1 Then all the congregation 1Lit lifted and gave their voicelifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept 2Lit in thatthat night. 2 All the sons of Israel ANum 11:1grumbled against Moses and Aaron; and the whole congregation said to them, “BNum 11:5; 16:13; 20:3, 4; 21:5Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! 3  “Why is the Loʀᴅ bringing us into this land, AEx 5:21; 16:3to fall by the sword? BNum 14:31; Deut 1:39Our wives and our little ones will become plunder; would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” 4 So they said to one another, “ANeh 9:17Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt.”

5 ANum 16:4Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces in the presence of all the assembly of the congregation of the sons of Israel. 6 Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, of those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes; 7 and they spoke to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying, “ANum 13:27; Deut 1:25The land which we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. 8  “ADeut 10:15If the Loʀᴅ is pleased with us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us—BEx 3:8; Num 13:27a land which flows with milk and honey. 9  “Only ADeut 1:26; 9:23, 24do not rebel against the Loʀᴅ; and do not BDeut 1:21, 29fear the people of the land, for they will be our 1Lit foodprey. Their 2Lit shadowprotection has been removed from them, and the Loʀᴅ is with us; do not fear them.” 10 AEx 17:4But all the congregation said to stone them with stones. Then BEx 16:10; Lev 9:23the glory of the Loʀᴅ appeared in the tent of meeting to all the sons of Israel.

11 AEx 32:9-13The Loʀᴅ said to Moses, “How long will this people spurn Me? And how long will BPs 106:24they not believe in Me, despite all the signs which I have performed in their midst? 12  “I will smite them with 1Lit the pestilenceALev 26:25; Deut 28:21pestilence and dispossess them, and I BEx 32:10will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they.”

13 AEx 32:11-14; Ps 106:23But Moses said to the Loʀᴅ, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for by Your strength You brought up this people from their midst, 14 and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that You, O Loʀᴅ, are in the midst of this people, for AEx 13:21; Deut 5:4You, O Loʀᴅ, are seen eye to eye, while Your cloud stands over them; and You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. 15  “Now if You slay this people as one man, AEx 32:12then the nations who have heard of Your fame will 1Lit speak, sayingsay, 16 ‘Because the Loʀᴅ AJosh 7:7could not bring this people into the land which He promised them by oath, therefore He slaughtered them in the wilderness.’ 17  “But now, I pray, let the power of the Lord be great, just as You have 1Lit spoken, sayingdeclared, 18 ‘AEx 20:6; 34:6, 7; Deut 5:10; 7:9; Ps 103:8; 145:8; Jon 4:2The Loʀᴅ is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but BEx 20:5; Deut 5:9; 7:10He will by no means clear the guilty, CEx 34:7visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children 1Lit onto the third and the fourth generations.’ 19  “AEx 32:32; 34:9Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of Your lovingkindness, just as You also have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.”

20 So the Loʀᴅ said, “AMic 7:18-20I have pardoned them according to your word; 21 but indeed, ANum 14:28; Deut 32:40; Is 49:18as I live, 1Lit and allBIs 6:3; Hab 2:14all the earth will be filled with the glory of the Loʀᴅ. 22  “Surely A1 Cor 10:5all the men who have seen My glory and My signs which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet BEx 5:21; 14:11; 15:24; 16:2; 17:2, 3; 32:1; Num 11:1, 4; 12:1; 14:2have put Me to the test these ten times and have not listened to My voice, 23 ANum 26:65; 32:11; Heb 3:18shall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who spurned Me see it. 24  “But My servant Caleb, ANum 14:6-9because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, 1Lit him IBNum 26:65; 32:12; Deut 1:36; Josh 14:6-15I will bring into the land 2Lit wherewhich he entered, and his 3Lit seeddescendants shall take possession of it. 25  “ANum 13:29Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites live in the valleys; turn tomorrow and set out to the wilderness by the way of the 1Lit Sea of ReedsRed Sea.”

26 The Loʀᴅ spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 27 “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who are ANum 11:1grumbling against Me? I have heard the complaints of the sons of Israel, which they are 1Lit complainingmaking against Me. 28  “Say to them, ‘ANum 14:21As I live,’ says the Loʀᴅ, ‘just as BNum 14:2; Deut 2:14, 15; Heb 3:17you have spoken in My hearing, so I will surely do to you; 29 AHeb 3:17your corpses will fall in this wilderness, even all BNum 1:45, 46your 1Lit musterednumbered men, according to your complete number from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against Me. 30  ‘Surely you shall not come into the land in which I 1Lit raised My handswore to settle you, ANum 14:24except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. 31  ‘ANum 14:3Your children, however, whom you said would become a prey—I will bring them in, and they will know the land which you have rejected. 32  ‘ANum 26:64, 65; 32:13; 1 Cor 10:5But as for you, your corpses will fall in this wilderness. 33  ‘Your sons shall be shepherds for ADeut 2:7; 8:2, 4; 29:5forty years in the wilderness, and they will 1Lit bearsuffer for your 2Lit fornicationsunfaithfulness, until your corpses 3Lit are finishedlie in the wilderness. 34  ‘According to the ANum 13:25number of days which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day you shall bear your 1Or iniquitiesguilt a year, even forty years, and you will know My opposition. 35  ‘ANum 23:19I, the Loʀᴅ, have spoken, surely this I will do to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be destroyed, and there they will die.’ ”

36 ANum 13:4-16, 32As for the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land and who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing out a bad report concerning the land, 37 even A1 Cor 10:10; Heb 3:17, 18those men who brought out the very bad report of the land died by a BNum 16:49plague before the Loʀᴅ. 38 But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive out of those men who went to spy out the land.

39 When Moses spoke ANum 14:28-35these words to all the sons of Israel, BEx 33:4the people mourned greatly. 40 In the morning, however, they rose up early and went up to the 1Or top of the mountainridge of the hill country, saying, “ADeut 1:41-44Here we are; 2Or and we will go up...for we have sinnedwe have indeed sinned, but we will go up to the place which the Loʀᴅ has promised.” 41 But Moses said, “A2 Chr 24:20Why then are you transgressing the 1Lit mouthcommandment of the Loʀᴅ, when it will not succeed? 42  “ADeut 1:42Do not go up, or you will be struck down before your enemies, for the Loʀᴅ is not among you. 43  “For the Amalekites and the Canaanites will be there in front of you, and you will fall by the sword, inasmuch as you have turned back from following the Loʀᴅ. And the Loʀᴅ will not be with you.” 44 But they went up heedlessly to the 1Or top of the mountainridge of the hill country; neither ANum 31:6the ark of the covenant of the Loʀᴅ nor Moses left the camp. 45 Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down, and struck them and beat them down as far as ANum 21:3Hormah.