Numbers 12–13

Miriam and Aaron Rebel

12Miriam ^oand Aaron criticized Moses because of the Cushite ^pqwoman he married (for he had married a Cushite woman). ²They said, “Does the Lord speak only through Moses? Does He not also speak through us?” And the Lord heard it. ³Moses was a very humble man, more so than any man on the face of the earth.

⁴Suddenly the Lord said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, “You three come out to the tent of meeting.” So the three of them went out. ⁵Then the Lord descended in a pillar of cloud, ^rstood at the entrance to the tent, and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When the two of them came forward, ⁶He said:

“Listen to what I say:

If there is a prophet among you from the Lord,

I make Myself known to him in a vision; ^s

I speak with him in a dream.

⁷Not so with My servant Moses;

he is faithful in ^tall My household. ^u

⁸I speak with him ^vdirectly, ^w

openly, and not in riddles;

he sees the form of the Lord. ^x

So why were you not afraid to speak against My servant Moses?” ⁹The Lord’s anger burned against them, ^yand He left.

¹⁰As the cloud moved away from the tent, Miriam’s skin suddenly became diseased, as white as snow. When Aaron turned toward her, he saw that she was diseased ¹¹and said to Moses, “My lord, please don’t hold against us this sin we have so foolishly committed. ¹²Please don’t let her be like a dead baby ^zwhose flesh is half eaten away when he comes out of his mother’s womb.”

¹³Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “God, please heal her!” ^a

¹⁴The Lord answered Moses, “If her father had merely spit in her face, wouldn’t she remain in disgrace for seven days? Let her be confined outside the camp ^bfor seven days; ^cafter that she may be brought back in.” ¹⁵So Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on until Miriam was brought back in. ^d16After that, the people set out from Hazeroth and camped in the Wilderness of Paran.

Scouting Out Canaan

13The Lord spoke to Moses: ²“Send men to scout out the land of Canaan ^eI am giving to the Israelites. Send one man who is a leader among them from each of their ancestral tribes.” ³Moses sent them from the Wilderness of Paran at the Lord’s command. All the men were leaders in Israel. ^f4These were their names:

Shammua son of Zaccur from the tribe of Reuben;

⁵Shaphat son of Hori from the tribe of Simeon;

⁶Caleb ^gson of Jephunneh from the tribe of Judah;

⁷Igal son of Joseph from the tribe of Issachar;

⁸Hoshea son of Nun ^hfrom the tribe of Ephraim;

⁹Palti son of Raphu from the tribe of Benjamin;

¹⁰Gaddiel son of Sodi from the tribe of Zebulun;

¹¹Gaddi son of Susi from the tribe of Manasseh (from the tribe of Joseph);

¹²Ammiel son of Gemalli from the tribe of Dan;

¹³Sethur son of Michael from the tribe of Asher;

¹⁴Nahbi son of Vophsi from the tribe of Naphtali;

¹⁵Geuel son of Machi from the tribe of Gad.

¹⁶These were the names of the men Moses sent to scout out the land, and Moses renamed Hoshea son of Nun, Joshua.

¹⁷When Moses sent them to scout out the land of Canaan, he told them, “Go up this way to the Negev, then go up into the hill country. ¹⁸See what the land is like, and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many. ¹⁹Is the land they live in good ⁱor bad? Are the cities they live in encampments or fortifications? ^j20Is the land fertile or unproductive? ^kAre there trees in it or not? Be courageous. Bring back some fruit from the land.” It was the season for the first ripe grapes. ^l

²¹So they went up and scouted out the land from the Wilderness of Zin ^mas far as Rehob ⁿnear the entrance to Hamath. ^o22They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, ^pwere living. Hebron was built seven years before Zoan ^qin Egypt. ²³When they came to the Valley of Eshcol, ^rthey cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes, which was carried on a pole by two men. They also took some pomegranates and figs. ^s24That place was called the Valley of Eshcol ^tbecause of the cluster of grapes the Israelites cut there. ²⁵At the end of 40 days ^uthey returned from scouting out the land.

Report about Canaan

²⁶The men went back to Moses, Aaron, and the entire Israelite community in the Wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. They brought back a report for them and the whole community, and they showed them the fruit of the land. ^v27They reported to Moses: “We went into the land where you sent us. Indeed it is flowing with milk and honey, ^wand here is some of its fruit. ²⁸However, the people living in the land are strong, and the cities are large and fortified. ^xWe also saw the descendants of Anak ^ythere. ²⁹The Amalekites ^zare living in the land of the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live by the sea and along the Jordan.”

³⁰Then Caleb ^aquieted the people in the presence of Moses and said, “We must go up and take possession of the land because we can certainly conquer it!”

³¹But the men who had gone up with him responded, “We can’t go up against the people because they are stronger than we are!” ³²So they gave a negative report to the Israelites about the land they had scouted: “The land we passed through to explore is one that devours its inhabitants, and all the people we saw in it are men of great size. ³³We even saw the Nephilim ^bcthere—the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim! ^dTo ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and we must have seemed the same to them.”