| 1 | And 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 against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness! |
| 3 | And wherefore hath the LORD brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt? |
| 4 | And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us 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, [which were] of them that searched the land, rent their clothes: |
| 7 | And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, [is] an exceeding good land. |
| 8 | If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. |
| 9 | Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they [are] bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the LORD [is] with us: fear them not. |
| 10 | But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel. |
| 11 | And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them? |
| 12 | I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they. |
| 13 | And Moses said unto the LORD, Then the Egyptians shall hear [it], (for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them;) |
| 14 | And they will tell [it] to the inhabitants of this land: [for] they have heard that thou LORD [art] among this people, that thou LORD art seen face to face, and [that] thy cloud standeth over them, and [that] thou goest before them, by day time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night. |
| 15 | Now [if] thou shalt kill [all] this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, |
| 16 | Because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness. |
| 17 | And now, I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, |
| 18 | The LORD [is] longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing [the guilty], visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth [generation]. |
| 19 | Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now. |
| 20 | And the LORD said, I have pardoned according to thy word: |
| 21 | But [as] truly [as] I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD. |
| 22 | Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; |
| 23 | Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it: |
| 24 | But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it. |
| 25 | (Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley.) Tomorrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea. |
| 26 | And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, |
| 27 | How long [shall I bear with] this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me. |
| 28 | Say unto them, [As truly as] I live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: |
| 29 | Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me, |
| 30 | Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, [concerning] which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. |
| 31 | But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised. |
| 32 | But [as for] you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness. |
| 33 | And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness. |
| 34 | After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, [even] forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, [even] forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise. |
| 35 | I the LORD have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die. |
| 36 | And the men, which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land, |
| 37 | Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the LORD. |
| 38 | But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, [which were] of the men that went to search the land, lived [still]. |
| 39 | And Moses told these sayings unto all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly. |
| 40 | And they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up into the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we [be here], and will go up unto the place which the LORD hath promised: for we have sinned. |
| 41 | And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the LORD? but it shall not prosper. |
| 42 | Go not up, for the LORD [is] not among you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies. |
| 43 | For the Amalekites and the Canaanites [are] there before you, and ye shall fall by the sword: because ye are turned away from the LORD, therefore the LORD will not be with you. |
| 44 | But they presumed to go up unto the hill top: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and Moses, departed not out of the camp. |
| 45 | Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, [even] unto Hormah. |
