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Numbers 11

Discontent of the People.

1Now the people complained bitterly in the hearing of the LORD;^a and when he heard it his wrath flared up, so that the LORD’s fire burned among them and consumed the outskirts of the camp.

2But when the people cried out to Moses, he prayed to the LORD and the fire died out.

3Hence that place was called Taberah,^* because there the fire of the LORD burned among them.

4The riffraff among them were so greedy for meat that even the Israelites lamented again,^b “If only we had meat for food!

5We remember the fish we used to eat without cost in Egypt, and the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.

6But now we are famished; we have nothing to look forward to but this manna.”^c

7^d Manna was like coriander seed^* and had the appearance of bdellium.

8When they had gone about and gathered it up, the people would grind it between millstones or pound it in a mortar, then cook it in a pot and make it into loaves, with a rich creamy taste.

9At night, when the dew fell upon the camp, the manna also fell.^e

10When Moses heard the people, family after family, crying at the entrance of their tents, so that the LORD became very angry, he was grieved.

11“Why do you treat your servant so badly?” Moses asked the LORD. “Why are you so displeased with me that you burden me with all this people?

12Was it I who conceived all this people? or was it I who gave them birth, that you tell me to carry them at my breast, like a nurse carrying an infant, to the land you have promised under oath to their fathers?

13Where can I get meat to give to all this people? For they are crying to me, ‘Give us meat for our food.’

14I cannot carry all this people by myself, for they are too heavy for me.

15If this is the way you will deal with me, then please do me the favor of killing me at once, so that I need no longer face my distress.”

The Seventy Elders.

16Then the LORD said to Moses: Assemble for me seventy of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be elders and authorities among the people, and bring them to the tent of meeting. When they are in place beside you,

17I will come down and speak with you there. I will also take some of the spirit that is on you and will confer it on them, that they may share the burden of the people with you. You will then not have to bear it by yourself.

18To the people, however, you shall say: “Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, when you shall have meat to eat. For in the hearing of the LORD you have cried, ‘If only we had meat for food! Oh, how well off we were in Egypt!’ Therefore the LORD will give you meat to eat,

19and you will eat it, not for one day, or two days, or five, or ten, or twenty days,

20but for a whole month—until it comes out of your very nostrils and becomes loathsome to you. For you have rejected the LORD who is in your midst, and in his presence you have cried, ‘Why did we ever leave Egypt?’”

21But Moses said, “The people around me include six hundred thousand soldiers; yet you say, ‘I will give them meat to eat for a whole month.’

22Can enough sheep and cattle be slaughtered for them? If all the fish of the sea were caught for them, would they have enough?”

23The LORD answered Moses: Is this beyond the LORD’s reach? You shall see now whether or not what I have said to you takes place.

The Spirit on the Elders.

24So Moses went out and told the people what the LORD had said. Gathering seventy elders of the people, he had them stand around the tent.

25The LORD then came down in the cloud and spoke to him. Taking some of the spirit that was on Moses, he bestowed it on the seventy elders; and as the spirit came to rest on them, they prophesied^* but did not continue.

26Now two men, one named Eldad and the other Medad, had remained in the camp, yet the spirit came to rest on them also. They too had been on the list, but had not gone out to the tent; and so they prophesied in the camp.

27So, when a young man ran and reported to Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp,”

28Joshua, son of Nun, who from his youth had been Moses’ aide, said, “My lord, Moses, stop them.”

29But Moses answered him, “Are you jealous for my sake? If only all the people of the LORD were prophets! If only the LORD would bestow his spirit on them!”

30Then Moses retired to the camp, along with the elders of Israel.

The Quail.

31There arose a wind^f from the LORD that drove in quail from the sea and left them all around the camp site, to a distance of a day’s journey and at a depth of two cubits upon the ground.^*

32^g So all that day, all night, and all the next day the people set about to gather in the quail. Even the one who got the least gathered ten homers^* of them. Then they spread them out all around the camp.

33But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it could be chewed, the LORD’s wrath flared up against the people, and the LORD struck them with a very great plague.

34So that place was named Kibroth-hattaavah,^* because it was there that the greedy people were buried.

35From Kibroth-hattaavah the people set out for Hazeroth, where they stayed.

Numbers 12

Jealousy of Aaron and Miriam.

1Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses on the pretext of the Cushite woman he had married; for he had in fact married a Cushite woman.^*

2They complained,^* “Is it through Moses alone that the LORD has spoken? Has he not spoken through us also?” And the LORD heard this.

