The Murmuring of Miriam and Aaron
Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married (for he had married a aCushite woman); 2 aand they said, “Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us as well?” And the Lord heard it. 3 (Now the man Moses was avery humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth.) 4 Suddenly the Lord said to Moses and Aaron and to Miriam, “You three come out to the tent of meeting.” So the three of them came out. 5 aThen the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the doorway of the tent, and He called Aaron and Miriam. When they had both come forward, 6 He said,
“Hear now My words:
If there is a prophet among you,
I, the Lord, shall make Myself known to him in a avision.
I shall speak with him in a bdream.
7 “Not so, with aMy servant Moses,
bHe is faithful in all My household;
8 aWith him I speak mouth to mouth,
Even openly, and not in dark sayings,
And he beholds bthe form of the Lord.
Why then were you not afraid
To speak against My servant, against Moses?”
9 So the anger of the Lord burned against them and aHe departed. 10 But when the cloud had withdrawn from over the tent, behold, aMiriam was leprous, as bwhite as snow. As Aaron turned toward Miriam, behold, she was leprous. 11 Then Aaron said to Moses, “Oh, my lord, I beg you, ado not account this sin to us, in which we have acted foolishly and in which we have sinned. 12 Oh, do not let her be like one dead, whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes from his mother’s womb!” 13 Moses cried out to the Lord, saying, “O God, aheal her, I pray!” 14 But the Lord said to Moses, “If her father had but aspit in her face, would she not bear her shame for seven days? Let her be shut up for seven days boutside the camp, and afterward she may be received again.” 15 So aMiriam was shut up outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on until Miriam was received again.
16 Afterward, however, the people moved out from Hazeroth and camped in the wilderness of Paran.
Spies View the Land
Then athe Lord spoke to Moses saying, 2 “aSend out for yourself men so that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I am going to give to the sons of Israel; you shall send a man from each of their fathers’ tribes, every one a leader among them.” 3 So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran at the command of the Lord, all of them men who were heads of the sons of Israel. 4 These then 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 from the tribe of Judah, aCaleb the son of Jephunneh; 7 from the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph; 8 from the tribe of Ephraim, aHoshea 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, 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 spy out the land; but Moses called aHoshea the son of Nun, Joshua.
17 When Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, he said to them, “Go up there into athe Negev; then 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 How is the land in which they live, is it good or bad? And how are the cities in which they live, are they like open camps or with fortifications? 20 aHow is the land, is it fat or lean? Are there trees in it or not? Make an beffort then to get 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 athe wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob, bat Lebo-hamath. 22 When they had gone up into athe Negev, they came to Hebron where bAhiman, Sheshai and Talmai, the descendants of cAnak were. (Now Hebron was built seven years before dZoan in Egypt.)
23 Then they came to the valley of aEshcol and from there cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes; and they carried it on a pole between two men, with some of the pomegranates and the figs. 24 That place was called the valley of Eshcol, because of the cluster which the sons of Israel cut down from there.
The Spies’ Reports
25 When they returned from spying out the land, at the end of forty days, 26 they proceeded to come to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the sons of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at aKadesh; and they brought back word to them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 Thus they told him, and said, “We went in to the land where you sent us; and ait certainly does flow with milk and honey, and bthis is its fruit. 28 Nevertheless, athe people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large; and moreover, we saw bthe descendants of Anak there. 29 Amalek is living in the land of athe Negev and the Hittites and the Jebusites and bthe Amorites are living in the hill country, and cthe Canaanites are living by the sea and by the side of the Jordan.”
30 Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will surely overcome it.” 31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “aWe are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us.” 32 So they gave out to the sons of Israel aa bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is ba land that devours its inhabitants; and call the people whom we saw in it are men of great size. 33 There also we saw the aNephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and bwe became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”
The People Rebel
Then all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. 2 All the sons of Israel agrumbled against Moses and Aaron; and the whole congregation said to them, “bWould that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! 3 Why is the Lord bringing us into this land, ato fall by the sword? bOur wives and our little ones will become plunder; would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” 4 So they said to one another, “aLet us appoint a leader and return to Egypt.”
