Chronological Plan

¹Then all the congregation raised their voices and cried out, and the people wept that night.

²And all the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron; and the entire congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or even if we had died in this wilderness!

³So why is the LORD bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder! Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?”

⁴So they said to one another, “Let’s appoint a leader and return to Egypt!”

⁵Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces in the presence of all the assembly of the congregation of the sons of Israel.

⁶And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, of those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes;

⁷and they spoke to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying, “The land which we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land.

⁸If the LORD is pleased with us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us—a land which flows with milk and honey.

⁹Only do not rebel against the LORD; and do not fear the people of the land, for they will be our prey. Their protection is gone from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them.”

¹⁰But all the congregation said to stone them with stones. Then the glory of the LORD appeared in the tent of meeting to all the sons of Israel.

¹¹And the LORD said to Moses, “How long will this people be disrespectful to Me? And how long will they not believe in Me, despite all the signs that I have performed in their midst?

¹²I will strike them with plague and dispossess them, and I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they.”

¹³But Moses said to the LORD, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for by Your strength You brought this people up from their midst,

¹⁴and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that You, LORD, are in the midst of this people, because You, LORD, are seen eye to eye, while Your cloud stands over them; and You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night.

¹⁵Now if You put this people to death all at once, then the nations who have heard of Your fame will say,

¹⁶‘Since the LORD could not bring this people into the land which He promised them by oath, He slaughtered them in the wilderness.’

¹⁷So now, please, let the power of the Lord be great, just as You have declared, saying,

¹⁸‘The LORD is slow to anger and abundant in mercy, forgiving wrongdoing and violation of His Law; but He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, inflicting the punishment of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generations.’

¹⁹Please forgive the guilt of this people in accordance with the greatness of Your mercy, just as You also have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.”

²⁰So the LORD said, “I have forgiven them in accordance with your word;

²¹however, as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the LORD.

²²Certainly all the people who have seen My glory and My signs which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have put Me to the test these ten times and have not listened to My voice,

²³shall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who were disrespectful to Me see it.

²⁴But as for My servant Caleb, because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring him into the land which he entered, and his descendants shall take possession of it.

²⁵Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites live in the valleys; turn tomorrow and set out for the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.”

²⁶The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron again, saying,

²⁷“How long shall I put up with this evil congregation who are grumbling against Me? I have heard the complaints of the sons of Israel which they are voicing against Me.

²⁸Say to them, ‘As I live,’ declares the LORD, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you;

²⁹your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness, all your numbered men according to your complete number from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against Me.

³⁰By no means will you come into the land where I swore to settle you, except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.

³¹Your children, however, whom you said would become plunder—I will bring them in, and they will know the land which you have rejected.

³²But as for you, your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness.

³³Also, your sons will be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness, until your bodies perish in the wilderness.

³⁴In accordance with the number of days that you spied out the land, forty days, for every day you shall suffer the punishment for your guilt a year, that is, forty years, and you will know My opposition.

³⁵I, the LORD, have spoken, I certainly will do this to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. They shall be worn out in this wilderness, and there they shall die.’ ”

³⁶As for the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, and who returned and led all the congregation to grumble against him by bringing a bad report about the land,

³⁷those men who brought the bad report of the land also died by a plague in the presence of the LORD.

³⁸But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive out of those men who went to spy out the land.

³⁹Now when Moses spoke these words to all the sons of Israel, the people mourned greatly.

⁴⁰In the morning, however, they got up early and went up to the ridge of the hill country, saying, “Here we are; and we will go up to the place which the LORD has promised, for we have sinned.”

⁴¹But Moses said, “Why then are you violating the command of the LORD, when doing so will not succeed?

⁴²Do not go up, for the LORD is not among you, to prevent you from being defeated by your enemies.

⁴³For the Amalekites and the Canaanites will be there to confront you, and you will fall by the sword, since you have turned back from following the LORD. And the LORD will not be with you.”

⁴⁴But they foolishly dared to go up to the ridge of the hill country; neither the ark of the covenant of the LORD nor Moses left the camp.

⁴⁵Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down, and struck them and scattered them as far as Hormah.

