Numbers 14

The Congregation Rebels

1Then the whole congregation raised their voices and cried out, and the people wept that night. 2All the Israelites grumbled 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! 3Why is the LORD bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder. Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” 4And they said to one another, “Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt.”

5Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before the whole assembly of the congregation of the Israelites. 6Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who explored the land, tore their clothes 7and spoke to the whole congregation of the Israelites, saying, “The land through which we passed to explore is an exceedingly good land. 8If the LORD delights in us, the LORD will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land flowing with milk and honey. 9Only do not rebel against the LORD, and do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection has departed from them, and the LORD is with us. Do not fear them.” 10But the whole congregation said to stone them with stones. Then the glory of the LORD appeared at the Tent of Meeting to all the Israelites.

Moses Intercedes for the People

11The LORD said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? How long will they refuse to trust me, in spite of all the signs I have done in their midst? 12I will strike them with pestilence and dispossess them, and I will make from you a nation greater and mightier than they.”

13But Moses said to the LORD, “Then Egypt will hear of it, for by your power you brought this people up from their midst, 14and they will tell the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you, O LORD, are in the midst of this people; that you, O LORD, are seen face to face; that your cloud stands over them; and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. 15If you put this people to death as one person, then the nations who have heard of your fame will say, 16‘Because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land sworn to them, the LORD slaughtered them in the wilderness.’

17And now, please, let the power of the Lord be great, just as you have spoken, saying, 18‘The LORD is slow to anger and abundant in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, yet by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of parents upon children to the third and fourth generation.’ 19Please forgive the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just as you have borne with this people from Egypt until now.”

The LORD Pardons and Judges

20Then the LORD said, “I have forgiven according to your word. 21Nevertheless, as I live, and as all the earth will be filled with the glory of the LORD, 22none of the people who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tested me these ten times and have not listened to my voice, 23shall see the land that I swore to their ancestors. None of those who despised me shall see it. 24But my servant Caleb, because he had a different spirit with him and followed me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his offspring shall possess it. 25Now the Amalekites and Canaanites live in the valleys. Tomorrow turn and set out for the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.”

26The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 27“How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who grumble against me? I have heard the grumblings of the Israelites that they grumble against me. 28Say to them: ‘As I live, says the LORD, just as you have spoken in my hearing, so I will do to you. 29Your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who were counted in the census, from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me. 30Not one of you shall enter the land in which I lifted my hand to settle you, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.

31But your little ones, whom you said would become plunder, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you rejected. 32But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. 33Your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and shall bear your unfaithfulness until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness. 34According to the number of the days in which you explored the land, forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquities forty years, and you shall know my opposition.’ 35I, the LORD, have spoken. Surely I will do this to all this evil congregation gathered together against me. In this wilderness they shall come to an end, and there they shall die.”

The Spies Die by Plague

36The men whom Moses sent to explore the land, who returned and made the whole congregation grumble against him by bringing a bad report about the land— 37those men who brought the bad report about the land died by a plague before the LORD. 38But Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh remained alive from those men who went to explore the land.

Israel Attempts to Go Up

39Moses spoke these words to all the Israelites, and the people mourned greatly. 40They rose early in the morning and went up toward the heights of the hill country, saying, “Here we are. We will go up to the place the LORD spoke of, for we have sinned.” 41But Moses said, “Why are you now crossing the command of the LORD? This will not succeed. 42Do not go up, for the LORD is not in your midst, so that you may not be struck down before your enemies. 43For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you will fall by the sword. Because you have turned back from following the LORD, the LORD will not be with you.” 44But they presumed to go up to the heights of the hill country, though the ark of the covenant of the LORD and Moses did not move from the midst of the camp. 45Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down, struck them, and beat them down as far as Hormah.