Numbers 9-12

Numbers 9

¹And the Lord said to Moses, in the waste land of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt,

²Let the children of Israel keep the Passover at its regular time.

³In the fourteenth day of this month, at evening, you are to keep it at the regular time, and in the way ordered in the law.

⁴And Moses gave orders to the children of Israel to keep the Passover.

⁵So they kept the Passover in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at evening, in the waste land of Sinai: as the Lord gave orders to Moses, so the children of Israel did.

⁶And there were certain men who were unclean because of a dead body, so that they were not able to keep the Passover on that day; and they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day:

⁷And these men said to him, We have been made unclean by the dead body of a man; why may we not make the offering of the Lord at the regular time among the children of Israel?

⁸And Moses said to them, Do nothing till the Lord gives me directions about you.

⁹And the Lord said to Moses,

¹⁰Say to the children of Israel, If any one of you or of your families is unclean because of a dead body, or is on a journey far away, still he is to keep the Passover to the Lord:

¹¹In the second month, on the fourteenth day, in the evening, they are to keep it, taking it with unleavened bread and bitter-tasting plants;

¹²Nothing of it is to be kept till the morning, and no bone of it is to be broken: they are to keep it by the rules of the Passover.

¹³But the man who, not being unclean or on a journey, does not keep the Passover, will be cut off from his people: because he did not make the offering of the Lord at the regular time, his sin will be on him.

¹⁴And if a man from another country is among you and has a desire to keep the Passover to the Lord, let him do as is ordered in the law of the Passover: there is to be the same rule for the man from another nation and for him who had his birth in the land.

¹⁵And on the day when the House was put up, the cloud came down on it, on the Tent of witness; and in the evening there was a light like fire over the House till the morning.

¹⁶And so it was at all times: it was covered by the cloud, and by a light as of fire by night.

¹⁷And whenever the cloud was taken up from over the House, then the children of Israel went journeying on; and in the place where the cloud came to rest, there the children of Israel put up their tents.

¹⁸At the order of the Lord the children of Israel went forward, and at the order of the Lord they put up their tents: as long as the cloud was resting on the House, they did not go away from that place.

¹⁹When the cloud was resting on the House for a long time the children of Israel, waiting for the order of the Lord, did not go on.

²⁰Sometimes the cloud was resting on the House for two or three days; then, by the order of the Lord, they kept their tents in that place, and when the Lord gave the order they went on.

²¹And sometimes the cloud was there only from evening to morning; and when the cloud was taken up in the morning they went on their journey again: or if it was resting there by day and by night, whenever the cloud was taken up they went forward.

²²Or if the cloud came to rest on the House for two days or a month or a year without moving, the children of Israel went on waiting there and did not go on; but whenever it was taken up they went forward on their journey.

²³At the word of the Lord they put up their tents, and at the word of the Lord they went forward on their journey: they kept the orders of the Lord as he gave them by Moses.

Numbers 10

¹And the Lord said to Moses,

²Make two silver horns of hammered work, to be used for getting the people together and to give the sign for the moving of the tents.

³When they are sounded, all the people are to come together to you at the door of the Tent of meeting.

⁴If only one of them is sounded, then the chiefs, the heads of the thousands of Israel, are to come to you.

⁵When a loud note is sounded, the tents placed on the east side are to go forward.

⁶At the sound of a second loud note, the tents on the south side are to go forward: the loud note will be the sign to go forward.

⁷But when all the people are to come together, the horn is to be sounded but not loudly.

⁸The horns are to be sounded by the sons of Aaron, the priests; this is to be a law for you for ever, from generation to generation.

⁹And if you go to war in your land against any who do you wrong, then let the loud note of the horn be sounded; and the Lord your God will keep you in mind and give you salvation from those who are against you.

¹⁰And on days of joy and on your regular feasts and on the first day of every month, let the horns be sounded over your burned offerings and your peace-offerings; and they will put the Lord in mind of you: I am the Lord your God.

¹¹Now in the second year, on the twentieth day of the second month, the cloud was taken up from over the Tent of witness.

¹²And the children of Israel went on their journey out of the waste land of Sinai; and the cloud came to rest in the waste land of Paran.

¹³They went forward for the first time on their journey as the Lord had given orders by the hand of Moses.

¹⁴First the flag of the children of Judah went forward with their armies: and at the head of his army was Nahshon, the son of Amminadab.

