19 “Then we set out from aHoreb, and went through all that bgreat and terrible wilderness which you saw on the way to the chill country of the Amorites, just as the Lord our God had commanded us; and we came to aKadesh-barnea.

20 “I said to you, ‘You have come to the hill country of the Amorites which the Lord our God is about to give us.

21 ‘See, the Lord your God has placed the land before you; go up, take possession, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has spoken to you. aDo not fear or be dismayed.’

22 “aThen all of you approached me and said, ‘Let us send men before us, that they may search out the land for us, and bring back to us word of the way by which we should go up and the cities which we shall enter.’

23 “The thing pleased me and I took twelve of your men, one man for each tribe.

24 “aThey turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the valley of Eshcol and spied it out.

25 “Then they took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us; and they brought us back a report and said, ‘It is a good land which the Lord our God is about to give us.’

26 “aYet you were not willing to go up, but brebelled against the 1command of the Lord your God;

27 and ayou grumbled in your tents and said, ‘Because the Lord hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us.

28 ‘Where can we go up? Our brethren have made our hearts melt, saying, “The people are bigger and taller than we; the cities are large and fortified to heaven. And besides, we saw athe sons of the Anakim there.” ’

29 “Then I said to you, ‘Do not be shocked, nor fear them.

30 ‘The Lord your God who goes before you will aHimself fight on your behalf, 1just as He did for you in Egypt before your eyes,

31 and in the wilderness where you saw how athe Lord your God carried you, just as a man carries his son, in all the way which you have walked until you came to this place.’

32 “But 1afor all this, you did not trust the Lord your God,

33 awho goes before you on your way, bto seek out a place for you to encamp, in fire by night and cloud by day, to show you the way in which you should go.