Numbers 12–13

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 after forty days.

²⁶Now they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran, at ⁿKadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. ²⁷Then they told him, and said: “We went to the land where you sent us. It truly ⁷flows with ^omilk and honey, ^pand this is its fruit. ²⁸Nevertheless the ^qpeople who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of ^rAnak there. ^29sThe Amalekites dwell in the land of the South; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan.”

³⁰Then ^tCaleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.”

^31uBut the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.” ³²And they ^vgave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and ^wall the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. ³³There we saw the ⁸giants (^xthe descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were ^ylike ⁹grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were ^zin their sight.”