11 And the people were as murmurers, ^[a]speaking evil in the ears of Jehovah: and when Jehovah heard it, his anger was kindled; and the fire of Jehovah burnt among them, and devoured in the uttermost part of the camp. ² And the people cried unto Moses; and Moses prayed unto Jehovah, and the fire abated. ³ And the name of that place was called ^[b]Taberah, because the fire of Jehovah burnt among them.

⁴ And the mixed multitude that was among them lusted exceedingly: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? ⁵ We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt for nought; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic: ⁶ but now our soul is dried away; there is nothing at all save this manna to look upon. ⁷ And the manna was like coriander seed, and the ^[c]appearance thereof as the appearance of bdellium. ⁸ The people went about, and gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in mortars, and boiled it in pots, and made cakes of it: and the taste of it was as the taste of ^[d]fresh oil. ⁹ And when the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell ^[e]upon it. ¹⁰ And Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, every man at the door of his tent: and the anger of Jehovah was kindled greatly; and Moses was displeased. ¹¹ And Moses said unto Jehovah, Wherefore hast thou dealt ill with thy servant? and wherefore have I not found favor in thy sight, that thou layest the burden of all this people upon me? ¹² Have I conceived all this people? have I brought them forth, that thou shouldest say unto me, Carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing-father carrieth the sucking child, unto the land which thou swarest unto their fathers? ¹³ Whence should I have flesh to give unto all this people? for they weep unto me, saying, Give us flesh, that we may eat. ¹⁴ I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me. ¹⁵ And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I have found favor in thy sight; and let me not see my wretchedness.

¹⁶ And Jehovah said unto Moses, Gather unto me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people, and officers over them; and bring them unto the tent of meeting, that they may stand there with thee. ¹⁷ And I will come down and talk with thee there: and I will take of the Spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone. ¹⁸ And say thou unto the people, Sanctify yourselves against to-morrow, and ye shall eat flesh; for ye have wept in the ears of Jehovah, saying, Who shall give us flesh to eat? for it was well with us in Egypt: therefore Jehovah will give you flesh, and ye shall eat. ¹⁹ Ye shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days, ²⁰ but a whole month, until it come out at your nostrils, and it be loathsome unto you; because that ye have rejected Jehovah who is among you, and have wept before him, saying, Why came we forth out of Egypt? ²¹ And Moses said, The people, among whom I am, are six hundred thousand footmen; and thou hast said, I will give them flesh, that they may eat a whole month. ²² Shall flocks and herds be slain for them, to suffice them? or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to suffice them? ²³ And Jehovah said unto Moses, Is Jehovah’s hand waxed short? now shalt thou see whether my word shall come to pass unto thee or not.

²⁴ And Moses went out, and told the people the words of Jehovah: and he gathered seventy men of the elders of the people, and set them round about the Tent. ²⁵ And Jehovah came down in the cloud, and spake unto him, and took of the Spirit that was upon him, and put it upon the seventy elders: and it came to pass, that, when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, but they did so no more.

²⁶ But there remained two men in the camp, the name of the one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad: and the Spirit rested upon them; and they were of them that were written, but had not gone out unto the Tent; and they prophesied in the camp. ²⁷ And there ran a young man, and told Moses, and said, Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp. ²⁸ And Joshua the son of Nun, the minister of Moses, ^[f]one of his chosen men, answered and said, My lord Moses, forbid them. ²⁹ And Moses said unto him, Art thou jealous for my sake? would that all Jehovah’s people were prophets, that Jehovah would put his Spirit upon them! ³⁰ And Moses gat him into the camp, he and the elders of Israel.

³¹ And there went forth a wind from Jehovah, and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall ^[g]by the camp, about a day’s journey on this side, and a day’s journey on the other side, round about the camp, and about two cubits above the face of the earth. ³² And the people rose up all that day, and all the night, and all the next day, and gathered the quails: he that gathered least gathered ten homers: and they spread them all abroad for themselves round about the camp. ³³ While the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the anger of Jehovah was kindled against the people, and Jehovah smote the people with a very great plague. ³⁴ And the name of that place was called ^[h]Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they buried the people that lusted. ³⁵ From Kibroth-hattaavah the people journeyed unto Hazeroth; and they abode at Hazeroth.

12 And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married; for he had married a Cushite woman. ² And they said, Hath Jehovah indeed spoken only ^[i]with Moses? hath he not spoken also ^[j]with us? And Jehovah heard it. ³ Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men that were upon the face of the earth.

⁴ And Jehovah spake suddenly unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto Miriam, Come out ye three unto the tent of meeting. And they three came out. ⁵ And Jehovah came down in a pillar of cloud, and stood at the door of the Tent, and called Aaron and Miriam; and they both came forth. ⁶ And he said, Hear now my words: if there be a prophet among you, I Jehovah will make myself known unto him in a vision, I will speak with him in a dream. ⁷ My servant Moses is not so; he is faithful in all my house: ⁸ with him will I speak mouth to mouth, even manifestly, and not in dark speeches; and the form of Jehovah shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant, against Moses?

⁹ And the anger of Jehovah was kindled against them; and he departed. ¹⁰ And the cloud removed from over the Tent; and, behold, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow: and Aaron looked upon Miriam, and, behold, she was leprous. ¹¹ And Aaron said unto Moses, Oh, my lord, lay not, I pray thee, sin upon us, for that we have done foolishly, and for that we have sinned. ¹² Let her not, I pray, be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he cometh out of his mother’s womb. ¹³ And Moses cried unto Jehovah, saying, Heal her, O God, I beseech thee. ¹⁴ And Jehovah said unto Moses, If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days? let her be shut up without the camp seven days, and after that she shall be brought in again. ¹⁵ And Miriam was shut up without the camp seven days: and the people journeyed not till Miriam was brought in again.

