Feb 4 - Numbers 11-13
Numbers
1Now the people complained about their hardships in the hearing of the LORD, and when he heard them his anger was aroused. Then fire from the LORD burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp.2When the people cried out to Moses, he prayed to the LORD and the fire died down.3So that place was called Taberah, because fire from the LORD had burned among them. Quail From the LORD4The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, "If only we had meat to eat!5We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost-also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic.6But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!"7The manna was like coriander seed and looked like resin.8The people went around gathering it, and then ground it in a handmill or crushed it in a mortar. They cooked it in a pot or made it into cakes. And it tasted like something made with olive oil.9When the dew settled on the camp at night, the manna also came down.10Moses heard the people of every family wailing, each at the entrance to his tent. The LORD became exceedingly angry, and Moses was troubled.11He asked the LORD, "Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me?12Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries an infant, to the land you promised on oath to their forefathers?13Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me, 'Give us meat to eat!'14I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me.15If this is how you are going to treat me, put me to death right now-if I have found favor in your eyes-and do not let me face my own ruin."16The LORD said to Moses: "Bring me seventy of Israel's elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people. Have them come to the Tent of Meeting, that they may stand there with you.17I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take of the Spirit that is on you and put the Spirit on them. They will help you carry the burden of the people so that you will not have to carry it alone.18"Tell the people: 'Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The LORD heard you when you wailed, "If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!" Now the LORD will give you meat, and you will eat it.19You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days,20but for a whole month-until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it-because you have rejected the LORD, who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, "Why did we ever leave Egypt?"'"21But Moses said, "Here I am among six hundred thousand men on foot, and you say, 'I will give them meat to eat for a whole month!'22Would they have enough if flocks and herds were slaughtered for them? Would they have enough if all the fish in the sea were caught for them?"23The LORD answered Moses, "Is the LORD's arm too short? You will now see whether or not what I say will come true for you."24So Moses went out and told the people what the LORD had said. He brought together seventy of their elders and had them stand around the Tent.25Then the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke with him, and he took of the Spirit that was on him and put the Spirit on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but they did not do so again.26However, two men, whose names were Eldad and Medad, had remained in the camp. They were listed among the elders, but did not go out to the Tent. Yet the Spirit also rested on them, and they prophesied in the camp.27A young man ran and told Moses, "Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp."28Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses' aide since youth, spoke up and said, "Moses, my lord, stop them!"29But Moses replied, "Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the LORD's people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!"30Then Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp.31Now a wind went out from the LORD and drove quail in from the sea. It brought them down all around the camp to about three feet above the ground, as far as a day's walk in any direction.32All that day and night and all the next day the people went out and gathered quail. No one gathered less than ten homers. Then they spread them out all around the camp.33But while the meat was still between their teeth and before it could be consumed, the anger of the LORD burned against the people, and he struck them with a severe plague.34Therefore the place was named Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had craved other food.35From Kibroth Hattaavah the people traveled to Hazeroth and stayed there.
1Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite.2"Has the LORD spoken only through Moses?" they asked. "Hasn't he also spoken through us?" And the LORD heard this.3(Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.)4At once the LORD said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, "Come out to the Tent of Meeting, all three of you." So the three of them came out.5Then the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud; he stood at the entrance to the Tent and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When both of them stepped forward,6he said, "Listen to my words: "When a prophet of the LORD is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams.7But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house.8With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?"9The anger of the LORD burned against them, and he left them.10When the cloud lifted from above the Tent, there stood Miriam-leprous, like snow. Aaron turned toward her and saw that she had leprosy;11and he said to Moses, "Please, my lord, do not hold against us the sin we have so foolishly committed.12Do not let her be like a stillborn infant coming from its mother's womb with its flesh half eaten away."13So Moses cried out to the LORD, "O God, please heal her!"14The LORD replied to Moses, "If her father had spit in her face, would she not have been in disgrace for seven days? Confine her outside the camp for seven days; after that she can be brought back."15So Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on till she was brought back.16After that, the people left Hazeroth and encamped in the Desert of Paran.
1The LORD said to Moses,2"Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders."3So at the LORD's command Moses sent them out from the Desert of Paran. All of them were leaders of the Israelites.4These are their names: from the tribe of Reuben, Shammua son of Zaccur;5from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat son of Hori;6from the tribe of Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh;7from the tribe of Issachar, Igal son of Joseph;8from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea son of Nun;9from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti son of Raphu;10from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel son of Sodi;11from the tribe of Manasseh (a tribe of Joseph), Gaddi son of Susi;12from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel son of Gemalli;13from the tribe of Asher, Sethur son of Michael;14from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi son of Vophsi;15from the tribe of Gad, Geuel son of Maki.16These are the names of the men Moses sent to explore the land. (Moses gave Hoshea son of Nun the name Joshua.)17When Moses sent them to explore Canaan, he said, "Go up through the Negev and on into the hill country.18See what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many.19What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in? Are they unwalled or fortified?20How is the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees on it or not? Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land." (It was the season for the first ripe grapes.)21So they went up and explored the land from the Desert of Zin as far as Rehob, toward Lebo Hamath.22They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, lived. (Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)23When they reached the Valley of Eshcol, they cut off a branch bearing a single cluster of grapes. Two of them carried it on a pole between them, along with some pomegranates and figs.24That place was called the Valley of Eshcol because of the cluster of grapes the Israelites cut off there.25At the end of forty days they returned from exploring the land.26They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land.27They gave Moses this account: "We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit.28But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there.29The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan."30Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, "We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it."31But the men who had gone up with him said, "We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are."32And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, "The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size.33We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them."