The Daily Audio Bible
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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[a] 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.[b] Yes, one law for all!”
53 Jesus was led to the high priest’s home where all of the chief priests and other Jewish leaders soon gathered. 54 Peter followed far behind and then slipped inside the gates of the high priest’s residence and crouched beside a fire among the servants.
55 Inside, the chief priests and the whole Jewish Supreme Court were trying to find something against Jesus that would be sufficient to condemn him to death. But their efforts were in vain. 56 Many false witnesses volunteered, but they contradicted each other.
57 Finally some men stood up to lie about him and said, 58 “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this Temple made with human hands and in three days I will build another, made without human hands!’” 59 But even then they didn’t get their stories straight!
60 Then the high priest stood up before the Court and asked Jesus, “Do you refuse to answer this charge? What do you have to say for yourself?”
61 To this Jesus made no reply.
Then the high priest asked him. “Are you the Messiah, the Son of God?”
62 Jesus said, “I am, and you will see me[a] sitting at the right hand of God, and returning to earth in the clouds of heaven.”
63-64 Then the high priest tore at his clothes and said, “What more do we need? Why wait for witnesses? You have heard his blasphemy. What is your verdict?” And the vote for the death sentence was unanimous.
65 Then some of them began to spit at him, and they blindfolded him and began to hammer his face with their fists.
“Who hit you that time, you prophet?” they jeered. And even the bailiffs were using their fists on him as they led him away.
66-67 Meanwhile Peter was below in the courtyard. One of the maids who worked for the high priest noticed Peter warming himself at the fire.
She looked at him closely and then announced, “You were with Jesus, the Nazarene.”
68 Peter denied it. “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” he said, and walked over to the edge of the courtyard.
Just then, a rooster crowed.[b]
69 The maid saw him standing there and began telling the others, “There he is! There’s that disciple of Jesus!”
70 Peter denied it again.
A little later others standing around the fire began saying to Peter, “You are, too, one of them, for you are from Galilee!”
71 He began to curse and swear. “I don’t even know this fellow you are talking about,” he said.
72 And immediately the rooster crowed the second time. Suddenly Jesus’ words flashed through Peter’s mind: “Before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times.” And he began to cry.
53 Only a fool would say to himself, “There is no God.” And why does he say it?[a] Because of his wicked heart, his dark and evil deeds. His life is corroded with sin.
2 God looks down from heaven, searching among all mankind to see if there is a single one who does right and really seeks for God. 3 But all have turned their backs on him; they are filthy with sin—corrupt and rotten through and through. Not one is good, not one! 4 How can this be? Can’t they understand anything? For they devour my people like bread and refuse to come to God. 5 But soon unheard-of terror will fall on them. God will scatter the bones of these, your enemies. They are doomed, for God has rejected them.
6 Oh, that God would come from Zion now and save Israel! Only when the Lord himself restores them can they ever be really happy again.
4 Your riches won’t help you on Judgment Day; only righteousness counts then.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.