Numbers 14

1Then the whole congregation raised their voices and cried out, and the people wept that night.

2All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness!

3Why is Yahweh bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will be taken as plunder. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?”

4And they said to one another, “Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”

5Then Moses and Aaron fell facedown before the whole assembled congregation of the Israelites.

6Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes.

7They said to the whole congregation of the Israelites, “The land we passed through to explore is an exceedingly good land.

8If Yahweh is pleased with us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land flowing with milk and honey.

9Only do not rebel against Yahweh, and do not be afraid of the people of the land, for we will devour them like bread. Their protection has been taken away from them, and Yahweh is with us. Do not be afraid of them.”

10But the whole congregation talked of stoning them. Then the glory of Yahweh appeared at the tent of meeting to all the Israelites.

11Yahweh said to Moses, “How long will this people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs I have done among them?

12I will strike them with a plague and disinherit them, and I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they are.”

13But Moses said to Yahweh, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for by your power you brought this people up from among them,

14and they will tell the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you, Yahweh, are in the midst of this people, that you, Yahweh, are seen eye to eye, that your cloud stands over them, and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night.

15If you put this people to death all at once, the nations who have heard of your fame will say,

16‘Yahweh was not able to bring this people into the land he swore to give them, so he slaughtered them in the wilderness.’

17So now, please let the power of the Lord be great, just as you have declared:

18‘Yahweh is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but he does not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.’

19Please forgive the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just as you have forgiven this people from Egypt until now.”

20Yahweh said, “I have forgiven them, as you asked.

21But as surely as I live, and as surely as the whole earth will be filled with the glory of Yahweh,

22not one of the men who have seen my glory and the signs I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have tested me these ten times and have not listened to my voice,

23will see the land I swore to give their ancestors. None of those who treated me with contempt will see it.

24But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me wholeheartedly, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants will possess it.

25Now since the Amalekites and the Canaanites live in the valley, turn back tomorrow and set out into the wilderness by the road to the Red Sea.”

26Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron,

27“How long must I put up with this wicked congregation that keeps grumbling against me? I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites, which they keep directing against me.

28Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares Yahweh, I will do to you exactly what I heard you say.

29In this wilderness your bodies will fall, all of you who were counted in the census, everyone twenty years old and older who has grumbled against me.

30Not one of you will enter the land where I swore with uplifted hand to settle you, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.

31But your little ones, who you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring in, and they will come to know the land you have rejected.

32But as for you, your bodies will fall in this wilderness.

33Your children will be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness.

34For forty years, one year for each of the forty days you spent exploring the land, you will bear the consequences of your iniquities. Then you will know what it means to have me against you.

35I, Yahweh, have spoken. I will surely do this to this whole wicked congregation that has banded together against me. In this wilderness they will come to an end, and there they will die.’”

36As for the men Moses had sent to explore the land, who returned and made the whole congregation grumble against him by spreading a bad report about the land,

37those men who spread the bad report about the land died of a plague before Yahweh.

38Of the men who went to explore the land, only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh survived.

39When Moses told these words to all the Israelites, the people mourned bitterly.

40Early the next morning they started up toward the heights of the hill country, saying, “Here we are. We will go up to the place Yahweh promised, for we have sinned.”

41But Moses said, “Why are you disobeying Yahweh’s command? It will not succeed.

42Do not go up, because Yahweh is not among you, or you will be defeated by your enemies.

43The Amalekites and the Canaanites will face you there, and you will fall by the sword. Because you have turned away from following Yahweh, Yahweh will not be with you.”

44Yet they dared to go up to the heights of the hill country, though neither the ark of the covenant of Yahweh nor Moses left the camp.

45Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down, struck them down, and crushed them as far as Hormah.