Day 39: Numbers 11-14
Complaining, Quail, the Spies in Canaan, and the Rebellion of Israel
Numbers 11
1 The people were complaining in the ears of Yahweh. When Yahweh heard it, his anger burned; and Yahweh’s fire burned among them, and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp. 2 The people cried to Moses; and Moses prayed to Yahweh, and the fire abated. 3 The name of that place was called Taberah, because Yahweh’s fire burned among them.
4 The mixed multitude that was among them lusted exceedingly; and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, “Who will give us meat to eat? 5 We remember the fish which we ate in Egypt for free; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic; 6 but now our soul is dried up. There is nothing at all, except this manna to look at.”
7 The manna was like coriander seed, and it looked like bdellium. 8 The people went around, gathered it, ground it in mills, or beat it in mortars, and boiled it in pots, and made cakes of it. Its taste was like the taste of fresh oil. 9 When the dew fell on the camp in the night, the manna fell on it.
10 Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, every man at the door of his tent; and Yahweh’s anger burned greatly; and Moses was displeased. 11 Moses said to Yahweh, “Why have you treated your servant so badly? Why haven’t I found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? 12 Have I conceived all this people? Have I brought them out, that you should tell me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a nursing infant, to the land which you swore to their fathers?’ 13 Where could I get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me, saying, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’ 14 I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me. 15 If you treat me this way, please kill me at once, if I have found favor in your sight; and don’t let me see my wretchedness.”
16 Yahweh said to Moses, “Gather to me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and their officers, and bring them to the Tent of Meeting, that they may stand there with you. 17 I will come down and talk with you there. I will take of the Spirit which is on you, and will put it on them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you don’t bear it yourself alone.
18 “Say to the people, ‘Sanctify yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat; for you have wept in the ears of Yahweh, saying, “Who will give us meat to eat? For it was better with us in Egypt.” Therefore Yahweh will give you meat, and you shall eat. 19 You shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days, 20 but a whole month, until it comes out at your nostrils, and it is loathsome to you; because you have rejected Yahweh who is among you, and have wept before him, saying, “Why did we come out of Egypt?”’”
21 Moses said, “The people, among whom I am, number six hundred thousand men on foot; and you have said, ‘I will give them meat, that they may eat a whole month.’ 22 Shall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, to be sufficient? Or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to be sufficient?”
23 Yahweh said to Moses, “Has Yahweh’s hand grown short? Now you will see whether my word will happen to you or not.”
24 Moses went out, and told the people Yahweh’s words; and he gathered seventy men of the elders of the people, and set them around the Tent. 25 Yahweh came down in the cloud, and spoke to him, and took of the Spirit that was on him, and put it on the seventy elders; and when the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but they did not do so any more.
26 But two men remained in the camp. The name of one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad; and the Spirit rested on them. They were among those who were listed, but had not gone out to the Tent, and they prophesied in the camp. 27 A young man ran, and told Moses, and said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp!”
28 Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his chosen men, answered, “My lord Moses, forbid them!”
29 Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all Yahweh’s people were prophets, that Yahweh would put his Spirit on them!”
30 Moses went into the camp, he and the elders of Israel.
31 A wind from Yahweh went out, and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, about a day’s journey on this side and a day’s journey on that side, all around the camp, and about two cubits above the surface of the earth. 32 The people rose up all that day, and all that night, and all the next day, and gathered the quails. He who gathered least gathered ten homers. They spread them all out for themselves around the camp. 33 While the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, Yahweh’s anger burned against the people, and Yahweh struck the people with a very great plague. 34 The name of that place was called Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who lusted.
35 From Kibroth Hattaavah the people traveled to Hazeroth; and they stayed at Hazeroth.
Numbers 12
1 Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married; for he had married a Cushite woman. 2 They said, “Has Yahweh indeed spoken only with Moses? Hasn’t he spoken also with us?” And Yahweh heard it.
3 Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the surface of the earth.
4 Yahweh said suddenly to Moses, to Aaron, and to Miriam, “Come out you three to the Tent of Meeting!”
The three of them came out.
5 Yahweh came down in a pillar of cloud, and stood at the door of the Tent, and called Aaron and Miriam; and they both came forward. 6 He said, “Now hear my words. If there is a prophet among you, I, Yahweh, will make myself known to him in a vision. I will speak with him in a dream. 7 My servant Moses is not so. He is faithful in all my house. 8 With him I will speak mouth to mouth, even plainly, and not in riddles; and he shall see Yahweh’s form. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant, against Moses?”
9 Yahweh’s anger burned against them; and he departed.
10 The cloud departed from over the Tent; and behold, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow. Aaron looked at Miriam, and behold, she was leprous. 11 Aaron said to Moses, “Oh, my lord, please don’t count this sin against us, in which we have done foolishly, and in which we have sinned. 12 Let her not be like a dead person, whose flesh is half consumed when he comes out of his mother’s womb.”
13 Moses cried to Yahweh, saying, “Heal her, God, I beg you!”
14 Yahweh said to Moses, “If her father had just spit in her face, shouldn’t she be ashamed seven days? Let her be shut outside of the camp seven days, and after that she shall be brought in again.”
15 Miriam was shut outside of the camp seven days, and the people didn’t travel until Miriam was brought in again. 16 After that the people traveled from Hazeroth, and encamped in the wilderness of Paran.
Numbers 13
1 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Send men, that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel. Of every tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, everyone a prince among them.”
3 Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran according to Yahweh’s command. All of them were men who were heads of the children of Israel. 4 These were their names:
Of the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur.
