Numbers 11–13

The Place Named Taberah

11The people began to complain to the Lord about their troubles. When the Lord heard them, he was angry and sent fire on the people. It burnt among them and destroyed one end of the camp. ²The people cried out to Moses for help; he prayed to the Lord, and the fire died down. ³So the place was named Taberah,^d because there the fire of the Lord burnt among them.

Moses Chooses Seventy Leaders

⁴There were some foreigners travelling with the Israelites. They had a strong craving for meat, and even the Israelites themselves began to complain: “If only we could have some meat! ⁵In Egypt we used to eat all the fish we wanted, and it cost us nothing. Remember the cucumbers, the watermelons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic we had? ⁶But now our strength is gone. There is nothing at all to eat—nothing but this manna day after day!”

^7*(Manna was like small seeds, whitish yellow in colour. ^8–9*It fell on the camp at night along with the dew. The next morning the people would go round and gather it, grind it or pound it into flour, and then boil it and make it into flat cakes. It tasted like bread baked with olive oil.)

¹⁰Moses heard all the people complaining as they stood about in groups at the entrances of their tents. He was distressed because the Lord was angry with them, ¹¹and he said to the Lord, “Why have you treated me so badly? Why are you displeased with me? Why have you given me the responsibility for all these people? ¹²I didn’t create them or bring them to birth! Why should you ask me to act like a nurse and carry them in my arms like babies all the way to the land you promised to their ancestors? ¹³Where could I get enough meat for all these people? They keep whining and asking for meat. ¹⁴I can’t be responsible for all these people by myself; it’s too much for me! ¹⁵If you are going to treat me like this, take pity on me and kill me, so that I won’t have to endure your cruelty any longer.”

¹⁶The Lord said to Moses, “Assemble seventy respected men who are recognized as leaders of the people, bring them to me at the Tent of my presence, and tell them to stand there beside you. ¹⁷I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the spirit I have given you and give it to them. Then they can help you to bear the responsibility for these people, and you will not have to bear it alone. ¹⁸Now tell the people, ‘Purify yourselves for tomorrow; you will have meat to eat. The Lord has heard you whining and saying that you wished you had some meat and that you were better off in Egypt. Now the Lord will give you meat, and you will have to eat it. ¹⁹You will have to eat it not just for one or two days, or five, or ten, or even twenty days, ²⁰but for a whole month, until it comes out of your ears, until you are sick of it. This will happen because you have rejected the Lord who is here among you and have complained to him that you should never have left Egypt.’ ”

²¹Moses said to the Lord, “Here I am leading 600,000 people, and you say that you will give them enough meat for a month? ²²Could enough cattle and sheep be killed to satisfy them? Are all the fish in the sea enough for them?”

²³“Is there a limit to my power?” the Lord answered. “You will soon see whether what I have said will happen or not!”

²⁴So Moses went out and told the people what the Lord had said. He assembled 70 of the leaders and placed them round the Tent. ²⁵Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him. He took some of the spirit he had given to Moses and gave it to the 70 leaders. When the spirit came on them, they began to shout like prophets, but not for long.

²⁶Two of the 70 leaders, Eldad and Medad, had stayed in the camp and had not gone out to the Tent. There in the camp the spirit came on them, and they too began to shout like prophets. ²⁷A young man ran out to tell Moses what Eldad and Medad were doing.

²⁸Then Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses’ helper since he was a young man, spoke up and said to Moses, “Stop them, sir!”

²⁹Moses answered, “Are you concerned about my interests? I wish that the Lord would give his spirit to all his people and make all of them shout like prophets!” ³⁰Then Moses and the 70 leaders of Israel went back to camp.

The Sends Quails

³¹Suddenly the Lord sent a wind that brought quails from the sea, flying less than a metre above the ground. They settled on the camp and all round it for many kilometres in every direction.^{e 32}So all that day, all night, and all the next day, the people worked catching quails; no one gathered less than a thousand kilogrammes. They spread them out to dry all round the camp. ³³While there was still plenty of meat for them to eat, the Lord became angry with the people and caused an epidemic to break out among them. ³⁴That place was named Kibroth Hattaavah (which means “Graves of Craving”), because there they buried the people who had craved meat.

³⁵From there the people moved to Hazeroth, where they made camp.

