The People Rebel
1 Then all the congregation [of Israel] raised their voices and cried out, and the people wept that night.
2 All the Israelites murmured [in discontent] against Moses and Aaron; and the whole congregation said to them, “Oh that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or that we had died in this wilderness!
3 Why is the Lordbringing us to this land [of Canaan], to fall by the sword? Our wives andchildren will become plunder. Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?”
4 So they said one to another, “Let us appoint a [new] leader and return to Egypt.”
5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the Israelites.
6 Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes [as a sign of grief],
7 and they spoke to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying, “The land through which we passed as spies is an exceedingly good land.
8 If the Lorddelights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land whichflows with milk and honey.
9 Only do not rebel against the Lord; and do not fear the people of the land, for they will be our prey. Their protection has been removed from them, and the Lordis with us. Do not fear them.”
10 But all the congregation said to stone Joshua and Caleb with stones. But the gloryandbrilliance of the Lordappeared at the Tent of Meeting (tabernacle) before all the sons of Israel.
Moses Pleads for the People
11 The Lordsaid to Moses, “How long will these people treat me disrespectfullyandreject Me? And how long will they not believe in Me, despite all the [miraculous] signs which I have performed among them?
12 I will strike them with the pestilence (plague) and dispossess them, and will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they.”
13 But Moses said to the Lord, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for by Your strength You brought up these people from among them,
14 and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that You, Lord, are among these people [of Israel], that You, Lord, are seen face to face, while Your cloud stands over them; and that You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night.
15 Now if You kill these people as one man, then the nations (Gentiles) that have heard of Your fame will say,
16 ‘Because the Lordwas not able to bring these people into the land which He promised to give them, therefore He slaughtered them in the wilderness.’
17 But now, please, let the power of the Lord be great, just as You have declared, saying,
18 ‘The Lordis slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving wickedness and transgression; but He will by no means clearthe guilty, visiting (avenging) the wickednessandguilt of the fathers on the children, to the third and fourthgenerations[that is, calling the children to account for the sins of their fathers].’
19 Please pardon the wickednessandguilt of these people according to the greatness of Your lovingkindness, just as You have forgiven these people, from Egypt even until now.”
The Lord Pardons and Rebukes
20 So the Lordsaid, “I have pardonedthemaccording to your word;
21 but indeed as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord.
22 Surely all the men who have seen My glory and My [miraculous] signs which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have put Me to the test these ten times and have not listened to My voice,
23 will by no means see the land which I swore to [give to] their fathers; nor will any who treated me disrespectfullyandrejected Me see it.
24 But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land into which he entered, and his descendants shall take possession of it.
25 Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites live in the valley; tomorrow turn and set out for the wilderness by way of the Red Sea.”
26 The Lordspoke to Moses and Aaron, saying,
27 “How longshall I put up withthis evil congregation who murmur [in discontent] against Me? I have heard the complaints of the Israelites, which they are making against Me.
28 Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘just what you have spoken in My hearing I will most certainly do to you;
29 your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness, even all who were numbered of you, your entire number from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against Me.
30 ~‘Except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun, not one of you shall enter the land in which I swore [an oath] to settle you.
31 ~‘But your children whom you said would become plunder, I will bring in, and they will know the land which you have despisedandrejected.
32 ~‘But as for you, your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness.
33 ~‘Your sons shall be wanderersandshepherds in the wilderness for forty years, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness (spiritual infidelity), until your corpses are consumed in the wilderness.
34 ~‘According to the number of days in which you spied out the land [of Canaan], forty days, for each day, you shall bearandsuffer a year for your sinsandguilt, for forty years, and you shall know My displeasure [the revoking of My promise and My estrangement because of your sin].
35 ~‘I, the Lord, have spoken. I will most certainly do this to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be consumed [by war, disease, and plagues], and here they shall die.’”
36 As for the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, and who returned and made all the congregation murmurandcomplain against him by bringing back a bad report concerning the land,
37 even those [ten] men who brought back the very bad report of the land died by a plague before the Lord.
38 But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive out of those men who went to spy out the land.
Israel Repulsed
39 Moses spoke the Lord’s words to all the Israelites, and the people mourned greatly.
40 They got up early in the morning and went up to the ridge of the hill country, saying, “Look, here we are; we have indeed sinned, but we will go up to the place which the Lordhas promised.”
41 But Moses said, “Why then are you transgressing the commandment of the Lord, when it will not succeed?
42 Do not go up, or you will be struck down before your enemies, for the Lordis not among you.
43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites will be there in front of you, and you will fall by the sword, because you have turned away from following the Lord; therefore the Lordwill not be with you.”
44 But [in their arrogance] they dared to go up to the ridge of the hill country; however, neither the ark of the covenant of the Lordnor Moses left the camp.
45 Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and struck the Israelites and scattered them as far as Hormah.