THE LORD COMMANDS MOSES AND AARON TO NUMBER THE PEOPLE. THE LEVITES ARE CHOSEN TO DO THE WORK AT THE TABERNACLE. THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL LEAVE MOUNT SINAI. THEY MURMUR BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO FLESH TO EAT. QUAILS ARE SENT. AARON AND MIRIAM SPEAK AGAINST MOSES.
MORE than a year had now passed since the children of Israel left Egypt, and they were still at mount Sinai, where their camp had been so long. For, first, they had waited there forty days and forty nights, while Moses was on the mount, when God gave him the two tables of stone with the Ten Commandments written upon them. But these were broken because the people worshipped the golden calf. Then they waited forty days and forty nights more, while Moses went up with the two new tables which the Lord commanded him to make. Afterward they waited still longer, while the tabernacle was building, and while God spoke to Moses inside of the tabernacle, giving him many new laws for the children of Israel to obey. But now the time was near when they should leave mount Sinai, and go on their journey toward the land of Canaan.
The children of Israel were divided into great companies. called tribes. There were thirteen tribes of them. Each tribe was descended from one of the sons of Jacob, or of Joseph. These were their names: the tribes of Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Zebulun, Issachar, Dan, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin. As they would have to fight against their enemies when they came into Canaan, the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron to number, or count, the men in the different tribes, who were able to be soldiers and go out to war. And Moses and Aaron did so, and found there were six hundred and three thousand, five hundred and fifty of them.
But the men of the tribe of Levi were not numbered with the others, because the Lord did not want them to go out to war. He chose them to stay near the tabernacle, and take care of it. When the children of Israel should go on their journey, the men of this tribe were to take the tabernacle down and carry the different parts of it, and when they should stop to rest and make a camp, these men were to set it up again. For the tabernacle and all the things in it were holy, and no one, except the priests and Levites, was allowed to come near them or touch them. If any other man did so, except when he came to offer up a sacrifice, or to worship, the Lord said he must be put to death.
After the other tribes had been numbered, the Lord commanded Moses to bring the men of the tribe of Levi to Aaron. He said that they should help, and wait upon, Aaron and his sons. They should not only take down the tabernacle, and carry it and set it up again, on their journeys, but all the time that it should stand in the camp, they must do the work there; for there was much work to be done. Besides the two lambs, which the priests were to offer up every day, the people would bring many other offerings. Wood must be cut to burn these with; water must be brought for the laver, where Aaron and his sons were to wash their feet and their hands, whenever they should go into the tabernacle, or offer up a sacrifice; the ashes must be taken away from the altar, and the court where the offerings would be killed must be kept clean from their blood. Aaron and his sons could not attend to all these things, and now God chose the Levites to do it. And he commanded Moses and Aaron to number them; and they did so, and found there were of them, eight thousand five hundred and eighty men. So, after they were numbered, the men of the tribe of Levi went to wait on the priests and do the work at the tabernacle. Now Aaron, himself, was of the tribe of Levi, but he and his family had been separated to be priests.
And twelve princes came from the other twelve tribes, bringing presents to the tabernacle. They brought six covered wagons, and twelve oxen to draw them; also dishes, bowls, and spoons, made of silver and gold, to be used at the tabernacle. Then Moses took the wagons and the oxen, and gave them to the Levites to carry different parts of the tabernacle in, when the children of Israel should go on their journey. Two wagons were to carry the heavy curtains; and the other four, the boards covered with gold, that made the sides of the tabernacle, and the brass pillars that stood around the court. But he gave no wagons to carry the ark, the golden table, the golden candlestick, the golden altar, and the brass altar, for these were not to be carried in wagons, but on the Levites' shoulders.
Now the pillar of cloud was still over the tabernacle. In the day it was the color of a cloud, and in the night the color of fire. On the day that Moses set up the tabernacle it came there and stood over the most holy place. And, after that, it stayed there always, except when the Lord wanted the children of Israel to go on their journey. Then it was lifted up higher. As soon as it was lifted up the people knew they were to go, and as the cloud moved on, they followed after it. As long as it moved they followed, but whenever it stopped they stopped, and made their camp in that place.
And when they had made their camp, they stayed there until the cloud rose up again from over the tabernacle. If it stayed only one day, they stayed one day. If it stayed two days, they stayed two days; or if it stayed a whole year, they stayed a year. But whenever the cloud was taken up, whether it were in the day or in the night, they went on their journey. For it was the Lord who made it to stay or to go, and he was, in this way, guiding them through the wilderness. And the Lord commanded Moses to make two silver trumpets, for the priests to blow upon when Moses wanted to call all the people together; and also when they were about to start on their journey.
