Numbers 14:1–35

Israel’s Refusal to Enter Canaan

14Then the whole community broke into loud cries, and the people wept that night. ²All the Israelites complained about Moses and Aaron, ^eand the whole community told them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this wilderness! ³Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to die by the sword? Our wives and little children will become plunder. ^fWouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?” ^g4So they said to one another, “Let’s appoint a leader and go back to Egypt.”

⁵Then Moses and Aaron fell down with their faces to the ground in front of the whole assembly of the Israelite community. ⁶Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who scouted out the land, tore their clothes ⁷and said to the entire Israelite community: “The land we passed through and explored is an extremely good land. ^h8If the Lord is pleased with us, He will bring us into this land, a land flowing with milk and honey, ⁱand give it to us. ⁹Only don’t rebel against the Lord, and don’t be afraid of the people of the land, for we will devour them. ^jTheir protection ^khas been removed from them, and the Lord is with us. Don’t be afraid of them!”

¹⁰While the whole community threatened to stone them, ^lthe glory of the Lord appeared to all the Israelites at the tent of meeting.

God’s Judgment of Israel’s Rebellion

¹¹The Lord said to Moses, “How long will these people despise Me? How long will they not trust in Me despite all the signs I have performed among them? ^m12I will strike them with a plague and destroy them. Then I will make you into a greater and mightier nation than they are.” ⁿ

¹³But Moses replied to the Lord, “The Egyptians will hear about it, for by Your strength You brought up this people from them. ¹⁴They will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. ^oThey have heard that You, Lord, are among these people, how You, Lord, are seen face to face, how Your cloud stands over them, and how You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. ^p15If You kill this people with a single blow, ^qrthe nations that have heard of Your fame ^swill declare, ¹⁶‘Since the Lord wasn’t able to bring this people into the land He swore to give them, ^tHe has slaughtered them in the wilderness.’ ^u

¹⁷“So now, may my Lord’s power be magnified just as You have spoken: ¹⁸The Lord is slow to anger and rich in faithful love, ^vforgiving wrongdoing and rebellion. ^wBut He will not leave the guilty unpunished, ^xbringing the consequences of the fathers’ wrongdoing on the children to the third and fourth generation. ^y19Please pardon the wrongdoing of this people, in keeping with the greatness of Your faithful love, ^zjust as You have forgiven them from Egypt until now.”

²⁰The Lord responded, “I have pardoned them as you requested. ²¹Yet as surely as I live and as the whole earth is filled with the Lord’s glory, ^a22none of the men who have seen My glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tested Me these 10 times and did not obey Me, ²³will ever see the land I swore to give their fathers. ^bNone of those who have despised Me ^cwill see it. ²⁴But since My servant Caleb has a different spirit and has followed Me completely, I will bring him into the land where he has gone, and his descendants will inherit it. ^d25Since the Amalekites and Canaanites are living in the lowlands, ^eturn back tomorrow and head for the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea.” ^f

²⁶Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron: ²⁷“How long must I endure this evil community that keeps complaining about Me? I have heard the Israelites’ complaints that they make against Me. ^g28Tell them: As surely as I live,” this is the Lord’s declaration, “I will do to you exactly as I heard you say. ²⁹Your corpses will fall in this wilderness—all of you who were registered in the census, the entire number of you 20 years old or more ^h—because you have complained about Me. ³⁰I swear that none of you will enter the land I promised ⁱto settle you in, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. ³¹I will bring your children whom you said would become plunder ^jinto the land you rejected, and they will enjoy it. ^k32But as for you, your corpses will fall in this wilderness. ³³Your children will be shepherds in the wilderness for 40 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 sins 40 years based on the number of the 40 days that you scouted the land, a year for each day. ^lmYou will know My displeasure. ⁿ³⁵I, Yahweh, have spoken. I swear that I will do this to the entire evil community that has conspired against Me. ^oThey will come to an end in the wilderness, and there they will die.” ^p