One Year Bible.

The Complaint of Miriam and Aaron

¹Then Miriam and Aaron criticized Moses because of the Cushite woman he had married, for he had taken a Cushite wife. ²“Does the LORD speak only through Moses?” they said. “Does He not also speak through us?” And the LORD heard this.

³Now Moses was a very humble man, more so than any man on the face of the earth.

⁴And suddenly the LORD said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, “You three, come out to the Tent of Meeting.” So the three went out, 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, ⁶He said, “Hear now My words:

If there is a prophet among you,

I, the LORD, will reveal Myself to him in a vision;

I will speak to him in a dream.

⁷But this is not so with My servant Moses;

he is faithful in all My house.

⁸I speak with him face to face,

clearly and not in riddles;

he sees the form of the LORD.

Why then were you unafraid to speak against My servant Moses?” ⁹So the anger of the LORD burned against them, and He departed.

¹⁰As the cloud lifted from above the Tent, suddenly Miriam became leprous, white as snow. Aaron turned toward her, saw that she was leprous, ¹¹and said to Moses, “My lord, please do not hold against us this sin we have so foolishly committed. ¹²Please do not let her be like a stillborn infant whose flesh is half consumed when he comes out of his mother’s womb.”

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

¹⁴But the LORD answered Moses, “If her father had but spit in her face, would she not have been in disgrace for seven days? Let her be confined outside the camp for seven days; after that she may be brought back in.”

¹⁵So Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on until she was brought in again. ¹⁶After that, the people set out from Hazeroth and camped in the Wilderness of Paran.

The Spies Explore Canaan

¹And the LORD said to Moses, ²“Send out for yourself men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each of their fathers’ tribes send one man who is a leader among them.”

³So at the command of the LORD, Moses sent them out from the Wilderness of Paran. All the men were leaders of the Israelites, ⁴and these 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 Manasseh (a tribe of Joseph), 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;

¹⁵and from the tribe of Gad, Geuel son of Machi.

¹⁶These were the names of the men Moses sent to spy out the land; and Moses gave to Hoshea son of Nun the name Joshua.

¹⁷When Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, he told them, “Go up through the Negev and into the hill country. ¹⁸See what the land is like and whether its people are strong or weak, few or many. ¹⁹Is the land where they live good or bad? Are the cities where they dwell open camps or fortifications? ²⁰Is the soil fertile or unproductive? Are there trees in it or not? Be courageous and bring back some of the fruit of the land.” (It was the season for the first ripe grapes.)

²¹So they went up and spied out the land from the Wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob, toward Lebo-hamath. ²²They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, dwelled. It had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.

²³When they came to the Valley of Eshcol, they cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes, which they carried on a pole between two men. They also took some pomegranates and figs. ²⁴Because of the cluster of grapes the Israelites cut there, that place was called the Valley of Eshcol.

The Reports of the Spies

²⁵After forty days the men returned from spying out the land, ²⁶and they went back to Moses, Aaron, and the whole congregation of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. They brought back a report for the whole congregation and showed them the fruit of the land.

²⁷And they gave this account to Moses: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and indeed, it is flowing with milk and honey. Here is some of its fruit! ²⁸Nevertheless, the people living in the land are strong, and the cities are large and fortified. We even saw the descendants of Anak there. ²⁹The Amalekites live in the land of the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live by the sea and along the Jordan.”

³⁰Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “We must go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly conquer it!”

³¹But the men who had gone up with him replied, “We cannot go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are!”

³²So they gave the Israelites a bad report about the land that they had spied out: “The land we explored devours its inhabitants, and all the people we saw there are great in stature. ³³We even saw the Nephilim there— the descendants of Anak that come from the Nephilim! We seemed like grasshoppers in our own sight, and we must have seemed the same to them!”

