Numbers 27:12-23 - Leadership Change

¹² Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go up to this mountain (Nebo) [in the] Abarim [range] and look at the land I have given to the sons of Israel. ¹³ When you have seen it, you too will be gathered to your people [in death], just as Aaron your brother was gathered; ¹⁴ because in the Wilderness of Zin, during the strife of the congregation, you rebelled against My command to treat me as holy [by following My instruction] before their eyes at the water.” (These are the waters of Meribah in Kadesh in the Wilderness of Zin.)

¹⁵ Then Moses spoke to the Lord, saying, ¹⁶ “Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation ¹⁷ who will go out and come in before them, and will lead them out and bring them in, so that the congregation of the Lord will not be as sheep without a shepherd.”

¹⁸ The Lord said to Moses, “Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him; ¹⁹ and have him stand before Eleazar the priest and before the whole congregation, and give him a commission in their sight. ²⁰ You shall put some of your authority and honor on him, so that all the congregation of the Israelites will obey him. ²¹ He shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall inquire before the Lord for him by the judgment (decision) of the Urim. At Joshua’s command the people shall go out and at his command they shall come in, he and all the congregation of Israel with him.”

²² Moses did as the Lord commanded him. He took Joshua and had him stand before Eleazar the priest and the whole congregation, ²³ and Moses laid his hands on Joshua and commissioned him, just as the Lord had commanded through Moses.