Numbers, 12 - 17
12 From Kibroth-hattavah the Israelites went on to Hazeroth, and while
they were at Hazeroth, Miriam and Aaron began to speak against Moses.
They blamed him for his Cushite wife (for he had married a Cushite
woman), and they said, 'Is Moses the only one with whom the LORD has
spoken? Has he not spoken with us as well?' Moses was in fact a man of
great humility, the most humble man on earth. But the LORD heard them
and suddenly he said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, 'Go out all three of
you to the Tent of the Presence.' So the three went out, and the LORD
descended in a pillar of cloud; he stood at the entrance to the tent and
summoned Aaron and Miriam. The two of them went forward, and he said,
'Listen to my words.
If he were your prophet and nothing more,
I would make myself known to him in a vision,
I would speak to him in a dream.
But my servant Moses is not such a prophet;
he alone is faithful of all my household.
With him I speak face to face,
openly and not in riddles.
He shall see the very form of the LORD
How do you dare speak against my servant Moses?'
Thus the anger of the LORD was roused against them, and he left them;
and as the cloud moved from the tent, there was Miriam, her skin diseased
and white as snow. Aaron turned towards her and saw her skin diseased.
Then he said to Moses, 'Pray, my lord, do not make us pay the penalty of
sin, foolish and wicked though we have been. Let her not be like something
still-born, whose flesh is half eaten away when it comes from the womb.'
So Moses cried, 'Not this, O LORD! Heal her, I pray.' The LORD replied,
'Suppose her father had spat in her face, would she have to remain in
disgrace for seven days? Let her be kept for seven days in confinement
outside the camp and then brought back.' So Miriam was kept outside
for seven days, and the people did not strike camp until she was brought
back. After this they set out from Hazeroth and pitched camp in the
wilderness of Paran.
13 THE LORD SPOKE TO MOSES and said, 'Send men out to explore the land
of Canaan which I am giving to the Israelites; from each of their fathers'
tribes send one man, and let him be a man of high rank.' So Moses sent
them from the wilderness of Paran at the command of the LORD, all of
them leading men among the Israelites. These were their names:
from the tribe of Reuben, Shammua son of Zaccur;
from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat son of Hori;
from the tribe of Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh;
from the tribe of Issachar, Igal son of Joseph;
from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea son of Nun;
from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti son of Raphu;
from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel son of Sodi;
from the tribe of Joseph (that is from the tribe of Manasseh), Gaddi son
of Susi;
from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel son of Gemalli;
from the tribe of Asher, Sethur son of Michael;
from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi son of Vophsi;
from the tribe of Gad, Geuel son of Machi.
These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to explore the land.
But Moses called the son of Nun Joshua, not Hoshea.
When Moses sent them to explore the land of Canaan, he said to them,
'Make your way up the Negeb, and go into the hill-country. See
what the land is like, and whether the people who live there are strong or
weak, few or many. See whether it is easy or difficult country in which
they live, and whether the cities in which they live are weakly defended or
well fortified; is the land fertile or barren, and does it grow trees or not?
Go boldly in and take some of its fruit.' It was the season when the first
grapes were ripe.
They went up and explored the country from the wilderness of Zin as
far as Rehob by Lebo-hamath. They went up by the Negeb and came to
Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai, the descendants of Anak,
were living. (Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) They
came to the gorge of Eshcol, and there they cut a branch with a single
bunch of grapes, and they carried it on a pole two at a time; they also
picked pomegranates and figs. It was from the bunch of grapes which the
Israelites cut there that that place was named the gorge of Eshcol. After
forty days they returned from exploring the country, and came back to
Moses and Aaron and the whole community of Israelites at Kadesh in the
wilderness of Paran. They made their report to them and to the whole
community, and showed them the fruit of the country. And this was the
story they told Moses: 'We made our way into the land to which you sent
us. It is flowing with milk and honey, and here is the fruit it grows; but its
inhabitants are sturdy, and the cities are very strongly fortified; indeed,
we saw there are descendants of Anak. We also saw Amalekites who
live in the Negeb, Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites who live in the hill-
country, and the Canaanites who live by the sea and along the Jordan.'
