Repeating vs Retelling

(1) A maskil of Asaph.Give ear, my people, to my teaching,turn your ear to what I say. (2) I will expound a theme,hold forth on the lessons of the past, (3) things we have heard and known,that our fathers have told us. (4) We will not withhold them from their children,telling the coming generationthe praises of the LORD and His might,and the wonders He performed. (5) He established a decree in Jacob,ordained a teaching in Israel,charging our fathersto make them known to their children, (6) that a future generation might know—children yet to be born—and in turn tell their children (7) that they might put their confidence in God,and not forget God’s great deeds,but observe His commandments, (8) and not be like their fathers,a wayward and defiant generation,a generation whose heart was inconstant,whose spirit was not true to God. (9) Like the Ephraimite bowmenwho played false in the day of battle, (10) they did not keep God’s covenant,they refused to follow His instruction; (11) they forgot His deedsand the wonders that He showed them. (12) He performed marvels in the sight of their fathers,in the land of Egypt, the plain of Zoan. (13) He split the sea and took them through it;He made the waters stand like a wall. (14) He led them with a cloud by day,and throughout the night by the light of fire. (15) He split rocks in the wildernessand gave them drink as if from the great deep. (16) He brought forth streams from a rockand made them flow down like a river. (17) But they went on sinning against Him,defying the Most High in the parched land. (18) To test God was in their mindwhen they demanded food for themselves. (19) They spoke against God, saying,“Can God spread a feast in the wilderness? (20) True, He struck the rock and waters flowed,streams gushed forth;but can He provide bread?Can He supply His people with meat?” (21) The LORD heard and He raged;fire broke out against Jacob,anger flared up at Israel, (22) because they did not put their trust in God,did not rely on His deliverance. (23) So He commanded the skies above,He opened the doors of heaven (24) and rained manna upon them for food,giving them heavenly grain. (25) Each man ate a hero’s meal;He sent them provision in plenty. (26) He set the east wind moving in heaven,and drove the south wind by His might. (27) He rained meat on them like dust,winged birds like the sands of the sea, (28) making them come down inside His camp,around His dwelling-place. (29) They ate till they were sated;He gave them what they craved. (30) They had not yet wearied of what they craved,the food was still in their mouths (31) when God’s anger flared up at them.He slew their sturdiest,struck down the youth of Israel. (32) Nonetheless, they went on sinningand had no faith in His wonders. (33) He made their days end in futility,their years in sudden death. (34) When He struck them, they turned to Himand sought God once again. (35) They remembered that God was their rock,God Most High, their Redeemer. (36) Yet they deceived Him with their speech,lied to Him with their words; (37) their hearts were inconstant toward Him;they were untrue to His covenant. (38) But He, being merciful, forgave iniquityand would not destroy;He restrained His wrath time and againand did not give full vent to His fury; (39) for He remembered that they were but flesh,a passing breath that does not return. (40) How often did they defy Him in the wilderness,did they grieve Him in the wasteland! (41) Again and again they tested God,vexed the Holy One of Israel. (42) They did not remember His strength,or the day He redeemed them from the foe; (43) how He displayed His signs in Egypt,His wonders in the plain of Zoan. (44) He turned their rivers into blood;He made their waters undrinkable. (45) He inflicted upon them swarms of insects to devour them,frogs to destroy them. (46) He gave their crops over to grubs,their produce to locusts. (47) He killed their vines with hail,their sycamores with frost.^-c (48) He gave their beasts over to hail,their cattle to lightning bolts. (49) He inflicted His burning anger upon them,wrath, indignation, trouble,a band of deadly messengers. (50) He cleared a path for His anger;He did not stop short of slaying them,but gave them over to pestilence. (51) He struck every first-born in Egypt,the first fruits of their vigor in the tents of Ham. (52) He set His people moving like sheep,drove them like a flock in the wilderness. (53) He led them in safety; they were unafraid;as for their enemies, the sea covered them. (54) He brought them to His holy realm,the mountain His right hand had acquired. (55) He expelled nations before them,settled the tribes of Israel in their tents,allotting them their portion by the line.^-e (56) Yet they defiantly tested God Most High,and did not observe His decrees. (57) They fell away, disloyal like their fathers;they played false like a treacherous bow. (58) They vexed Him with their high places;they incensed Him with their idols. (59) God heard it and was enraged;He utterly rejected Israel. (60) He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh,the tent He had set among men. (61) He let His might go into captivity,His glory into the hands of the foe. (62) He gave His people over to the sword;He was enraged at His very own. (63) Fire consumed their young men,and their maidens remained unwed.^-g (64) Their priests fell by the sword,and their widows could not weep. (65) The Lord awoke as from sleep,like a warrior shaking off^-c wine. (66) He beat back His foes,dealing them lasting disgrace. (67) He rejected the clan of Joseph;He did not choose the tribe of Ephraim. (68) He did choose the tribe of Judah,Mount Zion, which He loved. (69) He built His Sanctuary like the heavens,like the earth that He established forever. (70) He chose David, His servant,and took him from the sheepfolds. (71) He brought him from minding the nursing ewesto tend His people Jacob, Israel, His very own. (72) He tended them with blameless heart;with skillful hands he led them.

