The Punishment from God

14:11 The Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people despise21 me, and how long will they not believe22 in me, in spite of the signs that I have done among them? 14:12 I will strike them with the pestilence,23 and I will disinherit them; I will make you into a nation that is greater and mightier than they!”

14:13 Moses said to the Lord, “When the Egyptians hear24 it—for you brought up this people by your power from among them—14:14 then they will tell it to the inhabitants25 of this land. They have heard that you, Lord, are among this people, that you, Lord, are seen face to face,26 that your cloud stands over them, and that you go before them by day in a pillar of cloud and in a pillar of fire by night. 14:15 If you kill27 this entire people at once,28 then the nations that have heard of your fame will say, 14:16 ‘Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land that he swore to them, he killed them in the wilderness.’ 14:17 So now, let the power of my Lord29 be great, just as you have said, 14:18 ‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in loyal love,30 forgiving iniquity and transgression,31 but by no means clearing32 the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children until the third and fourth generations.’33 14:19 Please forgive34 the iniquity of this people according to your great loyal love,35 just as you have forgiven this people from Egypt even until now.”

14:20 Then the Lord said, “I have forgiven them as you asked.36 14:21 But truly, as I live,37 all the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord. 14:22 For all the people have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have tempted38 me now these ten times,39 and have not obeyed me,40 14:23 they will by no means41 see the land that I swore to their fathers, nor will any of them who despised me see it. 14:24 Only my servant Caleb, because he had a different spirit and has followed me fully—I will bring him into the land where he had gone, and his descendants42 will possess it. 14:25 (Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites were living in the valleys.)43 Tomorrow, turn and journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.”

14:26 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron: 14:27 “How long must I bear44 with this evil congregation45 that murmurs against me? I have heard the complaints of the Israelites that they murmured against me. 14:28 Say to them, ‘As I live,46 says47 the Lord, I will surely do to you just what you have spoken in my hearing.48 14:29 Your dead bodies49 will fall in this wilderness—all those of you who were numbered, according to your full number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me. 14:30 You will by no means enter into the land where50 I swore51 to settle52 you. The only exceptions are Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. 14:31 But I will bring in your little ones, whom you said would become victims of war,53 and they will enjoy54 the land that you have despised. 14:32 But as for you, your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness, 14:33 and your children will wander55 in the wilderness forty years and suffer for your unfaithfulness,56 until your dead bodies lie finished57 in the wilderness. 14:34 According to the number of the days you have investigated this land, forty days—one day for a year—you will suffer for58 your iniquities, forty years, and you will know what it means to thwart me.59 14:35 I, the Lord, have said, “I will surely do so to all this evil congregation that has gathered together against me. In this wilderness they will be finished, and there they will die!” ’ ”

14:36 The men whom Moses sent to investigate the land, who returned and made the whole community murmur against him by producing60 an evil report about the land, 14:37 those men who produced the evil report about the land, died by the plague before the Lord. 14:38 But Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among61 the men who went to investigate the land, lived. 14:39 When Moses told62 these things to all the Israelites, the people mourned63 greatly.

14:40 And early64 in the morning they went up to the crest of the hill country,65 saying, “Here we are, and we will go up to the place that the Lord commanded,66 for we have sinned.”67 14:41 But Moses said, “Why68 are you now transgressing the commandment69 of the Lord? It will not succeed! 14:42 Do not go up, for the Lord is not among you, and you will be70 defeated before your enemies. 14:43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you will fall by the sword. Because you have turned away from the Lord, the Lord will not be with you.”

14:44 But they dared71 to go up to the crest of the hill, although72 neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed from the camp. 14:45 So the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country swooped73 down and attacked them74 as far as Hormah.75