Then Caleb called for silence before Moses and said, 'Let us go up at
once and occupy the country; we are well able to conquer it.' But the men
who had gone with him said, 'No, we cannot attack these people; they are
stronger than we are.' Thus their report to the Israelites about the land
which they had explored was discouraging: 'The country we explored',
they said, 'will swallow up any who go to live in it. All the people we saw
there are men of gigantic size. When we set eyes on the Nephilim (the
sons of Anak belong to the Nephilim) we felt no bigger than grasshoppers;
and that is how we looked to them.'
14 Then the whole Israelite community cried out in dismay; all night long
they wept. One and all they made complaints against Moses and Aaron: 'If
only we had died in Egypt or in the wilderness!' they said. 'Far happier if
we had! Why should the LORD bring us to this land, to die in battle and
leave our wives and our dependants to become the spoils of war? To go
back to Egypt would be better than this.' And they began to talk of choos-
ing someone to lead them back.
Then Moses and Aaron flung themselves on the ground before the
assembled community of the Israelites, and two of those who had explored
the land, Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, rent their clothes
and addressed the whole community: 'The country we penetrated and
explored', they said, 'is very good land indeed. If the LORD is pleased with
us, he will bring us into this land which flows with milk and honey, and
give it to us. But you must not rebel against the LORD. You need not fear
the people of the land; for there we shall find food. They have lost the
protection that they had: the LORD is with us. You have nothing to fear
from them.' But by way of answer the assembled Israelites threatened to
stone them, when suddenly the glory of the LORD appeared to them all in
the Tent of the Presence.
Then the LORD said to Moses, 'How much longer will this people treat
me with contempt? How much longer will they refuse to trust me in spite
of all the signs I have shown among them? I will strike them with pestilence.
I will deny them their heritage, and you and your descendants I will make
into a nation greater and more numerous than they.' But Moses answered
the LORD, What if the Egyptians hear of it? It was thou who didst bring
this people out of Egypt by thy strength. What if they tell the inhabitants
of this land? They too have heard of thee, LORD, that thou art with this
people, and art seen face to face, that thy cloud stays over them, and thou
goest before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.
If then thou dost put them all to death atone blow, the nations who have
heard these tales of thee will say, "The LORD could not bring this people
into the land which he promised them by oath; and so he destroyed them
in the wilderness."
'Now let the LORD's might be shown in its greatness, true to thy pro-
clamation of thyself——"The LORD, long-suffering, ever constant, who for-
gives iniquity and rebellion, and punishes sons to the third and fourth
generation for the iniquity of their fathers, though he does not sweep them
clean away." Thou has borne with this people from Egypt all the way here;
forgive their iniquity, I beseech thee, as befits thy great and constant love.
The LORD said, 'Your prayer is answered; I pardon them. But as I live,
in very truth the glory of the LORD shall fill the earth. Not one of all those
who have seen my glory and the signs which I wrought in Egypt and in the
wilderness shall see the country which I have promised on oath to their fathers.
Ten times they have challenged me and not obeyed my voice. None of
those who have flouted me shall see this land. But my servant Caleb showed
a different spirit: he followed me with his whole heart. Because of this, I
will bring him into the land in which he has already set foot, the territory
of the Amalekites and the Canaanites who dwell in the Vale, and put his
descendants in possession of it. Tomorrow you must turn back and set
out for the wilderness by way of the Red Sea.
The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron and said, 'How long must I toler-
ate the complaints of this wicked community? I have heard the Israelites
making complaints against me. Tell them that this is the very word of the
LORD: As I live, I will bring home to you the words I have heard you utter.
Here in this wilderness your bones shall lie, every man of you on the
register from twenty years old and upwards, because you have made these
complaints against me. Not one of you shall enter the land which I swore
with uplifted hand should be your home, except only Caleb son of Jephun-
neh and Joshua son of Nun. As for your dependants, those dependants who,
you said, would become the spoil of war, I will bring them in to the land
you have rejected, and they shall enjoy it. But as for the rest of you, your
bones shall lie in this wilderness; your sons shall be wanderers in the
wilderness forty years, paying the penalty of your wanton disloyalty till
the last man of you dies there. Forty days you spent exploring the country,
and forty years you shall spend——a year for each day——paying the penalty
of your iniquities. You shall know what it means to have me against you. I,
the LORD, have spoken. This I swear to do to all this wicked community
who have combined against me. There shall be an end of them here in this
wilderness; here they shall die.' But the men whom Moses had sent to
explore the land, and who came back and by their report set all the com-
munity complaining against him, died of the plague before the LORD; they
died of the plague because they had made a bad report. Of those who went
to explore the land, Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh alone
remained alive.