¹⁵And at the head of the army of the children of Issachar was Nethanel, the son of Zuar.

¹⁶And at the head of the army of the children of Zebulun was Eliab, the son of Helon.

¹⁷Then the House was taken down; and the sons of Gershon and the sons of Merari, who were responsible for moving the House, went forward.

¹⁸Then the flag of the children of Reuben went forward with their armies: and at the head of his army was Elizur, the son of Shedeur.

¹⁹And at the head of the army of the children of Simeon was Shelumiel, the son of Zurishaddai.

²⁰At the head of the army of the children of Gad was Eliasaph, the son of Reuel.

²¹Then the Kohathites went forward with the holy place; the others put up the House ready for their coming.

²²Then the flag of the children of Ephraim went forward with their armies: and at the head of his army was Elishama, the son of Ammihud.

²³At the head of the army of the children of Manasseh was Gamaliel, the son of Pedahzur.

²⁴At the head of the army of the children of Benjamin was Abidan, the son of Gideoni.

²⁵And the flag of the children of Dan, whose tents were moved last of all, went forward with their armies: and at the head of his army was Ahiezer, the son of Ammishaddai.

²⁶At the head of the army of the children of Asher was Pagiel, the son of Ochran.

²⁷And at the head of the army of the children of Naphtali was Ahira, the son of Enan.

²⁸This was the order in which the children of Israel were journeying by armies; so they went forward.

²⁹Then Moses said to Hobab, the son of his father-in-law Reuel the Midianite, We are journeying to that place of which the Lord has said, I will give it to you: so come with us, and it will be for your profit: for the Lord has good things in store for Israel.

³⁰But he said, I will not go with you, I will go back to the land of my birth and to my relations.

³¹And he said, Do not go from us; for you will be eyes for us, guiding us to the right places in the waste land to put up our tents.

³²And if you come with us, we will give you a part in whatever good the Lord does for us.

³³So they went forward three days' journey from the mountain of the Lord; and the ark of the Lord's agreement went three days' journey before them, looking for a resting-place for them;

³⁴And by day the cloud of the Lord went over them, when they went forward from the place where they had put up their tents.

³⁵And when the ark went forward Moses said, Come up, O Lord, and let the armies of those who are against you be broken, and let your haters go in flight before you.

³⁶And when it came to rest, he said, Take rest, O Lord, and give a blessing to the families of Israel.

Numbers 11

¹Now the people were saying evil against the Lord; and the Lord, hearing it, was angry and sent fire on them, burning the outer parts of the tent-circle.

²And the people made an outcry to Moses, and Moses made prayer to the Lord, and the fire was stopped.

³So that place was named Taberah, because of the fire of the Lord which had been burning among them.

⁴And the mixed band of people who went with them were overcome by desire: and the children of Israel, weeping again, said, Who will give us flesh for our food?

⁵Sweet is the memory of the fish we had in Egypt for nothing, and the fruit and green plants of every sort, sharp and pleasing to the taste:

⁶But now our soul is wasted away; there is nothing at all: we have nothing but this manna before our eyes.

⁷Now the manna was like a seed of grain, like small clear drops.

⁸The people went about taking it up from the earth, crushing it between stones or hammering it to powder, and boiling it in pots, and they made cakes of it: its taste was like the taste of cakes cooked with oil.

⁹When the dew came down on the tents at night, the manna came down with it.

¹⁰And at the sound of the people weeping, every man at his tent-door, the wrath of the Lord was great, and Moses was very angry.

¹¹And Moses said to the Lord, Why have you done me this evil? and why have I not grace in your eyes, that you have put on me the care of all this people?

¹²Am I the father of all this people? have I given them birth, that you say to me, Take them in your arms, like a child at the breast, to the land which you gave by an oath to their fathers?

¹³Where am I to get flesh to give to all this people? For they are weeping to me and saying, Give us flesh for our food.

¹⁴I am not able by myself to take the weight of all this people, for it is more than my strength.

¹⁵If this is to be my fate, put me to death now in answer to my prayer, if I have grace in your eyes; and let me not see my shame.

¹⁶And the Lord said to Moses, Send for seventy of the responsible men of Israel, who are in your opinion men of weight and authority over the people; make them come to the Tent of meeting and be there with you.

