HarperCollins Study Bible

by Harold W. Attridge

  11.35 The next stage on the journey. Kibroth-hattaavah. See 33.16–17; Deut 9.22. Hazeroth. See Num 12.1, 16; 33.17–18; Deut 1.1; cf. Num 10.11–12.

  NUMBERS 12

  Aaron and Miriam Jealous of Moses

  1While they were at Hazeroth, Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married (for he had indeed married a Cushite woman); 2and they said, “Has the LORD spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?” And the LORD heard it. 3Now the man Moses was very humble,a more so than anyone else on the face of the earth. 4Suddenly the LORD said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, “Come out, you three, to the tent of meeting.” So the three of them came out. 5Then the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud, and stood at the entrance of the tent, and called Aaron and Miriam; and they both came forward. 6And he said, “Hear my words:

  When there are prophets among you,

  I the LORD make myself known to them in visions;

  I speak to them in dreams.

  7Not so with my servant Moses;

  he is entrusted with all my house.

  8With him I speak face to face—clearly, not in riddles;

  and he beholds the form of the LORD.

  Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” 9And the anger of the LORD was kindled against them, and he departed.

  10When the cloud went away from over the tent, Miriam had become leprous,b as white as snow. And Aaron turned towards Miriam and saw that she was leprous. 11Then Aaron said to Moses, “Oh, my lord, do not punish usc for a sin that we have so foolishly committed. 12Do not let her be like one stillborn, whose flesh is half consumed when it comes out of its mother’s womb.” 13And Moses cried to the LORD, “O God, please heal her.” 14But the LORD said to Moses, “If her father had but spit in her face, would she not bear her shame for seven days? Let her be shut out of the camp for seven days, and after that she may be brought in again.” 15So Miriam was shut out of the camp for seven days; and the people did not set out on the march until Miriam had been brought in again. 16After that the people set out from Hazeroth, and camped in the wilderness of Paran.

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  a Or devout

  b A term for several skin diseases; precise meaning uncertain

  c Heb do not lay sin upon us

  12.1 Hazeroth. See 11.35. Miriam and Aaron are Moses’ sister and brother (Ex 4.14; 15.20). A Cushite woman. Cush often refers to Ethiopia in the Bible, and the Septuagint translates “Ethiopian” here. It is often thought, then, that this story contrasts Moses’ dark-skinned wife with Miriam, who is as white as snow in v. 10, presumably referring to white scales or blemishes from her skin disease. (The disease is not necessarily leprosy, and the word “white” is not in the Hebrew; see note on 12.10.) There is also a place called Cush in northern Arabia, however, and, given Hab 3.7, where “Cushan” is used in parallel with Midian, it can also be the north Arabian Cush that is referred to here. Thus the Cushite woman would be Moses’ wife Zipporah, a Midianite (Ex 2.15–21; 3.1; Num 10.29), more specifically a member of the Midianite subgroup the Kenites (Judg 1.16; 4.11).

  12.2 In this verse Miriam and Aaron offer a different reason for their speaking against their brother Moses: he should not be considered the only intermediary for Israel, since they also have received communications from the Lord (see Ex 4.14–16; 15.20–21; Mic 6.4). At question here is Moses’ unique position as the leader of the people; this passage probably reflects issues of a later day when groups who traced their authority to Moses were involved in a power struggle with groups who traced their authority to Miriam or Aaron.

  12.3 This verse, because of its laudatory third-person reference to Moses, was a stumbling block to earlier readers who understood the entire Pentateuch to have been written by Moses himself.

  12.4 Come out…to the tent. See 11.16, 26, 30.

  12.5 See 9.15–16.

  12.6 Visions and dreams are a valid form of communication from the Lord in Israel (see Joel 2.28; also Gen 15.1; 40–41), but dreams are often distinguished from communications through prophets (Deut 13.1, 3, 5; 1 Sam 28.6, 15; Jer 27.9; 29.8), and sometimes dreams are ranked below a prophet’s communications (Jer 23.28). The verbs in this verse are habitual or customary: this is how it is usually done.

  12.7 Moses is distinguished from all other prophets, from what is customary (v. 6). The Lord’s house is Israel (Jer 12.7; Hos 8.1); see also Gen 24.2; 39.4–6; 41.40 and the frequent reference to Israel as “the house of Israel” (as in Ex 16.31; 40.38). The verse is alluded to in Heb 3.5.

  12.8 Face to face is not meant to be taken literally here; in fact, the literal translation in this verse is “mouth to mouth.” That the Lord spoke to Moses “face to face” perhaps simply means that they spoke directly, without an intermediary or a medium such as a dream (Ex 33.11; Deut 34.10 [both lit. “face to face”]; Num 14.14; Isa 52.8 [both lit. “eye to eye”]). Moses beholds the form of the LORD, however (see Ex 33.17–23; cf. Deut 4.12, 15, where the people behold no form; Ps 17.15).