5 aThen Moses and Aaron fell on their faces in the presence of all the assembly of the congregation of the sons of Israel. 6 Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, of those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes; 7 and they spoke to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying, “aThe land which we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. 8 aIf the Lord is pleased with us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us—ba land which flows with milk and honey. 9 Only ado not rebel against the Lord; and do not bfear the people of the land, for they will be our prey. Their protection has been removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.” 10 aBut all the congregation said to stone them with stones. Then bthe glory of the Lord appeared in the tent of meeting to all the sons of Israel.
Moses Pleads for the People
11 aThe Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people spurn Me? And how long will bthey not believe in Me, despite all the signs which I have performed in their midst? 12 I will smite them with apestilence and dispossess them, and I bwill make you into a nation greater and mightier than they.”
13 aBut Moses said to the Lord, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for by Your strength You brought up this people from their midst, 14 and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that You, O Lord, are in the midst of this people, for aYou, O Lord, are seen eye to eye, while 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 slay this people as one man, athen the nations who have heard of Your fame will say, 16 ‘Because the Lord acould not bring this people into the land which He promised them by oath, therefore He slaughtered them in the wilderness.’ 17 But now, I pray, let the power of the Lord be great, just as You have declared, 18 ‘aThe Lord is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but bHe will by no means clear the guilty, cvisiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generations.’ 19 aPardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of Your lovingkindness, just as You also have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.”
The Lord Pardons and Rebukes
20 So the Lord said, “aI have pardoned them according to your word; 21 but indeed, aas I live, ball the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord. 22 Surely aall the men who have seen My glory and My signs which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet bhave put Me to the test these ten times and have not listened to My voice, 23 ashall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who spurned Me see it. 24 But My servant Caleb, abecause he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, bI will bring into the land which he entered, and his descendants shall take possession of it. 25 aNow the Amalekites and the Canaanites live in the valleys; turn tomorrow and set out to the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.”
26 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 27 “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who are agrumbling against Me? I have heard the complaints of the sons of Israel, which they are making against Me. 28 Say to them, ‘aAs I live,’ says the Lord, ‘just as byou have spoken in My hearing, so I will surely do to you; 29 ayour corpses will fall in this wilderness, even all byour numbered men, according to your complete number from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against Me. 30 Surely you shall not come into the land in which I swore to settle you, aexcept Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. 31 aYour children, however, whom you said would become a prey—I will bring them in, and they will know the land which you have rejected. 32 aBut as for you, your corpses will fall in this wilderness. 33 Your sons shall be shepherds for aforty years in the wilderness, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness, until your corpses lie in the wilderness. 34 According to the anumber of days which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day you shall bear your guilt a year, even forty years, and you will know My opposition. 35 aI, the Lord, have spoken, surely this I will do to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be destroyed, and there they will die.’”
36 aAs for the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land and who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing out a bad report concerning the land, 37 even athose men who brought out the very bad report of the land died by a bplague before the Lord. 38 But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive out of those men who went to spy out the land.
Israel Repulsed
39 When Moses spoke athese words to all the sons of Israel, bthe people mourned greatly. 40 In the morning, however, they rose up early and went up to the ridge of the hill country, saying, “aHere we are; we have indeed sinned, but we will go up to the place which the Lord has promised.” 41 But Moses said, “aWhy then are you transgressing the commandment of the Lord, when it will not succeed? 42 aDo not go up, or you will be struck down before your enemies, for the Lord is not among you. 43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites will be there in front of you, and you will fall by the sword, inasmuch as you have turned back from following the Lord. And the Lord will not be with you.” 44 But they went up heedlessly to the ridge of the hill country; neither athe ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses left the camp. 45 Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down, and struck them and beat them down as far as aHormah. New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995
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