Numbers 11; Numbers 12; Numbers 13

1 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, because the Lord's fire had burned among them.

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 older leaders, 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 older leaders 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.

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, because there they buried those who wanted other food.

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

1 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: When a prophet is among you, I, the Lord, will show myself to him in visions; I will speak to him in dreams.

7 But this is not true with my servant Moses. I trust him to lead all my people.

8 I speak face to face with him -- clearly, not with hidden meanings. He has even seen the form of the Lord. You should be afraid to speak against my servant Moses."

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 sev-en 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.

1 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, 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."