Then Moses caused Israel to set out from the Sea of Reeds. They went on into the wilderness of Shur; they traveled three days in the wilderness and found no water.

(1) Setting out from Elim, the whole Israelite community came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure from the land of Egypt. (2) In the wilderness, the whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. (3) The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of יהוה in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots, when we ate our fill of bread! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to starve this whole congregation to death.” (4) And יהוה said to Moses, “I will rain down bread for you from the sky, and the people shall go out and gather each day that day’s portion—that I may thus test them, to see whether they will follow My instructions or not. (5) But on the sixth day, when they apportion what they have brought in, it shall prove to be double the amount they gather each day.” (6) So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, “By evening you shall know it was יהוה who brought you out from the land of Egypt; (7) and in the morning you shall behold the Presence of יהוה, because [God] has heard your grumblings against יהוה. For who are we that you should grumble against us? (8) Since it is יהוה,” Moses continued, “who will give you flesh to eat in the evening and bread in the morning to the full—because יהוה has heard the grumblings you utter—what is our part? Your grumbling is against יהוה, not against us!” (9) Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole Israelite community: Advance toward יהוה, who has heard your grumbling.” (10) And as Aaron spoke to the whole Israelite community, they turned toward the wilderness, and there, in a cloud, appeared the Presence of יהוה. (11) יהוה spoke to Moses: (12) “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Speak to them and say: By evening you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; and you shall know that I יהוה am your God.” (13) In the evening quail appeared and covered the camp; in the morning there was a fall of dew about the camp. (14) When the fall of dew lifted, there, over the surface of the wilderness, lay a fine and flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground. (15) When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” —for they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “That is the bread which יהוה has given you to eat. (16) This is what יהוה has commanded: Each household shall gather as much as it requires to eat—an omer to a person for as many of you as there are; each household shall fetch according to those in its tent.” (17) The Israelites did so, some gathering much, some little. (18) But when they measured it by the omer, anyone who had gathered much had no excess, and anyone who had gathered little had no deficiency: each household had gathered as much as it needed to eat. (19) And Moses said to them, “Let no one leave any of it over until morning.” (20) But they paid no attention to Moses; some of them left of it until morning, and it became infested with maggots and stank. And Moses was angry with them. (21) So they gathered it every morning, as much as each one needed to eat; for when the sun grew hot, it would melt. (22) On the sixth day they gathered double the amount of food, two omers for each; and when all the chieftains of the community came and told Moses, (23) he said to them, “This is what יהוה meant: Tomorrow is a day of rest, a holy sabbath of יהוה. Bake what you would bake and boil what you would boil; and all that is left put aside to be kept until morning.” (24) So they put it aside until morning, as Moses had ordered; and it did not turn foul, and there were no maggots in it. (25) Then Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a sabbath of יהוה; you will not find it today on the plain. (26) Six days you shall gather it; on the seventh day, the sabbath, there will be none.” (27) Yet some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, but they found nothing. (28) And יהוה said to Moses, “How long will you all refuse to obey My commandments and My teachings? (29) Mark that it is יהוה who, having given you the sabbath, therefore gives you two days’ food on the sixth day. Let everyone remain in place: let no one leave the vicinity on the seventh day.” (30) So the people remained inactive on the seventh day. (31) The house of Israel named it manna; it was like coriander seed, white, and it tasted like wafers in honey. (32) Moses said, “This is what יהוה has commanded: Let one omer of it be kept throughout the ages, in order that they may see the bread that I fed you in the wilderness when I brought you out from the land of Egypt.” (33) And Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar, put one omer of manna in it, and place it before יהוה, to be kept throughout the ages.” (34) As יהוה had commanded Moses, Aaron placed it before the Pact, to be kept. (35) And the Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a settled land; they ate the manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan. (36) The omer is a tenth of an ephah.

