Numbers 12–13

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 small as grasshoppers, and that is how we must have looked to them.”