Numbers 14:29–45

^29ayour corpses will fall in this wilderness, even all ^byour ¹numbered men, according to your complete number from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against Me.

³⁰‘Surely you shall not come into the land in which I ¹swore to settle you, ^aexcept Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.

³¹‘^aYour children, however, whom you said would become a prey—I will bring them in, and they will know the land which you have rejected.

³²‘^aBut as for you, your corpses will fall in this wilderness.

³³‘Your sons shall be shepherds for ^aforty years in the wilderness, and they will ¹suffer for your ²unfaithfulness, until your corpses ³lie in the wilderness.

³⁴‘According to the ^anumber of days which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day you shall bear your ¹guilt a year, even forty years, and you will know My opposition.

³⁵‘^aI, the Lord, have spoken, surely this I will do to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be destroyed, and there they will die.’ ”

^36aAs for the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land and who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing out a bad report concerning the land,

³⁷even ^athose men who brought out the very bad report of the land died by a ^bplague before the Lord.

³⁸But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive out of those men who went to spy out the land.

Israel Repulsed

³⁹When Moses spoke ^athese words to all the sons of Israel, ^bthe people mourned greatly.

⁴⁰In the morning, however, they rose up early and went up to the ¹ridge of the hill country, saying, “^aHere we are; ²we have indeed sinned, but we will go up to the place which the Lord has promised.”

⁴¹But Moses said, “^aWhy then are you transgressing the ¹commandment of the Lord, when it will not succeed?

⁴²“^aDo not go up, or you will be struck down before your enemies, for the Lord is not among you.

⁴³“For the Amalekites and the Canaanites will be there in front of you, and you will fall by the sword, inasmuch as you have turned back from following the Lord. And the Lord will not be with you.”

⁴⁴But they went up heedlessly to the ¹ridge of the hill country; neither ^athe ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses left the camp.

⁴⁵Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down, and struck them and beat them down as far as ^aHormah.