Dissension of Aaron and Miriam

12 Then ^(A)Miriam and Aaron ^[a]spoke ^(B)against Moses because of the ^[b]Ethiopian woman whom he had married; for ^(C)he had married an Ethiopian woman. ² So they said, “Has the Lord indeed spoken only through ^(D)Moses? ^(E)Has He not spoken through us also?” And the Lord ^(F)heard it. ³ (Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth.)

^4 (G)Suddenly the Lord said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, “Come out, you three, to the tabernacle of meeting!” So the three came out. ^5 (H)Then 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. ⁶ Then He said,

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

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

¹⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, “If her father had but ^(W)spit in her face, would she not be shamed seven days? Let her be ^(X)shut^[f] out of the camp seven days, and afterward she may be received again.” ^15 (Y)So Miriam was shut out of the camp seven days, and the people did not journey till Miriam was brought in again. ¹⁶ And afterward the people moved from ^(Z)Hazeroth and camped in the Wilderness of Paran.

Spies Sent into Canaan^(AA)

13 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ^2 (AB)“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.”

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

¹⁶ These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to ^[h]spy out the land. And Moses called ^(AF)Hoshea^[i] the son of Nun, Joshua.

¹⁷ Then 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 ^(AG)the mountains, ¹⁸ and see what the land is like: whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, few or many; ¹⁹ whether the land they dwell in is good or bad; whether the cities they inhabit are like camps or strongholds; ²⁰ whether the land is ^[j]rich or poor; and whether there are forests there or not. ^(AH)Be of good courage. And bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes.

²¹ So they went up and spied out the land ^(AI)from the Wilderness of Zin as far as ^(AJ)Rehob, near the entrance of ^(AK)Hamath. ²² And they went up through the South and came to ^(AL)Hebron; Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of ^(AM)Anak, were there. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) ^23 (AN)Then they came to the ^[k]Valley 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. ²⁴ The place was called the Valley of ^[l]Eshcol, because of the cluster which the men of Israel cut down there. ²⁵ And they returned from spying out the land after forty days.

²⁶ Now they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran, at ^(AO)Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. ²⁷ Then they told him, and said: “We went to the land where you sent us. It truly ^[m]flows with ^(AP)milk and honey, ^(AQ)and this is its fruit. ²⁸ Nevertheless the ^(AR)people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of ^(AS)Anak there. ^29 (AT)The 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.”

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

^31 (AV)But 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.” ³² And they ^(AW)gave 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 ^(AX)all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. ³³ There we saw the ^[n]giants (^(AY)the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were ^(AZ)like^[o] grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were ^(BA)in their sight.”