²⁹“ ‘You will die in this desert. Every one of you who is 20 years old or more will die. Every one of you who was counted in the list of the people will die. Every one of you who has spoken out against me will be wiped out. ³⁰I lifted up my hand and promised with an oath to make this land your home. But now not all of you will enter the land. Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, will enter it. So will Joshua, the son of Nun. They are the only ones who will enter the land.

³¹“ ‘You have said that your enemies would capture your children. But I will bring your children in to enjoy the land you have turned your backs on. ³²As for you, you will die in the desert. ³³Your children will be shepherds here for 40 years. They will suffer because you were not faithful. They will suffer until the last of your bodies lies here in the desert. ³⁴For 40 years you will suffer for your sins. That is one year for each of the 40 days you checked out the land. You will know what it is like to have me against you.’

³⁵“I, the Lord, have spoken. You can be sure that I will do those things to this whole evil community. They have joined together against me. They will meet their end in this desert. They will die here.”

³⁶So the Lord struck down the men Moses had sent to check out the land. They had returned and had spread a bad report about the land. And that had made the whole community speak out against Moses. ³⁷Those men were to blame for spreading the bad report. So the Lord struck them down. They died of a plague.

³⁸Only two of the men who went to check out the land remained alive. One of them was Joshua, the son of Nun. The other was Caleb, the son of Jephunneh.

³⁹Moses reported to all of the people of Israel what the Lord had said. And they became very sad. ⁴⁰Early the next morning they went up toward the high hill country. “We have sinned,” they said. “We will go up to the place the Lord promised to give us.”

⁴¹But Moses said, “Why aren’t you obeying the Lord’s command? You won’t succeed. ⁴²So don’t go up. The Lord isn’t with you. Your enemies will win the battle over you. ⁴³The Amalekites and Canaanites will meet you on the field of battle. You have turned away from the Lord. So he won’t be with you. And you will be killed with swords.”

⁴⁴But they wouldn’t listen. They still went up toward the high hill country. They went up even though Moses didn’t move from the camp. They went even though the ark of the Lord’s covenant didn’t move from the camp.

⁴⁵Then the Amalekites and Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down. They attacked the people of Israel. They won the battle over them. They chased them all the way to Hormah.

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