  12.10 Leprous. See text note b and vv. 13–15. We do not know why Miriam is punished, but not Aaron. Aaron, in v. 11, asks that Moses not punish the two of them, as if he too is suffering or about to suffer.

  12.11 Aaron addresses Moses as my lord, ironically acknowledging Moses’ superiority in his plea for help. Do not punish us. See note on 12.10.

  12.13 Moses’ intercession on behalf of Miriam is typical. See 11.10–15.

  12.14 Spit in her face. On spitting as a sign of humiliation, see Deut 25.9; Job 30.10; Isa 50.6.

  12.15 See Lev 13.1–17, esp. v. 4; 14.1–32, esp. v. 8.

  NUMBERS 13

  Spies Sent into Canaan

  1The LORD said to Moses, 2“Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites; from each of their ancestral tribes you shall send a man, every one a leader among them.” 3So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran, according to the command of the LORD, all of them leading men among the Israelites. 4These were their names: From the tribe of Reuben, Shammua son of Zaccur; 5from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat son of Hori; 6from the tribe of Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh; 7from the tribe of Issachar, Igal son of Joseph; 8from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea son of Nun; 9from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti son of Raphu; 10from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel son of Sodi; 11from the tribe of Joseph (that is, from the tribe of Manasseh), Gaddi son of Susi; 12from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel son of Gemalli; 13from the tribe of Asher, Sethur son of Michael; 14from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi son of Vophsi; 15from the tribe of Gad, Geuel son of Machi. 16These were the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses changed the name of Hoshea son of Nun to Joshua.

  17Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, “Go up there into the Negeb, and go up into the hill country, 18and see what the land is like, and whether the people who live in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, 19and whether the land they live in is good or bad, and whether the towns that they live in are unwalled or fortified, 20and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not. Be bold, and bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now it was the season of the first ripe grapes.

  21So they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, near Lebo-hamath. 22They went up into the Negeb, and came to Hebron; and Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the Anakites, were there. (Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) 23And they came to the Wadi Eshcol, and cut down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a pole between two of them. They also brought some pomegranates and figs. 24That place was called the Wadi Eshcol,a because of the cluster that the Israelites cut down from there.

  The Report of the Spies

  25At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land. 26And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the Israelites in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to
them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. 27And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us; it flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. 28Yet the people who live in the land are strong, and the towns are fortified and very large; and besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. 29The Amalekites live in the land of the Negeb; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live by the sea, and along the Jordan.”

  30But Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” 31Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against this people, for they are stronger than we.” 32So they brought to the Israelites an unfavorable report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land that we have gone through as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people that we saw in it are of great size. 33There we saw the Nephilim (the Anakites come from the Nephilim); and to ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”

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  a That is Cluster

  13.1–3 Like those who helped with the census, 1.4, the men sent to spy out the land for the people at the Lord’s command (cf. Deut 1.22–25) are chosen because each is a leader in one of the twelve tribes. The setting is the wilderness of Paran; see 12.16.

  13.4–16 The order in which the tribes are listed is similar to that in 1.5–15, but the leaders are not the same. This list of names is not duplicated.

  13.6 Elsewhere (32.12; Josh 14.6, 14) Caleb is called a Kenizzite; see Num 14.24.

  13.17 Negeb (pronounced “negev”), the generally dry waste country just north of the Sinai Peninsula, south of what is later Judah, and to the west and south of the Dead Sea. The hill country referred to here is either the highlands of the Negeb itself (see 14.40; Deut 1.20) or the highlands of Judah (Judg 1.19), part of the central spine of hills that runs north and south through Canaan.

  13.20 Season of…grapes, July/August.

  13.21–24 Cf. Deut 1.24–25a.

  13.21 Another note from the Priestly traditions (see Introduction). The following old epic story (vv. 22–24) locates the reconnoitering entirely in the area of the Negeb and Judah, but the Priestly traditions state that the spies went from the far southern end of the promised land in the wilderness of Zin (see 34.1–4; Josh 15.1–3) to the far northern end at Rehob or Beth-rehob, described as near Lebo-hamath (lit. “the entrance to Hamath” in southern Syria), often mentioned as part of Israel’s northern border (see 34.7–8; Judg 18.27–28; 2 Sam 10.6, 8).

  13.22 Negeb. See 13.17. Hebron, an important city in Judah, especially in the family narratives in Genesis, is about twenty miles south of Jerusalem. The Anakites are one of several groups described as the indigenous peoples of Canaan, many of whom are remembered as giants; see vv. 32–33 (see also Gen 6.1–4); Deut 2.9–11, 19–21; 9.1–2; Josh 11.21–22; 14.12–15; 15.13–14; Judg 1.10, 20; see also Gen 14.5; 15.20; Deut 3.11, 13; Josh 12.4–5; 13.12; 17.15; 1 Chr 20.4. Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai. See Josh 15.14; Judg 1.10. Zoan in Egypt, in the eastern Delta (Ex 1.11).

  13.23–24 Wadi Eshcol, site unknown, is etymologized by being tied to the spies’ acquisition of oversized fruit there. In Hebrew an eshcol is a cluster of grapes; see text note a. Grapes, pomegranates, and figs do grow in the Hebron area, as well as many other areas of Palestine.

