Numbers 11-15

New Century Version

Fire from the Lord

11 Now the people complained to the Lord about their troubles, and when he heard them, he became angry. Then fire from the Lord burned among the people at the edge of the camp. ² The people cried out to Moses, and when he prayed to the Lord, the fire stopped burning. ³ So that place was called Taberah,^[a] because the Lord’s fire had burned among them.

Seventy Elders Help Moses

⁴ Some troublemakers among them wanted better food, and soon all the Israelites began complaining. They said, “We want meat! ⁵ We remember the fish we ate for free in Egypt. We also had cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic. ⁶ But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!”

⁷ The manna was like small white seeds. ⁸ The people would go to gather it, and then grind it in handmills, or crush it between stones. After they cooked it in a pot or made cakes with it, it tasted like bread baked with olive oil. ⁹ When the dew fell on the camp each night, so did the manna.

¹⁰ Moses heard every family crying as they stood in the entrances of their tents. Then the Lord became very angry, and Moses got upset. ¹¹ He asked the Lord, “Why have you brought me, your servant, this trouble? What have I done wrong that you made me responsible for all these people? ¹² I am not the father of all these people, and I didn’t give birth to them. So why do you make me carry them to the land you promised to our ancestors? Must I carry them in my arms as a nurse carries a baby? ¹³ Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep crying to me, ‘We want meat!’ ¹⁴ I can’t take care of all these people alone. It is too much for me. ¹⁵ If you are going to continue doing this to me, then kill me now. If you care about me, put me to death, and then I won’t have any more troubles.”

¹⁶ The Lord said to Moses, “Bring me seventy of Israel’s elders, men that you know are leaders among the people. Bring them to the Meeting Tent, and have them stand there with you. ¹⁷ I will come down and speak with you there. I will take some of the Spirit that is in you, and I will give it to them. They will help you care for the people so that you will not have to care for them alone.

¹⁸ “Tell the people this: ‘Make yourselves holy for tomorrow, and you will eat meat. You cried to the Lord, “We want meat! We were better off in Egypt!” So now the Lord will give you meat to eat. ¹⁹ You will eat it not for just one, two, five, ten, or even twenty days, ²⁰ but you will eat that meat for a whole month. You will eat it until it comes out your nose, and you will grow to hate it. This is because you have rejected the Lord, who is with you. You have cried to him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?”’”

²¹ Moses said, “Lord, here are six hundred thousand people standing around me, and you say, ‘I will give them enough meat to eat for a month!’ ²² If we killed all the flocks and herds, that would not be enough. If we caught all the fish in the sea, that would not be enough.”

²³ But the Lord said to Moses, “Do you think I’m weak? Now you will see if I can do what I say.”

²⁴ So Moses went out to the people and told them what the Lord had said. He gathered seventy of the elders together and had them stand around the Tent. ²⁵ Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to Moses. The Lord took some of the Spirit Moses had, and he gave it to the seventy leaders. With the Spirit in them, they prophesied, but just that one time.

²⁶ Two men named Eldad and Medad were also listed as leaders, but they did not go to the Tent. They stayed in the camp, but the Spirit was also given to them, and they prophesied in the camp. ²⁷ A young man ran to Moses and said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.”

²⁸ Joshua son of Nun said, “Moses, my master, stop them!” (Ever since he was a young boy, Joshua had been Moses’ assistant.)

²⁹ But Moses answered, “Are you jealous for me? I wish all the Lord’s people could prophesy. I wish the Lord would give his Spirit to all of them!” ³⁰ Then Moses and the leaders of Israel went back to the camp.

The Lord Sends Quail

³¹ The Lord sent a strong wind from the sea, and it blew quail into the area all around the camp. The quail were about three feet deep on the ground, and there were quail a day’s walk in any direction. ³² The people went out and gathered quail all that day, that night, and the next day. Everyone gathered at least sixty bushels, and they spread them around the camp. ³³ But the Lord became very angry, and he gave the people a terrible sickness that came while the meat was still in their mouths. ³⁴ So the people named that place Kibroth Hattaavah,^[b] because there they buried those who wanted other food.

³⁵ From Kibroth Hattaavah the people went to stay at Hazeroth.

Miriam and Aaron Speak Against Moses

12 Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife (he had married a Cushite). ² They said, “Is Moses the only one the Lord speaks through? Doesn’t he also speak through us?” And the Lord heard this.

