Numbers 14
1 And all the congregation lifts up, and they give forth their voice, and the people weep during that night;
Then all the people gave load cries of grief, and all that night they gave themselves up to weeping.
2 and all the sons of Israel murmur against Moses and against Aaron, and all the congregation says to them, “O that we had died in the land of Egypt, or in this wilderness, O that we had died!
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 And why is YHWH bringing us to this land to fall by the sword, [that] our wives and our infants become a prey? Is it not good for us to return 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 And they say to one another, “Let us appoint a head and return to Egypt.”
And they said to one another, Let us make a captain over us, and go back to Egypt.
5 And Moses falls—Aaron also—on their faces, before all the assembly of the congregation of the sons of Israel.
Then Moses and Aaron went down on their faces before the meeting of the people.
6 And Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, of those spying out the land, have torn their garments,
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 they speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying, “The land into which we have passed over to spy it out [is] a very, very good land;
Said to all the children of Israel, This land which we went through to see is a very good land.
8 if YHWH has delighted in us, then He has brought us into this land, and has given it to us, a land which is flowing with milk and honey;
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 YHWH: and you, do not fear the people of the land, for they [are] our bread; their defense has turned aside from off them, and YHWH [is] with us; do not fear 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 And all the congregation says to stone them with stones, and the glory of YHWH has appeared in the Tent of Meeting to all the sons of Israel.
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 YHWH says to Moses, “Until when does this people despise Me? And until when do they not believe in Me, for all the signs which I have done in its midst?
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 strike it with pestilence, and dispossess it, and make you become a nation greater and mightier than it.”
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 And Moses says to YHWH, “Then the Egyptians have heard! For with Your power You have brought up this people out of their midst,
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 have said [it] to the inhabitant of this land, they have heard that You, YHWH, [are] in the midst of this people, that You are seen eye to eye—O YHWH, and Your cloud is standing over them—and in a pillar of cloud You are going before them by day, and in 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 And You have put to death this people as one man, and the nations who have heard Your fame have spoken, saying,
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 From YHWH’s want of ability to bring in this people to the land which He has sworn to them, He slaughters 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 And now, please let the power of my Lord be great, as You have spoken, saying,
So now, may my prayer come before you, and let the power of the Lord be great, as you said:
18 YHWH [is] slow to anger and of great kindness, bearing away iniquity and transgression, and not entirely acquitting, charging iniquity of fathers on sons, on a third and on a 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 please forgive the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of Your kindness, and as You have borne with this people from Egypt, even until now.”
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 And YHWH says, “I have forgiven according to your word,
And the Lord said, I have had mercy, as you say:
21 but nevertheless, as I live, indeed, the whole earth is filled [with] the glory of YHWH,
But truly, as I am living, and as all the earth will be full of the glory of the Lord;
22 for all the men who are seeing My glory and My signs which I have done in Egypt and in the wilderness, and try Me these ten times, and have not listened to My voice—
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 they do not see the land which I have sworn to their fathers, indeed, none of those despising Me 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 My servant Caleb, because there has been another spirit with him, and he is fully after Me—I have brought him into the land to where he has entered, and his seed possesses 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 And the Amalekite and the Canaanite are dwelling in the valley; tomorrow turn and journey for yourselves into the wilderness—the way of 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 And YHWH speaks to Moses and to Aaron, saying,
Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron,
27 “Until when [do I bear] with this evil congregation—they who are murmuring against Me? The murmurings of the sons of Israel, which they are murmuring against Me, I have heard;
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 say to them: As I live—a declaration of YHWH—if, as you have spoken in My ears, do I not do so to you?
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 carcasses fall in this wilderness, even all your numbered ones, to all your number, from a son of twenty years and upward, who have murmured 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 you do not come into the land [for] which I have lifted up My hand to cause you to dwell in it, 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 As for your infants—of whom you have said, They become a spoil—I have even brought them in, and they have known the land which you have kicked against;
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—your carcasses fall in this wilderness,
But as for you, your dead bodies will be stretched in this waste land.
33 and your sons are shepherding in the wilderness [for] forty years, and have borne your whoredoms until your carcasses are consumed 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 by the number of the days [in] which you spied out the land, forty days—a day for a year, a day for a year—you bear your iniquities [for] forty years, and you have known My opposition;
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, YHWH, have spoken; if, nonetheless, I do this to all this evil congregation who are meeting against Me—they are consumed in this wilderness, and there they 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 Then the men whom Moses has sent to spy out the land, [who] then return and cause all the congregation to murmur against him by bringing out an evil account concerning 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 even the men bringing out an evil account of the land, they die by the plague before YHWH;
Those same men who said evil of the land, came to their death by disease before the Lord.
38 and Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh have lived, of those men who go to spy out the land.
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 Moses speaks these words to all the sons of Israel, and the people mourn exceedingly,
And when Moses put these words before the children of Israel, the people were full of grief.
40 and they rise early in the morning, and go up to the top of the mountain, saying, “Here we [are], and we have come up to the place which YHWH has spoken of, for we have sinned.”
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 And Moses says, “Why [is] this [that] you are transgressing the command of YHWH? For it does not prosper;
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, for YHWH is not in your midst, and you are not struck before your enemies;
Go not up, for the Lord is not with you, and you will be overcome by those who are fighting against you.
43 for the Amalekite and the Canaanite [are] there before you, and you have fallen by the sword, because that you have turned back from after YHWH, and YHWH is not 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 And they presume to go up to the top of the mountain, but the Ark of the Covenant of YHWH, and Moses, have not departed out of the midst of 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 And the Amalekite and the Canaanite who are dwelling in that mountain come down and strike them, and beat them down 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.