  13.25–33 See Deut 1.25b.

  13.25 Forty days is a stereotypical expression of time in biblical literature; see, e.g., Gen 7.4; Ex 24.18; 1 Sam 17.16; 1 Kings 19.8; Ezek 4.6.

  13.26 This is the first mention of the oasis Kadesh (Kadesh-barnea; see, e.g., 32.8), where much of the forty years in the wilderness will be spent (including the events in chs. 13–20). Kadesh is also described in the Priestly tradition (see Introduction) as being in the wilderness of Zin (e.g., 20.1); the relationship between Paran and Zin is not known. Kadesh-barnea was probably one of a group of oases located about fifty miles south of Beer-sheba, one of which is still called “the spring Kadesh.” (See Ex 17.7.)

  13.27 The spies say the land flows with milk and honey in the first use in the book of Numbers of the well-known phrase. See also 14.8; 16.13 (used of Egypt!), 14; Ex 3.8.

  13.28 The descendants of Anak are the Anakites of v. 22. A common Semitic way of designating the members of a group is to call them “the descendants/children” of an eponymous ancestor or of a typical member of the group: “the children of Israel” are the Israelites; “the sons of the prophets” in 1 Kings 20.34 (see text note a) are themselves prophets.

  13.29 The Amalekites are a perennial enemy of the Israelites (e.g., Gen 14.7; Ex 17.8–16; Judg 3.12–13; 1 Sam 15.1–9) who apparently inhabited the Negeb area where the people are to spend the next forty years. On the Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites, and Canaanites, see Ex 3.8. The spies’ listing of these indigenous peoples divides the land into its constituent parts: the Negeb, the central hill country, the seacoast, and the Jordan Valley. Cf. 14.25, 45, for a slightly different arrangement of peoples.

  13.30–31 In this old epic passage (see Introduction) Caleb is the only spy who dissents from the majority opinion voiced in vv. 28–29. Joshua is included only in verses that stem from the Priestly tradition (vv. 8, 16; 14.6, 38; see Introduction).

  13.32–33 That the land devours its inhabitants can be taken either as a sign of infertility and therefore a contradiction of v. 27 (two verses from different traditions) or as a metaphor for the inevitability of warfare in a place with so many peoples, many of whom are bigger and stronger than the Israelites. Ezek 36.13–15 has been used to support both interpretations. See also Num 14.3, 9. Nephilim. See 13.22; Gen 6.4.

  NUMBERS 14

  The People Rebel

  1Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. 2And all the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron; the whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! 3Why is the LORD bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become booty; would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” 4So they said to one another, “Let us choose a captain, and go back to Egypt.”

  5Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the Israelites. 6And Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes 7and said to all the congregation of the Israelites, “The land that we went through as spies is an exceedingly good land. 8If the LORD is pleased with us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. 9Only, do not rebel against the LORD; and do not fear the people of the land, for they are no more than bread for us; their protection is removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them.” 10But the whole congregation threatened to stone them.

  Then the glory of the LORD appeared at the tent of meeting to all the Israelites. 11And the LORD said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? 12I will strike them with pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”

  Moses Intercedes for the People

  13But Moses said to the LORD, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for in your might you brought up this people from among them, 14and they will tell the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you, O LORD, are in the midst of this people; for you, O LORD, are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them and you go in front of them, in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. 15Now if you kill this people all at one time, then the nations who have heard about you will say, 16‘It is because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land he swore to give them that he has slaughtered them in the wilderness.’ 17And now, therefore, let the power of the LORD be great in the way t
hat you promised when you spoke, saying,

  18‘The LORD is slow to anger,

  and abounding in steadfast love,

  forgiving iniquity and transgression,

  but by no means clearing the guilty,

  visiting the iniquity of the parents

  upon the children

  to the third and the fourth generation.’

  19Forgive the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just as you have pardoned this people, from Egypt even until now.”

  20Then the LORD said, “I do forgive, just as you have asked; 21nevertheless—as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD—22none of the people who have seen my glory and the signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have tested me these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, 23shall see the land that I swore to give to their ancestors; none of those who despised me shall see it. 24But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me wholeheartedly, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it. 25Now, since the Amalekites and the Canaanites live in the valleys, turn tomorrow and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.”a

  An Attempted Invasion is Repulsed

  26And the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying: 27How long shall this wicked congregation complain against me? I have heard the complaints of the Israelites, which they complain against me. 28Say to them, “As I live,” says the LORD, “I will do to you the very things I heard you say: 29your dead bodies shall fall in this very wilderness; and of all your number, included in the census, from twenty years old and upward, who have complained against me, 30not one of you shall come into the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. 31But your little ones, who you said would become booty, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have despised. 32But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. 33And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years, and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. 34According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day a year, you shall bear your iniquity, forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.” 35I the LORD have spoken; surely I will do thus to all this wicked congregation gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die.