³ (Now Moses was very humble. He was the least proud person on earth.)

⁴ So the Lord suddenly spoke to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam and said, “All three of you come to the Meeting Tent.” So they went. ⁵ The Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance to the Tent. He called to Aaron and Miriam, and they both came near. ⁶ He said, “Listen to my words:

⁹ The Lord was very angry with them, and he left.

¹⁰ When the cloud lifted from the Tent and Aaron turned toward Miriam, she was as white as snow; she had a skin disease. ¹¹ Aaron said to Moses, “Please, my master, forgive us for our foolish sin. ¹² Don’t let her be like a baby who is born dead. (Sometimes a baby is born with half of its flesh eaten away.)”

¹³ So Moses cried out to the Lord, “God, please heal her!”

¹⁴ The Lord answered Moses, “If her father had spit in her face, she would have been shamed for seven days, so put her outside the camp for seven days. After that, she may come back.” ¹⁵ So Miriam was put outside of the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on until she came back.

¹⁶ After that, the people left Hazeroth and camped in the Desert of Paran.

The Spies Explore Canaan

13 The Lord said to Moses, ² “Send men to explore the land of Canaan, which I will give to the Israelites. Send one leader from each tribe.”

³ So Moses obeyed the Lord’s command and sent the Israelite leaders out from the Desert of Paran. ⁴ These are their names: from the tribe of Reuben, Shammua son of Zaccur; ⁵ from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat son of Hori; ⁶ from the tribe of Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh; ⁷ from the tribe of Issachar, Igal son of Joseph; ⁸ from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea son of Nun; ⁹ from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti son of Raphu; ¹⁰ from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel son of Sodi; ¹¹ from the tribe of Manasseh (a tribe of Joseph), Gaddi son of Susi; ¹² from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel son of Gemalli; ¹³ from the tribe of Asher, Sethur son of Michael; ¹⁴ from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi son of Vophsi; ¹⁵ from the tribe of Gad, Geuel son of Maki.

¹⁶ These are the names of the men Moses sent to explore the land. (Moses gave Hoshea son of Nun the new name Joshua.)

¹⁷ Moses sent them to explore Canaan and said, “Go through southern Canaan and then into the mountains. ¹⁸ See what the land looks like. Are the people who live there strong or weak? Are there a few or many? ¹⁹ What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What about the towns they live in—are they open like camps, or do they have walls? ²⁰ What about the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees there? Try to bring back some of the fruit from that land.” (It was the season for the first grapes.)

²¹ So they went up and explored the land, from the Desert of Zin all the way to Rehob by Lebo Hamath. ²² They went through the southern area to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak lived. (The city of Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) ²³ In the Valley of Eshcol, they cut off a branch of a grapevine that had one bunch of grapes on it and carried that branch on a pole between two of them. They also got some pomegranates and figs. ²⁴ That place was called the Valley of Eshcol,^[c] because the Israelites cut off the bunch of grapes there. ²⁵ After forty days of exploring the land, the men returned to the camp.

²⁶ They came back to Moses and Aaron and all the Israelites at Kadesh, in the Desert of Paran. The men reported to them and showed everybody the fruit from the land. ²⁷ They told Moses, “We went to the land where you sent us, and it is a fertile land! Here is some of its fruit. ²⁸ But the people who live there are strong. Their cities are walled and very large. We even saw some Anakites there. ²⁹ The Amalekites live in the southern area; the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the mountains; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan River.”

³⁰ Then Caleb told the people near Moses to be quiet, and he said, “We should certainly go up and take the land for ourselves. We can certainly do it.”

³¹ But the men who had gone with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” ³² And those men gave the Israelites a bad report about the land they explored, saying, “The land that we explored is too large to conquer. All the people we saw are very tall. ³³ We saw the Nephilim people there. (The Anakites come from the Nephilim people.) We felt like grasshoppers, and we looked like grasshoppers to them.”

