Bible Reading Plan – Day 41

₁All night long the people cried out in distress. ₂They complained against Moses and Aaron, and said, “It would have been better to die in Egypt or even here in the wilderness! ₃Why is the LORD taking us into that land? We will be killed in battle, and our wives and children will be captured. Wouldn't it be better to go back to Egypt?” ₄So they said to one another, “Let's choose a leader and go back to Egypt!”

₅Then Moses and Aaron bowed to the ground in front of all the people. ₆And Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, two of the spies, tore their clothes in sorrow ₇and said to the people, “The land we explored is an excellent land. ₈If the LORD is pleased with us, he will take us there and give us that rich and fertile land. ₉Do not rebel against the LORD and don't be afraid of the people who live there. We will conquer them easily. The LORD is with us and has defeated the gods who protected them; so don't be afraid.” ₁₀The whole community was threatening to stone them to death, but suddenly the people saw the dazzling light of the LORD's presence appear over the tent.

₁₁The LORD said to Moses, “How much longer will these people reject me? How much longer will they refuse to trust in me, even though I have performed so many miracles among them? ₁₂I will send an epidemic and destroy them, but I will make you the father of a nation that is larger and more powerful than they are!”

₁₃But Moses said to the LORD, “You brought these people out of Egypt by your power. When the Egyptians hear what you have done to your people, ₁₄they will tell it to the people who live in this land. These people have already heard that you, LORD, are with us, that you are plainly seen when your cloud stops over us, and that you go before us in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. ₁₅Now if you kill all your people, the nations who have heard of your fame will say ₁₆that you killed your people in the wilderness because you were not able to bring them into the land you promised to give them. ₁₇So now LORD, I pray, show us your power and do what you promised when you said, ₁₈‘I, the LORD, am not easily angered, and I show great love and faithfulness and forgive sin and rebellion. Yet I will not fail to punish children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation for the sins of their parents.’ ₁₉And now, LORD, according to the greatness of your unchanging love, forgive, I pray, the sin of these people, just as you have forgiven them ever since they left Egypt.”

₂₀The LORD answered, “I will forgive them, as you have asked. ₂₁But I promise that as surely as I live and as surely as my presence fills the earth, ₂₂none of these people will live to enter that land. They have seen the dazzling light of my presence and the miracles that I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, but they have tried my patience over and over again and have refused to obey me. ₂₃They will never enter the land which I promised to their ancestors. None of those who have rejected me will ever enter it. ₂₄But because my servant Caleb has a different attitude and has remained loyal to me, I will bring him into the land which he explored, and his descendants will possess the land ₂₅in whose valleys the Amalekites and the Canaanites now live. Turn back tomorrow and go into the wilderness in the direction of the Gulf of Aqaba.”

₂₆The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, ₂₇“How much longer are these wicked people going to complain against me? I have heard enough of these complaints! ₂₈Now give them this answer: ‘I swear that as surely as I live, I will do to you just what you have asked. I, the LORD, have spoken. ₂₉You will die and your corpses will be scattered across this wilderness. Because you have complained against me, none of you over twenty years of age will enter that land. ₃₀I promised to let you live there, but not one of you will, except Caleb and Joshua. ₃₁You said that your children would be captured, but I will bring them into the land that you rejected, and it will be their home. ₃₂You will die here in this wilderness. ₃₃Your children will wander in the wilderness for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last one of you dies. ₃₄You will suffer the consequences of your sin for forty years, one year for each of the forty days you spent exploring the land. You will know what it means to have me against you! ₃₅I swear that I will do this to you wicked people who have gathered together against me. Here in the wilderness every one of you will die. I, the LORD, have spoken.’ ”

_36-37The men Moses had sent to explore the land brought back a false report which caused the people to complain against the LORD. And so the LORD struck them with a disease, and they died. ₃₈Of the twelve spies only Joshua and Caleb survived.

₃₉When Moses told the Israelites what the LORD had said, they mourned bitterly. ₄₀Early the next morning they started out to invade the hill country, saying, “Now we are ready to go to the place which the LORD told us about. We admit that we have sinned.”