Evil in High Places

¹Then the Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the gate of the house of the LORD that faces east. And there at the entrance of the gate were twenty-five men. Among them I saw Jaazaniah son of Azzur and Pelatiah son of Benaiah, who were leaders of the people. ²And the LORD said to me, “Son of man, these are the men who plot evil and give wicked counsel in this city. ³They are saying, ‘Is not the time near to build houses? The city is the cooking pot, and we are the meat.’ ⁴Therefore prophesy against them; prophesy, O son of man!”

⁵And the Spirit of the LORD fell upon me and told me to declare that this is what the LORD says: “That is what you are thinking, O house of Israel; and I know the thoughts that arise in your minds. ⁶You have multiplied those you killed in this city and filled its streets with the dead.

⁷Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: The slain you have laid within this city are the meat, and the city is the pot; but I will remove you from it. ⁸You fear the sword, so I will bring the sword against you, declares the Lord GOD. ⁹I will bring you out of the city and deliver you into the hands of foreigners, and I will execute judgments against you. ¹⁰You will fall by the sword, and I will judge you even to the borders of Israel. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

¹¹The city will not be a pot for you, nor will you be the meat within it. I will judge you even to the borders of Israel. ¹²Then you will know that I am the LORD. For you have neither followed My statutes nor practiced My ordinances, but you have conformed to the ordinances of the nations around you.”

A Promise of Restoration

¹³Now as I was prophesying, Pelatiah son of Benaiah died. Then I fell facedown and cried out in a loud voice, “Oh, Lord GOD, will You bring the remnant of Israel to a complete end?”

¹⁴Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ¹⁵“Son of man, your brothers — your relatives, your fellow exiles, and the whole house of Israel — are those of whom the people of Jerusalem have said, ‘They are far away from the LORD; this land has been given to us as a possession.’

¹⁶Therefore declare that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Although I sent them far away among the nations and scattered them among the countries, yet for a little while I have been a sanctuary for them in the countries to which they have gone.’

¹⁷Therefore declare that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you from the countries to which you have been scattered, and I will give back to you the land of Israel.’

¹⁸When they return to it, they will remove all its detestable things and all its abominations. ¹⁹And I will give them singleness of heart and put a new spirit within them; I will remove their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh, ²⁰so that they may follow My statutes, keep My ordinances, and practice them. Then they will be My people, and I will be their God.

²¹But as for those whose hearts pursue detestable things and abominations, I will bring their conduct down upon their own heads, declares the Lord GOD.”

God’s Glory Leaves Jerusalem

²²Then the cherubim, with the wheels beside them, spread their wings, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them. ²³And the glory of the LORD rose up from within the city and stood over the mountain east of the city.

²⁴And the Spirit lifted me up and carried me back to Chaldea, to the exiles in the vision given by the Spirit of God. After the vision had gone up from me, ²⁵I told the exiles everything the LORD had shown me.

The Throne in Heaven

¹After this I looked and saw a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had previously heard speak to me like a trumpet was saying, “Come up here, and I will show you what must happen after these things.”

²At once I was in the Spirit, and I saw a throne standing in heaven, with someone seated on it. ³The One seated there looked like jasper and carnelian, and a rainbow that gleamed like an emerald encircled the throne. ⁴Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and on these thrones sat twenty-four elders dressed in white, with golden crowns on their heads.

Worship of the Creator

⁵From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings, and peals of thunder. Before the throne burned seven torches of fire. These are the seven spirits of God. ⁶And before the throne was something like a sea of glass, as clear as crystal. In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, covered with eyes in front and back. ⁷The first living creature was like a lion, the second like a calf, the third had a face like a man, and the fourth was like an eagle in flight. ⁸And each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around and within. Day and night they never stop saying:

“Holy, Holy, Holy,

is the Lord God Almighty,

who was and is and is to come!”

⁹And whenever the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to the One seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, ¹⁰the twenty-four elders fall down before the One seated on the throne, and they worship Him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying:

¹¹“Worthy are You, our Lord and God,

to receive glory and honor and power,

for You created all things;

by Your will they exist and were created.”