3^a Now the man Moses was very humble, more than anyone else on earth.

4So at once the LORD said to Moses and Aaron and Miriam: Come out, you three, to the tent of meeting. And the three of them went.

5Then the LORD came down in a column of cloud, and standing at the entrance of the tent, called, “Aaron and Miriam.” When both came forward,

6the LORD said: Now listen to my words:

If there are prophets among you,

in visions I reveal myself to them,

in dreams I speak to them;

7Not so with my servant Moses!

Throughout my house he is worthy of trust:^{* b}

8face to face I speak to him,^c

plainly and not in riddles.

The likeness of the LORD he beholds.

Why, then, do you not fear to speak against my servant Moses?

9And so the LORD’s wrath flared against them, and he departed.

Miriam’s Punishment.

10Now the cloud withdrew from the tent, and there was Miriam,^d stricken with a scaly infection, white as snow!^* When Aaron turned toward Miriam and saw her stricken with snow-white scales,

11he said to Moses, “Ah, my lord! Please do not charge us with the sin that we have foolishly committed!

12Do not let her be like the stillborn baby that comes forth from its mother’s womb with its flesh half consumed.”

13Then Moses cried to the LORD, “Please, not this! Please, heal her!”

14But the LORD answered Moses: Suppose her father had spit in her face, would she not bear her shame for seven days? Let her be confined outside the camp for seven days; afterwards she may be brought back.

15So Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not start out again until she was brought back.

16After that the people set out from Hazeroth and encamped in the wilderness of Paran.

Numbers 13

The Twelve Scouts.

1The LORD said to Moses:

2Send men to reconnoiter the land of Canaan, which I am giving the Israelites. You shall send one man from each ancestral tribe, every one a leader among them.

3^a So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran, at the direction of the LORD. All of them were leaders among the Israelites.

4These were their names:

from the tribe of Reuben, Shammua, son of Zaccur;

5from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat, son of Hori;

6from the tribe of Judah, Caleb, son of Jephunneh;

7from the tribe of Issachar, Igal;

8for the Josephites, from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea, son of Nun;

9from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti, son of Raphu;

10from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel, son of Sodi;

11for the Josephites, from the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi, son of Susi;

12from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel, son of Gemalli;

13from the tribe of Asher, Sethur, son of Michael;

14from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi, son of Vophsi;

15from the tribe of Gad, Geuel, son of Machi.

16These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to reconnoiter the land. But Hoshea, son of Nun, Moses called Joshua.^*

17In sending them to reconnoiter the land of Canaan, Moses said to them, “Go up there in the Negeb, up into the highlands,

18and see what kind of land it is and whether the people living there are strong or weak, few or many.

19Is the country in which they live good or bad? Are the towns in which they dwell open or fortified?

20Is the soil fertile or barren, wooded or clear? And do your best to get some of the fruit of the land.” It was then the season for early grapes.

21So they went up and reconnoitered the land from the wilderness of Zin^* as far as where Rehob adjoins Lebo-hamath.

22^b Going up by way of the Negeb, they reached Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai, descendants of the Anakim,^* were. (Now Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)

23They also reached the Wadi Eshcol,^* where they cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes on it, which two of them carried on a pole, as well as some pomegranates and figs.

24It was because of the cluster the Israelites cut there that they called the place Wadi Eshcol.^c

Their Report.

25They returned from reconnoitering the land forty days later.

26^d Proceeding directly to Moses and Aaron and the whole community of the Israelites in the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh, they made a report to them and to the whole community, showing them the fruit of the land.

27They told Moses: “We came to the land to which you sent us. It does indeed flow with milk and honey, and here is its fruit.

28However, the people who are living in the land are powerful, and the towns are fortified and very large.^e Besides, we saw descendants of the Anakim there.

29Amalekites live in the region of the Negeb; Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites dwell in the highlands, and Canaanites along the sea and the banks of the Jordan.”

30Caleb, however, quieted the people before Moses and said, “We ought to go up and seize the land, for we can certainly prevail over it.”

31But the men who had gone up with him said, “We cannot attack these people; they are too strong for us.”

32They spread discouraging reports^f among the Israelites about the land they had reconnoitered, saying, “The land that we went through and reconnoitered is a land that consumes its inhabitants. And all the people we saw there are huge.

33^g There we saw the Nephilim^* (the Anakim are from the Nephilim); in our own eyes we seemed like mere grasshoppers, and so we must have seemed to them.”

Numbers 14

Threats of Revolt.

1At this, the whole community broke out with loud cries, and the people wept into the night.

