1Then the whole congregation lifted up their voice and cried out, and the people wept that night.
2And all the Israelites grumbled against Moses and against Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or in this wilderness—if only we had died!”
3“And why is Yahweh 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 all the assembled congregation of the Israelites.
6And Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who spied out the land, tore their garments.
7And they said to the whole congregation of the Israelites, “The land that we passed through to spy it out—the land is exceedingly, exceedingly good.
8If Yahweh delights in us, then he will bring us into this land and give it to us—a land that flows with milk and honey.
9Only do not rebel against Yahweh, and do not fear the people of the land, for they are our bread. Their shade has departed from over them, and Yahweh is with us. Do not fear them.”
10But the whole congregation said to stone them with stones. Then the glory of Yahweh appeared at the tent of meeting to all the Israelites.
11And Yahweh said to Moses, “How long will this people spurn me? And how long will they not believe in me, despite all the signs that I have done in their midst?
12I will strike them with the plague and dispossess them, and I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they.”
13But Moses said to Yahweh, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it—for you brought up this people by your power from their midst—
14and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you, Yahweh, are in the midst of this people, that you, Yahweh, are seen eye to eye, and that your cloud stands over them, and that you go before them by day in a pillar of cloud and by night in a pillar of fire.
15Now if you put this people to death as one man, then the nations who have heard your fame will say,
16‘Because Yahweh was not able to bring this people into the land that he swore to them, he slaughtered them in the wilderness.’
17And now, may the power of the Lord be great, as you have spoken, saying,
18‘Yahweh is slow to anger and abounding in loyal love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generations.’
19Please pardon the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your loyal love, and as you have forgiven this people from Egypt until now.”
20And Yahweh said, “I have pardoned, according to your word.
21But truly, as I live, the whole earth shall be filled with the glory of Yahweh—
22surely none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have tested me these ten times and have not obeyed my voice,
23surely they will not see the land that I swore to their fathers; none of those who spurned me will see it.
24But my servant Caleb—because a different spirit was with him and he followed me fully—I will bring him into the land into which he went, and his offspring will possess it.
25Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites are dwelling in the valley. Tomorrow turn and set out for the wilderness by way of the Sea of Reeds.”
26And Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,
27“How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who grumble against me? I have heard the grumblings of the Israelites, which they grumble against me.
28Say to them: ‘As I live,’ declares Yahweh, ‘surely as you have spoken in my ears, so I will do to you.
29In this wilderness your corpses shall fall—all of you who were mustered, according to your full number, from twenty years old and upward—who have grumbled against me.
30Surely you shall not come into the land in which I swore to settle you—except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.
31But your little ones, of whom you said they would become plunder—them I will bring in, and they will know the land that you have rejected.
32But as for you, your corpses will fall in this wilderness.
33And your sons will be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years, and they will bear your acts of harlotry until your corpses are finished off in the wilderness.
34By the number of the days in which you scouted out the land, forty days—a day for each year, a day for each year—you will bear your iniquities, forty years, and you will know my opposition.
35I, Yahweh, have spoken; surely this I will do to all this evil congregation who have gathered together against me: in this wilderness they will be finished off, and there they will die.
36And the men whom Moses had sent to scout out the land, who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing out a bad report about the land—
37the men who brought out the evil report about the land died by the plague before Yahweh.
38But Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh remained alive out of those men who went to scout out the land.
39And Moses spoke these words to all the sons of Israel, and the people mourned greatly.
40And they rose early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, “Here we are; we will go up to the place that Yahweh spoke of, for we have sinned.”
41But Moses said, “Why is it that you are transgressing the mouth of Yahweh? It will not succeed.
42Do not go up, for Yahweh is not in your midst, so that you not be struck down before your enemies.
43For the Amalekite and the Canaanite are there before you, and you will fall by the sword; because you have turned back from following Yahweh, Yahweh will not be with you.”
44But they presumed to go up to the top of the mountain, though the ark of the covenant of Yahweh and Moses did not depart from the midst of the camp.
45Then the Amalekite and the Canaanite who dwelt in that mountain came down and struck them and beat them down as far as Hormah.
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