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¹Soon the people began to complain about their hardship, and the LORD heard everything they said. Then the LORD’s anger blazed against them, and he sent a fire to rage among them, and he destroyed some of the people in the outskirts of the camp.

²Then the people screamed to Moses for help, and when he prayed to the LORD, the fire stopped.

³After that, the area was known as Taberah (which means “the place of burning”), because fire from the LORD had burned among them there.

⁴Then the foreign rabble who were traveling with the Israelites began to crave the good things of Egypt. And the people of Israel also began to complain. “Oh, for some meat!” they exclaimed.

⁵“We remember the fish we used to eat for free in Egypt. And we had all the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic we wanted.

⁶But now our appetites are gone. All we ever see is this manna!”

⁷The manna looked like small coriander seeds, and it was pale yellow like gum resin.

⁸The people would go out and gather it from the ground. They made flour by grinding it with hand mills or pounding it in mortars. Then they boiled it in a pot and made it into flat cakes. These cakes tasted like pastries baked with olive oil.

⁹The manna came down on the camp with the dew during the night.

¹⁰Moses heard all the families standing in the doorways of their tents whining, and the LORD became extremely angry. Moses was also very aggravated.

¹¹And Moses said to the LORD, “Why are you treating me, your servant, so harshly? Have mercy on me! What did I do to deserve the burden of all these people?

¹²Did I give birth to them? Did I bring them into the world? Why did you tell me to carry them in my arms like a mother carries a nursing baby? How can I carry them to the land you swore to give their ancestors?

¹³Where am I supposed to get meat for all these people? They keep whining to me, saying, ‘Give us meat to eat!’

¹⁴I can’t carry all these people by myself! The load is far too heavy!

¹⁵If this is how you intend to treat me, just go ahead and kill me. Do me a favor and spare me this misery!”

¹⁶Then the LORD said to Moses, “Gather before me seventy men who are recognized as elders and leaders of Israel. Bring them to the Tabernacle to stand there with you.

¹⁷I will come down and talk to you there. I will take some of the Spirit that is upon you, and I will put the Spirit upon them also. They will bear the burden of the people along with you, so you will not have to carry it alone.

¹⁸“And say to the people, ‘Purify yourselves, for tomorrow you will have meat to eat. You were whining, and the LORD heard you when you cried, “Oh, for some meat! We were better off in Egypt!” Now the LORD will give you meat, and you will have to eat it.

¹⁹And it won’t be for just a day or two, or for five or ten or even twenty.

²⁰You will eat it for a whole month until you gag and are sick of it. For you have rejected the LORD, who is here among you, and you have whined to him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?”’”

²¹But Moses responded to the LORD, “There are 600,000 foot soldiers here with me, and yet you say, ‘I will give them meat for a whole month!’

²²Even if we butchered all our flocks and herds, would that satisfy them? Even if we caught all the fish in the sea, would that be enough?”

²³Then the LORD said to Moses, “Has my arm lost its power? Now you will see whether or not my word comes true!”

²⁴So Moses went out and reported the LORD’s words to the people. He gathered the seventy elders and stationed them around the Tabernacle.

²⁵And the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to Moses. Then he gave the seventy elders the same Spirit that was upon Moses. And when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But this never happened again.

²⁶Two men, Eldad and Medad, had stayed behind in the camp. They were listed among the elders, but they had not gone out to the Tabernacle. Yet the Spirit rested upon them as well, so they prophesied there in the camp.

²⁷A young man ran and reported to Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp!”

²⁸Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses’ assistant since his youth, protested, “Moses, my master, make them stop!”

²⁹But Moses replied, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the LORD’s people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit upon them all!”

³⁰Then Moses returned to the camp with the elders of Israel.

³¹Now the LORD sent a wind that brought quail from the sea and let them fall all around the camp. For miles in every direction there were quail flying about three feet above the ground.

³²So the people went out and caught quail all that day and throughout the night and all the next day, too. No one gathered less than fifty bushels ! They spread the quail all around the camp to dry.

³³But while they were gorging themselves on the meat — while it was still in their mouths — the anger of the LORD blazed against the people, and he struck them with a severe plague.

³⁴So that place was called Kibroth-hattaavah (which means “graves of gluttony”) because there they buried the people who had craved meat from Egypt.

³⁵From Kibroth-hattaavah the Israelites traveled to Hazeroth, where they stayed for some time.

¹While they were at Hazeroth, Miriam and Aaron criticized Moses because he had married a Cushite woman.

²They said, “Has the LORD spoken only through Moses? Hasn’t he spoken through us, too?” But the LORD heard them.

³(Now Moses was very humble — more humble than any other person on earth.)

⁴So immediately the LORD called to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam and said, “Go out to the Tabernacle, all three of you!” So the three of them went to the Tabernacle.

⁵Then the LORD descended in the pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the Tabernacle. “Aaron and Miriam!” he called, and they stepped forward.

⁶And the LORD said to them, “Now listen to what I say: “If there were prophets among you, I, the LORD, would reveal myself in visions. I would speak to them in dreams.

⁷But not with my servant Moses. Of all my house, he is the one I trust.

⁸I speak to him face to face, clearly, and not in riddles! He sees the LORD as he is. So why were you not afraid to criticize my servant Moses?”

⁹The LORD was very angry with them, and he departed.

¹⁰As the cloud moved from above the Tabernacle, there stood Miriam, her skin as white as snow from leprosy. When Aaron saw what had happened to her,

¹¹he cried out to Moses, “Oh, my master! Please don’t punish us for this sin we have so foolishly committed.

¹²Don’t let her be like a stillborn baby, already decayed at birth.”

¹³So Moses cried out to the LORD, “O God, I beg you, please heal her!”

¹⁴But the LORD said to Moses, “If her father had done nothing more than spit in her face, wouldn’t she be defiled for seven days? So keep her outside the camp for seven days, and after that she may be accepted back.”

¹⁵So Miriam was kept outside the camp for seven days, and the people waited until she was brought back before they traveled again.

¹⁶Then they left Hazeroth and camped in the wilderness of Paran.

¹The LORD now said to Moses,

²“Send out men to explore the land of Canaan, the land I am giving to the Israelites. Send one leader from each of the twelve ancestral tribes.”

³So Moses did as the LORD commanded him. He sent out twelve men, all tribal leaders of Israel, from their camp in the wilderness of Paran.

⁴These were the tribes and the names of their leaders: Tribe — Leader Reuben — Shammua son of Zaccur

⁵Simeon — Shaphat son of Hori

⁶Judah — Caleb son of Jephunneh

⁷Issachar — Igal son of Joseph

⁸Ephraim — Hoshea son of Nun

⁹Benjamin — Palti son of Raphu

¹⁰Zebulun — Gaddiel son of Sodi

¹¹Manasseh son of Joseph — Gaddi son of Susi

¹²Dan — Ammiel son of Gemalli

¹³Asher — Sethur son of Michael

¹⁴Naphtali — Nahbi son of Vophsi

¹⁵Gad — Geuel son of Maki

¹⁶These are the names of the men Moses sent out to explore the land. (Moses called Hoshea son of Nun by the name Joshua.)

¹⁷Moses gave the men these instructions as he sent them out to explore the land: “Go north through the Negev into the hill country.

¹⁸See what the land is like, and find out whether the people living there are strong or weak, few or many.

¹⁹See what kind of land they live in. Is it good or bad? Do their towns have walls, or are they unprotected like open camps?

²⁰Is the soil fertile or poor? Are there many trees? Do your best to bring back samples of the crops you see.” (It happened to be the season for harvesting the first ripe grapes.)

²¹So they went up and explored the land from the wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob, near Lebo-hamath.

²²Going north, they passed through the Negev and arrived at Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai — all descendants of Anak — lived. (The ancient town of Hebron was founded seven years before the Egyptian city of Zoan.)

²³When they came to the valley of Eshcol, they cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes so large that it took two of them to carry it on a pole between them! They also brought back samples of the pomegranates and figs.

²⁴That place was called the valley of Eshcol (which means “cluster”), because of the cluster of grapes the Israelite men cut there.

²⁵After exploring the land for forty days, the men returned

²⁶to Moses, Aaron, and the whole community of Israel at Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran. They reported to the whole community what they had seen and showed them the fruit they had taken from the land.

²⁷This was their report to Moses: “We entered the land you sent us to explore, and it is indeed a bountiful country — a land flowing with milk and honey. Here is the kind of fruit it produces.

²⁸But the people living there are powerful, and their towns are large and fortified. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak!

²⁹The Amalekites live in the Negev, and the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country. The Canaanites live along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and along the Jordan Valley.”

³⁰But Caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses. “Let’s go at once to take the land,” he said. “We can certainly conquer it!”

³¹But the other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!”

³²So they spread this bad report about the land among the Israelites: “The land we traveled through and explored will devour anyone who goes to live there. All the people we saw were huge.

³³We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. Next to them we felt like grasshoppers, and that’s what they thought, too!”