 1 All the congregation lifted up their voice and cried out and the people wept that night. 2 All the children of Israel grumbled+ against Moses and against Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, Would it have been better to ask God that we had died in the land of Egypt or that we had died in the wilderness. 3 Why has the Lord brought us into this land to fall by the sword, so that our wives and our children should be a prey? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt? 4 They said to one another, Let us make a leader and let us return to Egypt. 5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel. 6 Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, of those who searched the land, tore their clothes. 7 They spoke to all the company of the sons of Israel saying, The land that we passed through to search is an exceedingly good land. 8 If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. 9 Only do not rebel against the Lord, neither fear the people of the land. For they are bread for us. Their protection has moved from them, and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them. 10 But all the congregation said to stone them with stones. And the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel. 11 The Lord said to Moses, How long will this people provoke me? And how long will it be before they believe me, for all the signs which I have shown among them? 12 I will strike them with the pestilence and will disinherit them, and will make of you a greater nation and mightier than they. 13 Moses said to the Lord, Then the Egyptians will hear, for you have brought up this people in your might from among them. 14 They will say to the inhabitant of this land. They have heard that you, Lord, are among this people, who is seen eye to eye. You are the Lord, and 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 Will you kill this people as one man? Then the nations who have heard your fame will speak saying, 16 Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which He swore to them, therefore He has slain them in the wilderness. 17 Now, I beseech you, let the power of my Lord be great, according as you have spoken saying, 18 The Lord is long suffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation. 19 I beseech you, pardon the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your mercy, and as you have forgiven this people from Egypt even until now. 20 The Lord said, I have pardoned according to your word. 21 But truly, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. 22 Because all men who have seen my glory and my miracles which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not listened to my voice, 23 Surely they will not see the land that I swore to their fathers nor will any of those who provoked me see it. 24 But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him and has followed me fully, I will bring him into the land into which he went. And his descendants shall possess it. 25 Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites lived in the valley. Tomorrow turn and go into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea. 26 The Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron saying, 27 How long shall I bear with this evil congregation that grumbles+ against me? I have heard the grumblings+ of the children of Israel which they grumble+ against me. 28 Say to them, As I live, says the Lord, as you have spoken in my ears, so I will do to you. 29 Your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness and all who were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from 20 years old and upward, who have grumbled+ against me, 30 you shall certainly not come into the land which I swore to make you live in, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. 31 But your children, whom you said would be prey, I will bring them in and they will know the land that you have despised. 32 But as for you, your bodies shall fall in this wilderness. 33 Your children shall feed in the wilderness 40 years and bear your fornications, until your dead bodies have wasted in the wilderness. 34 According to the number of the days in which you searched the land, 40 days, each day for a year you shall bear your iniquities, 40 years. And you shall know my alienation. 35 I the Lord have spoken; I will surely do it to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against me. They shall be destroyed in this wilderness, and there they shall die. 36 The men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation to grumble+ against him, by bringing up an evil report upon the land, 37 even those who brought up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the Lord. 38 But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, of the men who went to spy out the land, lived. 39 Moses told these sayings to all the children of Israel. And the people mourned greatly. 40 They arose early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain saying, We are here and will go to the place that the Lord has promised, for we have sinned. 41 Moses said, Why do you now go beyond the command of the Lord, since it shall not be blessed? 42 Do not go up, for the Lord is not among you. And shall you not be beaten before your enemies? 43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you shall fall by the sword. Because you have turned away from the Lord, therefore the Lord will not be with you. 44 But they presumed to go up to the hill top. But the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and Moses, did not leave the camp. 45 The Amalekites and the Canaanites who were living in that mountain came down and struck them, and beat them down, to Hormah.
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