Miriam Is Punished

12Moses had married a Cushite^f woman, and Miriam and Aaron criticized him for it. ²They said, “Has the Lord spoken only through^g Moses? Hasn’t he also spoken through^h us?” The Lord heard what they said. ³(Moses was a humble man, more humble than anyone else on earth.)

⁴Suddenly the Lord said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, “I want the three of you to come out to the Tent of my presence.” They went, ⁵and the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud, stood at the entrance of the Tent, and called out, “Aaron! Miriam!” The two of them stepped forward, ⁶and the Lord said, “Now hear what I have to say! When there are prophets among you,ⁱ I reveal myself to them in visions and speak to them in dreams. ^7*It is different when I speak with my servant Moses; I have put him in charge of all my people Israel.^{j 8}So I speak to him face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he has even seen my form! How dare you speak against my servant Moses?”

⁹The Lord was angry with them; and so as he departed ¹⁰and the cloud left the Tent, Miriam’s skin was suddenly covered with a dreaded disease and turned as white as snow. When Aaron looked at her and saw that she was covered with the disease, ¹¹he said to Moses, “Please, sir, do not make us suffer this punishment for our foolish sin. ¹²Don’t let her become like something born dead with half its flesh eaten away.”

¹³So Moses cried out to the Lord, “O God, heal her!”

^14*The Lord answered, “If her father had spat in her face, she would have to bear her disgrace for seven days. So let her be shut out of the camp for a week, and after that she can be brought back in.” ¹⁵Miriam was shut out of the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on until she was brought back in. ¹⁶Then they left Hazeroth and set up camp in the wilderness of Paran.

The Spies

13The Lord said to Moses, ²“Choose one of the leaders from each of the twelve tribes and send them as spies to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites.” ^3–15Moses obeyed and from the wilderness of Paran he sent out leaders, as follows:

TribeLeader

ReubenShammua son of Zaccur

SimeonShaphat son of Hori

JudahCaleb son of Jephunneh

IssacharIgal son of Joseph

EphraimHoshea son of Nun

BenjaminPalti son of Raphu

ZebulunGaddiel son of Sodi

ManassehGaddi son of Susi

DanAmmiel son of Gemalli

AsherSethur son of Michael

NaphtaliNahbi son of Vophsi

GadGeuel son of Machi

¹⁶These are the spies Moses sent to explore the land. He changed the name of Hoshea son of Nun to Joshua.

¹⁷When Moses sent them out, he said to them, “Go north from here into the southern part of the land of Canaan and then on into the hill country. ¹⁸Find out what kind of country it is, how many people live there, and how strong they are. ¹⁹Find out whether the land is good or bad and whether the people live in open towns or in fortified cities. ²⁰Find out whether the soil is fertile and whether the land is wooded. And be sure to bring back some of the fruit that grows there.” (It was the season when grapes were beginning to ripen.)

²¹So the men went north and explored the land from the wilderness of Zin in the south all the way to Rehob, near Hamath Pass in the north. ²²They went first into the southern part of the land and came to Hebron, where the clans of Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of a race of giants called the Anakim, lived. (Hebron was founded seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) ²³They came to the Valley of Eshcol, and there they cut off a branch which had one bunch of grapes on it so heavy that it took two men to carry it on a pole between them. They also brought back some pomegranates and figs. ²⁴(That place was named the Valley of Eshcol^k because of the bunch of grapes the Israelites cut off there.)

²⁵After exploring the land for 40 days, the spies returned ²⁶to Moses, Aaron, and the whole community of Israel at Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran. They reported what they had seen and showed them the fruit they had brought. ²⁷They said to Moses, “We explored the land and found it to be rich and fertile; and here is some of its fruit. ²⁸But the people who live there are powerful, and their cities are very large and well fortified. Even worse, we saw the descendants of the giants there. ²⁹Amalekites live in the southern part of the land; Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country; and Canaanites live by the Mediterranean Sea and along the River Jordan.”

³⁰Caleb silenced the people who were complaining against^l Moses, and said, “We should attack now and take the land; we are strong enough to conquer it.”

³¹But the men who had gone with Caleb said, “No, we are not strong enough to attack them; the people there are more powerful than we are.” ³²So they spread a false report among the Israelites about the land they had explored. They said, “That land doesn’t even produce enough to feed the people who live there. Everyone we saw was very tall, ^33*and we even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. We felt as…