From the wilderness of Sin the whole Israelite community continued by stages as יהוה would command. They encamped at Rephidim, and there was no water for the people to drink. The people quarreled with Moses. “Give us water to drink,” they said; and Moses replied to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you try יהוה ?” But the people thirsted there for water; and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up from Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” Moses cried out to יהוה, saying, “What shall I do with this people? Before long they will be stoning me!” Then יהוה said to Moses, “Pass before the people; take with you some of the elders of Israel, and take along the rod with which you struck the Nile, and set out. I will be standing there before you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock and water will issue from it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. The place was named Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and because they tried יהוה, saying, “Is יהוה present among us or not?” Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim. Moses said to Joshua, “Pick some troops for us, and go out and do battle with Amalek. Tomorrow I will station myself on the top of the hill, with the rod of God in my hand.” Joshua did as Moses told him and fought with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. Then, whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed; but whenever he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses’ hands grew heavy; so they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur, one on each side, supported his hands; thus his hands remained steady until the sun set. And Joshua overwhelmed the people of Amalek with the sword. Then יהוה said to Moses, “Inscribe this in a document as a reminder, and read it aloud to Joshua: I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven!” And Moses built an altar and named it Adonai-nissi. He said, “It means, ‘Hand upon the throne of יהוה !’ יהוה will be at war with Amalek throughout the ages.”

(1) The people took to complaining bitterly before יהוה. יהוה heard and was incensed: a fire of יהוה broke out against them, ravaging the outskirts of the camp. (2) The people cried out to Moses. Moses prayed to יהוה, and the fire died down. (3) That place was named Taberah, because a fire of יהוה had broken out against them. (4) The riffraff in their midst felt a gluttonous craving; and then the Israelites wept and said, “If only we had meat to eat! (5) We remember the fish that we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. (6) Now our gullets are shriveled. There is nothing at all! Nothing but this manna to look to!” (7) Now the manna was like coriander seed, and in color it was like bdellium. (8) The people would go about and gather it, grind it between millstones or pound it in a mortar, boil it in a pot, and make it into cakes. It tasted like rich cream. (9) When the dew fell on the camp at night, the manna would fall upon it. (10) Moses heard the people weeping, every clan apart, at the entrance of each tent. יהוה was very angry, and Moses was distressed. (11) And Moses said to יהוה, “Why have You dealt ill with Your servant, and why have I not enjoyed Your favor, that You have laid the burden of all this people upon me? (12) Did I produce all these people, did I engender them, that You should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom as a caregiver carries an infant,’ to the land that You have promised on oath to their fathers? (13) Where am I to get meat to give to all this people, when they whine before me and say, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ (14) I cannot carry all this people by myself, for it is too much for me. (15) If You would deal thus with me, kill me rather, I beg You, and let me see no more of my wretchedness!” (16) Then יהוה said to Moses, “Gather for Me seventy of Israel’s elders of whom you have experience as elders and officers of the people, and bring them to the Tent of Meeting and let them take their place there with you. (17) I will come down and speak with you there, and I will draw upon the spirit that is on you and put it upon them; they shall share the burden of the people with you, and you shall not bear it alone. (18) And say to the people: Purify yourselves for tomorrow and you shall eat meat, for you have kept whining before יהוה and saying, ‘If only we had meat to eat! Indeed, we were better off in Egypt!’ יהוה will give you meat and you shall eat. (19) You shall eat not one day, not two, not even five days or ten or twenty, (20) but a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you. For you have rejected יהוה who is among you, by whining before [God] and saying, ‘Oh, why did we ever leave Egypt!’” (21) But Moses said, “The people who are with me number six hundred thousand foot soldiers; yet You say, ‘I will give them enough meat to eat for a whole month.’ (22) Could enough flocks and herds be slaughtered to suffice them? Or could all the fish of the sea be gathered for them to suffice them?” (23) And יהוה answered Moses, “Is there a limit to יהוה’s power? You shall soon see whether what I have said happens to you or not!” (24) Moses went out and reported the words of יהוה to the people. He gathered seventy of the people’s elders and stationed them around the Tent. (25) Then, after coming down in a cloud and speaking to him, יהוה drew upon the spirit that was on him and put it upon the seventy participating elders. And when the spirit rested upon them, they spoke in ecstasy, but did not continue. (26) Two of the participants, one named Eldad and the other Medad, had remained in camp; yet the spirit rested upon them—they were among those recorded, but they had not gone out to the Tent—and they spoke in ecstasy in the camp. (27) An assistant ran out and told Moses, saying, “Eldad and Medad are acting the prophet in the camp!” (28) And Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ attendant from his youth, spoke up and said, “My lord Moses, restrain them!” (29) But Moses said to him, “Are you wrought up on my account? Would that all יהוה’s people were prophets, that יהוה put [the divine] spirit upon them!” (30) Moses then reentered the camp together with the elders of Israel. (31) A wind from יהוה started up, swept quail from the sea and strewed them over the camp, about a day’s journey on this side and about a day’s journey on that side, all around the camp, and some two cubits deep on the ground. (32) The people set to gathering quail all that day and night and all the next day—even the one who gathered least had ten ḥomers—and they spread them out all around the camp. (33) The meat was still between their teeth, not yet chewed, when the anger of יהוה blazed forth against the people and יהוה struck the people with a very severe plague. (34) That place was named Kibroth-hattaavah, because the people who had the craving were buried there. (35) Then the people set out from Kibroth-hattaavah for Hazeroth. When they were in Hazeroth,

The Israelites arrived in a body at the wilderness of Zin on the first new moon, and the people stayed at Kadesh. Miriam died there and was buried there. The community was without water, and they joined against Moses and Aaron. The people quarreled with Moses, saying, “If only we had perished when our brothers perished at the instance of יהוה ! Why have you brought יהוה’s congregation into this wilderness for us and our beasts to die there? Why did you make us leave Egypt to bring us to this wretched place, a place with no grain or figs or vines or pomegranates? There is not even water to drink!” Moses and Aaron came away from the congregation to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, and fell on their faces. The Presence of יהוה appeared to them, and יהוה spoke to Moses, saying, “You and your brother Aaron take the rod and assemble the community, and before their very eyes order the rock to yield its water. Thus you shall produce water for them from the rock and provide drink for the congregation and their beasts.” Moses took the rod from before יהוה, as he had been commanded. Moses and Aaron assembled the congregation in front of the rock; and he said to them, “Listen, you rebels, shall we get water for you out of this rock?” And Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod. Out came copious water, and the community and their beasts drank. But יהוה said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust Me enough to affirm My sanctity in the sight of the Israelite people, therefore you shall not lead this congregation into the land that I have given them.” Those are the Waters of Meribah —meaning that the Israelites quarrelled with יהוה —whose sanctity was affirmed through them. From Kadesh, Moses sent messengers to the king of Edom: “Thus says your brother Israel: You know all the hardships that have befallen us; that our ancestors went down to Egypt, that we dwelt in Egypt a long time, and that the Egyptians dealt harshly with us and our ancestors. We cried to יהוה who heard our plea, sending a messenger who freed us from Egypt. Now we are in Kadesh, the town on the border of your territory. Allow us, then, to cross your country. We will not pass through fields or vineyards, and we will not drink water from wells. We will follow the king’s highway, turning off neither to the right nor to the left until we have crossed your territory.” But Edom answered him, “You shall not pass through us, else we will go out against you with the sword.” “We will keep to the beaten track,” the Israelites said to them, “and if we or our cattle drink your water, we will pay for it. We ask only for passage on foot—it is but a small matter.” But they replied, “You shall not pass through!” And Edom went out against them in heavy force, strongly armed. So Edom would not let Israel cross their territory, and Israel turned away from them. Setting out from Kadesh, the Israelites arrived in a body at Mount Hor. At Mount Hor, on the boundary of the land of Edom, יהוה said to Moses and Aaron, “Let Aaron be gathered to his kin: he is not to enter the land that I have assigned to the Israelite people, because you disobeyed My command about the Waters of Meribah. Take Aaron and his son Eleazar and bring them up on Mount Hor. Strip Aaron of his vestments and put them on his son Eleazar. There Aaron shall be gathered unto the dead.” Moses did as יהוה had commanded. They ascended Mount Hor in the sight of the whole community. Moses stripped Aaron of his vestments and put them on his son Eleazar, and Aaron died there on the summit of the mountain. When Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain, the whole community knew that Aaron had breathed his last. All the house of Israel bewailed Aaron thirty days.

They set out from Mount Hor by way of the Sea of Reeds to skirt the land of Edom. But the people grew restive on the journey, and the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why did you make us leave Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread and no water, and we have come to loathe this miserable food.” יהוה sent seraph serpents against the people. They bit the people and many of the Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned by speaking against יהוה and against you. Intercede with יהוה to take away the serpents from us!” And Moses interceded for the people. Then יהוה said to Moses, “Make a seraph figure and mount it on a standard. And anyone who was bitten who then looks at it shall recover.” Moses made a copper serpent and mounted it on a standard; and when bitten by a serpent, anyone who looked at the copper serpent would recover. The Israelites marched on and encamped at Oboth. They set out from Oboth and encamped at Iye-abarim, in the wilderness bordering on Moab to the east. From there they set out and encamped at the wadi Zered. From there they set out and encamped beyond the Arnon, that is, in the wilderness that extends from the territory of the Amorites. For the Arnon is the boundary of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites. Therefore the Book of the Wars of יהוה speaks of “…Waheb in Suphah, and the wadis: the Arnon with its tributary wadis, stretched along the settled country of Ar, hugging the territory of Moab…” And from there to Beer, which is the well where יהוה said to Moses, “Assemble the people that I may give them water.”