NUMBERS 14

Then all the congregation raised their voices and cried out, and the people wailed all night. 2 And all the sons of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron; and the whole congregation said to them, If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or had died in this desert! 3 Why does Yehowah bring us into this land to fall by the sword, with our wives and our children becoming a prey? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?

4 And they said among themselves, Let us choose a leader and then go back to Egypt. 5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the sons of Israel. 6 And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes, 7 and spoke to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, and said, The land through which we passed to explore it is a very good land. 8 If Yehowah delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land flowing with milk and honey. 9 But do not rebel against Yehowah; and do not be afraid of the people of the land, for they shall be our bread; their shield has been taken from them, and Yehowah is with us; do not be afraid of them. 10 But all the congregation called for them to be stoned to death.

Then the glory of Yehowah appeared at the tent of meeting to all the sons of Israel. 11 And Yehowah said to Moses, How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs which I have performed among them? 12 I will strike them down with a pestilence, and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and more numerous than they are.

13 But Moses said to Yehowah, Then the Egyptians will hear, for by thy power thou didst bring up this people from among them; 14 and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that thou, Yehowah, art in the midst of this people, by whom thou, Yehowah, art seen face to face, and thy cloud stands over them, and thou dost go before them by day in a pillar of cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night. 15 Now if thou dost kill this people as one man, then the nations which have heard of thy fame will speak, and say, 16 Because Yehowah was unable to bring this people into the land which he promised to them, he has killed them in the desert. 17 But now, I pray, let the power of my Lord be even greater, as thou hast promised and hast said, 18 Yehowah is slow to anger and abounding in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the sons, on the third and the fourth generations. 19 Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people in accordance with the greatness of thy mercy, just as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt right to here.

20 Then Yehowah said, I have pardoned them according to your word. 21 But yet, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of Yehowah, 22 all the men who have seen my glory and my signs which I performed in Egypt and the desert, and have tempted me these ten times and have not heeded my voice, 23 shall never see the land which I promised to their fathers; none of those who despised me shall see it. 24 But my servant Caleb, because he has another spirit in him and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land to which he went, and his descendants shall possess it. 25 Now, since the Amalekites and the Canaanites live in the valley, turn aside tomorrow, and set out into the desert by the road to the Sea of Reeds.

26 And Yehowah spoke to Moses and Aaron, and said, 27 How long will this evil congregation keep complaining against me? I have heard the complaints of the sons of Israel which they make against me. 28 Say to them, As I live, says Yehowah, I will do to you just as you have spoken in my hearing: 29 your bodies shall fall dead in this desert; and of all of you who were numbered-the total number of you who are twenty years and over, who have complained against me- 30 not one shall enter the land where I swore* to make you live, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. 31 But I will bring in your children, whom you said would be a prey, and they shall know the land which you have refused. 32 But as for you, your bodies shall fall dead in this desert. 33 And your sons shall be shepherds in the desert for forty years, and shall suffer for your adulteries, until your dead bodies are consumed in the desert. 34 According to the number of days during which you explored the land, forty days, for each day you shall suffer for your iniquity for a year, for forty years; and you shall know my opposition. 35 I, Yehowah, have said, I will certainly do this to all this evil congregation which is gathered together against me; they shall be consumed in this desert, and here they shall die. * lit raised up my hand

36 And the men whom Moses sent to explore the land, who returned and made all the congregation complain against him by bringing back a bad report about the land, 37 those men who brought back the bad report about the land died before Yehowah from a plague. 38 But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh stayed alive out of those men who went to explore the land.

39 And Moses spoke these words to all the sons of Israel, and the people mourned very much. 40 And they got up early in the morning, and climbed the mountain, and said, See, here we are; we will go up to the place which Yehowah has promised, for we have sinned. 41 But Moses said, Why do you still transgress the word of Yehowah? It will not prosper. 42 You shall not go up, for Yehowah is not among you; or else you will be struck down before your enemies. 43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are already there, so you will fall by the sword. Because you have turned back from following Yehowah, Yehowah will not be with you. 44 But they dared to climb the mountain, although neither the ark of the covenant of Yehowah nor Moses departed from the midst of the camp. 45 Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill-country came down and defeated them, and beat them down as far as Hormah.