Numbers 11–13

The People Complain

11Now ^awhen the people complained, it displeased the Lord; ^bfor the Lord heard it, and His anger was aroused. So the ^cfire of the Lord burned among them, and consumed some in the outskirts of the camp. ²Then the people ^dcried out to Moses, and when Moses ^eprayed to the Lord, the fire was ¹quenched. ³So he called the name of the place ²Taberah, because the fire of the Lord had burned among them.

⁴Now the ^fmixed multitude who were among them ³yielded to ^gintense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again and said: ^h“Who will give us meat to eat? ⁵ⁱWe remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; ⁶but now ^jour whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!”

⁷Now ^kthe manna was like coriander seed, and its color like the color of bdellium. ⁸The people went about and gathered it, ground it on millstones or beat it in the mortar, cooked it in pans, and made cakes of it; and ^lits taste was like the taste of pastry prepared with oil. ⁹And ^mwhen the dew fell on the camp in the night, the manna fell on it.

¹⁰Then Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, everyone at the door of his tent; and ⁿthe anger of the Lord was greatly aroused; Moses also was displeased. ^11oSo Moses said to the Lord, “Why have You afflicted Your servant? And why have I not found favor in Your sight, that You have laid the ⁴burden of all these people on me? ¹²Did I conceive all these people? Did I beget them, that You should say to me, ^p‘Carry them in your bosom, as a ^qguardian carries a nursing child,’ to the land which You ^rswore ⁵to their fathers? ^13sWhere am I to get meat to give to all these people? For they weep all over me, saying, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’ ^14tI am not able to bear all these people alone, because the burden is too heavy for me. ¹⁵If You treat me like this, please kill me here and now—if I have found favor in Your sight—and ^udo not let me see my wretchedness!”

The Seventy Elders

¹⁶So the Lord said to Moses: “Gather to Me ^vseventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and ^wofficers over them; bring them to the tabernacle of meeting, that they may stand there with you. ¹⁷Then I will come down and talk with you there. ^xI will take of the Spirit that is upon you and will put the same upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you may not bear it yourself alone. ¹⁸Then you shall say to the people, ⁶‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat; for you have wept ^yin the hearing of the Lord, saying, “Who will give us meat to eat? For it was well with us in Egypt.” Therefore the Lord will give you meat, and you shall eat. ¹⁹You shall eat, not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days, ^20zbut for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have ^adespised the Lord who is among you, and have wept before Him, saying, ^b“Why did we ever come up out of Egypt?” ’ ”

²¹And Moses said, ^c“The people whom I am among are six hundred thousand men on foot; yet You have said, ‘I will give them meat, that they may eat for a whole month.’ ^22dShall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, to provide enough for them? Or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to provide enough for them?”

²³And the Lord said to Moses, ^e“Has ⁷the Lord’s arm been shortened? Now you shall see whether ^fwhat I say will happen to you or not.”

²⁴So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord, and he ^ggathered the seventy men of the elders of the people and placed them around the tabernacle. ²⁵Then the Lord came down in the cloud, and spoke to him, and took of the Spirit that was upon him, and placed the same upon the seventy elders; and it happened, ^hwhen the Spirit rested upon them, that ⁱthey prophesied, ⁸although they never did so again.

²⁶But two men had remained in the camp: the name of one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad. And the Spirit rested upon them. Now they were among those listed, but who ^jhad not gone out to the tabernacle; yet they prophesied in the camp. ²⁷And a young man ran and told Moses, and said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.”

²⁸So Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, one of his choice men, answered and said, “Moses my lord, ^kforbid them!”

²⁹Then Moses said to him, “Are you ⁹zealous for my sake? ^lOh, that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!” ³⁰And Moses returned to the camp, he and the elders of Israel.

The Lord Sends Quail

³¹Now a ^mwind went out from the Lord, and it brought quail from the sea and left them fluttering near the camp, about a day’s journey on this side and about a day’s journey on the other side, all around the camp, and about two cubits above the surface of the ground. ³²And the people stayed up all that day, all night, and all the next day, and gathered the quail (he who gathered least gathered ten ⁿhomers); and they spread them out for themselves all around the camp. ³³But while the ^omeat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was aroused against the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very great plague. ³⁴So he called the name of that place ¹Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had yielded to craving.