When Moses reported the LORD's words to all the Israelites, the people
were plunged in grief. They set out early next morning and made for the
heights of the hill-country, saying, 'Look, we are on our way up to the
place the LORD spoke of. We admit that we have been wrong.' But Moses
replied, 'Must you persist in disobeying the LORD's command? No good
will come of this. Go no further; you will not have the LORD with you, and
your enemies will defeat you. For in front of you are the Amalekites and
Canaanites, and you will die by the sword, because you have ceased to
follow the LORD, and he will no longer be with you.' But they went reck-
lessly on their way towards the heights of the hill-country, though neither
the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD nor Moses moved with them out of
the camp; and the Amalekites and Canaanites from those hills came own
and fell upon them, and crushed them at Hormah.
15 THE LORD SPOKE TO MOSES and said, Speak to the Israelites in these
words: When you enter the land where you are to live, the land I am giving
you, you will make food-offerings to the LORD; they may be whole-offer-
ings or any sacrifice made in fulfilment of a special vow or by way of free-
offering of soothing odour from herd or flock to the LORD, the man who
offers, in presenting it, shall add a grain-offering of a tenth of an ephah of
flour mixed with a quarter of a hin of oil. You shall also add to the whole-
offering or shared-offering a quarter of a hin of wine as a drink-offering
with each lamb sacrificed.
If the animal is a ram, the grain-offering shall be two tenths of an ephah
of flour mixed with a third of a hin of oil, and the wine for the drink-
offering shall be a third of a hin; in this way you will make an offering of
soothing odour to the LORD.
When you offer to the LORD a young bull, whether as a whole-offering
or as a sacrifice to fulfil a special vow, or as a shared-offering, you shall
add a grain-offering of three tenths of an ephah of flour mixed with half
a hin of oil, and for the drink-offering, half a hin of wine; the whole will
thus be a food-offering of soothing odour to the LORD. This is what must
be done in each case, for every bull or ram, lamb or kid, whatever the
rules in each case when he offers a food-offering of soothing odour to the
LORD.
When an alien residing with you or permanently settled among you
offers a food-offering of soothing odour to the LORD, he shall do as you do.
There is one and the same rule for you and for the resident alien, a rule
binding for all time on your descendants; you and the alien are alike before
the LORD. There shall be one law and one custom for you and for the alien
residing with you.
The LORD spoke to Moses and said, Speak to the Israelites in these words:
After you have entered the land into which I am bringing you, whenever
you eat the bread of the country, you shall set aside a contribution for the
LORD. You shall set aside a cake made of your first kneading of dough, as
you set aside the contribution from the threshing-floor. You must give a
contribution to the LORD from your first kneading of dough; this rule is
binding on your descendants.
When through inadvertence you omit to carry out any of these com-
mands which the LORD gave to Moses——any command whatever that the
lord gave you through Moses on that first day and thereafter and made
binding on your descendants——if it be done inadvertently, unnoticed by
the community, then the whole community shall offer one young bull as a
whole-offering, a soothing odour to the LORD, with its proper grain-
offering and drink-offering according to custom; and they shall add one
he-goat as a sin-offering. The priest shall make expiation for the whole
community of Israelites, and they shall be forgiven. The omission was
inadvertent; and they have brought their offering, a food-offering to the
LORD; they have made their sin-offering before the LORD for their in-
advertence; the whole community of Israelites and the aliens residing
among you shall be forgiven. The inadvertence was shared by the whole
people.
