Numbers 14

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

Then all the people gave load cries of grief, and all that night they gave themselves up to weeping.

2 All 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!

And all the children of Israel, crying out against Moses and Aaron, said, If only we had come to our death in the land of Egypt, or even in this waste land!

3 Why is the LORD bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and children will become plunder. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?”

Why is the Lord taking us into this land to come to our death by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will get into strange hands: would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?

4 So they said to one another, “Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt.”

And they said to one another, Let us make a captain over us, and go back to Egypt.

5 Then Moses and Aaron fell facedown before the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel.

Then Moses and Aaron went down on their faces before the meeting of the people.

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

And Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, two of those who had been to see the land, giving signs of grief,

7 and said to the whole congregation of Israel, “The land we passed through and explored is an exceedingly good land.

Said to all the children of Israel, This land which we went through to see is a very good land.

8 If the LORD delights in us, He will bring us into this land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and He will give it to us.

And if the Lord has delight in us, he will take us into this land and give it to us, a land flowing with milk and honey.

9 Only do not rebel against the LORD, and do not be afraid of the people of the land, for they will be like bread for us. Their protection has been removed, and the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them!”

Only, do not go against the Lord or go in fear of the people of the land, for they will be our food; their strength has been taken from them and the Lord is with us: have no fear of them.

10 But the whole congregation threatened to stone Joshua and Caleb. Then the glory of the LORD appeared to all the Israelites at the Tent of Meeting.

But all the people said they were to be stoned. Then the glory of the Lord was seen in the Tent of meeting, before the eyes of all the children of Israel.

11 And the LORD said to Moses, “How long will this people treat Me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in Me, despite all the signs I have performed among them?

And the Lord said to Moses, How long will this people have no respect for me? how long will they be without faith, in the face of all the signs I have done among them?

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

I will send disease on them for their destruction, and take away their heritage, and I will make of you a nation greater and stronger than they.

13 But Moses said to the LORD, “The Egyptians will hear of it, for by Your strength You brought this people from among them.

And Moses said to the Lord, Then it will come to the ears of the Egyptians; for by your power you took this people out from among them;

14 And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have already heard that You, O LORD, are in the midst of this people, that You, O LORD, have been seen face to face, that Your cloud stands over them, and that You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

And they will give the news to the people of this land: they have had word that you, Lord, are present with this people, letting yourself be seen face to face, and that your cloud is resting over them, and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night.

15 If You kill this people as one man, the nations who have heard of Your fame will say,

Now if you put to death all this people as one man, then the nations who have had word of your glory will say,

16 ‘Because the LORD was unable to bring this people into the land He swore to give them, He has slaughtered them in the wilderness.’

Because the Lord was not able to take this people into the land which he made an oath to give them, he sent destruction on them in the waste land.

17 So now I pray, may the power of my Lord be magnified, just as You have declared:

So now, may my prayer come before you, and let the power of the Lord be great, as you said:

18 ‘The LORD is slow to anger and abounding in loving devotion, forgiving iniquity and transgression. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; He will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon their children to the third and fourth generation.’

The Lord is slow to wrath and great in mercy, overlooking wrongdoing and evil, and will not let wrongdoers go free; sending punishment on children for the sins of their fathers, to the third and fourth generation.

19 Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people, in keeping with the greatness of Your loving devotion, just as You have forgiven them ever since they left Egypt.”

May the sin of this people have forgiveness, in the measure of your great mercy, as you have had mercy on them from Egypt up till now.

20 “I have pardoned them as you requested,” the LORD replied.

And the Lord said, I have had mercy, as you say:

21 “Yet as surely as I live and as surely as the whole earth is filled with the glory of the LORD,

But truly, as I am living, and as all the earth will be full of the glory of the Lord;

22 not one of the men who have seen My glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness—yet have tested Me and disobeyed Me these ten times—

Because all these men, having seen my glory and the signs which I have done in Egypt and in the waste land, still have put me to the test ten times, and have not given ear to my voice;

23 not one will ever see the land that I swore to give their fathers. None of those who have treated Me with contempt will see it.

They will not see the land about which I made an oath to their fathers; not one of these by whom I have not been honoured will see it.