¹⁷And I will come down and have talk with you there: and I will take some of the spirit which is on you and put it on them, and they will take part of the weight of the people off you, so that you do not have to take it by yourself.

¹⁸And say to the people, Make yourselves clean before tomorrow and you will have flesh for your food: for in the ears of the Lord you have been weeping and saying, Who will give us flesh for food? for we were well off in Egypt: and so the Lord will give you flesh, and it will be your food;

¹⁹Not for one day only, or even for five or ten or twenty days;

²⁰But every day for a month, till you are tired of it, turning from it in disgust: because you have gone against the Lord who is with you, and have been weeping before him saying, Why did we come out of Egypt?

²¹Then Moses said, The people, among whom I am, are six hundred thousand men on foot; and you have said, I will give them flesh to be their food for a month.

²²Are flocks and herds to be put to death for them? or are all the fish in the sea to be got together so that they may be full?

²³And the Lord said to Moses, Has the Lord's hand become short? Now you will see if my word comes true for you or not.

²⁴And Moses went out and gave the people the words of the Lord: and he took seventy of the responsible men of the people, placing them round the Tent.

²⁵Then the Lord came down in the cloud and had talk with him, and put on the seventy men some of the spirit which was on him: now when the spirit came to rest on them, they were like prophets, but only at that time.

²⁶But two men were still in the tent-circle one of them named Eldad and the other Medad: and the spirit came to rest on them; they were among those who had been sent for, but they had not gone out to the Tent: and the prophet's power came on them in the tent-circle.

²⁷And a young man went running to Moses and said, Eldad and Medad are acting as prophets in the tent-circle.

²⁸Then Joshua, the son of Nun, who had been Moses' servant from the time when he was a child, said, My lord Moses, let them be stopped.

²⁹And Moses said to him, Are you moved by envy on my account? If only all the Lord's people were prophets, and the Lord might put his spirit on them!

³⁰Then Moses, with the responsible men of Israel, went back to the tent-circle.

³¹Then the Lord sent a wind, driving little birds from the sea, so that they came down on the tents, and all round the tent-circle, about a day's journey on this side and on that, in masses about two cubits high over the face of the earth.

³²And all that day and all night and the day after, the people were taking up the birds; the smallest amount which anyone got was ten homers: and they put them out all round the tents.

³³But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was tasted, the wrath of the Lord was moved against the people and he sent a great outburst of disease on them.

³⁴So that place was named Kibroth-hattaavah; because there they put in the earth the bodies of the people who had given way to their desires.

³⁵From Kibroth-hattaavah the people went on to Hazeroth; and there they put up their tents.

Numbers 12

¹Now Miriam and Aaron said evil against Moses, because of the Cushite woman to whom he was married, for he had taken a Cushite woman as his wife.

²And they said, Have the words of the Lord been given to Moses only? have they not come to us? And the Lord took note of it.

³Now the man Moses was more gentle than any other man on earth.

⁴And suddenly the Lord said to Moses and Aaron and Miriam, Come out, you three, to the Tent of meeting. And the three of them went out.

⁵And the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud, taking his place at the door of the Tent, and made Aaron and Miriam come before him.

⁶And he said, Now give ear to my words: if there is a prophet among you I will give him knowledge of myself in a vision and will let my words come to him in a dream.

⁷My servant Moses is not so; he is true to me in all my house:

⁸With him I will have talk mouth to mouth, openly and not in dark sayings; and with his eyes he will see the form of the Lord: why then had you no fear of saying evil against my servant Moses?

⁹And burning with wrath against them, the Lord went away.

¹⁰And the cloud was moved from over the Tent; and straight away Miriam became a leper, as white as snow: and Aaron, looking at Miriam, saw that she was a leper.

¹¹Then Aaron said to Moses, O my lord, let not our sin be on our heads, for we have done foolishly and are sinners.

¹²Let her not be as one dead, whose flesh is half wasted when he comes out from the body of his mother.

¹³And Moses, crying to the Lord, said, Let my prayer come before you, O God, and make her well.

¹⁴And the Lord said to Moses, If her father had put a mark of shame on her, would she not be shamed for seven days? Let her be shut up outside the tent-circle for seven days, and after that she may come in again.

¹⁵So Miriam was shut up outside the tent-circle for seven days: and the people did not go forward on their journey till Miriam had come in again.

¹⁶After that, the people went on from Hazeroth and put up their tents in the waste land of Paran.