If any individual sins inadvertently, he shall present a yearling she-goat
as a sin-offering, and the priest shall make expiation before the LORD for
the said individual, and he shall be forgiven. For anyone who sins in-
advertently, there shall be one law for all, whether native Israelite or
resident alien. But the person who sins presumptuously, native or alien,
insults the LORD. He shall be cut off from his people, because he has
brought the word of the LORD into contempt and violated his com-
mand. That person shall be wholly cut off; the guilt shall be on his head
alone.
During the time that the Israelites were in the wilderness, a man was
found gathering sticks on the sabbath day. Those who had caught him in
the act brought him to Moses and Aaron and all the community, and they
kept him in custody, because it was not clearly known what was to be done
with him. The LORD said to Moses, 'The man must be put to death; he
must be stoned by all the community outside the camp.' So they took him
outside the camp and all stoned him to death, as the LORD had commanded
Moses.
The LORD spoke to Moses and said, Speak to the Israelites in these
words: You must make tassels like flowers on the corners of your garments,
you and your children's children. In this tassel you shall work a violet
thread, and whenever you see this in the tassel, you shall remembered all the
LORD's commands and obey them, and not go your own wanton ways,
led astray by your own eyes and hearts. This token is to ensure that you
remember all my commands and obey them, and keep yourselves holy,
consecrated to your God.
I am the LORD your God who brought you out of Egypt to become your
God. I am the LORD your God.
16 NOW KORAH SON OF IZHAR, son of Kohath, son of Levi, with the Reuben-
ites Dathan and Abiram sons of Eliab and On son of Peleth, challenged the
authority of Moses. With them in their revolt were two hundred and fifty
Israelites, all me of rank in the community, conveners of assembly and
men of good standing. They confronted Moses and Aaron and said to them,
'You take too much upon yourselves. Every member of the community is
holy and and the LORD is among them all. Why do you set yourselves up above
the assembly of the LORD?' When Moses heard this, he prostrated himself,
and he said to Korah and all his company, 'Tomorrow morning the LORD
shall declare who is his, who is holy and may present offerings to him. The
man whom the LORD chooses shall present them. This is what you must
do, you, Korah, and all your company; you must take censers and put fire
in them, and then place incense on them before the LORD tomorrow. The
man whom the LORD then chooses is the man who is holy. You take too
much upon yourselves, you sons of Levi.'
Moses said to Korah, 'Now listen, you sons of Levi. It is not enough for
you that the God of Israel has set you apart from the community of Israel,
bringing you near him to maintain the service of the Tabernacle of the
LORD and to stand before the community as their ministers? He has
brought you near him and your brother Levites with you; now you seek
the priesthood as well. That is why you and all your company have com-
bined together against the LORD. What is Aaron that you should make these
complaints against him?'
Moses sent to fetch Dathan and Abiram sons of Eliab, but they answered,
'We are not coming. Is it a small thing that you have brought us away from
a land flowing with milk and honey to let us die in the wilderness? Must
you also set yourself up as prince over us? What is more, you have not
brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, nor have you given us
fields and vineyards to inherit. Do you think you can hoodwink men like
us? We are not coming.' This answer made Moses very angry, and he said
to the LORD, 'Take no notice of their murmuring. I have not taken from
them so much as a single ass; I have done no wrong to any of them.'
Moses said to Korah, 'Present yourselves before the LORD tomorrow,
you and all your company, you and they and Aaron. Each man of you is to
take his censer and put incense on it. Then you shall present them before
the LORD with their two hundred and fifty censers, and you and Aaron
shall also bring your censers.' So each man took his censers and put fire in
it and placed incense on it; Moses and Aaron took their stand at the entrance
to the Tent of the Presence, and Korah gathered his whole company
together and faced them at the entrance to the Tent of the Presence.
Then the glory of the LORD appeared to the whole community. And the
LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron and said, 'Stand apart from this company,
so that I may make an end of them in a single instant.' But they prostrated
themselves and said, 'O God, God of the spirits of all mankind, if one man
sins, wilt thou be angry with the whole community?' But the LORD said
to Moses, 'Tell them to stand back from the dwellings of Korah, Dathan
and Abiram.'