2^a All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, the whole community saying to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt,” or “If only we would die here in the wilderness!

3Why is the LORD bringing us into this land only to have us fall by the sword? Our wives and little ones will be taken as spoil. Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?”

4So they said to one another, “Let us appoint a leader and go back to Egypt.”

5But Moses and Aaron fell prostrate before the whole assembled community of the Israelites;

6while Joshua, son of Nun, and Caleb, son of Jephunneh, who had been among those that reconnoitered the land, tore their garments

7and said to the whole community of the Israelites,^b “The land which we went through and reconnoitered is an exceedingly good land.

8If the LORD is pleased with us, he will bring us in to this land and give it to us, a land which flows with milk and honey.

9^c Only do not rebel against the LORD! You need not be afraid of the people of the land, for they are but food for us!^* Their protection has left them, but the LORD is with us. Do not fear them.”

The Lord’s Sentence.

10The whole community threatened to stone them. But the glory of the LORD appeared at the tent of meeting to all the Israelites.

11And the LORD said to Moses: How long will this people spurn me? How long will they not trust me, despite all the signs I have performed among them?^d

12I will strike them with pestilence and disown them. Then I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.^e

13^f But Moses said to the LORD: “The Egyptians will hear of this, for by your power you brought out this people from among them.

14They will tell the inhabitants of this land, who have heard that you, LORD, are in the midst of this people; you, LORD, who directly revealed yourself! Your cloud stands over them, and you go before them by day in a column of cloud and by night in a column of fire.^g

15If now you slay this people all at once, the nations who have heard such reports of you will say,

16‘The LORD was not able to bring this people into the land he swore to give them; that is why he slaughtered them in the wilderness.’^h

17Now then, may my Lord’s forbearance be great, even as you have said,

18ⁱ ‘The LORD is slow to anger and abounding in kindness, forgiving iniquity and rebellion; yet certainly not declaring the guilty guiltless, but punishing children to the third and fourth generation for their parents’ iniquity.’

19Pardon, then, the iniquity of this people in keeping with your great kindness, even as you have forgiven them from Egypt until now.”^j

20The LORD answered: I pardon them as you have asked.

21Yet, by my life and the LORD’s glory that fills the whole earth,

22of all the people who have seen my glory and the signs I did in Egypt and in the wilderness,^k and who nevertheless have put me to the test ten times already and have not obeyed me,

23not one shall see the land which I promised on oath to their ancestors. None of those who have spurned me shall see it.

24But as for my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and follows me unreservedly,^l I will bring him into the land which he entered, and his descendants shall possess it.

25But now, since the Amalekites and Canaanites are living in the valleys,^* turn away tomorrow and set out into the wilderness by way of the Red Sea road.

26The LORD also said to Moses and Aaron:

27How long will this wicked community grumble against me?^m I have heard the grumblings of the Israelites against me.

28Tell them:^* “By my life”—oracle of the LORD—“I will do to you just what I have heard you say.

29Here in the wildernessⁿ your dead bodies shall fall. Of all your men of twenty years or more, enrolled in your registration, who grumbled against me,

30not one of you shall enter the land where I solemnly swore to settle you, except Caleb, son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, son of Nun.

31Your little ones, however, who you said would be taken as spoil, I will bring in, and they shall know the land you rejected.^o

32But as for you, your bodies shall fall here in the wilderness,

33while your children will wander for forty years, suffering for your infidelity, till the last of you lies dead in the wilderness.^p

34Corresponding to the number of days you spent reconnoitering the land—forty days—you shall bear your punishment one year for each day: forty years. Thus you will realize what it means to oppose me.

35I, the LORD, have spoken; and I will surely do this to this entire wicked community that conspired against me: here in the wilderness they shall come to their end and there they will die.”

36And the men whom Moses had sent to reconnoiter the land^q and who on returning had set the whole community grumbling against him by spreading discouraging reports about the land—

37these men who had spread discouraging reports about the land were struck down by the LORD and died.

38Only Joshua, son of Nun, and Caleb, son of Jephunneh, survived of all the men who had gone to reconnoiter the land.^r

Unsuccessful Invasion.

39When Moses repeated these words to all the Israelites, the people mourned greatly.

40Early the next morning they started up high into the hill country, saying, “Here we are, ready to go up to the place that the LORD spoke of:^s for we did wrong.”

41But Moses said, “Why are you now transgressing the LORD’s order? This cannot succeed.

