1: And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. 2: And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said to them, O that we had died in the land of Egypt! or O that we had died in this wilderness! 3: And why hath the LORD brought us to this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt? 4: And 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: And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, [who were] of them that searched the land, rent their clothes: 7: And they spoke to all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, [is] an exceeding good land. 8: If the LORD delighteth in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it to us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. 9: Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they [are] bread for us: their defense has departed from them, and the LORD [is] with us: fear them not. 10: But all the congregation required to stone them with stones: and the glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel. 11: And the LORD said to Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shown among them? 12: I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they. 13: And Moses said to the LORD, Then the Egyptians will hear [it], (for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them;) 14: And they will tell [it] to the inhabitants of this land: [for] they have heard that thou LORD [art] among this people, that thou LORD art seen face to face, and [that] thy cloud standeth over them, and [that] thou goest before them, by day-time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night. 15: Now [if] thou shalt kill [all] this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, 16: Because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land which he swore to them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness. 17: And now, I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, 18: The LORD [is] long-suffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing [the guilty], visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth [generation]. 19: Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt, even until now. 20: And the LORD said, I have pardoned according to thy word: 21: But [as] truly [as] I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD. 22: Because all those men who have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; 23: Surely they shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it: 24: But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land into which he went; and his seed shall possess it. 25: (Now the Amalekites, and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley.) To-morrow turn you, and pass into the wilderness, by the way of the Red sea. 26: And the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 27: How long [shall I bear with] this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me. 28: Say to them, [As truly as] I live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in my ears, so will I do to you: 29: Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me, 30: Doubtless ye shall not come into the land [concerning] which I swore to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. 31: But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised. 32: But [as for] you, your carcasses, they shall fall in this wilderness. 33: And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your lewd deeds, until your carcasses shall be wasted in the wilderness. 34: After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, [even] forty days (each day for a year) shall ye bear your iniquities, [even] forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise. 35: I the LORD have said, I will surely do it to all this evil congregation, that are gathered against me: in this wilderness, they shall be consumed, and there they shall die. 36: And the men whom Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing a slander upon the land, 37: Even those men that brought the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the LORD. 38: But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, [who were] of the men that went to search the land, lived [still]. 39: And Moses told these sayings to all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly. 40: And they rose early in the morning, and ascended to the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we [are here], and will go up to the place which the LORD hath promised: for we have sinned. 41: And Moses said, Why now do ye transgress the commandment of the LORD? but it shall not prosper. 42: Go not up, for the LORD is not among you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies. 43: For the Amalekites and the Canaanites [are] there before you, and ye shall fall by the sword: because ye are turned away from the LORD, therefore the LORD will not be with you. 44: But they presumed to go up to the hill-top: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and Moses, departed not out of the camp. 45: Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, [even] to Hormah.
