Numbers

Numbers takes its name from the two censuses of Israel it records, but its Hebrew title, 'In the Wilderness', better captures its subject: the forty years between Sinai and the edge of the Promised Land. It is a book of journeys, grumbling, rebellion and the slow dying-off of the faithless generation.

Amid the wandering come memorable episodes — the twelve spies, the bronze serpent, Balaam and his talking donkey, the rebellion of Korah. Numbers is a sobering study of unbelief and God's patience, yet it ends with a new generation poised on the plains of Moab, ready at last to enter the land.