42Do not go up, because the LORD is not in your midst; do not allow yourself to be struck down by your enemies.^t

43For there the Amalekites and Canaanites will face you, and you will fall by the sword. You have turned back from following the LORD; therefore the LORD will not be with you.”

44Yet they dared to go up high into the hill country,^u even though neither the ark of the covenant of the LORD nor Moses left the camp.

45And the Amalekites and Canaanites who dwelt in that hill country came down and defeated them, beating them back as far as Hormah.^*

Romans 16

Phoebe Commended.

1^* I commend to you Phoebe our sister, who is [also] a minister^* of the church at Cenchreae,^a

2that you may receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the holy ones, and help her in whatever she may need from you, for she has been a benefactor to many and to me as well.

Paul’s Greetings.

3Greet Prisca and Aquila,^* my co-workers in Christ Jesus,^b

4who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I am grateful but also all the churches of the Gentiles;

5greet also the church at their house.^* Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who was the firstfruits in Asia for Christ.^c

6Greet Mary, who has worked hard for you.

7Greet Andronicus and Junia,^* my relatives and my fellow prisoners; they are prominent among the apostles and they were in Christ before me.

8Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord.

9Greet Urbanus, our co-worker in Christ, and my beloved Stachys.

10Greet Apelles, who is approved in Christ. Greet those who belong to the family of Aristobulus.

11Greet my relative Herodion. Greet those in the Lord who belong to the family of Narcissus.

12Greet those workers in the Lord, Tryphaena and Tryphosa. Greet the beloved Persis, who has worked hard in the Lord.

13Greet Rufus,^* chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine.^d

14Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers who are with them.

15Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the holy ones who are with them.

16Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you.^e

Against Factions.

17^* I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who create dissensions and obstacles, in opposition to the teaching that you learned; avoid them.^f

18For such people do not serve our Lord Christ but their own appetites, and by fair and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the innocent.^g

19For while your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, I want you to be wise as to what is good, and simple as to what is evil;^h

20then the God of peace will quickly crush Satan^* under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.ⁱ

Greetings from Corinth.

21Timothy, my co-worker, greets you; so do Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my relatives.^j

22I, Tertius, the writer of this letter, greet you in the Lord.

23^k Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus,^* the city treasurer, and our brother Quartus greet you.

24^* (

Doxology.^*

25[Now to him who can strengthen you, according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ,^l according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret for long ages^*

26but now manifested through the prophetic writings and, according to the command of the eternal God, made known to all nations to bring about the obedience of faith,^m

27to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ be glory forever and ever. Amen.]ⁿ

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The complete Book of Numbers

THE BOOK OF NUMBERS

The Book of Numbers derives its name from the account of the two censuses taken of the Hebrew people, one near the beginning and the other toward the end of the journey in the wilderness (chaps. 1 and 26). It continues the story of that journey begun in Exodus, and describes briefly the experiences of the Israelites for a period of thirty-eight years, from the end of their encampment at Sinai to their arrival at the border of the promised land. Numerous legal ordinances are interspersed in the account, making the book a combination of law and history.

The book divides neatly into two parts. Each part begins with a census of the people (chaps. 1 and 26) and inaugurates a period of preparation prior to entering the promised land. In the first case these preparations come to a tragic end when scouts are sent forth to survey the promised land (chaps. 13–14). Upon their return, the people are so disheartened by the description of the native inhabitants and the seemingly impossible task that lies in front of them that they refuse to enter the land. This results in a decision to doom that entire generation to death and to allow another generation the chance to enter. After the death of the first generation, then, a second census is taken (chap. 26) and again preparations are made to enter the land. In this case, however, the birth of a new generation suggests these preparations will not be in vain. The book ends with the Israelites across the Jordan outside the land of Canaan, underscoring a chief theme of the Pentateuch as a whole: the people anticipating the fulfillment of God’s promise of the land.

In the New Testament numerous allusions to incidents in the Book of Numbers appear: the bronze serpent (Jn 3:14–15), the sedition of Korah and its consequences (1 Cor 10:10), the prophecies of Balaam (2 Pt 2:15–16), and the water gushing from the rock (1 Cor 10:4).

The chief divisions of the Book of Numbers are as follows:

Census and Preparation for the Departure from Sinai (1:1–10:10)
Departure, Rebellion, and Wandering in the Wilderness for Forty Years (10:11–25:18)
Second Census of a New Generation and Preparation to Enter the Promised Land (25:19–36:13)

I. CENSUS AND PREPARATION FOR THE DEPARTURE FROM SINAI

The book of Romans