February 17 Reading – Numbers 14-15
Read our Numbers 14-15 commentary here.
Numbers 14 ASV
1 And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.
2 And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would that we had died in this wilderness!
3 And wherefore doth Jehovah bring us unto this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will be a prey: were it not better for us to return into Egypt?
4 And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.
5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.
6 And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were of them that spied out the land, rent their clothes:
7 and they spake unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceeding good land.
8 If Jehovah delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it unto us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.
9 Only rebel not against Jehovah, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is removed from over them, and Jehovah is with us: fear them not.
10 But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the glory of Jehovah appeared in the tent of meeting unto all the children of Israel.
11 And Jehovah said unto Moses, How long will this people despise me? and how long will they not believe in me, for all the signs which I have wrought among them?
12 I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a nation greater and mightier than they.
13 And Moses said unto Jehovah, Then the Egyptians will hear it; for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them;
14 and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that thou Jehovah art in the midst of this people; for thou Jehovah art seen face to face, and thy cloud standeth over them, and thou goest before them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night.
15 Now if thou shalt kill this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying,
16 Because Jehovah was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness.
17 And now, I pray thee, let the power of the Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying,
18 Jehovah is slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation.
19 Pardon, I pray thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy lovingkindness, and according as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.
20 And Jehovah said, I have pardoned according to thy word:
21 but in very deed, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of Jehovah;
22 because all those men that have seen my glory, and my signs, which I wrought in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tempted me these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;
23 surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that despised me see it:
24 but my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.
25 Now the Amalekite and the Canaanite dwell in the valley: to-morrow turn ye, and get you into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.
26 And Jehovah spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,
27 How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, that murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me.
28 Say unto them, As I live, saith Jehovah, surely as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you:
29 your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, that have murmured against me,
30 surely ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware that I would make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.
31 But your little ones, that ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have rejected.
32 But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness.
33 And your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your whoredoms, until your dead bodies be consumed in the wilderness.
34 After the number of the days in which ye spied out the land, even forty days, for every day a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my alienation.
35 I, Jehovah, have spoken, surely this will I do unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.
36 And the men, whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up an evil report against the land,
37 even those men that did bring up an evil report of the land, died by the plague before Jehovah.
38 But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, remained alive of those men that went to spy out the land.
39 And Moses told these words unto all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly.
40 And they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up to the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we are here, and will go up unto the place which Jehovah hath promised: for we have sinned.
41 And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of Jehovah, seeing it shall not prosper?
42 Go not up, for Jehovah is not among you; that ye be not smitten down before your enemies.
43 For there the Amalekite and the Canaanite are before you, and ye shall fall by the sword: because ye are turned back from following Jehovah, therefore Jehovah will not be with you.
44 But they presumed to go up to the top of the mountain: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, and Moses, departed not out of the camp.
45 Then the Amalekite came down, and the Canaanite who dwelt in that mountain, and smote them and beat them down, even unto Hormah.
Numbers 15
1 And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying,
2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye are come into the land of your habitations, which I give unto you,
3 and will make an offering by fire unto Jehovah, a burnt-offering, or a sacrifice, to accomplish a vow, or as a freewill-offering, or in your set feasts, to make a sweet savor unto Jehovah, of the herd, or of the flock;
4 then shall he that offereth his oblation offer unto Jehovah a meal-offering of a tenth part of an ephah of fine flour mingled with the fourth part of a hin of oil:
5 and wine for the drink-offering, the fourth part of a hin, shalt thou prepare with the burnt-offering, or for the sacrifice, for each lamb.
6 Or for a ram, thou shalt prepare for a meal-offering two tenth parts of an ephah of fine flour mingled with the third part of a hin of oil:
7 and for the drink-offering thou shalt offer the third part of a hin of wine, of a sweet savor unto Jehovah.
8 And when thou preparest a bullock for a burnt-offering, or for a sacrifice, to accomplish a vow, or for peace-offerings unto Jehovah;
9 then shall he offer with the bullock a meal-offering of three tenth parts of an ephah of fine flour mingled with half a hin of oil:
10 and thou shalt offer for the drink-offering half a hin of wine, for an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto Jehovah.
11 Thus shall it be done for each bullock, or for each ram, or for each of the he-lambs, or of the kids.
12 According to the number that ye shall prepare, so shall ye do to every one according to their number.
13 All that are home-born shall do these things after this manner, in offering an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto Jehovah.
14 And if a stranger sojourn with you, or whosoever may be among you throughout your generations, and will offer an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto Jehovah; as ye do, so he shall do.
15 For the assembly, there shall be one statute for you, and for the stranger that sojourneth [with you], a statute for ever throughout your generations: as ye are, so shall the sojourner be before Jehovah.
16 One law and One ordinance shall be for you, and for the stranger that sojourneth with you.
17 And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying,
18 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land whither I bring you,
19 then it shall be, that, when ye eat of the bread of the land, ye shall offer up a heave-offering unto Jehovah.
20 Of the first of your dough ye shall offer up a cake for a heave-offering: as the heave-offering of the threshing-floor, so shall ye heave it.
21 Of the first of your dough ye shall give unto Jehovah a heave-offering throughout your generations.
22 And when ye shall err, and not observe all these commandments, which Jehovah hath spoken unto Moses,
23 even all that Jehovah hath commanded you by Moses, from the day that Jehovah gave commandment, and onward throughout your generations;
24 then it shall be, if it be done unwittingly, without the knowledge of the congregation, that all the congregation shall offer one young bullock for a burnt-offering, for a sweet savor unto Jehovah, with the meal-offering thereof, and the drink-offering thereof, according to the ordinance, and one he-goat for a sin-offering.
25 And the priest shall make atonement for all the congregation of the children of Israel, and they shall be forgiven; for it was an error, and they have brought their oblation, an offering made by fire unto Jehovah, and their sin-offering before Jehovah, for their error:
26 and all the congregation of the children of Israel shall be forgiven, and the stranger that sojourneth among them; for in respect of all the people it was done unwittingly.
27 And if one person sin unwittingly, then he shall offer a she-goat a year old for a sin-offering.
28 And the priest shall make atonement for the soul that erreth, when he sinneth unwittingly, before Jehovah, to make atonement for him; and he shall be forgiven.
29 Ye shall have one law for him that doeth aught unwittingly, for him that is home-born among the children of Israel, and for the stranger that sojourneth among them.
30 But the soul that doeth aught with a high hand, whether he be home-born or a sojourner, the same blasphemeth Jehovah; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
31 Because he hath despised the word of Jehovah, and hath broken his commandment, that soul shall utterly be cut off; his iniquity shall be upon him.
32 And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks upon the sabbath day.
33 And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation.
34 And they put him in ward, because it had not been declared what should be done to him.
35 And Jehovah said unto Moses, The man shall surely be put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp.
36 And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him to death with stones; as Jehovah commanded Moses.
37 And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying,
38 Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of each border a cord of blue:
39 and it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of Jehovah, and do them; and that ye follow not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to play the harlot;
40 that ye may remember and do all my commandments, and be holy unto your God.
41 I am Jehovah your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am Jehovah your God.
American Standard Version (ASV): Public Domain