²⁹Your corpses will fall in this wilderness—all of you who were registered in the census, the entire number of you twenty years old or more^f—because you have complained about me. ³⁰I swear that none of you will enter the land I promised^A to settle you in, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. ³¹I will bring your children whom you said would become plunder^g into the land you rejected, and they will enjoy it.^h ³²But as for you, your corpses will fall in this wilderness. ³³Your children will be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years and bear the penalty for your acts of unfaithfulness until all your corpses lie scattered in the wilderness. ³⁴You will bear the consequences of your iniquities forty years based on the number of the forty days that you scouted the land, a year for each day.^Bⁱ You will know my displeasure.^C ³⁵I, the Lord, have spoken. I swear that I will do this to the entire evil community that has conspired against me.^j They will come to an end in the wilderness, and there they will die.”^k

³⁶So the men Moses sent to scout out the land, and who returned and incited the entire community to complain about him by spreading a negative report about the land—³⁷those men who spread the negative report about the land were struck down by the Lord. ³⁸Only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh remained alive of those men who went to scout out the land.

ISRAEL ROUTED

³⁹When Moses reported these words to all the Israelites, the people were overcome with grief. ⁴⁰They got up early the next morning and went up the ridge of the hill country, saying, “Let’s go to the place the Lord promised, for we were wrong.”^l

⁴¹But Moses responded, “Why are you going against the Lord’s command? It won’t succeed. ⁴²Don’t go, because the Lord is not among you and you will be defeated by your enemies. ⁴³The Amalekites and Canaanites are right in front of you, and you will fall by the sword. The Lord won’t be with you, since you have turned from following him.”

⁴⁴But they dared to go up the ridge of the hill country, even though the ark of the Lord’s covenant and Moses did not leave the camp. ⁴⁵Then the Amalekites and Canaanites who lived in that part of the hill country came down, attacked them, and routed them as far as Hormah.^m

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Footnotes

A I raised my hand
B a day for the year, a day for the year
COr my opposition

Cross references

f Nm 1:3
g Nm 14:3
h Dt 1:39
i Nm 13:25; 32:13; Dt 2:14; Ps 95:10; Ezk 4:6
j Nm 16:11; 27:3; Ps 2:1–3
k Nm 14:30; 26:64–65; 1Co 10:5
l Dt 1:41–44
m Nm 21:3; Jdg 1:17