Numbers 14

14 ¹Then the whole congregation raised their voices and cried out, and the people wept that night. ²All the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron; the whole community said to them, "If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this wilderness! ³Why is our Father bringing us to this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be plunder. Wouldn't it be better to return to Egypt?" ⁴And they said to one another, "Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt."

⁵Then Moses and Aaron fell facedown before the whole assembly of Israel.

⁶Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, among those who scouted the land, tore their clothes. ⁷They told the whole Israelite community, "The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. ⁸If our Father delights in us, he'll bring us into this land and give it to us, a land flowing with milk and honey. ⁹Only don't rebel against our Father, and don't fear the people of the land—they are food for us. Their protection is gone; our Father is with us. Don't fear them."

¹⁰The whole community called for stoning Joshua and Caleb. Then our Father's glory appeared at the tent of meeting to all Israel's people.

¹¹And our Father said to Moses, "How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, despite all the signs I've done among them? ¹²I will strike them with the plague and disinherit them, then make you a nation greater and stronger than they."

Moses Pleads With the Father

¹³But Moses said to our Father, "The Egyptians will hear of it, for you brought this people up from among them by your might, ¹⁴and they will tell the residents of this land, who have heard that you, our Father, are among this people, that you, our Father, are seen face to face, that your cloud stands over them, and you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. ¹⁵If you kill this people all at once, the nations who heard your fame will say, ¹⁶'Because God couldn't bring this people into the land he swore to them, he slaughtered them in the wilderness.' ¹⁷And now, please, let the power of the Sovereign Father be great, as you have spoken, saying, ¹⁸'Our Father is slow to anger, overflowing in covenant love, forgiving guilt and wrongdoing—yet he will by no means clear the guilty, bringing the fathers' sin on children to the third and fourth generation.' ¹⁹Please pardon this people's guilt according to the greatness of your covenant love, just as you've forgiven them from Egypt until now."

²⁰Then our Father said, "I have pardoned, according to your word.

²¹"But truly, as I live, and as all the earth will be filled with my glory, ²²surely all the men who saw my glory and the signs I did in Egypt and the wilderness, yet tested me ten times and did not listen to my voice, ²³shall not see the land I swore to their fathers. None who despised me will see it. ²⁴But my servant Caleb has a different spirit and has followed me fully—I will bring him into the land he entered, and his descendants will possess it. ²⁵The Amalekites and the Canaanites live in the valleys. Tomorrow, turn and head into the wilderness toward the Red Sea."

²⁶And our Father spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying,

²⁷"How long will this evil congregation grumble against me? I have heard the Israelites' grumbling against me. ²⁸Tell them, 'As I live, declares our Father, I will do to you exactly what I heard you say:

²⁹'Your corpses will fall in this wilderness—all of you counted, your whole number, twenty years old and up, who grumbled against me. ³⁰None of you will enter the land I swore to settle you in, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. ³¹But your little ones, whom you said would become plunder, I will bring in; they will know the land you rejected. ³²But as for you, you will fall dead in this wilderness. ³³Your children will be shepherds in the wilderness forty years, bearing your unfaithfulness, until the last of your corpses lies in the wilderness. ³⁴As the days you scouted the land—forty days—a day for a year, you will carry your guilt forty years, and know my opposition to you. ³⁵I, your Father, have spoken: surely I will do this to this whole evil assembly gathered against me—they will end in this wilderness, and die there.'"

³⁶The men Moses sent to scout the land returned, making the whole community grumble against Moses with a bad report about it. ³⁷The men who brought up a bad report of the land died by plague before our Father. ³⁸But Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh survived, of those men who went to explore the land.

³⁹When Moses told these words to all the children of Israel, the people mourned greatly.

⁴⁰They got up early in the morning and went up to the hilltop, saying, "Here we are. We will go up to the place our Father promised, for we have sinned."

⁴¹But Moses said, "Why now are you disobeying our Father's command? It won't succeed. ⁴²Do not go up, for our Father is not among you, or you'll be struck down before your enemies. ⁴³For the Amalekites and Canaanites are there before you; you'll fall by the sword. Since you've turned back from following our Father, he won't be with you."

⁴⁴But they dared to climb to the hill country's crest, though the ark of the covenant of our Father and Moses did not leave the camp. ⁴⁵Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites living in that hill country came down, struck them, and crushed them as far as Hormah.