of your enemies.

¹⁰If at any time you shall have a banquet, and on your festival days, and on the first days of your months, you shall sound the trumpets over the holocausts, and the sacrifices of peace offerings, that they may be to you for a remembrance of your God. I am the Lord your God.

¹¹The second year, in the second month, the twentieth day of the month, the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle of the covenant.

¹²And the children of Israel marched by their troops from the desert of Sinai, and the cloud rested in the wilderness of Pharan.

¹³And the first went forward according to the commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses.

¹⁴The sons of Juda by their troops: whose prince was Nahasson the son of Aminadab.

¹⁵In the tribe of the sons of Issachar, the prince was Nathanael the son of Suar.

¹⁶In the tribe of Zabulon, the prince was Eliab the son of Helon.

¹⁷And the tabernacle was taken down, and the sons of Gerson and Merari set forward, bearing it.

¹⁸And the sons of Ruben also marched, by their troops and ranks, whose prince was Helisur the son of Sedeur.

¹⁹And in the tribe of Simeon, the prince was Salamiel the son of Surisaddai.

²⁰And in the tribe of Gad, the prince was Eliasaph the son of Duel.

²¹Then the Caathites also marched carrying the sanctuary. So long was the tabernacle carried, till they came to the place of setting it up.

²²The sons of Ephraim also moved their camp by their troops, in whose army the prince was Elisama the son of Ammiud.

²³And in the tribe of the sons of Manasses, the prince was Gamaliel the son of Phadassur.

²⁴And in the tribe of Benjamin, the prince was Abidan the son of Gedeon.

²⁵The last of all the camp marched the sons of Dan by their troops, in whose army the prince was Ahiezer the son of Ammisaddai.

²⁶And in the tribe of the sons of Aser, the prince was Phegiel the son of Ochran.

²⁷And in the tribe of the sons of Nephtali, the prince was Ahira the son of Enan.

²⁸This was the order of the camps, and marches of the children of Israel by their troops, when they set forward.

²⁹And Moses said to Hobab the son of Raguel the Madianite, his kinsman: We are going towards the place which the Lord will give us: come with us, that we may do thee good: for the Lord hath promised good things to Israel.

³⁰But he answered him: I will not go with thee, but I will return to my country, wherein I was born.

³¹And he said: Do not leave us: for thou knowest in what places we should encamp in the wilderness, and thou shalt be our guide.

³²And if thou comest with us, we will give thee what is the best of the riches which the Lord shall deliver to us.

³³So they marched from the mount of the Lord three days’ journey, and the ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them, for three days providing a place for the camp.

³⁴The cloud also of the Lord was over them by day when they marched.

³⁵And when the ark was lifted up, Moses said: Arise, O Lord, and let thy enemies be scattered, and let them that hate thee, flee from before thy face.

³⁶And when it was set down, he said: Return, O Lord, to the multitude of the host of Israel.

Chapter 11

In the mean time there arose a murmuring of the people against the Lord, as it were repining at their fatigue. And when the Lord heard it he was angry. And the fire of the Lord being kindled against them, devoured them that were at the uttermost part of the camp.

²And when the people cried to Moses, Moses prayed to the Lord, and the fire was swallowed up.

³And he called the name of that place, The burning: for that the fire of the Lord had been kindled against them.

⁴For a mixt multitude of people, that came up with them, burned with desire, sitting and weeping, the children of Israel also being joined with them, and said: Who shall give us flesh to eat?

⁵We remember the fish that we ate in Egypt free cost: the cucumbers come into our mind, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic.

⁶Our soul is dry, our eyes behold nothing else but manna.

⁷Now the manna was like coriander seed, of the colour of bdellium.

⁸And the people went about, and gathering it, ground it in a mill, or beat it in a mortar, and boiled it in a pot, and made cakes thereof of the taste of bread tempered with oil.

⁹And when the dew fell in the night upon the camp, the manna also fell with it.

¹⁰Now Moses heard the people weeping by their families, every one at the door of his tent. And the wrath of the Lord was exceedingly enkindled: to Moses also the thing seemed insupportable.

¹¹And he said to the Lord: Why hast thou afflicted thy servant? Wherefore do I not find favour before thee? And why hast thou laid the weight of all this people upon me?

¹²Have I conceived all this multitude, or begotten them, that thou shouldst say to me: Carry them in thy bosom as the nurse is wont to carry the little infant, and bear them into the land, for which thou hast sworn to their fathers?

¹³Whence should I have flesh to give to so great a multitude? They weep against me, saying: Give us flesh that we may eat.

¹⁴I am not able alone to bear all this people, because it is too heavy for me.

¹⁵But if it seem unto thee otherwise, I beseech thee to kill me, and let me find grace in thy eyes, that I be not afflicted with so great evils.

¹⁶And the Lord said…