Numbers 11

⁵and spoke against God and against Moses: “Why have you led us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread or water, and we detest this wretched food!”

¹²Again Elijah replied, “If I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men.” And the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed the captain and his fifty men.

³⁵And fire came forth from the Lord and consumed the 250 men who were offering the incense.

⁹Then Moses said to Aaron, “Tell the whole congregation of Israel, ‘Come before the Lord, for He has heard your grumbling.’”

¹⁰And do not complain, as some of them did, and were killed by the destroying angel.

²So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died in the presence of the Lord.

⁷Then the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you. Intercede with the Lord so He will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses interceded for the people.

¹⁶Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power to prevail.

⁴⁵“Get away from this congregation so that I may consume them in an instant.” And Moses and Aaron fell facedown.

⁴⁶Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer, place fire from the altar in it, and add incense. Go quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them, because wrath has come out from the Lord; the plague has begun.”

³¹So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made gods of gold for themselves.

³²Yet now, if You would only forgive their sin.... But if not, please blot me out of the book that You have written.”

¹⁰Now leave Me alone, so that My anger may burn against them and consume them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”

¹¹But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God, saying, “O Lord, why does Your anger burn against Your people, whom You brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?

¹⁶If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he should ask God, who will give life to those who commit this kind of sin. There is a sin that leads to death; I am not saying he should ask regarding that sin.

²²You continued to provoke the Lord at Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah.

⁶These things took place as examples to keep us from craving evil things as they did.

³⁸And a mixed multitude also went up with them, along with great droves of livestock, both flocks and herds.

¹⁴They craved intensely in the wilderness and tested God in the desert.

¹⁸They willfully tested God by demanding the food they craved.

¹⁹They spoke against God, saying, “Can God really prepare a table in the wilderness?

³³Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good character.”

¹⁰Now the son of an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father went out among the Israelites, and a fight broke out in the camp between him and an Israelite.

¹¹The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name with a curse. So they brought him to Moses. (His mother’s name was Shelomith daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.)

³“If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt!” they said. “There we sat by pots of meat and ate our fill of bread, but you have brought us into this desert to starve this whole assembly to death!”

¹⁴from such men, O Lord, by Your hand—from men of the world whose portion is in this life. May You fill the bellies of Your treasured ones and satisfy their sons, so they leave their abundance to their children.

¹⁹Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and their glory is in their shame. Their minds are set on earthly things.

⁵and spoke against God and against Moses: “Why have you led us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread or water, and we detest this wretched food!”

⁴and he asked Amnon, “Why are you, the son of the king, so depressed morning after morning? Won’t you tell me?” Amnon replied, “I am in love with Tamar, my brother Absalom’s sister.”

³¹Now the house of Israel called the bread manna. It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey.

¹⁴When the layer of dew had evaporated, there were thin flakes on the desert floor, as fine as frost on the ground.

¹⁵When the Israelites saw it, they asked one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. So Moses told them, “It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.

¹²And the gold of that land is pure, and bdellium and onyx are found there.

²³but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,

²⁴but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

¹⁷He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes, I will give the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone inscribed with a new name, known only to the one who receives it.

³¹Now the house of Israel called the bread manna. It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey.

¹⁶This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Each one is to gather as much as he needs. You may take an omer for each person in your tent.’”

¹⁷So the Israelites did this. Some gathered more, and some less.

²⁷Do not work for food that perishes, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on Him God the Father has placed His seal of approval.”

²³He told them, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Tomorrow is to be a day of complete rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. So bake what you want to bake, and boil what you want to boil. Then set aside whatever remains and keep it until morning.’”

³³For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

³⁴“Sir,” they said, “give us this bread at all times.”

¹³That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp.

¹⁴When the layer of dew had evaporated, there were thin flakes on the desert floor, as fine as frost on the ground.

²³Yet He commanded the clouds above and opened the doors of the heavens.

²⁴He rained down manna for them to eat; He gave them grain from heaven.

⁴⁰They asked, and He brought quail and satisfied them with the bread of heaven.

²Let my teaching fall like rain and my speech settle like dew, like gentle rain on new grass, like showers on tender plants.

