Numbers 14 Upon this, all the congregation, raising their voices, shouted aloud, and

Thomson⁽ⁱ⁾ ¹ Upon this, all the congregation, raising their voices, shouted aloud, and ² the people wept that whole night. And all the Israelites murmured against Moses and Aaron; and the whole congregation said to them, that we had died in the land of Egypt, or even in this wilderness! ³ If we must die, why doth the Lord lead us into that land to fall in battle? Our wives and our children will be for a prey. Now therefore it is better for us to return to Egypt. ⁴ Then they said to one another, Let us appoint a leader, and return to Egypt. ⁵ Upon this Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the congregation of the children of Israel, ⁶ and Joshua the son of Nave, and Chaleb the son of Jephonne, two of them who had viewed the land, rent their clothes, ⁷ and spoke to all the congregation of the Israelites, saying, The land which we viewed is indeed a most excellent land. ⁸ If the Lord delighteth in us, he will lead us to that land, and give it to us. It is a land flowing with milk and honey. ⁹ Only rebel not against the Lord, and you need not be afraid of the people of the land, for they are food for us. For their time is over, and the Lord is with us. Fear them not. ¹⁰ And when all the congregation ordered to stone them with stones, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud, over the tabernacle of the testimony, to all the children of Israel. ¹¹ And the Lord said to Moses, How long shall this people provoke me? And how long will they disbelieve me, notwithstanding all the miracles which I have done among them? ¹² Let me smite them with pestilence and destroy them, and I will make thee and the house of thy father a great nation and much more numerous than this. ¹³ Thereupon Moses said to the Lord, Though Egypt may publish that thou by thy mighty power didst bring this people out from among them; ¹⁴ Nay though all the inhabitants of this land have heard that thou the Lord art among this people; that they with their eyes may behold thee, Lord, exposed to view; and that thy cloud hath stood over them, and that thou marchest before them in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night; ¹⁵ yet when thou shalt destroy this people as one man, then will all the nations who have heard of thy name speak, saying, ¹⁶ Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which, with an oath, he promised them, he hath destroyed them in the wilderness. ¹⁷ Now therefore let thy power, Lord, be exalted. As thou hast spoken, saying, ¹⁸ "The Lord is long suffering, abundant in mercy and true, taking away iniquities, transgressions and sins; and, when he will not by purification clear the guilty, retributing the sins of fathers on children to the third and fourth generation," ¹⁹ forgive the sin of this people according to thy great mercy, as thou hast been gracious to them from Egypt even to this time. ²⁰ Then the Lord said to Moses, I am merciful to them according to thy word. ²¹ But as I live, and my name liveth, and the glory of the Lord shall fill the whole earth; ²² because all these men, who have seen my glory, and the wonders which I have done in Egypt, and in this wilderness, have actually tempted me now the tenth time, and have not hearkened to my voice, ²³ they indeed shall not see the land which I, with an oath, promised their fathers. But with regard to their children who are here with me; as many as have not known good or evil; every one who is too young to be taught by experience, to them I will give the land. As for all them who have provoked me, they shall not see it; ²⁴ But with regard to my servant Chaleb, because there was a different spirit in him, and he followed me, him I will bring into the land to which he went, and his seed shall inherit it. ²⁵ Now the Amalekites and the Chananites dwell in that valley, turn therefore to-morrow, and remove into the wilderness by the way to the Red sea. ²⁶ Moreover the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, ²⁷ How long shall I bear with this wicked congregation? I have heard what they murmur before me; the murmuring of the Israelites which they have uttered concerning you, ²⁸ Say to them, As I live, saith the Lord, As you have spoken in my hearing, so will I actually do to you. ²⁹ In this wilderness your carcasses shall fall; the whole review of you; even all of you who have been reviewed, from twenty years old, and upwards, who have murmured against me. ³⁰ None of you shall come into that land, respecting which I stretched forth my hand to cause you to dwell therein, save only Chaleb son of Jephonne, and Joshua son of Nave. ³¹ But as for your children, which you said would be for a prey, them I will bring into the land, and they shall inherit that land which you have rejected. ³² Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness, and in this wilderness ³³ your children shall be fed forty years. They shall bear your whoredom until your carcasses are consumed in the wilderness. ³⁴ According to the number of days in which you explored the land, counting each of the forty days a year, you shall bear your sins forty years, and shall know the vengeance of my wrath. ³⁵ I the Lord have spoken. In this manner I will assuredly deal with this wicked congregation, which hath risen up against me. In this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die, ³⁶ with those men whom Moses sent to view the land, and who, on their return, murmured against it before the congregation, to raise an evil report concerning it. ³⁷ Now the men who spoke ill against the land were struck dead before the Lord, ³⁸ and Joshua son of Nave and Chaleb son of Jephonne alone survived of all the men who had gone to view the land. ³⁹ When Moses rehearsed these words to all the children of Israel, the people mourned exceedingly, ⁴⁰ and rising early the next morning they went up to the top of the mountain, saying, Behold, here we are, we will go up to the place which the Lord hath said, for we have sinned. ⁴¹ Though Moses said, Why do you transgress the command of the Lord? Things will not prosper with you. ⁴² Do not go up, for the Lord is not with you. You will therefore fall before the face of your enemies. ⁴³ Because the Amalekites and the Chananites are there before you, you will therefore fall by the sword. Because you have turned back, and disobeyed the Lord, therefore the Lord will not be among you. ⁴⁴ Notwithstanding this, they obstinately went up to the top of the mountain; but the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and Moses, did not depart out of the camp. ⁴⁵ And the Amalekites and the Chananites, who were in ambush on the mountain, came down, and drove them back, and smote them even to Ermon. So they returned to the camp.