Numbers 14:10-39

New International Version

¹⁰ But the whole assembly talked about stoning^(A) them. Then the glory of the Lord^(B) appeared at the tent of meeting to all the Israelites. ¹¹ The Lord said to Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt?^(C) How long will they refuse to believe in me,^(D) in spite of all the signs^(E) I have performed among them? ¹² I will strike them down with a plague^(F) and destroy them, but I will make you into a nation^(G) greater and stronger than they.”^(H)

¹³ Moses said to the Lord, “Then the Egyptians will hear about it! By your power you brought these people up from among them.^{(I) 14} And they will tell the inhabitants of this land about it. They have already heard^(J) that you, Lord, are with these people^(K) and that you, Lord, have been seen face to face,^(L) that your cloud stays over them,^(M) and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.^{(N) 15} If you put all these people to death, leaving none alive, the nations who have heard this report about you will say, ¹⁶ ‘The Lord was not able to bring these people into the land he promised them on oath,^(O) so he slaughtered them in the wilderness.’^(P)

¹⁷ “Now may the Lord’s strength be displayed, just as you have declared: ¹⁸ ‘The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion.^(Q) Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.’^{(R) 19} In accordance with your great love, forgive^(S) the sin of these people,^(T) just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now.”^(U)

²⁰ The Lord replied, “I have forgiven them,^(V) as you asked. ²¹ Nevertheless, as surely as I live^(W) and as surely as the glory of the Lord^(X) fills the whole earth,^{(Y) 22} not one of those who saw my glory and the signs^(Z) I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times^(AA)— ²³ not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath^(AB) to their ancestors. No one who has treated me with contempt^(AC) will ever see it.^{(AD) 24} But because my servant Caleb^(AE) has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly,^(AF) I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.^{(AG) 25} Since the Amalekites^(AH) and the Canaanites^(AI) are living in the valleys, turn^(AJ) back tomorrow and set out toward the desert along the route to the Red Sea.^[a](AK)”

²⁶ The Lord said to Moses and Aaron: ²⁷ “How long will this wicked community grumble against me? I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites.^{(AL) 28} So tell them, ‘As surely as I live,^(AM) declares the Lord, I will do to you^(AN) the very thing I heard you say: ²⁹ In this wilderness your bodies will fall^(AO)—every one of you twenty years old or more^(AP) who was counted in the census^(AQ) and who has grumbled against me. ³⁰ Not one of you will enter the land^(AR) I swore with uplifted hand^(AS) to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh^(AT) and Joshua son of Nun.^{(AU) 31} As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected.^{(AV) 32} But as for you, your bodies will fall^(AW) in this wilderness. ³³ Your children will be shepherds here for forty years,^(AX) suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness. ³⁴ For forty years^(AY)—one year for each of the forty days you explored the land^(AZ)—you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you.’ ³⁵ I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will surely do these things^(BA) to this whole wicked community, which has banded together against me. They will meet their end in this wilderness; here they will die.^(BB)”

³⁶ So the men Moses had sent^(BC) to explore the land, who returned and made the whole community grumble^(BD) against him by spreading a bad report^(BE) about it— ³⁷ these men who were responsible for spreading the bad report^(BF) about the land were struck down and died of a plague^(BG) before the Lord. ³⁸ Of the men who went to explore the land,^(BH) only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh survived.^(BI)

³⁹ When Moses reported this^(BJ) to all the Israelites, they mourned^(BK) bitterly.