1 All the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the
people wept that night. 2 All the children of Israel murmured against
Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said to them, Would that
we had died in the land of Egypt! or would that we had died in this
wilderness! 3 Why does Yahweh bring us to this land, to fall by the sword?
Our wives and our little ones will be a prey: wouldn’t it be better for us to
return into Egypt? 4 They said one to another, Let us make a captain, and
let us return into Egypt. 5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces
before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.
6 Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were of those
who spied out the land, tore their clothes: 7 and they spoke to all the
congregation of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed
through to spy it out, is an exceeding good land. 8 If Yahweh delight in
us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it to us; a land which
flows with milk and honey. 9 Only don’t rebel against Yahweh, neither
fear the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defense is
removed from over them, and Yahweh is with us: don’t fear them. 10 But all
the congregation bade stone them with stones. The glory of Yahweh appeared in
the tent of meeting to all the children of Israel. 11 Yahweh said to
Moses, How long will this people despise me? and how long will they not
believe in me, for all the signs which I have worked among them? 12 I will
strike them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of you a
nation greater and mightier than they. 13 Moses said to Yahweh, Then the
Egyptians will hear it; for you brought up this people in your might from
among them; 14 and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They
have heard that you Yahweh are in the midst of this people; for you
Yahweh are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them, and you
go before them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by
night. 15 Now if you shall kill this people as one man, then the nations
which have heard the fame of you will speak, saying, 16 Because Yahweh was
not able to bring this people into the land which he swore to them, therefore
he has slain them in the wilderness. 17 Now please let the power of the
Lord be great, according as you have spoken, saying, 18 Yahweh is slow to
anger, and abundant in loving kindness, forgiving iniquity and disobedience;
and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of
the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation.
19 Pardon, Please, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness
of your loving kindness, and according as you have forgiven this people, from
Egypt even until now. 20 Yahweh said, I have pardoned according to your
word: 21 but in very deed, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled
with the glory of Yahweh; 22 because all those men who have seen my glory,
and my signs, which I worked in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tempted
me these ten times, and have not listened to my voice; 23 surely they
shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers, neither shall any of
those who despised me see it: 24 but my servant Caleb, because he had
another spirit with him, and has followed me fully, him will I bring into the
land into which he went; and his seed shall possess it. 25 Now the
Amalekite and the Canaanite dwell in the valley: tomorrow turn you, and
get you into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea. 26 Yahweh spoke to
Moses and to Aaron, saying, 27 How long shall I bear with this
evil congregation, that murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the
children of Israel, which they murmur against me. 28 Tell them, As I live,
says Yahweh, surely as you have spoken in my ears, so will I do to you:
29 your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and all who were
numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and
upward, who have murmured against me, 30 surely you shall not come
into the land, concerning which I swore that I would make you dwell therein,
save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. 31 But your
little ones, that you said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and
they shall know the land which you have rejected. 32 But as for you,
your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. 33 Your children shall be
wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your prostitution,
until your dead bodies be consumed in the wilderness. 34 After the number
of the days in which you spied out the land, even forty days, for every
day a year, shall you bear your iniquities, even forty years, and
you shall know my alienation. 35 I, Yahweh, have spoken, surely this
will I do to all this evil congregation, who are gathered together against
me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.
36 The men, whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned, and made
all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up an evil report
against the land, 37 even those men who did bring up an evil report of the
land, died by the plague before Yahweh. 38 But Joshua the son of Nun, and
Caleb the son of Jephunneh, remained alive of those men who went to spy out
the land. 39 Moses told these words to all the children of Israel: and the
people mourned greatly. 40 They rose up early in the morning, and got them
up to the top of the mountain, saying, Behold, we are here, and will go up to
the place which Yahweh has promised: for we have sinned. 41 Moses said,
Why now do you disobey the commandment of Yahweh, seeing it shall not
prosper? 42 Don’t go up, for Yahweh isn’t among you; that you not be
struck down before your enemies. 43 For there the Amalekite and the
Canaanite are before you, and you shall fall by the sword: because
you are turned back from following Yahweh, therefore Yahweh will not be
with you. 44 But they presumed to go up to the top of the mountain:
nevertheless the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, and Moses, didn’t depart out
of the camp. 45 Then the Amalekite came down, and the Canaanite who lived
in that mountain, and struck them and beat them down, even to Hormah.
World English Bible - Public Domain |
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