Panel 11: The eleventh panel signals the transition from the Book of Exodus to the Book of Numbers. In its upper zone are represented the return of the explorers of the Land of Canaan and the report they gave to Moses and Aaron (Num. 13:26-33). In contrast to the Biblical text, which sets the episode in the Desert of Paran, the scene here is set between a building which is preceded by a staircase (on the left) and the view of a city protected by a wall (on the right). The lower zone illustrates the revolt of the Israelites, who attempt to stone Moses, Aaron, and Joshua. They are saved owing to the appearance of the Lord on the Tabernacle. The textual detail is rendered by the aureola surrounding the characters, which protects them from the stones hurled against them. The aureola emanates from the hand of God, which projects from the clouds above a construction where the Ark of the Covenant is preserved and toward which the three men run in hope of safety. In this way, the presence of a building is justified which is analogous to that in the scene above and that provides a formal link between the two scenes. Such linkage occurs elsewhere in the mosaic cycle.
(Translated by Bernard Frischer from: Francesco Gandolfo, "La basilica sistina: i mosaici della navata e dell'arco trionfale,"in Santa Maria Maggiore a Roma, edited by Carlo Pietrangeli [Florence 1997] p. 101.)