²⁶ Now they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran, at ^(A)Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. ²⁷ Then they told him, and said: “We went to the land where you sent us. It truly ^[a]flows with ^(B)milk and honey, ^(C)and this is its fruit. ²⁸ Nevertheless the ^(D)people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of ^(E)Anak there. ^29 (F)The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan.”

³⁰ Then ^(G)Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.”

^31 (H)But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.” ³² And they ^(I)gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and ^(J)all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature.

²⁰ Then the Lord said: “I have pardoned, ^(A)according to your word; ²¹ but truly, as I live, ^(B)all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord— ^22 (C)because all these men who have seen My glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put Me to the test now ^(D)these ten times, and have not heeded My voice, ²³ they certainly shall not ^(E)see the land of which I ^[a]swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it. ²⁴ But My servant ^(F)Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and ^(G)has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it.