NumbersChapter 14

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¹Then the whole community cried out loud. That night the people wept. ²All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole community said to them, "We wish we had died in Egypt! Or we wish we had died in this wilderness! ³Why is the LORD bringing us to this land to be killed by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn't it be better for us to go back to Egypt?" ⁴And they said to each other, "Let's choose a leader and go back to Egypt." ⁵Then Moses and Aaron fell facedown in front of the whole gathering of the community of Israel. ⁶Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh had been among those who spied out the land. They tore their clothes. ⁷They said to the whole community of Israel, "The land we went through and explored is a very, very good land. ⁸If the LORD is pleased with us, he will bring us into this land. It is a land flowing with milk and honey. He will give it to us. ⁹Only don't rebel against the LORD. And don't be afraid of the people of the land. We will eat them up like bread. Their protection is gone, and the LORD is with us. Don't be afraid of them!" ¹⁰But the whole community said they would stone Joshua and Caleb. Then the glory of the LORD appeared to all the Israelites at the Tent of Meeting. ¹¹The LORD said to Moses, "How long will these people treat me with such scorn? How long will they refuse to believe in me, even after all the signs I have done among them? ¹²I will strike them with a plague and destroy them. Then I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than they are." ¹³But Moses said to the LORD, "The Egyptians will hear about it! You used your power to bring these people out from among them. ¹⁴And they will tell the people who live in this land. They have already heard about you, LORD. They know you are with these people. They know you, LORD, have been seen face to face. They know your cloud stays over them. They know you go ahead of them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. ¹⁵Suppose you kill all these people at once. Then the nations who have heard about you will say, ¹⁶'The LORD couldn't bring these people into the land he swore to give them. So he killed them in the wilderness.' ¹⁷So now, I pray, let my Lord's power be shown to be great, just as you have said: ¹⁸'The LORD is slow to get angry. He is full of faithful love. He forgives sin and wrong. But he will never let the guilty go unpunished. He will punish the children for the sin of their fathers, to the third and fourth generation.' ¹⁹Please forgive the sin of these people, because your faithful love is so great. Forgive them just as you have forgiven them ever since they left Egypt." ²⁰The LORD answered, "I have forgiven them, as you asked. ²¹But as surely as I live, and as surely as the LORD's glory fills the whole earth, this is true. ²²These men have seen my glory. They have seen the signs I did in Egypt and in the wilderness. Yet they have tested me and disobeyed me these ten times. ²³Not one of them will ever see the land I swore to give their fathers. None of those who have treated me with scorn will see it. ²⁴But my servant Caleb has a different spirit. He has followed me with all his heart. So I will bring him into the land he went into. His descendants will receive it as their own. ²⁵The Amalekites and Canaanites live in the valleys. So tomorrow, turn back. Head into the wilderness on the road to the Red Sea." ²⁶Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, ²⁷"How long will this wicked community grumble against me? I have heard the Israelites complaining against me. ²⁸So tell them this: 'As surely as I live, says the LORD, I will do to you just what I heard you say. ²⁹Your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness. This means all of you who were counted, everyone twenty years old or older. It is because you have grumbled against me. ³⁰Not one of you will enter the land I swore to give you as a home. Only Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun will enter it. ³¹You said your children would be taken as plunder. But I will bring them into the land you have rejected. They will enjoy it. ³²But as for you, your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness. ³³Your children will be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years. They will suffer for your unfaithfulness. This will last until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness. ³⁴You spied out the land for forty days. So you will suffer for your guilt for forty years, one year for each day. You will know what it is like to have me against you. ³⁵I, the LORD, have spoken. I will surely do these things to this whole wicked community. They have joined together against me. They will come to their end in this wilderness. They will die here.'" ³⁶Moses had sent men to spy out the land. They came back and gave a bad report about the land. That made the whole community grumble against Moses. ³⁷Those men who gave the bad report about the land were struck down by a plague before the LORD. ³⁸Of the men who went to spy out the land, only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh stayed alive. ³⁹Moses told all the Israelites what the LORD had said. And the people mourned bitterly. ⁴⁰Early the next morning they got up. They started up toward the top of the hill country. "We know we have sinned," they said. "But now we will go to the place the LORD promised." ⁴¹But Moses said, "Why are you disobeying the LORD's command? This won't work! ⁴²Don't go up, because the LORD isn't with you. If you go, your enemies will strike you down. ⁴³The Amalekites and Canaanites will fight you there. You will be killed by the sword. You have turned away from the LORD, so he won't be with you." ⁴⁴But they dared to go up toward the top of the hill country anyway. Yet Moses and the ark of the LORD's covenant did not leave the camp. ⁴⁵Then the Amalekites and Canaanites who lived in those hills came down. They attacked the Israelites and chased them all the way to Hormah.