Deuteronomy 1:26–40

Rebellion Against the Lord

²⁶But you were unwilling to go up;^l you rebelled^m against the command of the Lord your God. ²⁷You grumbledⁿ in your tents and said, “The Lord hates us; so he brought us out of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us. ²⁸Where can we go? Our brothers have made our hearts melt in fear. They say, ‘The people are stronger and taller^o than we are; the cities are large, with walls up to the sky. We even saw the Anakites^p there.’ ”

²⁹Then I said to you, “Do not be terrified; do not be afraid^q of them.^{r 30}The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight^s for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, ³¹and in the wilderness. There you saw how the Lord your God carried^t you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.”^u

³²In spite of this,^v you did not trust^w in the Lord your God, ³³who went ahead of you on your journey, in fire by night and in a cloud by day,^x to search^y out places for you to camp and to show you the way you should go.

³⁴When the Lord heard^z what you said, he was angry^a and solemnly swore:^{b 35}“No one from this evil generation shall see the good land^c I swore to give your ancestors, ³⁶except Caleb^d son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and I will give him and his descendants the land he set his feet on, because he followed the Lord wholeheartedly.^e”

³⁷Because of you the Lord became angry^f with me also and said, “You shall not enter^g it, either. ³⁸But your assistant, Joshua^h son of Nun, will enter it. Encourageⁱ him, because he will lead^j Israel to inherit^k it. ³⁹And the little ones that you said would be taken captive,^l your children who do not yet know^m good from bad—they will enter the land. I will give it to them and they will take possession of it. ⁴⁰But as for you, turn around and set out toward the desert along the route to the Red Sea.^an”