Miriam and Aaron Oppose Moses

1 Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman. 2 And they said, “Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? ^oHas he not spoken through us also?” And ^pthe Lord heard it. 3 Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth. 4 And suddenly the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron and Miriam, “Come out, you three, to the tent of meeting.” And the three of them came out. 5 And ^qthe Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the tent and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forward. 6 And he said, “Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him ^rin a vision; I speak with him ^sin a dream. 7 Not so with ^tmy servant Moses. ^uHe is faithful in all my house. 8 With him I speak ^vmouth to mouth, clearly, and not in ^wriddles, and he beholds ^xthe form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” 9 And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, and he departed.

10 When the cloud removed from over the tent, behold, ^yMiriam was ^zleprous,¹ like snow. And Aaron turned toward Miriam, and behold, she was leprous. 11 And Aaron said to Moses, “Oh, my lord, ^ado not punish us² because we have done foolishly and have sinned. 12 Let her not be as one dead, whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes out of his mother’s womb.” 13 And Moses cried to the Lord, “O God, please heal her—please.” 14 But the Lord said to Moses, “If her father had but ^bspit in her face, should she not be shamed seven days? Let her be ^cshut outside the camp seven days, and after that she may be brought in again.” 15 So Miriam ^dwas shut outside the camp seven days, and the people did not set out on the march till Miriam was brought in again. 16 After that the people set out from ^eHazeroth, and camped in ^fthe wilderness of Paran.

Spies Sent into Canaan

1 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 ^g“Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a chief among them.” 3 So Moses sent them from ^hthe wilderness of Paran, according to the command of the Lord, all of them men who were heads of the people of Israel. 4 And these were their names: From the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur; 5 from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori; 6 ⁱfrom the tribe of Judah, ^jCaleb the son of Jephunneh; 7 from the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph; 8 from the tribe of Ephraim, ^kHoshea the son of Nun; 9 from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu; 10 from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi; 11 from the tribe of Joseph (that is, from the tribe of Manasseh), Gaddi the son of Susi; 12 from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli; 13 from the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael; 14 from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi; 15 from the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi. 16 These were the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called ^kHoshea the son of Nun Joshua.

17 Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said to them, “Go up into ^lthe Negeb and go up into ^mthe hill country, 18 and see what the land is, and whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, 19 and whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad, and whether the cities that they dwell in are camps or strongholds, 20 and whether the land is ⁿrich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not. ^oBe of good courage and bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes.

21 So they went up and spied out the land ^pfrom the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, ^qnear Lebo-hamath. 22 They went up into ^mthe Negeb and came to ^rHebron. ^sAhiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the ^tdescendants of Anak, were there. (^uHebron was built seven years before ^uZoan in Egypt.) 23 And ^vthey came to the Valley of Eshcol and cut down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a pole between two of them; they also brought some pomegranates and figs. 24 That place was called the Valley of Eshcol,³ because of the cluster that the people of Israel cut down from there.

Report of the Spies

25 At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land. 26 And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at ^wKadesh. They brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us. It ^xflows with milk and honey, ^yand this is its fruit. 28 ^zHowever, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. 29 ^aThe Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. ^bAnd the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.”

30 But ^cCaleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” 31 ^dThen the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.” 32 So ^ethey brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and ^fall the people that we saw in it are of great height. 33 And there we saw the ^gNephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the ^gNephilim), and we seemed to ourselves ^hlike grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”

Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind

1 As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, ^c“Rabbi, ^dwho sinned, ^ethis man or ^fhis parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but ^gthat the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 We must ^hwork the works of him who sent me ⁱwhile it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, ^jI am the light of the world.” 6 Having said these things, ^khe spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. ^lThen he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud 7 and said to him, “Go, wash in ^mthe pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and ⁿcame back seeing.

8 The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, ^o“Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” 10 So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered, ^p“The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.” 12 They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”

13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. 14 ^qNow it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 15 ^rSo the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” 16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not ^sfrom God, ^tfor he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, ^u“How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And ^vthere was a division among them. 17 So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” He said, ^w“He is a prophet.”

18 ^xThe Jews¹ did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight 19 and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” 20 His parents answered, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. 21 But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” 22 (His parents said these things ^ybecause they feared the Jews, for ^zthe Jews had already agreed that if anyone should ^aconfess Jesus² to be Christ, ^bhe was to be put out of the synagogue.) 23 Therefore his parents said, ^c“He is of age; ask him.”

24 So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, ^d“Give glory to God. We know that ^ethis man is a sinner.” 25 He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I ^fwas blind, now I see.” 26 They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” 27 He answered them, ^g“I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” 28 And they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but ^hwe are disciples of Moses. 29 We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, ⁱwe do not know where he comes from.” 30 The man answered, “Why, this is ^jan amazing thing! ^kYou do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that ^lGod does not listen to sinners, but ^mif anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. 32 Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. 33 ⁿIf this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” 34 They answered him, ^o“You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they ^pcast him out.

35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in ^qthe Son of Man?”³ 36 He answered, ^r“And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” 37 Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and ^sit is he who is speaking to you.” 38 He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. 39 Jesus said, ^t“For judgment I came into this world, ^uthat those who do not see may see, and ^vthose who see may become blind.” 40 Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, ^w“Are we also blind?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, ^xyou would have no guilt;⁴ but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.