shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself. And now what doth the Lord require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul? And it shall come to pass, if ye walk in these statutes, and keep these commandments, and do them, that the Lord will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. THE BOOK OF NUMBERS NUMBERS XI And it came to pass, that Moses complained unto the Lord and said, Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant? and wherefore have I not found favour in thy sight, that thou layest the burden of all this people upon me? Have I conceived all this people? have I brought them forth, that I should carry them in my bosom as a father carrieth the nursing child? I am not able to bear all this people alone. And the Lord said unto Moses, Gather unto me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people, and officers over them; and bring them unto the tent of meeting, that they may stand there with thee. And I will come down and talk with thee there and I will take of the Spirit which is upo:: thee, and I will put it upon them; and they shal! bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone. Is the Lord's hand waxed short? now shalt thou see whether my word shall come to pass unto thee or not. And Moses went out, and told the people the words of the Lord: and he gathered seventy men of the elders of the people, and set them round about the tent. And the Lord came down in the cloud, and spake unto him, and took of the Spirit that was upon him, and put it upon the : seventy elders: and it came to pass, that, when the Spirit rested upon them, they began to prophesy. But there remained two men in the camp, who were of them that were written, but had not gone out to the tent; the name of the one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad: and the Spirit rested upon them, and they likewise began to prophesy. And there ran a young man, and told Moses, and said, Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp. And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, answered and said, My lord Moses, forbid them! But Moses said unto him, Art thou jealous for my sake? would God that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them! NUMBERS XIII, XIV Then came the children of Israel near unto Moses, and said, Let us send men before us to spy out the land of Canaan, and bring us word again of the way we must go up, and the cities unto which we shall come. And the thing pleased Moses, and he took twelve men, from each tribe a man, and said to them, Get you up this way by the South, and go up into the hill-country: and see the land, what it is; and the people that dwell therein, whether they be strong or weak, few or many; and what cities they be that they dwell in, whether in tents, or in strongholds; and what the land is, whether it be fat or lean, whether there be wood therein, or not. And be of good courage, and bring of the fruit of the land. So they went up and spied out the land. Now after forty days they returned from spying out the land. And they came to Moses and to Aaron and to all the children of Israel, and brought back word unto them. And they said, We came into the land whither thou sentest us; and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it. Howbeit the people that dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are walled, and very great. And Caleb said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. But the men that went up with him said, We are not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had spied out, saying, The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants. thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. And there we saw giants : and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so were we in their sight. And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried, and the people wept that night. And they murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would that we might die even in this wilderness! And wherefore doth the Lord bring us into 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? Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt! Then Joshua and Caleb, which were of them that spied out the land, spake unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceeding good land. If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it unto us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not against the Lord, neither fear the people of the land; for the Lord our God is with us. NUMBERS XXII, XXIII, XXIV Now when Balak the king of Moab saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites, he was sore afraid of the people, and was distressed because of the children of Israel. Therefore Balak king of the Moabites sent unto Balaam the son of Beor, saying, Behold, there is a people come out from Egypt: behold, they cover the face of the earth, and they abide over against me; come now therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people; for they are too mighty for me; so shall I prevail over them, and drive them from the land: for I wot that he whom thou blessest is blessed, and he whom thou cursest is cursed. So Balaam rose up in the morning, and went unto Moab. And when Balak heard that Balaam was come, he went out to meet him, and said, Let nothing, I pray thee, hinder thee from cursing me this people; for I will promote thee unto very great honour, and I will do whatsoever thou |