So Moses rose and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the Elders of Israel
followed him. He said to the whole community, 'Stand well away from the
tents of these wicked men; touch nothing of theirs, or you will be swept
away because of all their sins.' So they moved away from the places occu-
pied by Korah, Dathan and Abiram. Now Dathan and Abiram, holding
themselves erect, had come out to entrance of their tents with their
wives, their sons, and their dependants. Then Moses said, 'This shall prove
to you that it is the LORD who sent me to do all these things, and it was not
my own heart that prompted me. If these men die a natural death and share
the common fate of man, then the LORD has not sent me; but if the LORD
makes a great chasm, and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them
and all that is theirs, and they go down alive to Sheol, then you will know
that these men have held the LORD in contempt.'
Hardly had Moses spoken when the ground beneath them split; the
earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their homes——all the
followers of Korah and all their property. They went down alive into Sheol
with all they had; the earth closed over them, and they vanished from
the assembly. At their cries all the Israelites round them fled, shouting,
'Look to yourselves! the earth will swallow us up.' Meanwhile fire had come
out from the LORD and burnt up the two hundred and fifty men who were
presenting the incense.
Then the LORD spoke to Moses and said, 'Bid Eleazar son of Aaron the
priest set aside the censers from the burnt remains, and scatter the fire
from them far and wide, because they are holy. And the censers of these
men who sinned at the cost of their lives you shall make into beaten plates
to cover the altar; they are holy, because they have been presented before
the LORD. Let them be a sign to the Israelites. So Eleazar the priest took
the bronze censers which the victims of the fire had presented, and they
were beaten into plates to make a covering for the altar, as a reminder to the
Israelites that no person unqualified, not descended from Aaron, should
come forward to burn incense before the LORD, or his fate would be that of
Korah and his company. All this was done as the LORD commanded
Eleazar through Moses.
Next day all the community of the Israelites raised complaints against
Moses and Aaron and taxed them with causing the death of some of the
LORD's people. As they gathered against Moses and Aaron, they turned
toward the Tent of the Presence and saw that the cloud covered it, and
the glory of the LORD appeared. Moses and Aaron came to the front of the
Tent of the Presence, and the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron and said,
'Stand well clear of this community, so that in a single instant I may make
an end of them.' Then they prostrated themselves, and Moses said to
Aaron, 'Take your censer, put fire from the altar in it, set incense on it, and
go with it quickly to the assembled community to make expiation for them.
Wrath has gone forth already from the presence of the LORD. The plague
has begun.' So Aaron took his censer, as Moses had said, ran into the midst
of the assembly and found that the plague had begun among the people .
He put incense on the censer and made expiation for the people. Fourteen
thousand seven hundred died of it, in addition to those who had died for
the offence of Korah. When Aaron came back to Moses at the entrance to
Tent of the Presence, the plague had stopped.
17 The LORD spoke to Moses and said, 'Speak to the Israelites and tell
them to give you a staff for each tribe, one from every tribal chief, twelve in
all, and write each man's name on his staff. On Levi's staff write the name
of Aaron, for there shall be one staff for each head of a tribe. You shall put
them all in the Tent of the Presence before the Tokens, where I meet you,
and the staff of the man I choose shall sprout. I will rid myself of the com-
plaints of these Israelites, who keep on complaining against you.'
Moses thereupon spoke to the Israelites, and each of their chiefs handed
him a staff, each of them one for his tribe, twelve in all, and Aaron's staff
among them. Moses put them before the LORD in the Tent of the Tokens,
and next day he entered the tent, he found that Aaron's staff, the
staff for the tribe of Levi, had sprouted. Indeed, it had sprouted, blos-
somed, and produced ripe almonds. Moses then brought out staffs
from before the LORD and showed them to all the Israelites; they saw for
themselves, and each man took his own staff. The LORD said to Moses,
'Put back Aaron's staff in front of the Tokens to be kept as a warning to all
rebels, so that you may rid me once and for all of their complaints, and then
they shall not die.' Moses did this; as the LORD had commanded him, so
he did.
The Israelites said to Moses, 'This is the end of us! We perish, one and
all! Every single person who goes near the Tabernacle of the LORD dies.
Is this to be our final end?'
The New English Bible (with Apocrypha)
Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, 1970
Posted Apr 8, 2019, 5:23 AM UTC
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