But he left behind some of the poor and gave them fields and vineyards.

“‘But I will spare some of you. Some will escape the sword when you are scattered in foreign lands.

I will give it to foreigners as loot, to the world’s wicked ones as plunder, and they will desecrate it.

I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you among various countries; I will remove your impurity from you.

I scattered them among the nations; they were dispersed throughout foreign countries. In accordance with their behavior and their deeds I judged them.

“This is how you will divide this land for yourselves among the tribes of Israel.

While he was saying this to me, I was flat on the ground and unable to speak.

He will then turn his attention to the fortresses of his own land, but he will stumble and fall, not to be found again.

I will destroy the cities of your land, and tear down all your fortresses.

The earth will become desolate because of what its inhabitants have done.

But the Lord is in his majestic palace. The whole earth is speechless in his presence!”

Bring out with you all the living creatures that are with you. Bring out every living thing, including the birds, animals, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. Let them increase and be fruitful and multiply on the earth!”

Then they said to Pharaoh, “We have come to live as temporary residents in the land. There is no pasture for your servants’ flocks because the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. So now, please let your servants live in the land of Goshen.”

The land of Egypt is before you; settle your father and your brothers in the best region of the land. They may live in the land of Goshen. If you know of any highly capable men among them, put them in charge of my livestock.”

I have come down to deliver them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a land that is both good and spacious, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the region of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.

They did so; Aaron extended his hand with his staff, he struck the dust of the ground, and it became gnats on people and on animals. All the dust of the ground became gnats throughout all the land of Egypt.

The Lord said to Moses, “Extend your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come up over the land of Egypt and eat everything that grows in the ground, everything that the hail has left.”

Then they presented the Israelites with a discouraging report of the land they had investigated, saying, “The land that we passed through to investigate is a land that devours its inhabitants. All the people we saw there are of great stature.

“Give these instructions to the Israelites, and tell them: ‘When you enter Canaan, the land that has been assigned to you as an inheritance, the land of Canaan with its borders,

“You must not pollute the land where you live, for blood defiles the land, and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed there, except by the blood of the person who shed it.