Did I conceive this entire people? Did I give birth to them, that you should say to me, 'Carry them in your arms, as a foster father bears a nursing child,' to the land which you swore to their fathers?

From where shall I get meat to give to this entire people, for they cry to me, 'Give us meat, that we may eat!'

I am not able to bear this entire people alone, because it is too heavy for me!

But if you are going to deal with me like this, then kill me immediately. If I have found favor in your sight then do not let me see my trouble."

The Lord said to Moses, "Gather to me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know are elders of the people and officials over them, and bring them to the tent of meeting; let them take their position there with you.

Then I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take part of the spirit that is on you, and will put it on them, and they will bear some of the burden of the people with you, so that you do not bear it all by yourself.

"And say to the people, 'Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, and you will eat meat, for you have wept in the hearing of the Lord, saying, "Who will give us meat to eat, for life was good for us in Egypt?" Therefore the Lord will give you meat, and you will eat.

You will eat, not just one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days,

And the Lord said to Moses, "Is the Lord's hand shortened? Now you will see whether my word to you will come true or not!"

And the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to them, and he took some of the Spirit that was on Moses and put it on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but did not do so again.

But two men remained in the camp; one's name was Eldad, and the other's name was Medad. And the spirit rested on them. (Now they were among those in the registration, but had not gone to the tabernacle.) So they prophesied in the camp.

Moses said to him, "Are you jealous for me? I wish that all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!"

Then Moses returned to the camp along with the elders of Israel.

Now a wind went out from the Lord and brought quail from the sea, and let them fall near the camp, about a day's journey on this side, and about a day's journey on the other side, all around the camp, and about three feet high on the surface of the ground.

And the people stayed up all that day, all that night, and all the next day, and gathered the quail. The one who gathered the least gathered ten homers, and they spread them out for themselves all around the camp.

The people traveled from Kibroth Hattaavah to Hazeroth, and they stayed at Hazeroth.

The Lord spoke immediately to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam: "The three of you come to the tent of meeting." So the three of them went.

The Lord said, "Hear now my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known to him in a vision; I will speak with him in a dream.

With him I will speak face to face, openly, and not in riddles; and he will see the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?"

So Aaron said to Moses, "O my lord, please do not hold this sin against us, in which we have acted foolishly and have sinned!

Do not let her be like a baby born dead, whose flesh is half-consumed when it comes out of its mother's womb!"

Then Moses cried to the Lord, "Heal her now, O God."

The Lord said to Moses, "If her father had only spit in her face, would she not have been disgraced for seven days? Shut her out from the camp seven days, and afterward she can be brought back in again."

The Lord spoke to Moses:

"Send out men to investigate the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. You are to send one man from each ancestral tribe, each one a leader among them."

These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to investigate the land. And Moses gave Hoshea son of Nun the name Joshua.

When Moses sent them to investigate the land of Canaan, he told them, "Go up through the Negev, and then go up into the hill country

So they went up and investigated the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, at the entrance of Hamath.

When they went up through the Negev, they came to Hebron where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, descendants of Anak, were living. (Now Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)

When they came to the valley of Eshcol, they cut down from there a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a staff between two men, as well as some of the pomegranates and the figs.

They came back to Moses and Aaron and to the whole community of the Israelites in the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. They reported to the whole community and showed the fruit of the land.

They told Moses, "We went to the land where you sent us. It is indeed flowing with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.

Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses, saying, "Let us go up and occupy it, for we are well able to conquer it."

But the men who had gone up with him said, "We are not able to go up against these people, because they are stronger than we are!"

Then they presented the Israelites with a discouraging report of the land they had investigated, saying, "The land that we passed through to investigate is a land that devours its inhabitants. All the people we saw there are of great stature.

We even saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak came from the Nephilim), and we seemed liked grasshoppers both to ourselves and to them."

And all the Israelites murmured against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, "If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had perished in this wilderness!

Why has the Lord brought us into this land only to be killed by the sword, that our wives and our children should become plunder? Wouldn't it be better for us to return to Egypt?"

So they said to one another, "Let's appoint a leader and return to Egypt."

Then Moses and Aaron fell down with their faces to the ground before the whole assembled community of the Israelites.

And Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, two of those who had investigated the land, tore their garments.

They said to the whole community of the Israelites, "The land we passed through to investigate is an exceedingly good land.

If the Lord delights in us, then he will bring us into this land and give it to us -- a land that is flowing with milk and honey.

Only do not rebel against the Lord, and do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection has turned aside from them, but the Lord is with us. Do not fear them!"

However, the whole community threatened to stone them. But the glory of the Lord appeared to all the Israelites at the tent of meeting.

The Lord said to Moses, "How long will this people despise me, and how long will they not believe in me, in spite of the signs that I have done among them?

Moses said to the Lord, "When the Egyptians hear it -- for you brought up this people by your power from among them --

then they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you, Lord, are among this people, that you, Lord, are seen face to face, that your cloud stands over them, and that you go before them by day in a pillar of cloud and in a pillar of fire by night.

Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land that he swore to them, he killed them in the wilderness.'

The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in loyal love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children until the third and fourth generations.'

Please forgive the iniquity of this people according to your great loyal love, just as you have forgiven this people from Egypt even until now."

they will by no means see the land that I swore to their fathers, nor will any of them who despised me see it.

The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron:

Say to them, 'As I live, says the Lord, I will surely do to you just what you have spoken in my hearing.

Your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness -- all those of you who were numbered, according to your full number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me.

You will by no means enter into the land where I swore to settle you. The only exceptions are Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.

According to the number of the days you have investigated this land, forty days -- one day for a year -- you will suffer for your iniquities, forty years, and you will know what it means to thwart me.

I, the Lord, have said, "I will surely do so to all this evil congregation that has gathered together against me. In this wilderness they will be finished, and there they will die!"'"

The men whom Moses sent to investigate the land, who returned and made the whole community murmur against him by producing an evil report about the land,

But Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among the men who went to investigate the land, lived.

When Moses told these things to all the Israelites, the people mourned greatly.

And early in the morning they went up to the crest of the hill country, saying, "Here we are, and we will go up to the place that the Lord commanded, for we have sinned."

Do not go up, for the Lord is not among you, and you will be defeated before your enemies.

But they dared to go up to the crest of the hill, although neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed from the camp.

The Lord spoke to Moses:

"Speak to the Israelites and tell them, 'When you enter the land where you are to live, which I am giving you,

and you make an offering by fire to the Lord from the herd or from the flock (whether a burnt offering or a sacrifice for discharging a vow or as a freewill offering or in your solemn feasts) to create a pleasing aroma to the Lord,

then the one who presents his offering to the Lord must bring a grain offering of one-tenth of an ephah of finely ground flour mixed with one fourth of a hin of olive oil.

Or for a ram, you must prepare as a grain offering two-tenths of an ephah of finely ground flour mixed with one-third of a hin of olive oil,

and for a drink offering you must offer one-third of a hin of wine as a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

And when you prepare a young bull as a burnt offering or a sacrifice for discharging a vow or as a peace offering to the Lord,

and you must present as the drink offering half a hin of wine with the fire offering as a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

This is what is to be done for each ox, or each ram, or each of the male lambs or the goats.

You must do so for each one according to the number that you prepare.

"'Every native-born person must do these things in this way to present an offering made by fire as a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

If a resident foreigner is living with you -- or whoever is among you in future generations -- and prepares an offering made by fire as a pleasing aroma to the Lord, he must do it the same way you are to do it.

One statute must apply to you who belong to the congregation and to the resident foreigner who is living among you, as a permanent statute for your future generations. You and the resident foreigner will be alike before the Lord.

One law and one custom must apply to you and to the resident foreigner who lives alongside you.'"

The Lord spoke to Moses:

"Speak to the Israelites and tell them, 'When you enter the land to which I am bringing you

and you eat some of the food of the land, you must offer up a raised offering to the Lord.

You must give to the Lord some of the first of your finely ground flour as a raised offering in your future generations.

"'If you sin unintentionally and do not observe all these commandments that the Lord has spoken to Moses --

all that the Lord has commanded you by the authority of Moses, from the day that the Lord commanded Moses and continuing through your future generations --

then if anything is done unintentionally without the knowledge of the community, the whole community must prepare one young bull for a burnt offering -- for a pleasing aroma to the Lord -- along with its grain offering and its customary drink offering, and one male goat for a purification offering.

And the priest is to make atonement for the whole community of the Israelites, and they will be forgiven, because it was unintentional and they have brought their offering, an offering made by fire to the Lord, and their purification offering before the Lord, for their unintentional offense.

And the priest must make atonement for the person who sins unintentionally -- when he sins unintentionally before the Lord -- to make atonement for him, and he will be forgiven.

When the Israelites were in the wilderness they found a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day.

Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and to the whole community.

They put him in custody, because there was no clear instruction about what should be done to him.

Then the Lord said to Moses, "The man must surely be put to death; the whole community must stone him with stones outside the camp."

So the whole community took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, just as the Lord commanded Moses.

The Lord spoke to Moses:

"Speak to the Israelites and tell them to make tassels for themselves on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and put a blue thread on the tassel of the corners.

You must have this tassel so that you may look at it and remember all the commandments of the Lord and obey them and so that you do not follow after your own heart and your own eyes that lead you to unfaithfulness.

Thus you will remember and obey all my commandments and be holy to your God.

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord your God."

And they assembled against Moses and Aaron, saying to them, "You take too much upon yourselves, seeing that the whole community is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the community of the Lord?"

When Moses heard it he fell down with his face to the ground.

Then he said to Korah and to all his company, "In the morning the Lord will make known who are his, and who is holy. He will cause that person to approach him; the person he has chosen he will cause to approach him.