²¹Therefore the Lord heard and was filled with wrath; so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and His anger flared against Israel,

²⁷So they moved away from the dwellings of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Meanwhile, Dathan and Abiram had come out and stood at the entrances to their tents with their wives and children and infants.

¹⁰Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly in front of the rock, and Moses said to them, “Listen now, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?”

¹¹Then Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff, so that a great amount of water gushed out, and the congregation and their livestock were able to drink.

³²At the waters of Meribah they angered the Lord, and trouble came to Moses because of them.

³³For they rebelled against His Spirit, and Moses spoke rashly with his lips.

²¹Do I not hate those who hate You, O Lord, and detest those who rise against You?

²⁵Therefore the anger of the Lord burns against His people; His hand is raised against them to strike them down. The mountains quake, and the corpses lie like refuse in the streets. Despite all this, His anger is not turned away; His hand is still upraised.

¹²But how can I bear your troubles, burdens, and disputes all by myself?

²²So Moses returned to the Lord and asked, “Lord, why have You brought trouble upon this people? Is this why You sent me?

²I will say to God: Do not condemn me! Let me know why You prosecute me.

²⁸Apart from these external trials, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.

¹⁰Woe to me, my mother, that you have borne me, a man of strife and conflict in all the land. I have neither lent nor borrowed, yet everyone curses me.

³If You, O Lord, kept track of iniquities, then who, O Lord, could stand?

²³Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow to you facedown and lick the dust at your feet. Then you will know that I am the Lord; those who hope in Me will never be put to shame.”

¹¹He tends His flock like a shepherd; He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to His heart. He gently leads the nursing ewes.

⁵And when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites, and Jebusites—the land He swore to your fathers that He would give you, a land flowing with milk and honey—you shall keep this service in this month.

⁷On the contrary, we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother caring for her children.

²⁴Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will surely visit you and bring you up from this land to the land He promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

³Stay in this land as a foreigner, and I will be with you and bless you. For I will give all these lands to you and your offspring, and I will confirm the oath that I swore to your father Abraham.

³³The disciples replied, “Where in this desolate place could we find enough bread to feed such a large crowd?”

⁴His disciples replied, “Where in this desolate place could anyone find enough bread to feed all these people?”

⁵When Jesus looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where can we buy bread for these people to eat?”

⁶But He was asking this to test him, for He knew what He was about to do.

²³“If You can?” echoed Jesus. “All things are possible to him who believes!”

¹⁸Surely you and these people with you will wear yourselves out, because the task is too heavy for you. You cannot handle it alone.

⁹At that time I said to you, “I cannot carry the burden for you alone.

¹⁰The Lord your God has multiplied you, so that today you are as numerous as the stars in the sky.

¹³Yes, He will build the temple of the Lord; He will be clothed in splendor and will sit on His throne and rule. And He will be a priest on His throne, and there will be peaceful counsel between the two.’

¹⁶To the one we are an odor that brings death, to the other a fragrance that brings life. And who is qualified for such a task?

⁶For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

¹⁹You once spoke in a vision; to Your godly ones You said, “I have bestowed help on a warrior; I have exalted one chosen from the people.

³And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

⁴while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He sat down under a broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”

²⁰I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have complete boldness so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.

²¹For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

⁸As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint and wished to die, saying, “It is better for me to die than to live.”

⁹Then God asked Jonah, “Have you any right to be angry about the plant?” “I do,” he replied. “I am angry enough to die!”

¹⁸Why did I come out of the womb to see only trouble and sorrow, and to end my days in shame?

¹⁵The Lord has taken away your punishment; He has turned back your enemy. Israel’s King, the Lord, is among you; no longer will you fear any harm.

¹Then the Lord said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord—you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of Israel’s elders—and you are to worship at a distance.

⁹Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel,

¹⁸You are to appoint judges and officials for your tribes in every town that the Lord your God is giving you. They are to judge the people with righteous judgment.

²⁷And with the two sons who had been born to Joseph in Egypt, the members of Jacob’s family who went to Egypt were seventy in all.

¹⁷The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in Your name.”

¹After this, the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of Him to every town and place He was about to visit.

⁶Then the Spirit of the Lord will rush upon you, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be transformed into a different person.

