Numbers 13:25-14:38

English Standard Version

Report of the Spies

²⁵At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land. ²⁶And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the people 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. ²⁷And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us. It ^(B)flows with milk and honey, ^(C)and this is its fruit. ²⁸^(D)However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. ²⁹^(E)The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. ^(F)And the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.”

³⁰But ^(G)Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” ³¹^(H)Then 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 are.” ³²So ^(I)they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and ^(J)all the people that we saw in it are of great height. ³³And there we saw the ^(K)Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the ^(L)Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves ^(M)like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”

The People Rebel

14 Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people ^(N)wept that night. ²And all the people of Israel ^(O)grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or ^(P)would that we had died in this wilderness! ³Why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? ^(Q)Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” ⁴And they said to one another, ^(R)“Let us choose a leader and ^(S)go back to Egypt.”

⁵Then ^(T)Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the people of Israel. ⁶^(U)And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes ⁷and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, ^(V)“The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. ⁸If ^(W)the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, ^(X)a land that flows with milk and honey. ⁹Only ^(Y)do not rebel against the Lord. And ^(Z)do not fear the people of the land, for ^(AA)they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.” ¹⁰^(AB)Then all the congregation said to stone them with stones. But ^(AC)the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the people of Israel.

¹¹And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people ^(AD)despise me? And how long will they not ^(AE)believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? ¹²I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I ^(AF)will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”

Moses Intercedes for the People

¹³But ^(AG)Moses said to the Lord, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for you brought up this people in your might from among them, ¹⁴and they will tell the inhabitants of this land. ^(AH)They have heard that you, O Lord, are in the midst of this people. For you, O Lord, are seen face to face, and ^(AI)your cloud stands over them and you go before them, in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. ¹⁵Now if you kill this people as one man, then the nations who have heard your fame will say, ¹⁶‘It is because the Lord ^(AJ)was not able to bring this people into the land that he swore to give to them that he has killed them in the wilderness.’ ¹⁷And now, please let the power of the Lord be great as you have promised, saying, ¹⁸^(AK)‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, ^(AL)visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.’ ¹⁹Please ^(AM)pardon the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just ^(AN)as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt until now.”

God Promises Judgment

²⁰Then the Lord said, “I have pardoned, ^(AO)according to your word. ²¹But truly, as I live, and as all ^(AP)the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, ²²^(AQ)none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ^(AR)ten times and have not obeyed my voice, ²³^(AS)shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it. ²⁴But my servant ^(AT)Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has ^(AU)followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it. ²⁵^(AV)Now, since the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valleys, ^(AW)turn tomorrow and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.”

²⁶And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, ²⁷“How long shall ^(AX)this wicked congregation grumble against me? ^(AY)I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against me. ²⁸Say to them, ^(AZ)‘As I live, declares the Lord, ^(BA)what you have said in my hearing I will do to you: ²⁹^(BB)your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and ^(BC)of all your number, listed in the census ^(BD)from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me, ³⁰not one shall come into the land where I ^(BE)swore that I would make you dwell, ^(BF)except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. ³¹^(BG)But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that ^(BH)you have rejected. ³²But as for you, ^(BI)your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. ³³And your children ^(BJ)shall be shepherds in the wilderness ^(BK)forty years and shall ^(BL)suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. ³⁴^(BM)According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, ^(BN)forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.’ ³⁵^(BO)I, the Lord, have spoken. Surely this will I do to all ^(BP)this wicked congregation who are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die.”

³⁶^(BQ)And the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing up a bad report about the land— ³⁷the men who brought up a bad report of the land—^(BR)died by plague before the Lord. ³⁸Of those men who went to spy out the land, ^(BS)only Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive.