Numbers 10:11-15:41

Living Bible

¹¹ The Cloud lifted from the Tabernacle on the twentieth day of the second month^[a] of the second year of Israel’s leaving Egypt; ¹² so the Israelites left the wilderness of Sinai, and followed the Cloud until it stopped in the wilderness of Paran. ¹³ This was their first journey after having received the Lord’s travel instructions to Moses.

¹⁴ At the head of the march was the tribe of Judah grouped behind its flag and led by Nahshon, the son of Amminadab. ¹⁵ Next came the tribe of Issachar, led by Nethanel, the son of Zuar, ¹⁶ and the tribe of Zebulun, led by Eliab, the son of Helon.

¹⁷ The Tabernacle was taken down and the men of the Gershon and Merari divisions of the tribe of Levi were next in the line of march, carrying the Tabernacle upon their shoulders. ¹⁸ Then came the flag of the camp of Reuben, with Elizur the son of Shedeur leading his people. ¹⁹ Next was the tribe of Simeon headed by Shelumiel, the son of Zurishaddai; ²⁰ and the tribe of Gad led by Eliasaph, the son of Deuel.

²¹ Next came the Kohathites carrying the items from the inner sanctuary. (The Tabernacle was already erected in its new location by the time they arrived.) ²² Next in line was the tribe of Ephraim behind its flag, led by Elishama, the son of Ammihud; ²³ and the tribe of Manasseh led by Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur; ²⁴ and the tribe of Benjamin, led by Abidan the son of Gideoni. ²⁵ Last of all were the tribes headed by the flag of the tribe of Dan under the leadership of Ahiezer, the son of Ammishaddai; ²⁶ the tribe of Asher, led by Pagiel, the son of Ochran; ²⁷ and the tribe of Naphtali, led by Ahira, the son of Enan. ²⁸ That was the order in which the tribes traveled.

²⁹ One day Moses said to his brother-in-law, Hobab (son of Reuel, the Midianite), “At last we are on our way to the Promised Land. Come with us and we will do you good; for the Lord has given wonderful promises to Israel!”

³⁰ But his brother-in-law replied, “No, I must return to my own land and kinfolk.”

³¹ “Stay with us,” Moses pleaded, “for you know the ways of the wilderness and will be a great help to us.^{[b] 32} If you come, you will share in all the good things the Lord does for us.”

³³ They traveled for three days after leaving Mount Sinai,^[c] with the Ark at the front of the column to choose a place for them to stop. ³⁴ It was daytime when they left, with the Cloud moving along ahead of them as they began their march. ³⁵ As the Ark was carried forward, Moses cried out, “Arise, O Lord, and scatter your enemies; let them flee before you.” ³⁶ And when the Ark was set down he said, “Return, O Lord, to the millions of Israel.”

11 The people were soon complaining about all their misfortunes, and the Lord heard them. His anger flared out against them because of their complaints, so the fire of the Lord began destroying those at the far end of the camp. ² They screamed to Moses for help, and when he prayed for them the fire stopped. ³ Ever after, the area was known as “The Place of Burning,”^[d] because the fire from the Lord burned among them there.

^4-5 Then the Egyptians who had come with them began to long for the good things of Egypt. This added to the discontent of the people of Israel and they wept, “Oh, for a few bites of meat! Oh, that we had some of the delicious fish we enjoyed so much in Egypt, and the wonderful cucumbers and melons, leeks, onions, and garlic! ⁶ But now our strength is gone, and day after day we have to face this manna!”

⁷ The manna was the size of small seeds, whitish yellow in color. ⁸ The people gathered it from the ground and pounded it into flour, then boiled it, and then made pancakes from it—they tasted like pancakes fried in vegetable oil.^{[e] 9} The manna fell with the dew during the night.

¹⁰ Moses heard all the families standing around their tent doors weeping, and the anger of the Lord grew hot; Moses too was highly displeased.

¹¹ Moses said to the Lord, “Why pick on me, to give me the burden of a people like this? ¹² Are they my children? Am I their father? Is that why you have given me the job of nursing them along like babies until we get to the land you promised their ancestors? ¹³ Where am I supposed to get meat for all these people? For they weep to me saying, ‘Give us meat!’ ¹⁴ I can’t carry this nation by myself! The load is far too heavy! ¹⁵ If you are going to treat me like this, please kill me right now; it will be a kindness! Let me out of this impossible situation!”

¹⁶ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Summon before me seventy of the leaders of Israel; bring them to the Tabernacle, to stand there with you. ¹⁷ I will come down and talk with you there, and I will take of the Spirit which is on you and will put it upon them also; they shall bear the burden of the people along with you, so that you will not have the task alone.

¹⁸ “And tell the people to purify themselves, for tomorrow they shall have meat to eat. Tell them, ‘The Lord has heard your tearful complaints about all you left behind in Egypt, and he is going to give you meat. You shall eat it, ^19-20 not for just a day or two, or five or ten or even twenty! For one whole month you will have meat until you vomit it from your noses; for you have rejected the Lord who is here among you, and you have wept for Egypt.’”

²¹ But Moses said, “There are 600,000 men alone besides all the women and children,^[f] and yet you promise them meat for a whole month! ²² If we butcher all our flocks and herds it won’t be enough! We would have to catch every fish in the ocean to fulfill your promise!”

²³ Then the Lord said to Moses, “When did I become weak? Now you shall see whether my word comes true or not!”

²⁴ So Moses left the Tabernacle and reported Jehovah’s words to the people; and he gathered the seventy elders and placed them around the Tabernacle. ²⁵ And the Lord came down in the Cloud and talked with Moses, and the Lord took of the Spirit that was upon Moses and put it upon the seventy elders; and when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied for some time.

²⁶ But two of the seventy—Eldad and Medad—were still in the camp, and when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied there. ²⁷ Some young men ran and told Moses what was happening, ²⁸ and Joshua (the son of Nun), one of Moses’ personally chosen assistants, protested, “Sir, make them stop!”

²⁹ But Moses replied, “Are you jealous for my sake? I only wish that all of the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them all!” ³⁰ Then Moses returned to the camp with the elders of Israel.

³¹ The Lord sent a wind that brought quail from the sea and let them fall into the camp and all around it! As far as one could walk in a day in any direction, there were quail flying three or four feet above the ground.^{[g] 32} So the people caught and killed quail all that day and through the night and all the next day too! The least anyone gathered was 100 bushels! Quail were spread out all around^[h] the camp. ³³ But as everyone began eating the meat, the anger of the Lord rose against the people and he killed large numbers of them with a plague. ³⁴ So the name of that place was called, “The Place of the Graves Caused by Lust,”^[i] because they buried the people there who had lusted for meat and for Egypt. ³⁵ And from that place they journeyed to Hazeroth, where they stayed awhile.

12 One day Miriam and Aaron were criticizing Moses because his wife was a Cushite woman,^{[j] 2} and they said, “Has the Lord spoken only through Moses? Hasn’t he spoken through us, too?”

But the Lord heard them. ^3-4 Immediately he summoned Moses, Aaron, and Miriam to the Tabernacle: “Come here, you three,” he commanded. So they stood before the Lord. (Now Moses was the humblest man on earth.)

⁵ Then the Lord descended in the Cloud and stood at the entrance of the Tabernacle. “Aaron and Miriam, step forward,” he commanded; and they did. ⁶ And the Lord said to them, “Even with a prophet, I would communicate by visions and dreams; ^7-8 but that is not how I communicate with my servant Moses. He is completely at home in my house! With him I speak face-to-face! And he shall see the very form of God! Why then were you not afraid to criticize him?”

⁹ Then the anger of the Lord grew hot against them, and he departed. ¹⁰ As the Cloud moved from above the Tabernacle, Miriam suddenly became white with leprosy. When Aaron saw what had happened, ¹¹ he cried out to Moses, “Oh, sir, do not punish us for this sin; we were fools to do such a thing. ¹² Don’t let her be as one dead, whose body is half rotted away at birth.”

¹³ And Moses cried out to the Lord, “Heal her, O God, I beg you!”

¹⁴ And the Lord said to Moses, “If her father had but spit in her face she would be defiled seven days. Let her be banished from the camp for seven days, and after that she can come back again.”

¹⁵ So Miriam was excluded from the camp for seven days, and the people waited until she was brought back in before they traveled again. ¹⁶ Afterwards they left Hazeroth and camped in the wilderness of Paran.

13 Jehovah now instructed Moses, ² “Send spies into the land of Canaan—the land I am giving to Israel; send one leader from each tribe.”

^3-15 (The Israelis were camped in the wilderness of Paran at the time.) Moses did as the Lord had commanded and sent these twelve tribal leaders:

¹⁶ It was at this time that Moses changed Hoshea’s name to Joshua.^[l]

¹⁷ Moses sent them out with these instructions: “Go northward into the hill country of the Negeb, ¹⁸ and see what the land is like; see also what the people are like who live there, whether they are strong or weak, many or few; ¹⁹ and whether the land is fertile or not; and what cities there are, and whether they are villages or are fortified; ²⁰ whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are many trees. Don’t be afraid, and bring back some samples of the crops you see.” (The first of the grapes were being harvested at that time.)

²¹ So they spied out the land all the way from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob near Hamath. ²² Going northward, they passed first through the Negeb and arrived at Hebron. There they saw the Ahimanites, Sheshites, and Talmites, all families descended from Anak. (By the way, Hebron was very ancient, having been founded seven years before Tanis^[m] in Egypt.) ²³ Then they came to what is now known as the valley of Eshcol where they cut down a single cluster of grapes so large that it took two of them to carry it on a pole between them! They also took some samples of the pomegranates and figs. ²⁴ The Israelis named the valley “Eshcol” at that time (meaning “Cluster”) because of the cluster of grapes they found!

²⁵ After forty days of exploration they returned from their tour. ²⁶ They made their report to Moses, Aaron, and all the people of Israel in the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh, and they showed the fruit they had brought with them.

²⁷ This was their report: “We arrived in the land you sent us to see, and it is indeed a magnificent country—a land ‘flowing with milk and honey.’ Here is some fruit we have brought as proof. ²⁸ But the people living there are powerful, and their cities are fortified and very large; and what’s more, we saw Anakim giants there! ²⁹ The Amalekites live in the south, while in the hill country there are the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites; down along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and in the Jordan River Valley are the Canaanites.”

³⁰ But Caleb reassured the people as they stood before Moses. “Let us go up at once and possess it,” he said, “for we are well able to conquer it!”

³¹ “Not against people as strong as they are!” the other spies said. “They would crush us!”

³² So the majority report of the spies was negative: “The land is full of warriors, the people are powerfully built, ³³ and we saw some of the Anakim there, descendants of the ancient race of giants. We felt like grasshoppers before them, they were so tall!”

14 Then all the people began weeping aloud, and they carried on all night. ² Their voices rose in a great chorus of complaint against Moses and Aaron.

“We wish we had died in Egypt,” they wailed, “or even here in the wilderness, ³ rather than be taken into this country ahead of us. Jehovah will kill us there, and our wives and little ones will become slaves. Let’s get out of here and return to Egypt!” ⁴ The idea swept the camp. “Let’s elect a leader to take us back to Egypt!” they shouted.

⁵ Then Moses and Aaron fell face downward on the ground before the people of Israel. ⁶ Two of the spies, Joshua (the son of Nun), and Caleb (the son of Jephunneh), ripped their clothing ⁷ and said to all the people, “It is a wonderful country ahead, ⁸ and the Lord loves us. He will bring us safely into the land and give it to us. It is very fertile, a land ‘flowing with milk and honey’! ⁹ Oh, do not rebel against the Lord, and do not fear the people of the land. For they are but bread for us to eat! The Lord is with us and he has removed his protection from them! Don’t be afraid of them!”

