Numbers 14
Revised Geneva Translation
14 Then all the Congregation lifted up their voice and cried. And the people wept that night.
2 And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron. And the whole assembly said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or in this wilderness. If only we were dead.
3 “Why has the LORD brought us into this land to fall upon the sword now? Our wives and our children shall be a prey. Would it not be better for us to return into Egypt?”
4 And they said to one another, “Let us make a captain and return into Egypt.”
5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the Congregation of the children of Israel.
6 And Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh (two of them who searched the land), tore their clothes
7 and spoke to all the assembly of the children of Israel, saying, “The land through which we walked to search is a very good land!
8 “If the LORD loves us, He will bring us into this land and give it to us. It is a land that flows with milk and honey!
9 “But do not rebel against the LORD or fear the people of the land. For they are as bread to us! Their shield has departed from them; and the LORD is with us! Do not fear them!”
10 And all the multitude said, “Stone them with stones!” But the Glory of the LORD appeared in the Tabernacle of the Congregation, before all the children of Israel.
11 And the LORD said to Moses, “How long will this people provoke Me? And how long will it be before they believe Me, with all the signs which I have shown among them?
12 “I will strike them with the pestilence and destroy them and will make you a greater and mightier nation than they.”
13 But Moses said to the LORD, “When the Egyptians shall hear it (for You brought this people by Your power from among them),
14 “then they shall say to the inhabitants of the land (for they have heard that You, LORD, are among this people, and that You, LORD, are seen face to face, and that Your cloud stands over them, and that You go before them, by daytime in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night)
15 “that You will kill this people as one man. So, the heathen which have heard the fame of You, shall then say,
16 ‘Because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land which He swore to them, therefore He has killed them in the wilderness.’
17 “And now, I beg you, let the power of my LORD be great, as You have spoken, saying,
18 ‘The LORD is slow to anger and of great mercy and forgiving iniquity and sin, but not making the wicked innocent and visiting the wickedness of the fathers upon the children in the third and fourth generation.’
19 “Be merciful, I beg You, to the iniquity of this people, according to Your great mercy and as You have forgiven this people from Egypt even until now.”
20 And the LORD said, “I have forgiven it, according to your request.
21 “Nevertheless, as I live, all the Earth shall be filled with the Glory of the LORD.
22 “For all those men who have seen My Glory and My miracles which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness and have tempted Me these ten times and have not obeyed My Voice,
23 “certainly they shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers. Nor shall any who provoke Me see it.
24 “But My servant, Caleb, because he had another spirit and has followed Me still, him will I bring into the land where he went. And his seed shall inherit it.
25 “Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites remain in the valley. Turn tomorrow and go into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.”
26 Afterward, the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,
27 “How long shall I allow this wicked multitude to murmur against Me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against Me.
28 “Tell them, ‘As I live (says the LORD) I will surely do to you just as you have spoken in My Ears.
29 ‘Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness, all you who were counted through all your numbers—from twenty years old and above—who have murmured against Me.
30 ‘Except for Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, the son of Nun, you shall doubtless not come into the land for which I lifted up My Hand to make you dwell in.
31 ‘But your children, which you said should be a prey, them I will bring in. And they shall know the land which you have refused.
32 ‘But even your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness.
33 ‘And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years and shall bear your whoredoms until your carcasses are wasted in the wilderness.
34 ‘After the number of the days in which you searched out the land—forty days—for every day you shall bear your iniquity one year. For forty years you shall feel My breach of promise.
35 ‘I the LORD have said, “Certainly I will do so to all this wicked company who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be consumed. And there they shall die.
36 “And the men whom Moses had sent to search the land (who, when they came back, made all the people murmur against him, and brought up a slander upon the land),
37 “even those men who brought up that vile slander upon the land, shall die by a plague before the LORD.
38 “But Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, of those men who went to search the land, shall live.”’”
39 Then Moses told these sayings to all the children of Israel. And the people sorrowed greatly.
40 And they rose up early in the morning and went up into the top of the mountain, saying, “Lo, we are ready to go up to the place which the LORD has promised. For we have sinned.”
41 But Moses said, “Why do you transgress the Commandment of the LORD? It will not go well.
42 “Do not go up, (for the LORD is not among you) lest you be overthrown before your enemies.
43 “For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you. And you shall fall by the sword. For inasmuch as you are turned away from the LORD, the LORD will also not be with you.”
44 Yet they obstinately presumed to go up to the top of the mountain. But the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD, and Moses, did not depart out of the camp.
45 Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who dwelt in that mountain came down and struck them and beat them back to Hormah.
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