¹Now the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

²“Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you enter the land where you are going to live, which I am giving you,

³and you make an offering by fire to the LORD, a burnt offering or a sacrifice to fulfill a special vow, or as a voluntary offering or at your appointed times, to make a soothing aroma to the LORD from the herd or from the flock,

⁴then the one who presents his offering shall present to the LORD a grain offering of a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a fourth of a hin of oil,

⁵and you shall prepare wine for the drink offering, a fourth of a hin, with the burnt offering or for the sacrifice, for each lamb.

⁶Or for a ram you shall prepare as a grain offering two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a third of a hin of oil;

⁷and for the drink offering you shall offer a third of a hin of wine as a soothing aroma to the LORD.

⁸And when you prepare a bull as a burnt offering or a sacrifice, to fulfill a special vow, or for peace offerings to the LORD,

⁹then you shall offer with the bull a grain offering of three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with half a hin of oil;

¹⁰and you shall offer as the drink offering half a hin of wine as an offering by fire, as a soothing aroma to the LORD.

¹¹‘This is how it shall be done for each ox, or for each ram, or for each of the male lambs, or of the goats.

¹²According to the number that you prepare, so you shall do for each one according to their number.

¹³Everyone who is a native shall do these things in this way, in presenting an offering by fire as a soothing aroma to the LORD.

¹⁴Now if a stranger resides among you, or one who may be among you throughout your generations, and he wants to make an offering by fire, as a soothing aroma to the LORD, just as you do so shall he do.

¹⁵As for the assembly, there shall be one statute for you and for the stranger who resides among you, a permanent statute throughout your generations; as you are, so shall the stranger be before the LORD.

¹⁶There is to be one law and one ordinance for you and for the stranger who resides with you.’ ”

¹⁷Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

¹⁸“Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you enter the land where I am bringing you,

¹⁹then it shall be, that when you eat from the food of the land, you shall lift up an offering to the LORD.

²⁰Of the first of your dough you shall lift up a loaf as an offering; as an offering of the threshing floor, so you shall lift it up.

²¹From the first of your dough you shall give to the LORD an offering throughout your generations.

²²‘But when you unintentionally do wrong and fail to comply with all these commandments which the LORD has spoken to Moses,

²³that is, all that the LORD has commanded you through Moses from the day that the LORD gave commandments and onward, throughout your generations,

²⁴then it shall be, if it is done unintentionally, without the knowledge of the congregation, that all the congregation shall offer one bull as a burnt offering, as a soothing aroma to the LORD, with its grain offering and its drink offering, according to the ordinance, and one male goat as a sin offering.

²⁵Then the priest shall make atonement for all the congregation of the sons of Israel, and they will be forgiven; for it was an unintentional wrong, and they have brought their offering, an offering by fire to the LORD, and their sin offering before the LORD, for their unintentional wrong.

²⁶So all the congregation of the sons of Israel will be forgiven, as well as the stranger who resides among them, for guilt was attributed to all the people through an unintentional wrong.

²⁷‘Also, if one person sins unintentionally, then he shall offer a one-year-old female goat as a sin offering.

²⁸And the priest shall make atonement before the LORD for the person who goes astray by an unintentional sin, making atonement for him so that he may be forgiven.

²⁹You shall have one law for the native among the sons of Israel and for the stranger who resides among them, for one who does anything wrong unintentionally.

³⁰But the person who does wrong defiantly, whether he is a native or a stranger, that one is blaspheming the LORD; and that person shall be cut off from among his people.

³¹Since he has despised the word of the LORD and has broken His commandment, that person shall be completely cut off; his guilt will be on him.’ ”

³²Now while the sons of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day.

³³And those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron, and to all the congregation;

³⁴and they placed him in custody, because it had not been decided what should be done to him.

³⁵Then the LORD said to Moses, “The man must be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.”

³⁶So all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones, just as the LORD had commanded Moses.

³⁷The LORD also spoke to Moses, saying,

³⁸“Speak to the sons of Israel and tell them that they shall make for themselves tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and that they shall put on the tassel of each corner a violet thread.

³⁹It shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the LORD, so that you will do them and not follow your own heart and your own eyes, which led you to prostitute yourselves,

⁴⁰so that you will remember and do all My commandments and be holy to your God.

⁴¹I am the LORD your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt to be your God; I am the LORD your God.”