^10-11 But the only response of the people was to talk of stoning them. Then the glory of the Lord appeared, and the Lord said to Moses, “How long will these people despise me? Will they never believe me, even after all the miracles I have done among them? ¹² I will disinherit them and destroy them with a plague, and I will make you into a nation far greater and mightier than they are!”

¹³ “But what will the Egyptians think when they hear about it?” Moses pleaded with the Lord. “They know full well the power you displayed in rescuing your people. ¹⁴ They have told this to the inhabitants of this land, who are well aware that you are with Israel and that you talk with her face-to-face. They see the pillar of cloud and fire standing above us, and they know that you lead and protect us day and night. ¹⁵ Now if you kill all your people, the nations that have heard your fame will say, ¹⁶ ‘The Lord had to kill them because he wasn’t able to take care of them in the wilderness. He wasn’t strong enough to bring them into the land he swore he would give them.’

^17-18 “Oh, please, show the great power of your patience^[n] by forgiving our sins and showing us your steadfast love. Forgive us, even though you have said that you don’t let sin go unpunished, and that you punish the father’s fault in the children to the third and fourth generation. ¹⁹ Oh, I plead with you, pardon the sins of this people because of your magnificent, steadfast love, just as you have forgiven them all the time from when we left Egypt until now.”

^20-21 Then the Lord said, “All right, I will pardon them as you have requested. But I vow by my own name that just as it is true that all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, ²² so it is true that not one of the men who has seen my glory and the miracles I did both in Egypt and in the wilderness—and ten times refused to trust me and obey me— ²³ shall even see the land I promised to this people’s ancestors. ²⁴ But my servant Caleb is a different kind of man—he has obeyed me fully. I will bring him into the land he entered as a spy, and his descendants shall have their full share in it. ²⁵ But now, since the people of Israel are so afraid of the Amalekites and the Canaanites living in the valleys, tomorrow you must turn back into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea.”

^26-27 Then the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron, “How long will this wicked nation complain about me? For I have heard all that they have been saying. ²⁸ Tell them, ‘The Lord vows to do to you what you feared: ²⁹ You will all die here in this wilderness! Not a single one of you twenty years old and older, who has complained against me, ³⁰ shall enter the Promised Land. Only Caleb (son of Jephunneh) and Joshua (son of Nun) are permitted to enter it.

³¹ “‘You said your children would become slaves of the people of the land. Well, instead I will bring them safely into the land and they shall inherit what you have despised. ³² But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. ³³ You must wander in the desert like nomads for forty years. In this way you will pay for your faithlessness, until the last of you lies dead in the desert.

^34-35 “‘Since the spies were in the land for forty days, you must wander in the wilderness for forty years—a year for each day, bearing the burden of your sins. I will teach you what it means to reject me. I, Jehovah, have spoken. Every one of you who has conspired against me shall die here in this wilderness.’”

^36-38 Then the ten spies who had incited the rebellion against Jehovah by striking fear into the hearts of the people were struck dead before the Lord. Of all the spies, only Joshua and Caleb remained alive. ³⁹ What sorrow there was throughout the camp when Moses reported God’s words to the people!

⁴⁰ They were up early the next morning and started toward the Promised Land.

“Here we are!” they said. “We realize that we have sinned, but now we are ready to go on into the land the Lord has promised us.”

⁴¹ But Moses said, “It’s too late. Now you are disobeying the Lord’s orders to return to the wilderness. ⁴² Don’t go ahead with your plan or you will be crushed by your enemies, for the Lord is not with you. ⁴³ Don’t you remember? The Amalekites and the Canaanites are there! You have deserted the Lord, and now he will desert you.”

⁴⁴ But they went ahead into the hill country, despite the fact that neither the Ark nor Moses left the camp. ⁴⁵ Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in the hills came down and attacked them and chased them to Hormah.

