Study Desk

Now the LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying,

"For all the firstborn are Mine; on the day that I fatally struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I sanctified to Myself all the firstborn in Israel, from the human firstborn to animals. They shall be Mine; I am the LORD."

"For every firstborn among the sons of Israel is Mine, among the people and among the animals; on the day that I fatally struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I sanctified them for Myself.

Now the LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying,

'And if a stranger resides among you and celebrates the Passover to the LORD, according to the statute of the Passover and its ordinance, so he shall celebrate it; you shall have the same statute, both for the stranger and for the native of the land.'"

"Was it I who conceived all this people? Or did I give birth to them, that You should say to me, 'Carry them in your arms, as a nurse carries a nursing infant, to the land which You swore to their fathers'?

"Send out men for yourself to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am going to give the sons of Israel; you shall send a man from each of their fathers' tribes, every one a leader among them."

These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land; but Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun, Joshua.

When Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, he said to them, "Go up there into the Negev; then go up into the hill country.

"See what the land is like, and whether the people who live in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many.

"And how is the land in which they live, is it good or bad? And how are the cities in which they live, are the people in open camps or in fortifications?

"And how is the land, is it productive or unproductive? Are there trees in it or not? And show yourselves courageous and get some of the fruit of the land." Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes.

So they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob, at Lebo-hamath.

When they returned from spying out the land, at the end of forty days,

they went on and came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, in the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh; and they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land.

So they reported to him and said, "We came into the land where you sent us, and it certainly does flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.

"Nevertheless, the people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And indeed, we saw the descendants of Anak there!

"Amalek is living in the land of the Negev, the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites are living in the hill country, and the Canaanites are living by the sea and by the side of the Jordan."

So they brought a bad report of the land which they had spied out to the sons of Israel, saying, "The land through which we have gone to spy out is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are people of great stature.

And all the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron; and the entire congregation said to them, "If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or even if we had died in this wilderness!