5 Of the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori.
6 Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh.
7 Of the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph.
8 Of the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Nun.
9 Of the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu.
10 Of the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi.
11 Of the tribe of Joseph, namely of the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi.
12 Of the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli.
13 Of the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael.
14 Of the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi.
15 Of the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi.
16 These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land. Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun Joshua.
17 Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, “Go up this way by the South, and go up into the hill country. 18 See what the land is like; and whether the people who live in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many; 19 and whether the land they live in is good or bad, and whether the cities they live in are camps or strongholds; 20 and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are forests in it or not. Be courageous, and bring some of the fruit of the land.”
Now the time was the time of the first-ripe grapes.
21 So they went up, and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, to the entrance of Hamath. 22 They went up by the South, and came to Hebron; and Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were there. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) 23 They came to the valley of Eshcol, and cut down from there a vine with one cluster of grapes, and they bore it between two on a staff; with pomegranates and figs. 24 That place was called the valley of Eshcol, because of the cluster which the children of Israel cut down from there.
25 They returned from spying out the land at the end of forty days.
26 They went and came to Moses, to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, to the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 They told him, “We came to the land where you sent us; and surely it flows with milk and honey; and this is its fruit. 28 However the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified, and very great. Moreover we saw the children of Anak there. 29 Amalek dwells in the land of the South. The Hittite, the Jebusite, and the Amorite dwell in the hill country. The Canaanite dwells by the sea and along the side of the Jordan.”
30 Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, “Let’s go up at once, and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it!”
31 But the men who went up with him said, “We aren’t able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.”
32 They brought up an evil report of the land which they had spied out to the children of Israel, saying, “The land through which we went to spy it out is a land that eats up its inhabitants; and all the people who we saw in it are men of great stature. 33 There we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim. We were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.”
Numbers 14
1 All the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. 2 All the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “We wish that we had died in the land of Egypt, or that we had died in this wilderness! 3 Why does Yahweh bring us to this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our little ones should be taken as plunder? Wouldn’t it be better for us to return into Egypt?”
4 They said to one another, “Let’s make a captain, and let’s return into Egypt.”
5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.
6 Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who spied out the land, tore their clothes. 7 They spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, “The land, through which we went to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. 8 If Yahweh delights in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it to us, a land flowing with milk and honey. 9 Only don’t rebel against Yahweh, neither fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their defense is removed from over them, and Yahweh is with us. Don’t fear them.”
10 But all the congregation threatened to stone them with stones.
Yahweh’s glory appeared in the Tent of Meeting to all the children of Israel.
11 Yahweh said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? How long will they not believe in me, for all the signs which I have worked among them? 12 I will strike them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”
13 Moses said to Yahweh, “Then the Egyptians will hear it; for you brought up this people in your might from among them. 14 They will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you Yahweh are in the middle of this people; for you Yahweh are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them, and you go before them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night. 15 Now if you shall kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard your fame will speak, saying, 16 ‘Because Yahweh was not able to bring this people into the land which he swore to them, therefore he has slain them in the wilderness.’
17 “Now please let the power of the Lord be great, according as you have spoken, saying, 18 ‘Yahweh is slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, forgiving iniquity and disobedience; and he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation.’
19 “Please pardon the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your loving kindness, and according as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.”
20 Yahweh said, “I have pardoned according to your word; 21 but in very deed, as I live, and as surely as Yahweh’s glory will fill all the earth, 22 because all those men who have seen my glory, and my signs, which I worked in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tested me these ten times, and have not listened to my voice, 23 surely they shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers, neither shall any of those who despised me see it. 24 But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him and has followed me fully, him I will bring into the land into which he went. His offspring shall possess it.
25 “Now the Amalekite and the Canaanite dwell in the valley. Tomorrow turn and go into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.”
26 Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 27 “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, that they murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me. 28 Tell them, ‘As I live,’ says Yahweh, ‘surely as you have spoken in my ears, so I will do to you. 29 Your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and all who were counted of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me, 30 surely you shall not come into the land concerning which I swore that I would make you dwell therein, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.
31 “‘But your little ones, that you said should be taken as plunder, them I will bring in, and they shall know the land which you have rejected. 32 But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. 33 Your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your prostitution, until your dead bodies are in the wilderness. 34 After the number of the days in which you spied out the land, even forty days, for every day for a year, you shall bear your iniquities, even forty years, and you will know my alienation.’
35 “I, Yahweh, have spoken. Surely I will do this to all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me. In this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.”
36 The men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned, and made all the congregation murmur against him by bringing up an evil report against the land, 37 even those men who brought up the evil report of the land, died by the plague before Yahweh. 38 But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, remained alive of those men who went to spy out the land.
39 Moses told these words to all the children of Israel, and the people mourned greatly.
40 They rose up early in the morning, and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, “Behold, we are here, and will go up to the place which Yahweh has promised; for we have sinned.”
41 Moses said, “Why now do you disobey the commandment of Yahweh, since it shall not prosper? 42 Don’t go up, for Yahweh isn’t among you; that you not be struck down before your enemies. 43 For there the Amalekite and the Canaanite are before you, and you shall fall by the sword. Because you have turned back from following Yahweh, therefore Yahweh will not be with you.”
44 But they presumed to go up to the top of the mountain. Nevertheless, the ark of Yahweh’s covenant, and Moses, didn’t depart out of the middle of the camp.
45 Then the Amalekite came down, and the Canaanite who lived in that hill, and struck them and beat them down, even to Hormah.
Scripture: World English Bible (WEB), public domain.
