²⁶But you were not willing to go up, and you rebelled against the command^y of Yahweh your God. ²⁷And you grumbled in your tents, and you said, ‘Because of the hatred of Yahweh toward us he has brought us out from the land of Egypt to give us into the hand of the Amorites^z to destroy us. ²⁸Where can we go up? Our brothers have made our hearts melt,^a saying,^b “The people are greater^c and taller than we are,^d and there are great fortified cities reaching up to heaven, and we saw the sons of the Anakites living there.” ’

²⁹“And so I said to you, ‘Do not be terrified, and do not fear them. ³⁰Yahweh your God, who is going before you,^e will himself^f fight for you, just as^g he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, ³¹and just as he did in the wilderness^h whenⁱ you saw that^j Yahweh your God carried you, just as someone^k carries his son, all along the way that you traveled until you reached^l this place.’ ³²But through all of this you did not trust in Yahweh your God, ³³who goes^m before youⁿ on your^o way, seeking a place for your encampment, in fire at night and in a cloud by day, to show you the way that you should go.^p

³⁴“Then Yahweh heard the sound of your words, and he was angry, and he swore, saying,^q ³⁵‘No one of these men^r of this evil generation will see the good land that I swore to give to your ancestors,^s ³⁶except Caleb, the son of Jephunneh; he himself^t shall see it, and to him I will give the land upon which he has trodden and to his sons^u because he followed Yahweh unreservedly.’^v ³⁷Even with me Yahweh was angry because of you, saying, ‘Not even you shall enter there. ³⁸Joshua, the son of Nun, your assistant,^w will go there; encourage him because he will cause Israel to inherit it. ³⁹And your little children, who you thought shall become plunder, and your sons, who do not today know good or bad, shall themselves^x go there, and I will give it to them, and they shall take possession of it. ⁴⁰But you turn and set out in the direction of the wilderness by way of the Red Sea.’^y

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Footnotes

yLiterally “mouth”
zHebrew “Amorite”
aLiterally “caused to melt our hearts”
bLiterally “to say”
cOr “bigger”
dHebrew “than us”
eLiterally “to your faces”
fThe Hebrew pronoun indicates emphasis
gLiterally “like all that”
hOr “desert”
iOr “where”
jOr “how”
kOr “a man”
lLiterally “you came”
mLiterally “is the one going”
nLiterally “before your faces”
oHebrew “the”
pLiterally “you should go in it”
qLiterally “to say”
rThe beginning of an oath in Hebrew; the text emphatically denies anyone of that evil generation the privilege of seeing the promised land
sOr “fathers”
tEmphatic use of the pronoun
uOr “descendants”
vLiterally “he filled his hands after Yahweh”
wLiterally “the one standing before you”
xThe Hebrew pronoun is used for emphasis
yLiterally “sea of reeds”