₄₁But Moses said, “Then why are you disobeying the LORD now? You will not succeed! ₄₂Don't go. The LORD is not with you, and your enemies will defeat you. ₄₃When you face the Amalekites and the Canaanites, you will die in battle; the LORD will not be with you, because you have refused to follow him.”

₄₄Yet they still dared to go up into the hill country, even though neither the LORD's Covenant Box nor Moses left the camp. ₄₅Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived there attacked and defeated them, and pursued them as far as Hormah.

₁The LORD gave Moses ₂the following regulations for the people of Israel to observe in the land that he was going to give them. ₃A bull, a ram, a sheep, or a goat may be presented to the LORD as a burnt offering or as a sacrifice in fulfilment of a vow or as a freewill offering or as an offering at your regular religious festivals; the smell of these food offerings is pleasing to the LORD. _4-5Whoever presents a sheep or a goat as a burnt offering to the LORD is to bring with each animal a kilogramme of flour mixed with one litre of olive oil as a grain offering, together with one litre of wine. ₆When a ram is offered, two kilogrammes of flour mixed with 1.5 litres of olive oil are to be presented as a grain offering, ₇together with 1.5 litres of wine. The smell of these sacrifices is pleasing to the LORD. ₈When a bull is offered to the LORD as a burnt offering or as a sacrifice in fulfilment of a vow or as a fellowship offering, ₉a grain offering of three kilogrammes of flour mixed with two litres of olive oil is to be presented, ₁₀together with two litres of wine. The smell of this sacrifice is pleasing to the LORD.

₁₁That is what shall be offered with each bull, ram, sheep, or goat. ₁₂When more than one animal is offered, the accompanying offering is to be increased proportionately. ₁₃All native Israelites are to do this when they present a food offering, a smell pleasing to the LORD. ₁₄And if at any time foreigners living among you, whether on a temporary or a permanent basis, make a food offering, a smell that pleases the LORD, they are to observe the same regulations. ₁₅For all time to come, the same rules are binding on you and on the foreigners who live among you. You and they are alike in the LORD's sight; ₁₆the same laws and regulations apply to you and to them.

₁₇The LORD gave Moses ₁₈the following regulations for the people of Israel to observe in the land that he was going to give them. ₁₉When any food produced there is eaten, some of it is to be set aside as a special contribution to the LORD. ₂₀When you bake bread, the first loaf of the first bread made from the new corn is to be presented as a special contribution to the LORD. This is to be presented in the same way as the special contribution you make from the corn you thresh. ₂₁For all time to come, this special gift is to be given to the LORD from the bread you bake.

₂₂But suppose someone unintentionally fails to keep some of these regulations which the LORD has given Moses. ₂₃And suppose that in the future the community fails to do everything that the LORD commanded through Moses. ₂₄If the mistake was made because of the ignorance of the community, they are to offer a bull as a burnt offering, a smell that pleases the LORD, with the proper grain offering and wine offering. In addition, they are to offer a male goat as a sin offering. ₂₅The priest shall perform the ritual of purification for the community, and they will be forgiven, because the mistake was unintentional and they brought their sin offering as a food offering to the LORD. ₂₆The whole community of Israel and the foreigners living among them will be forgiven, because everyone was involved in the mistake.

₂₇If an individual sins unintentionally, he is to offer a one-year-old female goat as a sin offering. ₂₈At the altar the priest shall perform the ritual of purification to purify the person from his sin, and he will be forgiven. ₂₉The same regulation applies to all who unintentionally commit a sin, whether they are native Israelites or resident foreigners.

₃₀But any person who sins deliberately, whether he is a native or a foreigner, is guilty of treating the LORD with contempt, and he shall be put to death, ₃₁because he has rejected what the LORD said and has deliberately broken one of his commands. He is responsible for his own death.

₃₂Once, while the Israelites were still in the wilderness, a man was found gathering firewood on the Sabbath. ₃₃He was taken to Moses, Aaron, and the whole community, ₃₄and was put under guard, because it was not clear what should be done with him. ₃₅Then the LORD said to Moses, “The man must be put to death; the whole community is to stone him to death outside the camp.” ₃₆So the whole community took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the LORD had commanded.