²⁵Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and He took some of the Spirit that was on Moses and placed that Spirit on the seventy elders. As the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied—but they never did so again.

⁴There are different gifts, but the same Spirit.

⁵There are different ministries, but the same Lord.

⁹After they had crossed over, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken away from you?” “Please, let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,” Elisha replied.

¹⁵When the sons of the prophets who were watching him from Jericho saw what had happened, they said, “The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha.” And they went to meet him and bowed down to the ground before him.

¹²We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.

¹⁰Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. They must wash their clothes

³⁹But our fathers refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.

³“If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt!” they said. “There we sat by pots of meat and ate our fill of bread, but you have brought us into this desert to starve this whole assembly to death!”

⁴Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain down bread from heaven for you. Each day the people are to go out and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test whether or not they will follow My instructions.

⁴Meanwhile, the rabble among them had a strong craving for other food, and again the Israelites wept and said, “Who will feed us meat?

⁵We remember the fish we ate freely in Egypt, along with the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic.

¹Soon the people began to complain about their hardship in the hearing of the Lord, and when He heard them, His anger was kindled, and fire from the Lord blazed among them and consumed the outskirts of the camp.

¹³Get up and consecrate the people, saying, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, for this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Among you, O Israel, there are things devoted to destruction. You cannot stand against your enemies until you remove them.

¹⁵So He granted their request, but sent a wasting disease upon them.

⁵and spoke against God and against Moses: “Why have you led us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread or water, and we detest this wretched food!”

²⁷He rained meat on them like dust, and winged birds like the sand of the sea.

²⁸He felled them in the midst of their camp, all around their dwellings.

¹⁹But today you have rejected your God, who saves you from all your troubles and afflictions, and you have said to Him, ‘No, set a king over us.’ Now therefore present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and clans.”

⁴¹‘Look, you scoffers, wonder and perish! For I am doing a work in your days that you would never believe, even if someone told you.’”

¹⁰Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’

³⁷The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth with about 600,000 men on foot, besides women and children.

⁴⁶And all those counted totaled 603,550.

²I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

²⁶a beka per person, that is, half a shekel, according to the sanctuary shekel, from everyone twenty years of age or older who had crossed over to be numbered, a total of 603,550 men.

³²These are the Israelites, numbered according to their families. The total of those counted in the camps, by their divisions, was 603,550.

²But the officer on whose arm the king leaned answered the man of God, “Look, even if the Lord were to make windows in heaven, could this really happen?” “You will see it with your own eyes,” replied Elisha, “but you will not eat any of it.”

³³The disciples replied, “Where in this desolate place could we find enough bread to feed such a large crowd?”

¹⁸“How can I be sure of this?” Zechariah asked the angel. “I am an old man, and my wife is well along in years.”

³⁴“How can this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

⁶But He was asking this to test him, for He knew what He was about to do.

⁷Philip answered, “Two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to have a small piece.”

⁴His disciples replied, “Where in this desolate place could anyone find enough bread to feed all these people?”

¹Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor His ear too dull to hear.

²Why was no one there when I arrived? Why did no one answer when I called? Is My hand too short to redeem you? Or do I lack the strength to deliver you? Behold, My rebuke dries up the sea; I turn the rivers into a desert; the fish rot for lack of water and die of thirst.

¹⁴Is anything too difficult for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you—in about a year—and Sarah will have a son.”

³⁷For no word from God will ever fail.”

¹⁹God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?

²⁶Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

¹⁶Then the Lord said to Moses, “Bring Me seventy of the elders of Israel known to you as leaders and officers of the people. Bring them to the Tent of Meeting and have them stand there with you.

²⁶Two men, however, had remained in the camp—one named Eldad and the other Medad—and the Spirit rested on them. They were among those listed, but they had not gone out to the tent, and they prophesied in the camp.

¹⁷And I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the Spirit that is on you and put that Spirit on them. They will help you bear the burden of the people, so that you do not have to bear it by yourself.

²⁸And afterward, I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.

²⁹Even on My menservants and maidservants, I will pour out My Spirit in those days.

¹⁰When Saul and his servant arrived at Gibeah, a group of prophets met him. Then the Spirit of God rushed upon him, and he prophesied along with them.

