Numbers 9–11

Chapter 9

¹And the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, ²“Let the people of Israel keep the passover at its appointed time. ³On the fourteenth day of this month, in the evening, you shall keep it at its appointed time; according to all its statutes and all its ordinances you shall keep it.” ⁴So Moses told the people of Israel that they should keep the passover. ⁵And they kept the passover in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, in the wilderness of Sinai; according to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so the people of Israel did. ⁶And there were certain men who were unclean through touching the dead body of a man, so that they could not keep the passover on that day; and they came before Moses and Aaron on that day; ⁷and those men said to him, “We are unclean through touching the dead body of a man; why are we kept from offering the Lord’s offering at its appointed time among the people of Israel?” ⁸And Moses said to them, “Wait, that I may hear what the Lord will command concerning you.”

⁹The Lord said to Moses, ¹⁰“Say to the people of Israel, If any man of you or of your descendants is unclean through touching a dead body, or is afar off on a journey, he shall still keep the passover to the Lord. ¹¹In the second month on the fourteenth day in the evening they shall keep it; they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. ¹²They shall leave none of it until the morning, nor break a bone of it; according to all the statute for the passover they shall keep it. ¹³But the man who is clean and is not on a journey, yet refrains from keeping the passover, that person shall be cut off from his people, because he did not offer the Lord’s offering at its appointed time; that man shall bear his sin. ¹⁴And if a stranger sojourns among you, and will keep the passover to the Lord, according to the statute of the passover and according to its ordinance, so shall he do; you shall have one statute, both for the sojourner and for the native.”

¹⁵On the day that the tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the testimony; and at evening it was over the tabernacle like the appearance of fire until morning. ¹⁶So it was continually; the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night. ¹⁷And whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tent, after that the people of Israel set out; and in the place where the cloud settled down, there the people of Israel encamped. ¹⁸At the command of the Lord the people of Israel set out, and at the command of the Lord they encamped; as long as the cloud rested over the tabernacle, they remained in camp. ¹⁹Even when the cloud continued over the tabernacle many days, the people of Israel kept the charge of the Lord, and did not set out. ²⁰Sometimes the cloud was a few days over the tabernacle, and according to the command of the Lord they remained in camp; then according to the command of the Lord they set out. ²¹And sometimes the cloud remained from evening until morning; and when the cloud was taken up in the morning, they set out, or if it continued for a day and a night, when the cloud was taken up they set out. ²²Whether it was two days, or a month, or a longer time, that the cloud continued over the tabernacle, abiding there, the people of Israel remained in camp and did not set out; but when it was taken up they set out. ²³At the command of the Lord they encamped, and at the command of the Lord they set out; they kept the charge of the Lord, at the command of the Lord by Moses.

Chapter 10

¹The Lord said to Moses, ²“Make two silver trumpets; of hammered work you shall make them; and you shall use them for summoning the congregation, and for breaking camp. ³And when both are blown, all the congregation shall gather themselves to you at the entrance of the tent of meeting. ⁴But if they blow only one, then the leaders, the heads of the tribes of Israel, shall gather themselves to you. ⁵When you blow an alarm, the camps that are on the east side shall set out. ⁶And when you blow an alarm the second time, the camps that are on the south side shall set out. An alarm is to be blown whenever they are to set out. ⁷But when the assembly is to be gathered together, you shall blow, but you shall not sound an alarm. ⁸And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall blow the trumpets. The trumpets shall be to you for a perpetual statute throughout your generations. ⁹And when you go to war in your land against the adversary who oppresses you, then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets, that you may be remembered before the Lord your God, and you shall be saved from your enemies. ¹⁰On the day of your gladness also, and at your appointed feasts, and at the beginnings of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; they shall serve you for remembrance before your God: I am the Lord your God.”

¹¹In the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth day of the month, the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle of the testimony, ¹²and the people of Israel set out by stages from the wilderness of Sinai; and the cloud settled down in the wilderness of Paran. ¹³They set out for the first time at the command of the Lord by Moses. ¹⁴The standard of the camp of the men of Judah set out first by their companies; and over their host was Nahshon the son of Amminadab. ¹⁵And over the host of the tribe of the men of Issachar was Nethanel the son of Zuar. ¹⁶And over the host of the tribe of the men of Zebulun was Eliab the son of Helon.

¹⁷And when the tabernacle was taken down, the sons of Gershon and the sons of Merari, who carried the tabernacle, set out. ¹⁸And the standard of the camp of Reuben set out by their companies; and over their host was Elizur the son of Shedeur. ¹⁹And over the host of the tribe of the men of Simeon was Shelumi-el the son of Zurishaddai. ²⁰And over the host of the tribe of the men of Gad was Eliasaph the son of Deuel.

²¹Then the Kohathites set out, carrying the holy things, and the tabernacle was set up before their arrival. ²²And the standard of the camp of the men of Ephraim set out by their companies; and over their host was Elishama the son of Ammihud. ²³And over the host of the tribe of the men of Manasseh was Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur. ²⁴And over the host of the tribe of the men of Benjamin was Abidan the son of Gideoni.

²⁵Then the standard of the camp of the men of Dan, acting as the rear guard of all the camps, set out by their companies; and over their host was Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai. ²⁶And over the host of the tribe of the men of Asher was Pagiel the son of Ochran. ²⁷And over the host of the tribe of the men of Naphtali was Ahira the son of Enan. ²⁸This was the order of march of the people of Israel according to their hosts, when they set out.

²⁹And Moses said to Hobab the son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses’ father-in-law, “We are setting out for the place of which the Lord said, ‘I will give it to you’; come with us, and we will do you good; for the Lord has promised good to Israel.” ³⁰But he said to him, “I will not go; I will depart to my own land and to my kindred.” ³¹And he said, “Do not leave us, I pray you, for you know how we are to encamp in the wilderness, and you will serve as eyes for us. ³²And if you go with us, whatever good the Lord will do to us, the same will we do to you.”

³³So they set out from the mount of the Lord three days’ journey; and the ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them three days’ journey, to seek out a resting place for them. ³⁴And the cloud of the Lord was over them by day, whenever they set out from the camp.

³⁵And whenever the ark set out, Moses said, “Arise, O Lord, and let thy enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee flee before thee.” ³⁶And when it rested, he said, “Return, O Lord, to the ten thousand thousands of Israel.”

Chapter 11

¹And the people complained in the hearing of the Lord about their misfortunes; and when the Lord heard it, his anger was kindled, and the fire of the Lord burned among them, and consumed some outlying parts of the camp. ²Then the people cried to Moses; and Moses prayed to the Lord, and the fire abated. ³So the name of that place was called Taberah, because the fire of the Lord burned among them.

⁴Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving; and the people of Israel also wept again, and said, “O that we had meat to eat! ⁵We remember the fish we ate in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; ⁶but now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.”

⁷Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance like that of bdellium. ⁸The people went about and gathered it, and ground it in mills or beat it in mortars, and boiled it in pots, and made cakes of it; and the taste of it was like the taste of cakes baked with oil. ⁹When the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell with it.

¹⁰Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, every man at the door of his tent; and the anger of the Lord blazed hotly, and Moses was displeased. ¹¹Moses said to the Lord, “Why hast thou dealt ill with thy servant? And why have I not found favor in thy sight, that thou dost lay the burden of all this people upon me? ¹²Did I conceive all this people? Did I bring them forth, that thou shouldst say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries the sucking child, to the land which thou didst swear to give their fathers?’ ¹³Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me and say, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’ ¹⁴I am not able to carry all this people alone, the burden is too heavy for me. ¹⁵If thou wilt deal thus with me, kill me at once, if I…