Israel Refuses to Enter Canaan

14 So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people ^(A)wept that night. ^2 (B)And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness! ³ Why has the Lord brought us to this land to ^[a]fall by the sword, that our wives and ^(C)children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” ⁴ So they said to one another, ^(D)“Let us select a leader and ^(E)return to Egypt.”

^26 (A)“Nevertheless you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God; ²⁷ and you ^(B)complained in your tents, and said, ‘Because the Lord ^(C)hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. ²⁸ Where can we go up? Our brethren have ^[a]discouraged our hearts, saying, ^(D)“The people are greater and taller than we; the cities are great and fortified up to heaven; moreover we have seen the sons of the ^(E)Anakim there.” ’

²⁹ “Then I said to you, ‘Do not be terrified, ^(F)or afraid of them. ^30 (G)The Lord your God, who goes before you, He will fight for you, according to all He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, ³¹ and in the wilderness where you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a ^(H)man carries his son, in all the way that you went until you came to this place.’ ³² Yet, for all that, ^(I)you did not believe the Lord your God, ^33 (J)who went in the way before you ^(K)to search out a place for you to pitch your tents, to show you the way you should go, in the fire by night and in the cloud by day.