15 ^1-2 The Lord told Moses to give these instructions to the people of Israel: “When your children finally live in the land I am going to give them, ^3-4 and they want to please the Lord with a burnt offering or any other offering by fire, their sacrifice must be an animal from their flocks of sheep and goats, or from their herds of cattle. Each sacrifice—whether an ordinary one, or a sacrifice to fulfill a vow, or a freewill offering, or a special sacrifice at any of the annual festivals—must be accompanied by a grain offering. If a lamb is being sacrificed, use three quarts of fine flour mixed with three pints of oil, ⁵ accompanied by three pints of wine for a drink offering.

⁶ “If the sacrifice is a ram, use six quarts of fine flour mixed with four pints of oil, ⁷ and four pints of wine for a drink offering. This will be a sacrifice that is a pleasing fragrance to the Lord.

^8-9 “If the sacrifice is a young bull, then the grain offering accompanying it must consist of nine quarts of fine flour mixed with three quarts of oil, ¹⁰ plus three quarts of wine for the drink offering. This shall be offered by fire as a pleasing fragrance to the Lord.

^11-12 “These are the instructions for what is to accompany each sacrificial bull, ram, lamb, or young goat. ^13-14 These instructions apply both to native-born Israelis and to foreigners living among you who want to please the Lord with sacrifices offered by fire; ^15-16 for there is the same law for all, native-born or foreigner, and this shall be true forever from generation to generation; all are the same before the Lord.^[o] Yes, one law for all!”

^17-18 The Lord also said to Moses at this time, “Instruct the people of Israel that when they arrive in the land that I am going to give them, ^19-21 they must present to the Lord a sample of each year’s new crops by making a loaf, using coarse flour from the first grain that is cut each year. This loaf must be waved back and forth before the altar in a gesture of offering to the Lord. It is an annual offering from your threshing floor and must be observed from generation to generation.

²² “If by mistake you or future generations fail to carry out all of these regulations that the Lord has given you over the years through Moses, ^23-24 then when the people realize their error, they must offer one young bull for a burnt offering. It will be a pleasant odor before the Lord, and must be offered along with the usual grain offering and drink offering, and one male goat for a sin offering. ²⁵ And the priest shall make atonement for all of the people of Israel and they shall be forgiven; for it was an error, and they have corrected it with their sacrifice made by fire before the Lord, and by their sin offering. ²⁶ All the people shall be forgiven, including the foreigners living among them, for the entire population is involved in such error and forgiveness.

²⁷ “If the error is made by a single individual, then he shall sacrifice a one-year-old female goat for a sin offering, ²⁸ and the priest shall make atonement for him before the Lord, and he shall be forgiven. ²⁹ This same law applies to individual foreigners who are living among you.

³⁰ “But anyone who deliberately makes the ‘mistake,’ whether he is a native Israeli or a foreigner, is blaspheming Jehovah, and shall be cut off from among his people. ³¹ For he has despised the commandment of the Lord and deliberately failed to obey his law; he must be executed^[p] and die in his sin.”

³² One day while the people of Israel were in the wilderness, one of them was caught gathering wood on the Sabbath day. ³³ He was arrested and taken before Moses and Aaron and the other judges.^{[q] 34} They jailed him until they could find out the Lord’s mind concerning him.

³⁵ Then the Lord said to Moses, “The man must die—all the people shall stone him to death outside the camp.”

³⁶ So they took him outside the camp and killed him as the Lord had commanded.

^37-38 The Lord said to Moses, “Tell the people of Israel to make tassels for the hems of their clothes (this is a permanent regulation from generation to generation) and to attach the tassels to their clothes with a blue cord. ³⁹ The purpose of this regulation is to remind you, whenever you notice the tassels, of the commandments of the Lord, and that you are to obey his laws instead of following your own desires and going your own ways, as you used to do in serving other gods. ⁴⁰ It will remind you to be holy to your God. ⁴¹ For I am Jehovah your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt; yes, I am the Lord, your God.”