24 But because My servant Caleb has a different spirit and has followed Me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he has entered, and his descendants will inherit it.

But my servant Caleb, because he had a different spirit in him, and has been true to me with all his heart, him I will take into that land into which he went, and his seed will have it for their heritage.

25 Now since the Amalekites and Canaanites are living in the valleys, turn back tomorrow and head for the wilderness along the route to the Red Sea.”

Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites are in the valley; tomorrow, turning round, go into the waste land by the way to the Red Sea.

26 Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron,

Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron,

27 “How long will this wicked congregation grumble against Me? I have heard the complaints that the Israelites are making against Me.

How long am I to put up with this evil people and their outcries against me? The words which they say against me have come to my ears.

28 So tell them: As surely as I live, declares the LORD, I will do to you exactly as I heard you say.

Say to them, By my life, says the Lord, as certainly as your words have come to my ears, so certainly will I do this to you:

29 Your bodies will fall in this wilderness—all who were numbered in the census, everyone twenty years of age or older—because you have grumbled against Me.

Your dead bodies will be stretched out in this waste land; and of all your number, all those of twenty years old and over who have been crying out against me,

30 Surely none of you will enter the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.

Not one will come into the land which I gave my word you would have for your resting-place, but only Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, the son of Nun.

31 But I will bring your children, whom you said would become plunder, into the land you have rejected—and they will enjoy it.

And your little ones, whom you said would come into strange hands, I will take in, and they will see the land which you would not have.

32 As for you, however, your bodies will fall in this wilderness.

But as for you, your dead bodies will be stretched in this waste land.

33 Your 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.

And your children will be wanderers in the waste land for forty years, undergoing punishment for your false ways, till your bodies become dust in the waste land.

34 In keeping with the forty days you spied out the land, you shall bear your guilt forty years—a year for each day—and you will experience My alienation.

And as you went through the land viewing it for forty days, so for forty years, a year for every day, you will undergo punishment for your wrongdoing, and you will see that I am against you.

35 I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will surely do these things to this entire wicked congregation, which has conspired against Me. They will meet their end in the wilderness, and there they will die.”

I the Lord have said it, and this I will certainly do to all this evil people who have come together against me: in this waste land destruction will come on them, and death will be their fate.

36 So the men Moses had sent to spy out the land, who had returned and made the whole congregation grumble against him by bringing out a bad report about the land—

And the men whom Moses sent to see the land, and who, by the bad account they gave of the land, were the cause of the outcry the people made against Moses,

37 those men who had brought out the bad report about the land—were struck down by a plague before the LORD.

Those same men who said evil of the land, came to their death by disease before the Lord.

38 Of those men who had gone to spy out the land, only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh remained alive.

But Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, of those who went to see the land, were not touched by disease.

39 And when Moses relayed these words to all the Israelites, the people mourned bitterly.

And when Moses put these words before the children of Israel, the people were full of grief.

40 Early the next morning they got up and went up toward the ridge of the hill country. “We have indeed sinned,” they said, “but we will go to the place the LORD has promised.”

And early in the morning they got up and went to the top of the mountain, saying, We are here and we will go up to the place which the Lord said he would give us: for we have done wrong.

41 But Moses said, “Why are you transgressing the commandment of the LORD? This will not succeed!

And Moses said, Why are you now acting against the Lord's order, seeing that no good will come of it?

42 Do not go up, lest you be struck down by your enemies, because the LORD is not among you.

Go not up, for the Lord is not with you, and you will be overcome by those who are fighting against you.

43 For there the Amalekites and Canaanites will face you, and you will fall by the sword. Because you have turned away from the LORD, He will not be with you.”

For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you will be put to death by their swords: because you have gone back from the way of the Lord, the Lord will not be with you.

44 But they dared to go up to the ridge of the hill country, though neither Moses nor the ark of the covenant of the LORD moved from the camp.

But they gave no attention to his words and went to the top of the mountain, though Moses and the ark of the Lord's agreement did not go out of the tent-circle.

45 Then the Amalekites and Canaanites who lived in that part of the hill country came down, attacked them, and routed them all the way to Hormah.

Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites who were living in the hill-country, and overcame them completely, driving them back as far as Hormah.