Numbers 14:1-25
That night all the people of the community raised
their voices and wept aloud. 2All 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! 3Why 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?” 4And they said to each other, “We
should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”
5Then Moses and Aaron fell facedown in front of the
whole Israelite assembly gathered there. 6Joshua son of
Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among
those who had explored the land, tore their clothes
7and said to the entire Israelite assembly, “The land we
passed through and explored is exceedingly good. 8If
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. 9Only 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.”
10But the whole assembly talked about stoning
them. Then the glory of the LORD appeared at the Tent of
Meeting to all the Israelites. 11The 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?
12I will strike them down with a plague and destroy
them, but I will make you into a nation greater and
stronger than they.”
13Moses said to the LORD, “Then the Egyptians will
hear about it! By your power you brought these people
up from among them. 14And 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. 15If you put
these people to death all at one time, the nations who
have heard this report about you will say, 16‘The LORD
was not able to bring these people into the land he
promised them on oath; so he slaughtered them in the
desert.’
17“Now may the Lord’s strength be displayed, just as
you have declared: 18‘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.’ 19In 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.”
20The LORD replied, “I have forgiven them, as you
asked. 21Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as surely as
the glory of the LORD fills the whole earth, 22not 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— 23not 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. 24But 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. 25Since 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.