Numbers 14

₁All night long the people cried out in distress. ₂They complained against Moses and Aaron, and said, “It would have been better to die in Egypt or even here in the wilderness! ₃Why is the LORD taking us into that land? We will be killed in battle, and our wives and children will be captured. Wouldn't it be better to go back to Egypt?” ₄So they said to one another, “Let's choose a leader and go back to Egypt!”

₅Then Moses and Aaron bowed to the ground in front of all the people. ₆And Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, two of the spies, tore their clothes in sorrow ₇and said to the people, “The land we explored is an excellent land. ₈If the LORD is pleased with us, he will take us there and give us that rich and fertile land. ₉Do not rebel against the LORD and don't be afraid of the people who live there. We will conquer them easily. The LORD is with us and has defeated the gods who protected them; so don't be afraid.” ₁₀The whole community was threatening to stone them to death, but suddenly the people saw the dazzling light of the LORD's presence appear over the tent.

₁₁The LORD said to Moses, “How much longer will these people reject me? How much longer will they refuse to trust in me, even though I have performed so many miracles among them? ₁₂I will send an epidemic and destroy them, but I will make you the father of a nation that is larger and more powerful than they are!”

₁₃But Moses said to the LORD, “You brought these people out of Egypt by your power. When the Egyptians hear what you have done to your people, ₁₄they will tell it to the people who live in this land. These people have already heard that you, LORD, are with us, that you are plainly seen when your cloud stops over us, and that you go before us in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. ₁₅Now if you kill all your people, the nations who have heard of your fame will say ₁₆that you killed your people in the wilderness because you were not able to bring them into the land you promised to give them. ₁₇So now LORD, I pray, show us your power and do what you promised when you said, ₁₈‘I, the LORD, am not easily angered, and I show great love and faithfulness and forgive sin and rebellion. Yet I will not fail to punish children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation for the sins of their parents.’ ₁₉And now, LORD, according to the greatness of your unchanging love, forgive, I pray, the sin of these people, just as you have forgiven them ever since they left Egypt.”

₂₀The LORD answered, “I will forgive them, as you have asked. ₂₁But I promise that as surely as I live and as surely as my presence fills the earth, ₂₂none of these people will live to enter that land. They have seen the dazzling light of my presence and the miracles that I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, but they have tried my patience over and over again and have refused to obey me. ₂₃They will never enter the land which I promised to their ancestors. None of those who have rejected me will ever enter it. ₂₄But because my servant Caleb has a different attitude and has remained loyal to me, I will bring him into the land which he explored, and his descendants will possess the land ₂₅in whose valleys the Amalekites and the Canaanites now live. Turn back tomorrow and go into the wilderness in the direction of the Gulf of Aqaba.”

₂₆The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, ₂₇“How much longer are these wicked people going to complain against me? I have heard enough of these complaints! ₂₈Now give them this answer: ‘I swear that as surely as I live, I will do to you just what you have asked. I, the LORD, have spoken. ₂₉You will die and your corpses will be scattered across this wilderness. Because you have complained against me, none of you over twenty years of age will enter that land. ₃₀I promised to let you live there, but not one of you will, except Caleb and Joshua. ₃₁You said that your children would be captured, but I will bring them into the land that you rejected, and it will be their home. ₃₂You will die here in this wilderness. ₃₃Your children will wander in the wilderness for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last one of you dies. ₃₄You will suffer the consequences of your sin for forty years, one year for each of the forty days you spent exploring the land. You will know what it means to have me against you! ₃₅I swear that I will do this to you wicked people who have gathered together against me. Here in the wilderness every one of you will die. I, the LORD, have spoken.’ ”

_36-37The men Moses had sent to explore the land brought back a false report which caused the people to complain against the LORD. And so the LORD struck them with a disease, and they died. ₃₈Of the twelve spies only Joshua and Caleb survived.

₃₉When Moses told the Israelites what the LORD had said, they mourned bitterly. ₄₀Early the next morning they started out to invade the hill country, saying, “Now we are ready to go to the place which the LORD told us about. We admit that we have sinned.”

₄₁But Moses said, “Then why are you disobeying the LORD now? You will not succeed! ₄₂Don't go. The LORD is not with you, and your enemies will defeat you. ₄₃When you face the Amalekites and the Canaanites, you will die in battle; the LORD will not be with you, because you have refused to follow him.”

₄₄Yet they still dared to go up into the hill country, even though neither the LORD's Covenant Box nor Moses left the camp. ₄₅Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived there attacked and defeated them, and pursued them as far as Hormah.