The People Complain Again

14 That night all the people in the camp began crying loudly. ² All the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron, and all the people said to them, “We wish we had died in Egypt or in this desert. ³ Why is the Lord bringing us to this land to be killed with swords? Our wives and children will be taken away. We would be better off going back to Egypt.” ⁴ They said to each other, “Let’s choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”

⁵ Then Moses and Aaron bowed facedown in front of all the Israelites gathered there. ⁶ Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who had explored the land, tore their clothes. ⁷ They said to all of the Israelites, “The land we explored is very good. ⁸ If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land and give us that fertile land. ⁹ Don’t turn against the Lord! Don’t be afraid of the people in that land! We will chew them up. They have no protection, but the Lord is with us. So don’t be afraid of them.”

¹⁰ Then all the people talked about killing them with stones. But the glory of the Lord appeared at the Meeting Tent to all the Israelites. ¹¹ The Lord said to Moses, “How long will these people ignore me? How long will they not believe me in spite of the miracles I have done among them? ¹² I will give them a terrible sickness and get rid of them. But I will make you into a great nation that will be stronger than they are.”

¹³ Then Moses said to the Lord, “The Egyptians will hear about it! You brought these people from there by your great power, ¹⁴ and the Egyptians will tell this to those who live in this land. They have already heard about you, Lord. They know that you are with your people and that you were seen face to face. They know that your cloud stays over your people and that you lead your people with that cloud during the day and with fire at night. ¹⁵ If you put these people to death all at once, the nations who have heard about your power will say, ¹⁶ ‘The Lord was not able to bring them into the land he promised them. So he killed them in the desert.’

¹⁷ “So show your strength now, Lord. Do what you said: ¹⁸ ‘The Lord doesn’t become angry quickly, but he has great love. He forgives sin and law breaking. But the Lord never forgets to punish guilty people. When parents sin, he will also punish their children, their grandchildren, their great-grandchildren, and their great-great-grandchildren.’ ¹⁹ By your great love, forgive these people’s sin, just as you have forgiven them from the time they left Egypt until now.”

²⁰ The Lord answered, “I have forgiven them as you asked. ²¹ But, as surely as I live and as surely as my glory fills the whole earth, I make this promise: ²² All these people saw my glory and the miracles I did in Egypt and in the desert, but they disobeyed me and tested me ten times. ²³ So not one of them will see the land I promised to their ancestors. No one who rejected me will see that land. ²⁴ But my servant Caleb thinks differently and follows me completely. So I will bring him into the land he has already seen, and his children will own that land. ²⁵ Since the Amalekites and the Canaanites are living in the valleys, leave tomorrow and follow the desert road toward the Red Sea.”

The Lord Punishes the People

²⁶ The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ²⁷ “How long will these evil people complain about me? I have heard the grumbling and complaining of these Israelites. ²⁸ So tell them, ‘This is what the Lord says. I heard what you said, and as surely as I live, I will do those very things to you: ²⁹ You will die in this desert. Every one of you who is twenty years old or older and who was counted with the people—all of you who complained against me—will die. ³⁰ Not one of you will enter the land where I promised you would live; only Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun will go in. ³¹ You said that your children would be taken away, but I will bring them into the land to enjoy what you refused. ³² As for you, you will die in this desert. ³³ Your children will be shepherds here for forty years. Because you were not loyal, they will suffer until you lie dead in the desert. ³⁴ For forty years you will suffer for your sins—a year for each of the forty days you explored the land. You will know me as your enemy.’ ³⁵ I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will certainly do these things to all these evil people who have come together against me. So they will all die here in this desert.”

³⁶ The men Moses had sent to explore the land had returned and spread complaints among all the people. They had given a bad report about the land. ³⁷ The men who gave a very bad report died; the Lord killed them with a terrible sickness. ³⁸ Only two of the men who explored the land did not die—Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh.

³⁹ When Moses told these things to all the Israelites, they were very sad. ⁴⁰ Early the next morning they started to go toward the top of the mountains, saying, “We have sinned. We will go where the Lord told us.”

⁴¹ But Moses said, “Why are you disobeying the Lord’s command? You will not win! ⁴² Don’t go, because the Lord is not with you and you will be beaten by your enemies. ⁴³ You will run into the Amalekites and Canaanites, who will kill you with swords. You have turned away from the Lord, so the Lord will not be with you.”

⁴⁴ But they were proud. They went toward the top of the mountains, but Moses and the Ark of the Agreement with the Lord did not leave the camp. ⁴⁵ The Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in those mountains came down and attacked the Israelites and beat them back all the way to Hormah.