While on their journey the children of Israel carried standards, or banners, with them, and marched like an army. Each tribe kept in its own place, and each one had a captain over it. In the midst of the other tribes went the Levites, carrying the different parts of the tabernacle. As soon as the people stopped anywhere to make their camp, the Levites set up the tabernacle there. Next to it they set up their own tents, and the other tribes set up theirs farther off. This was the way the children of Israel always made their camp. The tabernacle was in the middle of it, the tents of the Levites were next, and the tents of the other tribes were farther off, but on every side of the tabernacle. And they kept their tents in the same place, until they took them down to go on their journey again.
And now the time was come for them to leave mount Sinai. The Lord spoke to them, and said they had been long enough at that place, they should go on their journey toward Canaan. Then the cloud rose up from over the tabernacle and moved on before them, and they followed it for three days, until they came into the wilderness of Paran. There it stopped, and they made their camp.
We should suppose that when they saw the cloud going before them, they would have been thankful to God, and satisfied with whatever he chose to give them, until they reached that good land to which he was leading them. But it was not so. Because they had no meat to eat in the wilderness, they complained and said, Who shall give us meat to eat? We remember the fish that we had in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, and the onions, but now we have nothing at all beside this manna. For they still went out every day and gathered the manna, and baked it and made cakes of it. Yet they complained and wept, because they had no meat, and Moses heard them weeping at the doors of their tents.
And the Lord was very angry with them; and Moses was discouraged, because the people that he had the care of did so wickedly. He asked the Lord why he gave him the care of them all. It was too much for him, he said, and if the Lord was going to send him such great trouble, he begged he might die, so that he would have it no more. But Moses sinned in speaking so; the Lord had always helped him when he was in trouble before, and was willing to help him now; he should not have complained, but have trusted in him.
And the Lord commanded Moses to tell the people that they should have meat given them, for he had heard them weeping and asking, Who will give us flesh to eat? They should have it he said, not only for one day nor for two days, but for a whole month, until it should be loathsome to them, that is, until they could not bear to taste it or see it. God would make it loathsome to them, because they had been so wicked as to complain of the manna, and ask, why they had been brought out of Egypt. But when the Lord told Moses that the people should have flesh for a whole month, Moses could hardly believe it; he said, Here are six hundred thousand men, and thou sayest, I will give them flesh that they may eat for a whole month. Must all the flocks and herds, that we brought with us out of Egypt, be now slain for them? or shall all the fish of the sea be caught to give them enough? The Lord answered, Has my hand grown weak that I cannot do it? Wait and thou shalt see whether my words will come true or not. So Moses told the people what the Lord said.
Then the Lord sent a wind that brought quails from the sea, and they fell all around the camp. There were so many that the ground was covered with them. And the people went out and gathered them all that day, and all that night, and all the next day. But when they began to eat them, as soon as they had put the flesh in their mouths, the Lord sent a great plague among the people, and many of them died for their sin and were buried there in the wilderness.
And the cloud was lifted up again, and the people journeyed to a place called Hazeroth; there they stopped and made their camp.
Now Moses was the chief one among the children of Israel, because the Lord had chosen him to rule over them, and had talked with him, and given him the laws which they were to obey. Yet the Bible tells us he was more meek and humble than any other man who was then living on the earth. But Miriam his sister, and Aaron his brother, found fault with him, because he had married a woman who was not one of the children of Israel. They said, too, that God had spoken to them, as well as to him, as if they, also, ought to be rulers over the people.
And the Lord heard what Aaron and Miriam said, and he commanded them to go with Moses, to the tabernacle. When they had gone there, the Lord came down in the pillar of cloud and stood by the door. And he called to Aaron and Miriam, and they came before him; and the Lord told them that Moses was his servant, who was obedient in doing his will, and he asked them why they were not afraid to speak against him. Then the pillar of cloud, in which the Lord was, rose up from the tabernacle; after it was gone Aaron looked on Miriam, and she was covered with the leprosy, as white as snow. God had sent it upon her as a punishment for their wickedness. When Aaron saw it, he was greatly troubled, and he spoke to Moses and said, We have sinned. And he begged that Miriam might be healed. And Moses prayed earnestly to the Lord for her, saying, Heal her now, O God, I beseech thee. And the Lord heard his prayer, and healed her of her leprosy. Then the people journeyed from Hazeroth to the wilderness of Paran.