1 And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried;
and the people wept that night.
2 And
all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the
whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of
Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness!
3 And
wherefore hath the LORD brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that
our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to
return into Egypt?
4 And
they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.
5 Then
Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation
of the children of Israel.
6 And
Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of
them that searched the land, rent their clothes:
7 And
they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land,
which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land.
8 If
the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a
land which floweth with milk and honey.
9 Only
rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread
for us: their defence is departed from them, and the LORD is with
us: fear them not.
10 But
all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the glory of the LORD
appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of
Israel.
11 And
the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long
will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among
them?
12 I
will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee
a greater nation and mightier than they.
13 And
Moses said unto the LORD, Then the Egyptians shall hear it, (for thou broughtest up this people in thy might
from among them;)
14 And
they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: for they
have heard that thou LORD art among this people, that thou LORD art
seen face to face, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou
goest before them, by day time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire
by night.
15 Now if thou
shalt kill all this
people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will
speak, saying,
16 Because
the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto
them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness.
17 And
now, I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast
spoken, saying,
18 The
LORD is longsuffering,
and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means
clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon
the children unto the third and fourth generation.
19 Pardon,
I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy
mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.
20 And
the LORD said, I have pardoned according to thy word:
21 But as truly as I
live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.
22 Because
all those men which 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
hearkened to my voice;
23 Surely
they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any
of them that provoked me see it:
24 But
my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me
fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall
possess it.
25 (Now
the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley.) To morrow turn you, and
get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea.
26 And
the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,
27 How
long shall I bear with this
evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the
children of Israel, which they murmur against me.
28 Say
unto them, As truly as I
live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you:
29 Your
carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you,
according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have
murmured against me,
30 Doubtless
ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell
therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.
31 But
your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and
they shall know the land which ye have despised.
32 But as for you,
your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness.
33 And
your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms,
until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.
34 After
the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty
days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty
years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.
35 I
the LORD have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that
are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed,
and there they shall die.
36 And
the men, which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the
congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land,
37 Even
those men that did bring 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, which were of
the men that went to search the land, lived still.
39 And
Moses told these sayings unto all the children of Israel: and the people
mourned greatly.
40 And
they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up into the top of the
mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the
place which the LORD hath promised: for we have sinned.
41 And
Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the LORD? but it
shall not prosper.
42 Go
not up, for the LORD is not among you; that ye be not smitten
before your enemies.
43 For
the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and ye shall fall by
the sword: because ye are turned away from the LORD, therefore the LORD will
not be with you.
44 But
they presumed to go up unto the hill top: nevertheless the ark of the covenant
of the LORD, and Moses, departed not out of the camp.
45 Then
the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and
smote them, and discomfited them, even unto Hormah.
