1 The whole congregation raised their voices and cried out, and the people wept that night. 2 All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or in this wilderness, if only we had died! 3 Why is the LORD bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder. Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” 4 They said to one another, “Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt.” 5 Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before the whole assembly of the congregation of the Israelites. 6 Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes 7 and said to the whole congregation of the Israelites, “The land we passed through to explore is a very, very good land. 8 If the LORD delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land flowing with milk and honey. 9 Only do not rebel against the LORD. Do not fear the people of the land, for they are our bread. Their shade has departed from them, and the LORD is with us. Do not fear them!” 10 The whole congregation said to stone them with stones. But the glory of the LORD appeared at the Tent of Meeting to all the Israelites.

11 The LORD said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? How long will they refuse to believe in me, despite all the signs I have done among them? 12 I will strike them with pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make you a nation greater and mightier than they.” 13 Moses said to the LORD, “The Egyptians will hear of it, for by your power you brought this people up from among them, 14 and they will tell the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you, LORD, are among this people, that you, LORD, appear eye to eye, 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. 15 If you put this people to death as one man, the nations who have heard of your fame will say, 16 ‘Because the LORD was unable to bring this people into the land he swore to them, he slaughtered them in the wilderness.’ 17 Now, please let the power of the Lord be great, as you declared when you said, 18 ‘The LORD is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, yet by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations.’ 19 Please forgive the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your steadfast love, as you have forgiven this people from Egypt until now.” 20 The LORD said, “I have forgiven according to your word. 21 But as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD. 22 All the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have tested me these ten times and have not listened to my voice, 23 shall certainly not see the land I swore to their ancestors. None of those who despise me shall see it. 24 But my servant Caleb, because he had a different spirit and followed me fully, I will bring into the land he entered, and his offspring shall possess it. 25 The Amalekites and the Canaanites live in the valley. Tomorrow turn and set out for the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.”

26 The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron and said, 27 “How long must I bear with this evil congregation that grumbles against me? I have heard the complaints of the Israelites who grumble against me. 28 Tell them, ‘As I live, declares the LORD, as you have spoken in my hearing, so I will do to you. 29 Your corpses shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who were registered, according to your entire number, from twenty years old and upward, who grumbled against me. 30 You shall certainly not enter the land I swore with raised hand to settle you in, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. 31 But your little ones, whom you said would become plunder, I will bring in, and they shall know the land you rejected. 32 As for you, your corpses shall fall in this wilderness. 33 Your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years and bear your unfaithfulness until your corpses are consumed in the wilderness. 34 According to the number of days you explored the land, forty days, a year for each day, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquities forty years, and you shall know my opposition. 35 I, the LORD, have spoken. I will certainly do this to this whole evil congregation gathered against me. In this wilderness they shall come to their end, and there they shall die.’ ” 36 The men Moses had sent to explore the land, who returned and caused the whole congregation to grumble against him by bringing out a bad report about the land, 37 those men who brought out the bad report about the land died by the plague before the LORD. 38 But Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh remained alive from among those men who had gone to explore the land. 39 Moses spoke these words to all the Israelites, and the people mourned greatly. 40 They rose early in the morning and went up to the top of the hill, saying, “Here we are. We will go up to the place of which the LORD spoke, for we have sinned.” 41 Moses said, “Why are you transgressing the LORD's command? This will not succeed. 42 Do not go up, for the LORD is not among you, so that you will not be defeated before your enemies. 43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you will fall by the sword. Because you have turned back from following the LORD, the LORD will not be with you.” 44 But they presumed to go up to the top of the hill. The ark of the covenant of the LORD and Moses did not depart from the midst of the camp. 45 The Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down, struck them, and crushed them as far as Hormah.