^35pFrom Kibroth Hattaavah the people moved to Hazeroth, and camped at Hazeroth.

Dissension of Aaron and Miriam

12Then ^aMiriam and Aaron ¹spoke ^bagainst Moses because of the ²Ethiopian woman whom he had married; for ^che had married an Ethiopian woman. ²So they said, “Has the Lord indeed spoken only through ^dMoses? ^eHas He not spoken through us also?” And the Lord ^fheard it. ³(Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth.)

^4gSuddenly the Lord said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, “Come out, you three, to the tabernacle of meeting!” So the three came out. ^5hThen the Lord came down in the pillar of cloud and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam. And they both went forward. ⁶Then He said,

“Hear now My words:

If there is a prophet among you,

I, the Lord, make Myself known to him ⁱin a vision;

I speak to him ^jin a dream.

⁷Not so with ^kMy servant Moses;

^lHe is faithful in all ^mMy house.

⁸I speak with him ⁿface to face,

Even ^oplainly, ³and not in ⁴dark sayings;

And he sees ^pthe form of the Lord.

Why then ^qwere you not afraid

To speak against My servant Moses?”

⁹So the anger of the Lord was aroused against them, and He departed. ¹⁰And when the cloud departed from above the tabernacle, ^rsuddenly Miriam became ^sleprous, as white as snow. Then Aaron turned toward Miriam, and there she was, a leper. ¹¹So Aaron said to Moses, “Oh, my lord! Please ^tdo not lay ⁵this sin on us, in which we have done foolishly and in which we have sinned. ¹²Please ^udo not let her be as one dead, whose flesh is half consumed when he comes out of his mother’s womb!”

¹³So Moses cried out to the Lord, saying, “Please ^vheal her, O God, I pray!”

¹⁴Then the Lord said to Moses, “If her father had but ^wspit in her face, would she not be shamed seven days? Let her be ^xshut ⁶out of the camp seven days, and afterward she may be received again.” ^15ySo Miriam was shut out of the camp seven days, and the people did not journey till Miriam was brought in again. ¹⁶And afterward the people moved from ^zHazeroth and camped in the Wilderness of Paran.

Spies Sent into Canaan

13And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ^2a“Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel; from each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a leader among them.”

³So Moses sent them ^bfrom the Wilderness of Paran according to the command of the Lord, all of them men who were heads of the children of Israel. ⁴Now these were their names: from the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur; ⁵from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori; ^6cfrom the tribe of Judah, ^dCaleb the son of Jephunneh; ⁷from the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph; ⁸from the tribe of Ephraim, ¹Hoshea the son of Nun; ⁹from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu; ¹⁰from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi; ¹¹from the tribe of Joseph, that is, from the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi; ¹²from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli; ¹³from the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael; ¹⁴from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi; ¹⁵from the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi.

¹⁶These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to ²spy out the land. And Moses called ^eHoshea ³the son of Nun, Joshua.

¹⁷Then Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, “Go up this way into the South, and go up to ^fthe mountains, ¹⁸and see what the land is like: whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, few or many; ¹⁹whether the land they dwell in is good or bad; whether the cities they inhabit are like camps or strongholds; ²⁰whether the land is ⁴rich or poor; and whether there are forests there or not. ^gBe of good courage. And bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes.

²¹So they went up and spied out the land ^hfrom the Wilderness of Zin as far as ⁱRehob, near the entrance of ^jHamath. ²²And they went up through the South and came to ^kHebron; Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of ^lAnak, were there. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) ^23mThen they came to the ⁵Valley of Eshcol, and there cut down a branch with one cluster of grapes; they carried it between two of them on a pole. They also brought some of the pomegranates and figs. ²⁴The place was called the Valley of ⁶Eshcol, because of the cluster which the men of Israel cut down there. ²⁵And they returned from spying out the land…