Numbers 14:29–45

^29wyour dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and ^xof all your number, listed in the census ^yfrom twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me, ³⁰not one shall come into the land where I ^zswore that I would make you dwell, ^aexcept Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. ^31bBut your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that ^cyou have rejected. ³²But as for you, ^wyour dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. ³³And your children ^dshall be shepherds in the wilderness ^eforty years and shall ^fsuffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. ^34gAccording to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, ^hforty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.’ ³⁵ⁱI, the Lord, have spoken. Surely this will I do to all ^jthis wicked congregation who are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die.”

^36kAnd the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing up a bad report about the land— ³⁷the men who brought up a bad report of the land—^ldied by plague before the Lord. ³⁸Of those men who went to spy out the land, ^monly Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive.

Israel Defeated in Battle

³⁹When Moses told these words to all the people of Israel, the people ⁿmourned greatly. ⁴⁰And they rose early in the morning and went up to the heights of the hill country, saying, ^o“Here we are. We will go up to the place that the Lord has promised, for we have sinned.” ^41pBut Moses said, “Why now are you transgressing the command of the Lord, when that will not succeed? ^42qDo not go up, ^rfor the Lord is not among you, lest you be struck down before your enemies. ⁴³For there ^sthe Amalekites and the Canaanites are facing you, and you shall fall by the sword. Because you have turned back from following the Lord, the Lord will not be with you.” ^44tBut they presumed to go up to the heights of the hill country, although neither ^uthe ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed out of the camp. ⁴⁵Then ^vthe Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and defeated them and pursued them, even to ^wHormah.