Rules About Sacrifices

15 The Lord said to Moses, ² “Speak to the Israelites and say to them, ‘When you enter the land that I am giving you as a home, ³ give the Lord offerings made by fire. These may be from your herds or flocks, as a smell pleasing to the Lord. These may be burnt offerings or sacrifices for special promises, or as gifts to him, or as festival offerings. ⁴ The one who brings the offering shall also give the Lord a grain offering. It should be two quarts of fine flour mixed with one quart of olive oil. ⁵ Each time you offer a lamb as a burnt offering or sacrifice, also prepare a quart of wine as a drink offering.

⁶ “‘If you are giving a male sheep, also prepare a grain offering of four quarts of fine flour mixed with one and one-fourth quarts of olive oil. ⁷ Also prepare one and one-fourth quarts of wine as a drink offering. Its smell will be pleasing to the Lord.

⁸ “‘If you prepare a young bull as a burnt offering or sacrifice, whether it is for a special promise or a fellowship offering to the Lord, ⁹ bring a grain offering with the bull. It should be six quarts of fine flour mixed with two quarts of olive oil. ¹⁰ Also bring two quarts of wine as a drink offering. This offering is made by fire, and its smell will be pleasing to the Lord. ¹¹ Prepare each bull or male sheep, lamb or young goat this way. ¹² Do this for every one of the animals you bring.

¹³ “‘All citizens must do these things in this way, and the smell of their offerings by fire will be pleasing to the Lord. ¹⁴ From now on if foreigners who live among you want to make offerings by fire so the smell will be pleasing to the Lord, they must offer them the same way you do. ¹⁵ The law is the same for you and for foreigners, and it will be from now on; you and the foreigners are alike before the Lord. ¹⁶ The teachings and rules are the same for you and for the foreigners among you.’”

¹⁷ The Lord said to Moses, ¹⁸ “Tell the Israelites: ‘You are going to another land, where I am taking you. ¹⁹ When you eat the food there, offer part of it to the Lord. ²⁰ Offer a loaf of bread from the first of your grain, which will be your offering from the threshing floor. ²¹ From now on offer to the Lord the first part of your grain.

²² “‘Now what if you forget to obey any of these commands the Lord gave Moses? ²³ These are the Lord’s commands given to you through Moses, which began the day the Lord gave them to you and will continue from now on. ²⁴ If the people forget to obey one of these commands, all the people must offer a young bull as a burnt offering, a smell pleasing to the Lord. By law you must also give the grain offering and the drink offering with it, and you must bring a male goat as a sin offering.

²⁵ “‘The priest will remove that sin for all the Israelites so they will belong to the Lord. They are forgiven, because they didn’t know they were sinning. For the wrong they did they brought offerings to the Lord, an offering by fire and a sin offering. ²⁶ So all of the people of Israel and the foreigners living among them will be forgiven. No one meant to do wrong.

²⁷ “‘If just one person sins without meaning to, a year-old female goat must be brought for a sin offering. ²⁸ The priest will remove the sin of the person who sinned accidentally. He will remove it before the Lord, and the person will be forgiven. ²⁹ The same teaching is for everyone who sins accidentally—for those born Israelites and for foreigners living among you.

³⁰ “‘But anyone who sins on purpose is against the Lord and must be cut off from the people, whether it is someone born among you or a foreigner. ³¹ That person has turned against the Lord’s word and has not obeyed his commands. Such a person must surely be cut off from the others. He is guilty.’”

A Man Worked on the Sabbath

³² When the Israelites were still in the desert, they found a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day. ³³ Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and all the people. ³⁴ They held the man under guard, because they did not know what to do with him. ³⁵ Then the Lord said to Moses, “The man must surely die. All the people must kill him by throwing stones at him outside the camp.” ³⁶ So all the people took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the Lord commanded Moses.

The Tassels

³⁷ The Lord said to Moses, ³⁸ “Speak to the Israelites and tell them this: ‘Tie several pieces of thread together and attach them to the corners of your clothes. Put a blue thread in each one of these tassels. Wear them from now on. ³⁹ You will have these tassels to look at to remind you of all the Lord’s commands. Then you will obey them and not be disloyal by following what your bodies and eyes want. ⁴⁰ Then you will remember to obey all my commands, and you will be God’s holy people. ⁴¹ I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord your God.’”