12Miriam and Aaron began to say bad things about Moses. That’s because Moses had married a woman from Cush. ²“Has the Lord spoken only through Moses?” they asked. “Hasn’t he also spoken through us?” The Lord heard what they said.

³Moses wasn’t very proud at all. In fact, he had less pride than anyone else on the face of the earth.

⁴The Lord spoke to Moses, Aaron and Miriam. He said, “All three of you, come out to the Tent of Meeting.” So they did. ⁵Then the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud. He stood at the entrance to the tent. And he told Aaron and Miriam to come to him. Both of them stepped forward.

⁶Then the Lord said, “Listen to my words.

“Suppose one of my prophets is among you.

I make myself known to him in visions.

I speak to him in dreams.

⁷But that is not true of my servant Moses.

He is faithful in everything he does in my house.

⁸With Moses I speak face to face.

I speak with him clearly. I do not speak in riddles.

I let him see something of what I look like.

So why were you not afraid

to speak against my servant Moses?”

⁹The anger of the Lord burned against them. And he left them.

¹⁰When the cloud went up from above the tent, there stood Miriam. She had a disease that made her skin as white as snow.

Aaron turned toward her. He saw that she had a skin disease. ¹¹So he said to Moses, “We have committed a very foolish sin. Please don’t hold it against us. ¹²Don’t let Miriam be like a baby that was born dead. Don’t let her look like a dead baby whose body is half eaten away.”

¹³So Moses cried out to the Lord. He said, “God, please heal her!”

¹⁴The Lord answered Moses. He said, “Suppose her father had spit in her face. Then she would have been put to shame for seven days. So keep her outside the camp for seven days. After that, you can bring her back.”

¹⁵So Miriam was kept outside the camp for seven days. The people didn’t move on until she was brought back.

¹⁶After that, the people left Hazeroth. They camped in the Desert of Paran.

Some Men Check Out the Land of Canaan

13The Lord spoke to Moses. He said, ²“Send some men to check out the land of Canaan. I am giving it to the people of Israel. Send one leader from each of Israel’s tribes.”

³So Moses sent them out from the Desert of Paran. He sent them as the Lord had commanded. All of them were leaders of the people of Israel.

⁴Here are their names.

There was Shammua from the tribe of Reuben. Shammua was the son of Zaccur.

⁵There was Shaphat from the tribe of Simeon. Shaphat was the son of Hori.

⁶There was Caleb from the tribe of Judah. Caleb was the son of Jephunneh.

⁷There was Igal from the tribe of Issachar. Igal was the son of Joseph.

⁸There was Hoshea from the tribe of Ephraim. Hoshea was the son of Nun.

⁹There was Palti from the tribe of Benjamin. Palti was the son of Raphu.

¹⁰There was Gaddiel from the tribe of Zebulun. Gaddiel was the son of Sodi.

¹¹There was Gaddi from the tribe of Manasseh. Gaddi was the son of Susi. Manasseh was a tribe of Joseph.

¹²There was Ammiel from the tribe of Dan. Ammiel was the son of Gemalli.

¹³There was Sethur from the tribe of Asher. Sethur was the son of Michael.

¹⁴There was Nahbi from the tribe of Naphtali. Nahbi was the son of Vophsi.

¹⁵There was Geuel from the tribe of Gad. Geuel was the son of Maki.

¹⁶Those are the men Moses sent to check out the land. He gave the name Joshua to Hoshea, the son of Nun.

¹⁷Moses sent them to check out Canaan. He said, “Go up through the Negev Desert. Go on into the central hill country. ¹⁸See what the land is like. See whether the people who live there are strong or weak. See whether they are few or many.

¹⁹“What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in? Do the towns have high walls around them or not? ²⁰How is the soil? Is it rich land or poor land? Are there trees on it or not? Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land.” It was the season for the first ripe grapes.

²¹So the men went up and checked out the land. They went from the Desert of Zin as far as Rehob. It was in the direction of Lebo Hamath. ²²They went up through the Negev Desert and came to Hebron. That’s where Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai lived. They belonged to the family line of Anak. Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan. Zoan was a city in Egypt.

²³The men came to the Valley of Eshcol. There they cut off a branch that had a single bunch of grapes on it. Two of them carried it on a pole between them. They carried some pomegranates and figs along with it. ²⁴That place was called the Valley of Eshcol. That’s because the men of Israel cut off a bunch of grapes there.

²⁵At the end of 40 days, the men returned from checking out the land.

The Men Report on What They Found

²⁶The men came back to Moses, Aaron and the whole community of Israel. The people were at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There the men reported to Moses and Aaron and all of the people. They showed them the fruit of the land.

²⁷They gave Moses their report. They said, “We went into the land you sent us to. It really does have plenty of milk and honey! Here’s some fruit from the land.

²⁸“But the people who live there are powerful. Their cities have high walls around them and are very large. We even saw members of the family line of Anak there. ²⁹The Amalekites live in the Negev Desert. The Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the central hill country. The Canaanites live near the Mediterranean Sea. They also live along the Jordan River.”

³⁰Then Caleb interrupted the men who were speaking to Moses. He said, “We should go up and take the land. We can certainly do it.”

³¹But the men who had gone up with him spoke. They said, “We can’t attack those people. They are stronger than we are.” ³²The men spread a bad report about the land among the people of Israel. They said, “The land we checked out destroys those who live in it. All of the people we saw there are very big and tall. ³³We saw the Nephilim there. We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes. And that’s also how we seemed to them.” The children of Anak came from the Nephilim.

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