Dual Panel1At this the whole Israelite community cried out in dismay and the people wept all night long.
2Everyone complained against Moses and Aaron: “If only we had died in Egypt or in the wilderness!” they said.
3“Why should the LORD bring us to this land, to die in battle and leave our wives and our dependants to become the spoils of war? It would be better for us to go back to Egypt.”
4And they spoke of choosing someone to lead them back there.
5Then Moses and Aaron flung themselves on the ground before the assembled community of the Israelites,
6and two of those who had explored the land, Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, tore their clothes,
7and encouraged the whole community: “The country we travelled through and explored”, they said, “is a very good land indeed.
8If the LORD is pleased with us, he will bring us into this land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and give it to us.
9But you must not act in defiance of the LORD. You need not fear the people of the country, for we shall devour them. They have lost the protection that they had: the LORD is with us. You have nothing to fear from them.”
10As the whole assembly threatened to stone them, the glory of the LORD appeared in the Tent of Meeting to all the Israelites.
11The LORD said to Moses, “How much longer will this people set me at naught? How much longer will they refuse to trust me in spite of all the signs I have shown among them?
12I shall strike them with pestilence. I shall deny them their heritage, and you and your descendants I shall make into a nation greater and more numerous than they.”
13But Moses answered the LORD, “What if the Egyptians hear of it? You brought this people out of Egypt by your might.
14What if they tell the inhabitants of this land? They too have heard of you, LORD, that you are with this people and are seen face to face, that your cloud stays over them, and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night.
15If then you do put them all to death at one blow, the nations who have heard these reports about you will say,
16‘The LORD could not bring this people into the land which he promised them by oath; and so he destroyed them in the wilderness.’
17“Now let the LORD's might be shown in its greatness, true to your proclamation of yourself --
18‘The LORD, long-suffering, ever faithful, who forgives iniquity and rebellion, and punishes children to the third and fourth generation for the iniquity of their fathers, though he does not sweep them clean away.’
19You have borne with this people from Egypt all the way here; forgive their iniquity, I beseech you, as befits your great and constant love.”
20The LORD said, “Your prayer is answered, and I pardon them.
21But as I live, and as the glory of the LORD fills the whole earth,
22not one of all those who have seen my glory and the signs which I wrought in Egypt and in the wilderness shall see the country which I promised on oath to their fathers. Ten times they have challenged me and not obeyed my voice. None of those who have set me at naught shall see this land.
23(14:22)
24But my servant Caleb showed a different spirit and remained loyal to me. Because of this, I shall bring him into the land in which he has already set foot, the territory of the Amalekites and the Canaanites who dwell in the Vale, and I shall put his descendants in possession of it. Tomorrow you must turn back and set out for the wilderness by way of the Red Sea.”
25(14:24)
26The LORD said to Moses and Aaron,
27“How long must I tolerate the complaints of this wicked community? I have heard the Israelites making complaints against me.
28Tell them that this is the word of the LORD: As I live, I shall do to you the very things I have heard you say.
29Here in this wilderness your bones will lie, every one of you on the register aged twenty or more, because you have made these complaints against me.
30Not one of you will enter the land which I swore with uplifted hand should be your home, except only Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.
31Your dependants, who, you said, would become the spoils of war, those dependants I shall bring into the land you have rejected, and they will enjoy it.
32But as for the rest of you, your bones will lie in this wilderness;
33your children will be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, paying the penalty of your wanton faithlessness till the last one of you dies there.
34Forty days you spent exploring the country, and forty years, a year for each day, you will spend paying the penalty of your iniquities. You will know what it means to have me against you.
35I, the LORD, have spoken. This I swear to do to all this wicked community who have combined against me. There will be an end of them here in this wilderness; here they will die.”
36The men whom Moses had sent to explore the land, and who came back and by their report set all the community complaining against him,
37died of a plague before the LORD; they died of plague because they had made a bad report.
38Of those who went to explore the land, Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh alone survived.
39When Moses reported the LORD's words to all the Israelites, there was great lamentation.
40Early next morning they set out and made for the heights of the hill-country, saying, “Look, we are on our way up to the place the LORD spoke of. We admit that we have been wrong.”
41But Moses replied, “Must you persist in disobeying the LORD's command? No good will come of this.
42Go no farther; you will not have the LORD with you, and your enemies will defeat you.
43For in front of you are the Amalekites and Canaanites, and you will fall by the sword, because you have ceased to follow the LORD, and he will no longer be with you.”
44But they went on recklessly towards the heights of the hill-country, though neither the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD nor Moses moved from the camp;
45and the Amalekites and Canaanites who lived in those hills came down to the attack and inflicted a crushing defeat on them at Hormah.