Numbers 14–15

The People Rebel

14Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people ⁱwept that night. ²And all the people of Israel ^jgrumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or ^kwould that we had died in this wilderness! ³Why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? ^lOur wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” ⁴And they said to one another, ^m“Let us choose a leader and ⁿgo back to Egypt.”

⁵Then ^oMoses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the people of Israel. ^6pAnd Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes ⁷and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, ^q“The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. ⁸If ^rthe Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, ^sa land that flows with milk and honey. ⁹Only ^tdo not rebel against the Lord. And ^udo not fear the people of the land, for ^vthey are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.” ^10wThen all the congregation said to stone them with stones. But ^xthe glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the people of Israel.

¹¹And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people ^ydespise me? And how long will they not ^zbelieve in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? ¹²I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I ^awill make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”

Moses Intercedes for the People

¹³But ^bMoses said to the Lord, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for you brought up this people in your might from among them, ¹⁴and they will tell the inhabitants of this land. ^cThey have heard that you, O Lord, are in the midst of this people. For you, O Lord, are seen face to face, and ^dyour cloud stands over them and you go before them, in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. ¹⁵Now if you kill this people as one man, then the nations who have heard your fame will say, ¹⁶‘It is because the Lord ^ewas not able to bring this people into the land that he swore to give to them that he has killed them in the wilderness.’ ¹⁷And now, please let the power of the Lord be great as you have promised, saying, ^18f‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, ^gvisiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.’ ¹⁹Please ^hpardon the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just ⁱas you have forgiven this people, from Egypt until now.”

God Promises Judgment

²⁰Then the Lord said, “I have pardoned, ^jaccording to your word. ²¹But truly, as I live, and as all ^kthe earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, ^22lnone of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ^mten times and have not obeyed my voice, ²³ⁿshall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it. ²⁴But my servant ^oCaleb, because he has a different spirit and has ^pfollowed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it. ^25qNow, since the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valleys, ^rturn tomorrow and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.”

²⁶And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, ²⁷“How long shall ^sthis wicked congregation grumble against me? ^tI have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against me. ²⁸Say to them, ^u‘As I live, declares the Lord, ^vwhat you have said in my hearing I will do to you: ^29wyour dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and ^xof all your number, listed in the census ^yfrom twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me, ³⁰not one shall come into the land where I ^zswore that I would make you dwell, ^aexcept Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. ^31bBut your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that ^cyou have rejected. ³²But as for you, ^wyour dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. ³³And your children ^dshall be shepherds in the wilderness ^eforty years and shall ^fsuffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. ^34gAccording to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, ^hforty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.’ ³⁵ⁱI, the Lord, have spoken. Surely this will I do to all ^jthis wicked congregation who are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die.”

^36kAnd the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing up a bad report about the land— ³⁷the men who brought up a bad report of the land—^ldied by plague before the Lord. ³⁸Of those men who went to spy out the land, ^monly Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive.

Israel Defeated in Battle

³⁹When Moses told these words to all the people of Israel, the people ⁿmourned greatly. ⁴⁰And they rose early in the morning and went up to the heights of the hill country, saying, ^o“Here we are. We will go up to the place that the Lord has promised, for we have sinned.” ^41pBut Moses said, “Why now are you transgressing the command of the Lord, when that will not succeed? ^42qDo not go up, ^rfor the Lord is not among you, lest you be struck down before your enemies. ⁴³For there ^sthe Amalekites and the Canaanites are facing you, and you shall fall by the sword. Because you have turned back from following the Lord, the Lord will not be with you.” ^44tBut they presumed to go up to the heights of the hill country, although neither ^uthe ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed out of the camp. ⁴⁵Then ^vthe Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and defeated them and pursued them, even to ^wHormah.

Laws About Sacrifices

15The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²“Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, ^xWhen you come into the land you are to inhabit, which I am giving you, ³and ^yyou offer to the Lord from the herd or from the flock a food offering¹ or a burnt offering or a sacrifice, ^zto fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering or ^aat your appointed feasts, to make a ^bpleasing aroma to the Lord, ⁴then ^che who brings his offering shall offer to the Lord ^da grain offering of a tenth of an ephah² of fine flour, ^emixed with a quarter of a hin³ of oil; ⁵and you shall offer with the burnt offering, or for the sacrifice, a quarter of a hin of ^fwine for the drink offering for each lamb. ^6gOr for a ram, you shall offer for a grain offering two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a third of a hin of oil. ⁷And for the drink offering you shall offer a third of a hin of wine, a ^bpleasing aroma to the Lord. ⁸And when you offer a bull as a burnt offering or sacrifice, to ^zfulfill a vow or for ^hpeace offerings to the Lord, ⁹then one shall offer ⁱwith the bull a grain offering of three tenths of an ephah of fine flour, mixed with half a hin of oil. ¹⁰And you shall offer for the drink offering half a hin of wine, as a food offering, a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

^11j“Thus it shall be done for each bull or ram, or for each lamb or young goat. ¹²As many as you offer, so shall you do with each one, as many as there are. ¹³Every native Israelite shall do these things in this way, in offering a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. ¹⁴And if a stranger is sojourning with you, or anyone is living permanently among you, and he wishes to offer a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the Lord, he shall do as you do. ¹⁵For the assembly, ^kthere shall be one statute for you and for the stranger who sojourns with you, a statute forever throughout your generations. You and the sojourner shall be alike before the Lord. ¹⁶One law and one rule shall be for you and for the stranger who sojourns with you.”

¹⁷The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ^18l“Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land to which I bring you ¹⁹and when you eat of ^mthe bread of the land, you shall present a contribution to the Lord. ²⁰ⁿOf the first of your dough you shall present a loaf as a contribution; like a ^ocontribution from the threshing floor, so shall you present it. ²¹ⁿSome of the first of your dough you shall give to the Lord as a contribution throughout your generations.

Laws About Unintentional Sins

^22p“But if you sin unintentionally,⁴ and do not observe all these commandments that the Lord has spoken to Moses, ²³all that the Lord has commanded you by Moses, from the day that the Lord gave commandment, and onward throughout your generations, ²⁴then if it was done unintentionally ^qwithout the knowledge of the congregation, all the congregation shall offer one bull from the herd for a burnt offering, a pleasing aroma to the Lord, ^rwith its grain offering and its drink offering, according to the rule, and ^sone male goat for a sin offering. ^25tAnd the priest shall make atonement for all the congregation of the people of Israel, and they shall be forgiven, because it was a mistake, and they have brought their offering, a food offering to the Lord, and their sin offering before the Lord for their mistake. ²⁶And all the congregation of the people of Israel shall be forgiven, and the stranger who sojourns among them, because the whole population was involved in the mistake.

^27u“If one person sins unintentionally, he shall offer a female goat a year old for a sin offering.…