Numbers 12-13

Holman Christian Standard Bible

Miriam and Aaron Rebel

12 Miriam^(A) and Aaron criticized Moses because of the Cushite^[a][b] woman he married (for he had married a Cushite woman). ² They said, “Does the Lord speak only through Moses? Does He not also speak through us?” And the Lord heard it. ³ Moses was a very humble man, more so than any man on the face of the earth.

⁴ Suddenly the Lord said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, “You three come out to the tent of meeting.” So the three of them went out. ⁵ Then the Lord descended in a pillar of cloud,^(B) stood at the entrance to the tent, and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When the two of them came forward, ⁶ He said:

So why were you not afraid to speak against My servant Moses?” ⁹ The Lord’s anger burned against them,^(G) and He left.

¹⁰ As the cloud moved away from the tent, Miriam’s skin suddenly became diseased, as white as snow. When Aaron turned toward her, he saw that she was diseased ¹¹ and said to Moses, “My lord, please don’t hold against us this sin we have so foolishly committed. ¹² Please don’t let her be like a dead baby^[e] whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes out of his mother’s womb.”

¹³ Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “God, please heal her!”^(H)

¹⁴ The Lord answered Moses, “If her father had merely spit in her face, wouldn’t she remain in disgrace for seven days? Let her be confined outside the camp^(I) for seven days;^(J) after that she may be brought back in.” ¹⁵ So Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on until Miriam was brought back in.^{(K) 16} After that, the people set out from Hazeroth and camped in the Wilderness of Paran.

Scouting Out Canaan

13 The Lord spoke to Moses: ² “Send men to scout out the land of Canaan^(L) I am giving to the Israelites. Send one man who is a leader among them from each of their ancestral tribes.” ³ Moses sent them from the Wilderness of Paran at the Lord’s command. All the men were leaders in Israel.^{(M) 4} These were their names:

¹⁶ These were the names of the men Moses sent to scout out the land, and Moses renamed Hoshea son of Nun, Joshua.

¹⁷ When Moses sent them to scout out the land of Canaan, he told them, “Go up this way to the Negev, then go up into the hill country. ¹⁸ See what the land is like, and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many. ¹⁹ Is the land they live in good^(P) or bad? Are the cities they live in encampments or fortifications?^{(Q) 20} Is the land fertile or unproductive?^(R) Are there trees in it or not? Be courageous. Bring back some fruit from the land.” It was the season for the first ripe grapes.^(S)

²¹ So they went up and scouted out the land from the Wilderness of Zin^[f] as far as Rehob^[g] near the entrance to Hamath.^{[h] 22} They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak,^(T) were living. Hebron was built seven years before Zoan^(U) in Egypt. ²³ When they came to the Valley of Eshcol,^(V) they cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes, which was carried on a pole by two men. They also took some pomegranates and figs.^{(W) 24} That place was called the Valley of Eshcol^[i] because of the cluster of grapes the Israelites cut there. ²⁵ At the end of 40 days^(X) they returned from scouting out the land.

Report about Canaan

²⁶ The men went back to Moses, Aaron, and the entire Israelite community in the Wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. They brought back a report for them and the whole community, and they showed them the fruit of the land.^{(Y) 27} They reported to Moses: “We went into the land where you sent us. Indeed it is flowing with milk and honey,^(Z) and here is some of its fruit. ²⁸ However, the people living in the land are strong, and the cities are large and fortified.^(AA) We also saw the descendants of Anak^(AB) there. ²⁹ The Amalekites^(AC) are living in the land of the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live by the sea and along the Jordan.”

³⁰ Then Caleb^(AD) quieted the people in the presence of Moses and said, “We must go up and take possession of the land because we can certainly conquer it!”

³¹ But the men who had gone up with him responded, “We can’t go up against the people because they are stronger than we are!” ³² So they gave a negative report to the Israelites about the land they had scouted: “The land we passed through to explore is one that devours its inhabitants, and all the people we saw in it are men of great size. ³³ We even saw the Nephilim^[j](AE) there—the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim!^(AF) To ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and we must have seemed the same to them.”