¹⁶ And afterward the people journeyed from Hazeroth, and encamped in the wilderness of Paran. 13 ¹ And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, ² Send thou men, that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a prince among them. ³ And Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran according to the commandment of Jehovah: all of them men who were heads of the children of Israel. ⁴ And these were their names: Of the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur. ⁵ Of the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori. ⁶ Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh. ⁷ Of the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph. ⁸ Of the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Nun. ⁹ Of the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu. ¹⁰ Of the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi. ¹¹ Of the tribe of Joseph, namely, of the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi. ¹² Of the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli. ¹³ Of the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael. ¹⁴ Of the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi. ¹⁵ Of the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi. ¹⁶ These are the names of the men that Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun Joshua.

¹⁷ And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them, Get you up this way ^[k]by the South, and go up into the hill-country: ¹⁸ and see the land, what it is; and the people that dwell therein, whether they are strong or weak, whether they are few or many; ¹⁹ and what the land is that they dwell in, whether it is good or bad; and what cities they are that they dwell in, whether in camps, or in strongholds; ²⁰ and what the land is, whether it is fat or lean, whether there is wood therein, or not. And be ye of good courage, and bring of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the time of the first-ripe grapes.

²¹ So they went up, and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin unto Rehob, to the entrance of Hamath. ²² And they went up by the South, and came unto Hebron; and Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were there. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) ²³ And they came unto the valley of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it upon a staff between two; they brought also of the pomegranates, and of the figs. ²⁴ That place was called the valley of ^[l]Eshcol, because of the cluster which the children of Israel cut down from thence.

²⁵ And they returned from spying out the land at the end of forty days. ²⁶ And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. ²⁷ And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us; and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it. ²⁸ Howbeit the people that dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there. ²⁹ Amalek dwelleth in the land of the South: and the Hittite, and the Jebusite, and the Amorite, dwell in the hill-country; and the Canaanite dwelleth by the sea, and along by the side of the Jordan.

³⁰ And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. ³¹ But the men that went up with him said, We are not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. ³² And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had spied out unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. ³³ And there we saw the ^[m]Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come of the Nephilim: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.

14 And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. ² And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would that we had died in this wilderness! ³ And wherefore doth Jehovah bring us unto this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will be a prey: were it not better for us to return into Egypt?

⁴ And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt. ⁵ Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel. ⁶ And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were of them that spied out the land, rent their clothes: ⁷ and they spake unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceeding good land. ⁸ If Jehovah delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it unto us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. ⁹ Only rebel not against Jehovah, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their ^[n]defence is removed from over them, and Jehovah is with us: fear them not. ¹⁰ But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the glory of Jehovah appeared in the tent of meeting unto all the children of Israel.

¹¹ And Jehovah said unto Moses, How long will this people despise me? and how long will they not believe in me, for all the signs which I have wrought among them? ¹² I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a nation greater and mightier than they.

¹³ And Moses said unto Jehovah, Then the Egyptians will hear it; for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them; ¹⁴ and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that thou Jehovah art in the midst of this people; for thou Jehovah art seen ^[o]face to face, and thy cloud standeth over them, and thou goest before them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night. ¹⁵ Now if thou shalt kill this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, ¹⁶ Because Jehovah was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness. ¹⁷ And now, I pray thee, let the power of the Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, ¹⁸ Jehovah is slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation. ¹⁹ Pardon, I pray thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy lovingkindness, and according as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.

²⁰ And Jehovah said, I have pardoned according to thy word: ²¹ but in very deed, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of Jehovah; ²² because all those men that have seen my glory, and my signs, which I wrought in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tempted me these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; ²³ surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that despised me see it: ²⁴ but my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it. ²⁵ Now the Amalekite and the Canaanite dwell in the valley: to-morrow turn ye, and get you into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.

²⁶ And Jehovah spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, ²⁷ How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, that murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me. ²⁸ Say unto them, As I live, saith Jehovah, surely as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: ²⁹ your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, that have murmured against me, ³⁰ surely ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I ^[p]sware that I would make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. ³¹ But your little ones, that ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have rejected. ³² But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. ³³ And your children shall be ^[q]wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your whoredoms, until your dead bodies be consumed in the wilderness. ³⁴ After the number of the days in which ye spied out the land, even forty days, for every day a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know ^[r]my alienation. ³⁵ I, Jehovah, have spoken, surely this will I do unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.

³⁶ And the men, whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up an evil report against the land, ³⁷ even those men that did bring up an evil report of the land, died by the plague before Jehovah. ³⁸ But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, remained alive of those men that went to spy out the land.

³⁹ And Moses told these words unto all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly. ⁴⁰ And they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up to the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we are here, and will go up unto the place which Jehovah hath promised: for we have sinned. ⁴¹ And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of Jehovah, seeing it shall not prosper? ⁴² Go not up, for Jehovah is not among you; that ye be not smitten down before your enemies. ⁴³ For there the Amalekite and the Canaanite are before you, and ye shall fall by the sword: because ye are turned back from following Jehovah, therefore Jehovah will not be with you. ⁴⁴ But they presumed to go up to the top of the mountain: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, and Moses, departed not out of the camp. ⁴⁵ Then the Amalekite came down, and the Canaanite who dwelt in that mountain, and smote them and beat them down, even unto Hormah.