Study Desk

One day some worthless foreigners among the Israelites became greedy for food, and even the Israelites themselves began moaning, "We don't have any meat!

He prayed: I am your servant, Lord , so why are you doing this to me? What have I done to deserve this? You've made me responsible for all these people,

They keep whining for meat, but where can I get meat for them?

This job is too much for me. How can I take care of all these people by myself?

While I am talking with you there, I will give them some of your authority, so they can share responsibility for my people. You will no longer have to care for them by yourself.

As for the Israelites, I have heard them complaining about not having meat and about being better off in Egypt. So tell them to make themselves acceptable to me, because tomorrow they will have meat.

In fact, they will have meat day after day for a whole month—not just a few days, or even ten or twenty. They turned against me and wanted to return to Egypt. Now they will eat meat until they get sick of it.

Moses replied, "At least six hundred thousand grown men are here with me. How can you say there will be enough meat to feed them and their families for a whole month?

Some time later the Lord sent a strong wind that blew quails in from the sea until Israel's camp was completely surrounded with birds, piled up about three feet high for miles in every direction.

The people picked up quails for two days—each person filled at least fifty bushels. Then they spread them out to dry.

After they had buried the people who had been so greedy for meat, they called the place "Graves for the Greedy."

he said to Moses, "Sir, please don't punish us for doing such a foolish thing.

But the Lord replied, "Miriam would be disgraced for seven days if her father had punished her by spitting in her face. So make her stay outside the camp for seven days, before coming back."

and if they live in open towns or walled cities. See if the land is good for growing crops and find out what kinds of trees grow there. It's time for grapes to ripen, so try to bring back some of the fruit that grows there.

But the other men replied, "Those people are much too strong for us."

The Lord said to Moses, "I have done great things for these people, and they still reject me by refusing to believe in my power.

I will cruelly punish you every day for the next forty years—one year for each day that the land was explored.

If all of you disobey one of my laws without meaning to, you must offer a bull as a sacrifice to please me, together with a grain sacrifice, a wine offering, and a goat as a sacrifice for sin.

But if one of you does wrong without meaning to, you must sacrifice a year-old female goat as a sacrifice for sin.

The law will be the same for anyone who does wrong without meaning to, whether an Israelite or a foreigner living among you.