For if you turn away from following him, he will once again abandon them in the wilderness, and you will be the reason for their destruction.”

They traveled from Alush and camped at Rephidim, where there was no water for the people to drink.

So Aaron did as Moses commanded and ran into the middle of the assembly, where the plague was just beginning among the people. So he placed incense on the coals and made atonement for the people.

Then the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that he would take away the snakes from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.

And he sent messengers to Balaam son of Beor at Pethor, which is by the Euphrates River in the land of Amaw, to summon him, saying, “Look, a nation has come out of Egypt. They cover the face of the earth, and they are settling next to me.

When the people complained, it displeased the Lord. When the Lord heard it, his anger burned, and so the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some of the outer parts of the camp.

And the people went about and gathered it, and ground it with mills or pounded it in mortars; they baked it in pans and made cakes of it. It tasted like fresh olive oil.

Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, everyone at the door of his tent; and when the anger of the Lord was kindled greatly, Moses was also displeased.

From where shall I get meat to give to this entire people, for they cry to me, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat!’

Moses said, “The people around me are 600,000 on foot; but you say, ‘I will give them meat, that they may eat for a whole month.’

Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for me? I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!”

So the name of that place was called Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people that craved different food.

and see what the land is like, and whether the people who live in it are strong or weak, few or many,

But the inhabitants are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. Moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there.

Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses, saying, “Let us go up and occupy it, for we are well able to conquer it.”

But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against these people, because they are stronger than we are!”

Moses said to the Lord, “When the Egyptians hear it – for you brought up this people by your power from among them –

If you kill this entire people at once, then the nations that have heard of your fame will say,

‘Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land that he swore to them, he killed them in the wilderness.’

“‘But the person who acts defiantly, whether native-born or a resident foreigner, insults the Lord. That person must be cut off from among his people.