Numbers
14
- That night all the people of the community
raised their voices and wept aloud.
- All the Israelites grumbled against Moses
and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, "If only we had died
in Egypt! Or in this desert !
- Why is the LORD bringing us to this land
only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as
plunder. Wouldn't it be better for us to go back to Egypt ?"
- And they said to each other, "We should
choose a leader and go back to Egypt."
- Then Moses and Aaron fell facedown in front
of the whole Israelite assembly gathered there.
- Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh,
who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes
- and said to the entire Israelite assembly,
"The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good.
- If the LORD is pleased with us, he will
lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give
it to us.
- Only do not rebel against the LORD. And
do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up.
Their protection is gone, but the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them."
- But the whole assembly talked about stoning
them. Then the glory of the LORD appeared at the Tent of Meeting to all the
Israelites.
- The LORD said to Moses, "How long will
these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe
in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them ?
- I will strike them down with a plague and
destroy them, but I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than
they."
- Moses said to the LORD, "Then the Egyptians
will hear about it! By your power you brought these people up from among them.
- And they will tell the inhabitants of this
land about it. They have already heard that you, O LORD, are with these people
and that you, O LORD, have been seen face to face, that your cloud stays over
them, and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar
of fire by night.
- If you put these people to death all at
one time, the nations who have heard this report about you will say,
- 'The LORD was not able to bring these people
into the land he promised them on oath; so he slaughtered them in the desert.'
- "Now may the Lord's strength be displayed,
just as you have declared:
- 'The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in
love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished;
he punishes the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth
generation.'
- In accordance with your great love, forgive
the sin of these people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they
left Egypt until now."
- The LORD replied, "I have forgiven
them, as you asked.
- Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as
surely as the glory of the LORD fills the whole earth,
- not one of the men who saw my glory and
the miraculous signs I performed in Egypt and in the desert but who disobeyed
me and tested me ten times --
- not one of them will ever see the land I
promised on oath to their forefathers. No one who has treated me with contempt
will ever see it.
- But because my servant Caleb has a different
spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went
to, and his descendants will inherit it.
- Since the Amalekites and Canaanites are
living in the valleys, turn back tomorrow and set out toward the desert along
the route to the Red Sea."
- The LORD said to Moses and Aaron:
- "How long will this wicked community
grumble against me? I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites.
- So tell them, 'As surely as I live, declares
the LORD, I will do to you the very things I heard you say:
- In this desert your bodies will fall --
every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and
who has grumbled against me.
- Not one of you will enter the land I swore
with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua
son of Nun.
- As for your children that you said would
be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected.
- But you--your bodies will fall in this desert.
- Your children will be shepherds here for
forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies
lies in the desert.
- For forty years -- one year for each of
the forty days you explored the land -- you will suffer for your sins and
know what it is like to have me against you.'
- I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will surely
do these things to this whole wicked community, which has banded together
against me. They will meet their end in this desert; here they will die."
- So the men Moses had sent to explore the
land, who returned and made the whole community grumble against him by spreading
a bad report about it --
- these men responsible for spreading the
bad report about the land were struck down and died of a plague before the
LORD.
- Of the men who went to explore the land,
only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh survived.
- When Moses reported this to all the Israelites,
they mourned bitterly.
- Early the next morning they went up toward
the high hill country. "We have sinned," they said. "We will
go up to the place the LORD promised."
- But Moses said, "Why are you disobeying
the LORD'S command? This will not succeed !
- Do not go up, because the LORD is not with
you. You will be defeated by your enemies,
- for the Amalekites and Canaanites will face
you there. Because you have turned away from the LORD, he will not be with
you and you will fall by the sword."
- Nevertheless, in their presumption they
went up toward the high hill country, though neither Moses nor the ark of
the LORD'S covenant moved from the camp.
- Then the Amalekites and Canaanites who lived
in that hill country came down and attacked them and beat them down all the
way to Hormah.
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