1And all the congregation lifted up their voice , and cried ; and the people wept that night . 2And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them , Would that we had died in the land of Egypt ! or would that we had died in this wilderness ! 3And wherefore doth Jehovah bring us unto this land, to fall by the sword ? Our wives and our little ones will be a prey: were it not better for us to return into Egypt ? 4And they said one to another, Let us make a captain , and let us return into Egypt . 5Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel . 6And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh , who were of them that spied out the land, rent their clothes: 7and they spake unto all the congregation of the children of Israel , saying, The land, which we passed through to spy it out , is an exceeding good land. 8If Jehovah delight in us , then he will bring us into this land, and give it unto us ; a land which floweth with milk and honey . 9Only rebel not against Jehovah , neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us : their defence is removed from over them , and Jehovah is with us : fear them not . 10But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the glory of Jehovah appeared in the tent of meeting unto all the children of Israel .
God's Judgment and Mercy
11And Jehovah said unto Moses , How long will this people despise me ? and how long will they not believe in me , for all the signs which I have wrought among them ? 12I will smite them with the pestilence , and disinherit them , and will make of thee a nation greater and mightier than they . 13And Moses said unto Jehovah , Then the Egyptians will hear it ; for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them ; 14and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land . They have heard that thou Jehovah art in the midst of this people ; for thou Jehovah art seen face to face , and thy cloud standeth over them , and thou goest before them , in a pillar of cloud by day , and in a pillar of fire by night . 15Now if thou shalt kill this people as one man , then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, 16Because Jehovah was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them , therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness . 17And now , I pray thee , let the power of the Lord be great , according as thou hast spoken , saying , 18Jehovah is slow to anger , and abundant in lovingkindness , forgiving iniquity and transgression ; and that will by no means clear the guilty , visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children , upon the third and upon the fourth generation . 19Pardon , I pray thee , the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy lovingkindness , and according as thou hast forgiven this people , from Egypt even until now . 20And Jehovah said , I have pardoned according to thy word : 21but in very deed, as I live , and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of Jehovah ; 22because all those men that have seen my glory , and my signs, which I wrought in Egypt and in the wilderness , yet have tempted me these ten times , and have not hearkened to my voice ; 23surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that despised me see it :
The Israelites' Attempt to Enter the Land
24but my servant Caleb , because he had another spirit with him , and hath followed me fully , him will I bring into the land whereinto he went ; and his seed shall possess it . 25Now the Amalekite and the Canaanite dwell in the valley : to-morrow turn ye , and get you into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea . 26And Jehovah spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying , 27How long shall I bear with this evil congregation , that murmur against me ? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel , which they murmur against me . 28Say unto them , As I live , saith Jehovah , surely as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you : 29your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness ; and all that were numbered of you , according to your whole number , from twenty years old and upward , that have murmured against me , 30surely ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware that I would make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh , and Joshua the son of Nun . 31But your little ones , that ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in , and they shall know the land which ye have rejected . 32But as for you , your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness . 33And your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years , and shall bear your whoredoms , until your dead bodies be consumed in the wilderness . 34After the number of the days in which ye spied out the land, even forty days , for every day a year , shall ye bear your iniquities , even forty years , and ye shall know my alienation. 35I , Jehovah , have spoken , surely this will I do unto all this evil congregation , that are gathered together against me : in this wilderness they shall be consumed , and there they shall die . 36And the men , whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned , and made all the congregation to murmur against him , by bringing up an evil report against the land, 37even those men that did bring up an evil report of the land , died by the plague before Jehovah . 38But Joshua the son of Nun , and Caleb the son of Jephunneh , remained alive of those men that went to spy out the land. 39And Moses told these words unto all the children of Israel : and the people mourned greatly . 40And they rose up early in the morning , and gat them up to the top of the mountain , saying, Lo , we are here , and will go up unto the place which Jehovah hath promised : for we have sinned . 41And Moses said , Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of Jehovah , seeing it shall not prosper ? 42Go not up , for Jehovah is not among you ; that ye be not smitten down before your enemies. 43For there the Amalekite and the Canaanite are before you , and ye shall fall by the sword : because ye are turned back from following Jehovah , therefore Jehovah will not be with you . 44But they presumed to go up to the top of the mountain : nevertheless the ark of the covenant of Jehovah , and Moses , departed not out of the camp . 45Then the Amalekite came down , and the Canaanite who dwelt in that mountain , and smote them and beat them down , even unto Hormah .