[1] All the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people
wept that night. [2] All the children of Israel murmured against Moses and
against Aaron: and the whole congregation said to them, Would that we had
died in the land of Egypt! or would that we had died in this wilderness!
[3] Why does Yahweh bring us to this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives
and our little ones will be a prey: wouldn`t it be better for us to return
into Egypt? [4] 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] Joshua the
son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were of those who spied out
the land, tore their clothes: [7] and they spoke to all the congregation of
the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to spy it
out, is an exceeding good land. [8] If Yahweh delight in us, then he will
bring us into this land, and give it to us; a land which flows with milk
and honey. [9] Only don`t rebel against Yahweh, neither fear you the people
of the land; for they are bread for us: their defense is removed from over
them, and Yahweh is with us: don`t fear them. [10] But all the congregation
bade stone them with stones. The glory of Yahweh appeared in the tent of
meeting to all the children of Israel. [11] Yahweh said to Moses, How long
will this people despise me? and how long will they not believe in me, for
all the signs which I have worked among them? [12] I will strike them with
the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of you a nation greater
and mightier than they. [13] Moses said to Yahweh, Then the Egyptians will
hear it; for you brought up this people in your might from among them; [14]
and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that
you Yahweh are in the midst of this people; for you Yahweh are seen face to
face, and your cloud stands over them, and you go before them, in a pillar
of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night. [15] Now if you shall
kill this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of
you will speak, saying, [16] Because Yahweh was not able to bring this
people into the land which he swore to them, therefore he has slain them in
the wilderness. [17] Now please let the power of the Lord be great,
according as you have spoken, saying, [18] Yahweh is slow to anger, and
abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and disobedience; and that
will by no means clear [the guilty], visiting the iniquity of the fathers
on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation. [19] Pardon,
Please, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your
lovingkindness, and according as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt
even until now. [20] Yahweh said, I have pardoned according to your word:
[21] but in very deed, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with
the glory of Yahweh; [22] because all those men who have seen my glory, and
my signs, which I worked in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tempted
me these ten times, and have not listened to my voice; [23] surely they
shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers, neither shall any of
those who despised me see it: [24] but my servant Caleb, because he had
another spirit with him, and has followed me fully, him will I bring into
the land into which he went; and his seed shall possess it. [25] Now the
Amalekite and the Canaanite dwell in the valley: tomorrow turn you, and get
you into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea. [26] Yahweh spoke to
Moses and to Aaron, saying, [27] How long [shall I bear] with this evil
congregation, that 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 Yahweh, surely as you have spoken in my ears, so will I do to
you: [29] your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and all who were
numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and
upward, who have murmured against me, [30] surely you shall not come into
the land, concerning which I swore that I would make you dwell therein,
save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. [31] But your
little ones, that you said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they
shall know the land which you have rejected. [32] But as for you, your dead
bodies shall fall in this wilderness. [33] Your children shall be wanderers
in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your prostitution, until your
dead bodies be consumed in the wilderness. [34] After the number of the
days in which you spied out the land, even forty days, for every day a
year, shall you bear your iniquities, even forty years, and you shall know
my alienation. [35] I, Yahweh, have spoken, surely this will I do to all
this evil congregation, who are gathered together against me: in this
wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die. [36] The men,
whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned, and made all the
congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up an evil report against
the land, [37] even those men who did bring up an evil report of the land,
died by the plague before Yahweh. [38] But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb
the son of Jephunneh, remained alive of those men who went to spy out the
land. [39] Moses told these words to all the children of Israel: and the
people mourned greatly. [40] They rose up early in the morning, and got
them up to the top of the mountain, saying, Behold, we are here, and will
go up to the place which Yahweh has promised: for we have sinned. [41]
Moses said, Why now do you disobey the commandment of Yahweh, seeing it
shall not prosper? [42] Don`t go up, for Yahweh isn`t among you; that you
not be struck down before your enemies. [43] For there the Amalekite and
the Canaanite are before you, and you shall fall by the sword: because you
are turned back from following Yahweh, therefore Yahweh will not be with
you. [44] But they presumed to go up to the top of the mountain:
nevertheless the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, and Moses, didn`t depart
out of the camp. [45] Then the Amalekite came down, and the Canaanite who
lived in that mountain, and struck them and beat them down, even to Hormah.