⁵and the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud, stood at the entrance to the Tent, and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When both of them had stepped forward,

¹Earnestly pursue love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy.

²For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God. Indeed, no one understands him; he utters mysteries in the Spirit.

⁵After that you will come to Gibeah of God, where the Philistines have an outpost. As you approach the city, you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place, preceded by harps, tambourines, flutes, and lyres, and they will be prophesying.

⁶Then the Spirit of the Lord will rush upon you, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be transformed into a different person.

⁵Then Jeremiah commanded Baruch, “I am restricted; I cannot enter the house of the Lord;

²⁶Saul said nothing that day because he thought, “Something has happened to David to make him ceremonially unclean—surely he is unclean.”

²²So again they inquired of the Lord, “Has the man come here yet?” And the Lord replied, “Behold, he has hidden himself among the baggage.”

¹¹But Moses asked God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

¹³But Moses replied, “Please, Lord, send someone else.”

¹⁴Then the anger of the Lord burned against Moses, and He said, “Is not Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well, and he is now on his way to meet you. When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart.

⁶“Ah, Lord God,” I said, “I surely do not know how to speak, for I am only a child!”

⁴⁹“Master,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in Your name, and we tried to stop him, because he does not accompany us.”

⁵⁰“Do not stop him,” Jesus replied, “for whoever is not against you is for you.”

³⁸John said to Him, “Teacher, we saw someone else driving out demons in Your name, and we tried to stop him, because he does not accompany us.”

³⁹“Do not stop him,” Jesus replied. “For no one who performs a miracle in My name can turn around and speak evil of Me.

²⁶So John’s disciples came to him and said, “Look, Rabbi, the One who was with you beyond the Jordan, the One you testified about—He is baptizing, and everyone is going to Him.”

¹Now after the death of His servant Moses, the Lord spoke to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, saying,

¹¹Thus the Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young assistant Joshua son of Nun would not leave the tent.

⁹So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on the hilltop with the staff of God in my hand.”

⁵I wish that all of you could speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy. He who prophesies is greater than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets so that the church may be edified.

³⁷Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

³⁸Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest.”

⁵Or do you think the Scripture says without reason that the Spirit He caused to dwell in us yearns with envy?

²And He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest.

⁹Do not complain about one another, brothers, so that you will not be judged. Look, the Judge is standing at the door!

³Do nothing out of selfish ambition or empty pride, but in humility consider others more important than yourselves.

¹³That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp.

²⁶He stirred the east wind from the heavens and drove the south wind by His might.

²⁷He rained meat on them like dust, and winged birds like the sand of the sea.

⁴⁰They asked, and He brought quail and satisfied them with the bread of heaven.

¹⁰But You blew with Your breath, and the sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters.

⁷He causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth. He generates the lightning with the rain and brings forth the wind from His storehouses.

¹⁹And the Lord changed the wind to a very strong west wind that carried off the locusts and blew them into the Red Sea. Not a single locust remained anywhere in Egypt.

¹¹The ephah and the bath shall be the same quantity so that the bath will contain a tenth of a homer, and the ephah a tenth of a homer; the homer will be the standard measure for both.

³⁶(Now an omer is a tenth of an ephah.)

³⁰Yet before they had filled their desire, with the food still in their mouths,

³¹God’s anger flared against them, and He put to death their strongest and subdued the young men of Israel.

¹⁴They craved intensely in the wilderness and tested God in the desert.

¹⁵So He granted their request, but sent a wasting disease upon them.

⁹but those who died in the plague numbered 24,000.

⁴⁹But those who died from the plague numbered 14,700, in addition to those who had died on account of Korah.

²⁷The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors and scabs and itch from which you cannot be cured.

²²You continued to provoke the Lord at Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah.

⁶These things took place as examples to keep us from craving evil things as they did.

¹⁶They set out from the Wilderness of Sinai and camped at Kibroth-hattaavah.

¹⁷They set out from Kibroth-hattaavah and camped at Hazeroth.

¹⁶After that, the people set out from Hazeroth and camped in the Wilderness of Paran.

¹These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel in the wilderness east of the Jordan—in the Arabah opposite Suph—between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab.