The People Complain Again

11 The people started complaining about their troubles. The Lord heard their complaints. The Lord heard these things and became angry. Fire from the Lord burned among the people. The fire burned some of the areas at the edge of the camp. ²So the people cried to Moses for help. Moses prayed to the Lord and the fire stopped burning. ³So that place was called Taberah.* The people gave the place that name because the Lord caused a fire to burn in their camp.

The 70 Older Leaders

⁴The foreigners that had joined the people of Israel began wanting other things to eat. Soon all the people of Israel began complaining again. The people said, “We want to eat meat! ⁵We remember the fish we ate in Egypt. That fish cost us nothing. We also had good vegetables like cucumbers, melons, chives, onions, and garlic. ⁶But now we have lost our strength. We never eat anything—only this manna!” ⁷(The manna was like small coriander seeds, and it looked like gum from a tree. ⁸The people gathered the manna. Then they used rocks to crush it and cooked it in a pot. Or they ground it into a flour and made thin cakes with it. The cakes tasted like sweet cakes cooked with olive oil. ⁹The manna fell on the ground each night when the ground became wet with dew.) ¹⁰Moses heard the people complaining. People from every family were sitting by their tents and complaining. The Lord became very angry, and this made Moses very upset. ¹¹Moses asked the Lord, “Lord, why did you bring this trouble on me? I am your servant. What did I do wrong? What did I do to upset you? Why did you give me responsibility over all these people? ¹²You know that I am not the father of all these people. You know that I did not give birth to them. But I must take care of them, like a nurse carrying a baby in her arms. Why do you force me to do this? Why do you force me to carry them to the land that you promised to our fathers? ¹³I don’t have enough meat for all these people! And they continue complaining to me. They say, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ ¹⁴I cannot take care of all these people alone. The burden is too heavy for me. ¹⁵If you plan to continue giving me their troubles, then kill me now. If you accept me as your servant, then let me die now. Then I will be finished with all my troubles!” ¹⁶The Lord said to Moses, “Bring to me 70 of the elders of Israel. These men are the leaders among the people. Bring them to the Meeting Tent.* Let them stand there with you. ¹⁷Then I will come down and speak with you there. The Spirit* is on you now. But I will also give some of that Spirit* to them. Then they will help you take care of the people. In this way, you will not have to be responsible for these people alone. ¹⁸“Tell these things to the people: Make yourselves ready for tomorrow. Tomorrow you will eat meat. The Lord heard you when you cried. The Lord heard your words when you said, ‘We need meat to eat! It was better for us in Egypt!’ So now the Lord will give you meat. And you will eat it. ¹⁹You will eat it for more than one, or two, or five, or ten, or even twenty days! ²⁰You will eat that meat for a whole month. You will eat the meat until you are sick of it. This will happen to you because you complained against the Lord. The Lord lives among you and knows what you need. But you cried and complained to him! You said, ‘Why did we ever leave Egypt?’” ²¹Moses said, “Lord, there are 600,000 men walking around here. And you say, ‘I will give them enough meat to eat for a whole month!’ ²²If we were to kill all of the sheep and cattle, then that would still not be enough to feed this many people for a month. And if we caught all the fish in the sea, it would not be enough for them!” ²³But the Lord said to Moses, “Don’t limit the power of the Lord! You will see that I can do the things I say I can do.” ²⁴So Moses went out to speak with the people. Moses told them what the Lord said. Then Moses gathered 70 of the elders (leaders) together. Moses told them to stand around the Tent. ²⁵Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to Moses. The Spirit* was on Moses. The Lord put that same Spirit on the 70 elders (leaders). After the Spirit came down on them, they began to prophesy.* But that was the only time these men ever did this. ²⁶Two of the elders, Eldad and Medad, did not go out to the Tent. Their names were on the list of elders (leaders), but they stayed in camp. But the Spirit also came on them, and they began prophesying* in camp. ²⁷A young man ran and told Moses. The man said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in camp.” ²⁸Joshua son of Nun said to Moses, “Moses, sir, you must stop them!” (Joshua had been Moses’ helper since Joshua was a boy.) ²⁹But Moses answered, “Are you afraid the people will think that I am not the leader now? I wish that all the Lord’s people were able to prophesy. I wish that the Lord would put his Spirit* on all of them!” ³⁰Then Moses and the leaders of Israel went back to the camp.

The Quails Come

³¹Then the Lord made a powerful wind to blow in from the sea. The wind blew quail* into that area. The quail flew all around the camp. There were so many quail that the ground was covered. The quail were about three feet deep on the ground. There were quail in every direction as far as a man can walk in one day. ³²{The people went crazy!} They went out and gathered quail all that day and all that night. And they gathered quail all the next day too! The smallest amount any person gathered was 60 bushels. Then the people spread the quail meat all around the camp {to dry in the sun}. ³³People began to eat the meat, but the Lord became very angry. While the meat was still in their mouth, before the people could finish eating it, the Lord caused the people to become very sick. {Many people died and were buried in that place.} ³⁴So the people named that place Kibroth Hattaavah.* They gave the place that name because that is the place they buried the people who had the strong desire for meat. ³⁵From Kibroth Hattaavah the people traveled to Hazeroth and stayed there.

Taberah This name means “burning.” Meeting Tent The Holy Tent (tabernacle) where the people of Israel went to meet with God. Spirit Or, “spirit.” prophesy Usually this means “to speak for God.” But here it might mean that God’s Spirit took control of these men in some special way. quail A kind of bird. Kibroth Hattaavah This name means “Graves of Strong Desire.”

Miriam and Aaron Complain About Moses

12 Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses. They criticized him because he married an Ethiopian* woman. They thought that it was not right for Moses to marry an Ethiopian woman. ²They said to themselves, “The Lord used Moses to speak to the people. But Moses is not the only one. The Lord also spoke through us!” The Lord heard this. ³(Moses was a very humble man. He did not boast or brag. He was more humble than any other person on earth.) ⁴So, suddenly, the Lord came and spoke to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. The Lord said, “You three, come to the Meeting Tent,* now!” So Moses, Aaron, and Miriam went to the Tent. ⁵The Lord came down in the tall cloud and stood at the entrance to the Tent. The Lord called out, “Aaron and Miriam!” Aaron and Miriam went to him. ⁶God said, “Listen to me! You will have prophets.* I, the Lord, will show myself to them in visions.* I will speak to them in dreams. ⁷But Moses is not like that. Moses is my faithful servant—I trust him with my whole house (family)! ⁸When I speak to him, I talk face to face with him. I don’t use stories with hidden meanings—I show him clearly the things I want him to know. And Moses can look at the very image of the Lord. So why were you brave enough to speak against my servant Moses?” ⁹The Lord was very angry at them. The Lord left them. ¹⁰The cloud rose from the Tent. Aaron turned and looked at Miriam. Her skin was white like snow—she had a terrible skin disease! ¹¹Then Aaron said to Moses, “Please, sir, forgive us for the foolish sin that we did. ¹²Don’t let her lose her skin like a baby that is born dead.” (Sometimes a baby will be born like that, with half of its skin eaten away.) ¹³So Moses prayed to the Lord, “God, please heal her from this sickness!” ¹⁴The Lord answered Moses, “If her father spit in her face, then she would be shamed for seven days. So put her outside the camp for seven days. After that time, she {will become well}. Then she can come back into the camp.” ¹⁵So they took Miriam outside the camp for seven days. And the people did not move from that place until she was brought in again. ¹⁶After that, the people left Hazeroth and traveled to the desert of Paran. The people camped in that desert.

Ethiopian Or, “Cushite,” a person from Ethiopia, in Africa. Meeting Tent The Holy Tent (tabernacle) where the people of Israel went to meet with God. prophet(s) A person called by God to be special servant. God gave them messages to tell the people. vision(s) Something like a dream that God used to speak to people.

The Spies Go to Canaan

13 The Lord said to Moses, ²“Send some men to explore the land of Canaan. This is the land that I will give to the people of Israel. Send one leader from each of the twelve family groups.” ³So Moses obeyed the Lord’s command. Moses sent out these leaders while the people were camped in the desert of Paran. ⁴These are the names of those leaders: from Reuben’s family group—Shammua son of Zaccur; ⁵from Simeon’s family group—Shaphat son of Hori; ⁶from Judah’s family group—Caleb son of Jephunneh; ⁷from Issachar’s family group—Igal son of Joseph; ⁸from Ephraim’s family group—Hoshea* son of Nun; ⁹from Benjamin’s family group—Palti son of Raphu; ¹⁰from Zebulun’s family group—Gaddiel son of Sodi; ¹¹from Joseph’s family group (Manasseh)—Gaddi son of Susi; ¹²from Dan’s family group—Ammiel son of Gemalli; ¹³from Asher’s family group—Sethur son of Michael; ¹⁴from Naphtali’s family group—Nahbi son of Vophsi; ¹⁵from Gad’s family group—Geuel son of Maki. ¹⁶Those are the names of the men that Moses sent to look at and study the land. (Moses called Hoshea son of Nun by another name. Moses called him Joshua.) ¹⁷When Moses was sending them out to explore Canaan, he said, “Go through the Negev* and then into the hill country. ¹⁸See what the land looks like. Learn about the people who live there. Are they strong or are they weak? Are they few or are they many? ¹⁹Learn about the land that they live in. Is it good land or bad land? What kind of towns do they live in? Do the towns have walls protecting them? Are the towns strongly defended? ²⁰And learn other things about the land. Is the dirt good for growing things, or is it poor soil? Are there trees on the land? Also, try to bring back some of the fruit from that land.” (This was during the time when the first grapes should be ripe.) ²¹So they went to explore the country. They explored the area from the Zin desert to Rehob and Lebo Hamath. ²²They entered the country through the Negev* and went to Hebron. (The town of Hebron was built seven years before the town of Zoan in Egypt.) Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai lived there. These men were descendants* of Anak. ²³Then the men went to Eshcol Valley. There, the men cut off a branch from a grapevine. The branch had a bunch of grapes on it. They put that branch on a pole. And two men carried it between them. They also carried some pomegranates,* and figs. ²⁴That place is called the Eshcol* Valley, because that is the place where the men of Israel cut off the bunch of grapes. ²⁵The men explored that country for 40 days. Then they went back to the camp. ²⁶The people of Israel were camped near Kadesh, in the desert of Paran. The men went to Moses and Aaron and all the Israelite people. The men told Moses, Aaron, and all the people about the things they saw. And they showed them the fruit from the land. ²⁷The men told Moses, “We went to the land where you sent us. It is a land filled with many good things*! Here is some of the fruit that grows there. ²⁸But the people living there are very powerful. The cities are very large. The cities are strongly defended. We even saw some Anakite* people there. ²⁹The Amalekite people live in the Negev.* The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites live in the hill country. The Canaanites live near the sea and by the Jordan River.” ³⁰Caleb told the people near Moses to be quiet. Then Caleb said, “We should go up and take that land for ourselves. We can easily take that land.” ³¹But the men that had gone with him said, “We can’t fight those people! They are much stronger than we are.” ³²And those men told all the people of Israel that they were not strong enough to defeat the people in that land. They said, “The land we saw is full of strong people. Those people are strong enough to easily defeat any person who goes there. ³³We saw the giant Nephilim* people there! (The descendants* of Anak come from the Nephilim people.) They looked at us like we were little grasshoppers. Yes, we were like grasshoppers to them!”

Hoshea Or, “Joshua.” Negev The desert area south of Judah. descendants A person’s children and their future families. pomegranates A red fruit with many small seeds inside it. Each seed is covered with the soft, juicy part of the fruit. Eshcol This name is like the Hebrew word meaning “a bunch of grapes.” filled with many good things Literally, “flowing with milk and honey.” Anakite These people were famous for being big, powerful fighters. Nephilim A famous family of tall and powerful fighting men. See Gen. 6:2-4.