₃₇The LORD commanded Moses ₃₈to say to the people of Israel: “Make tassels on the corners of your garments and put a blue cord on each tassel. You are to do this for all time to come. ₃₉The tassels will serve as reminders, and each time you see them you will remember all my commands and obey them; then you will not turn away from me and follow your own wishes and desires. ₄₀The tassels will remind you to keep all my commands, and you will belong completely to me. ₄₁I am the LORD your God; I brought you out of Egypt to be your God. I am the LORD.”

_1-2Korah son of Izhar, from the Levite clan of Kohath, rebelled against the leadership of Moses. He was joined by three members of the tribe of Reuben — Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth — and by 250 other Israelites, well-known leaders chosen by the community. ₃They assembled before Moses and Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! All the members of the community belong to the LORD, and the LORD is with all of us. Why, then, Moses, do you set yourself above the LORD's community?”

₄When Moses heard this, he threw himself on the ground and prayed. ₅Then he said to Korah and his followers, “Tomorrow morning the LORD will show us who belongs to him; he will let the one who belongs to him, that is, the one he has chosen, approach him at the altar. _6-7Tomorrow morning you and your followers take firepans, put live coals and incense on them, and take them to the altar. Then we will see which of us the LORD has chosen. You Levites are the ones who have gone too far!”

₈Moses continued to speak to Korah. “Listen, you Levites! ₉Do you consider it a small matter that the God of Israel has set you apart from the rest of the community, so that you can approach him, perform your service in the LORD's Tent, and minister to the community and serve them? ₁₀He has let you and all the other Levites have this honour — and now you are trying to get the priesthood too! ₁₁When you complain against Aaron, it is really against the LORD that you and your followers are rebelling.”

₁₂Then Moses sent for Dathan and Abiram, but they said, “We will not come! ₁₃Isn't it enough that you have brought us out of the fertile land of Egypt to kill us here in the wilderness? Do you also have to lord it over us? ₁₄You certainly have not brought us into a fertile land or given us fields and vineyards as our possession, and now you are trying to deceive us. We will not come!”

₁₅Moses was angry and said to the LORD, “Do not accept any offerings these men bring. I have not wronged any of them; I have not even taken one of their donkeys.”

₁₆Moses said to Korah, “Tomorrow you and your 250 followers must come to the Tent of the LORD's presence; Aaron will also be there. ₁₇Each of you will take his firepan, put incense on it, and then present it at the altar.” ₁₈So every man took his firepan, put live coals and incense on it, and stood at the entrance of the Tent with Moses and Aaron. ₁₉Then Korah gathered the whole community, and they stood facing Moses and Aaron at the entrance of the Tent. Suddenly the dazzling light of the LORD's presence appeared to the whole community, ₂₀and the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, ₂₁“Stand back from these people, and I will destroy them immediately.”

₂₂But Moses and Aaron bowed down with their faces to the ground and said, “O God, you are the source of all life. When one person sins, do you get angry with the whole community?”

₂₃The LORD said to Moses, ₂₄“Tell the people to move away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.”

₂₅Then Moses, accompanied by the leaders of Israel, went to Dathan and Abiram. ₂₆He said to the people, “Stand away from the tents of these wicked men and don't touch anything that belongs to them. Otherwise, you will be wiped out with them for all their sins.” ₂₇So they moved away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.

Dathan and Abiram had come out and were standing at the entrance of their tents, with their wives and children. ₂₈Moses said to the people, “This is how you will know that the LORD has sent me to do all these things and that it is not by my own choice that I have done them. ₂₉If these men die a natural death without some punishment from God, then the LORD did not send me. ₃₀But if the LORD does something unheard of, and the earth opens up and swallows them with all they own, so that they go down alive to the world of the dead, you will know that these men have rejected the LORD.”

₃₁As soon as he had finished speaking, the ground under Dathan and Abiram split open ₃₂and swallowed them and their families, together with all of Korah's followers and their possessions. ₃₃So they went down alive to the world of the dead, with their possessions. The earth closed over them, and they vanished. ₃₄All the people of Israel who were there fled when they heard their cry. They shouted, “Run! The earth might swallow us too!”

₃₅Then the LORD sent a fire that blazed out and burnt up the 250 men who had presented the incense.