1And all the congregation lifted up their
voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.
2And 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!
3And 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?
4And they said one to another, Let us make a
captain, and let us return into Egypt.
5Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces
before all the assembly of the congregation of the
children of Israel.
6And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son
of Jephunneh, which
were of them that searched the land, rent their
clothes:
7And 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.
8If 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.
9Only 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.
10But 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.
11And 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?
12I will smite them with the pestilence, and
disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater
nation and mightier than they.
13And Moses said unto the LORD, Then the
Egyptians shall hear it,
(for thou broughtest up this people in thy might
from among them;)
14And 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.
15Now if thou
shalt kill all this
people as one man, then the nations which have heard
the fame of thee will speak, saying,
16Because 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.
17And now, I beseech thee, let the power of
my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken,
saying,
18The 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.
19Pardon, 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.
20And the LORD said, I have pardoned
according to thy word:
21But as truly as I
live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory
of the LORD.
22Because 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;
23Surely they shall not see the land which I
sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them
that provoked me see it:
24But 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.
26And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto
Aaron, saying,
27How 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.
28Say unto them, As
truly as I live, saith the LORD, as ye have
spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you:
29Your 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,
30Doubtless 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.
31But 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.
32But as
for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this
wilderness.
33And your children shall wander in the
wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms,
until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.
34After 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.
35I 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.
36And 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,
37Even those men that did bring up the evil
report upon the land, died by the plague before the
LORD.
38But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the
son of Jephunneh, which
were of the men that went to search the land,
lived still.
39And Moses told these sayings unto all the
children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly.
40And 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.
41And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye
transgress the commandment of the LORD? but it shall
not prosper.
42Go not up, for the LORD is not
among you; that ye be not smitten before your
enemies.
43For 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.
44But 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.
45Then the Amalekites came down, and the
Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and smote them,
and discomfited them, even unto
Hormah.