1And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried aloud; and the people wept that night.

2And all the people murmured against Moses and against Aaron; and the whole congregation said unto them, Oh who would grant that we had died in the land of Egypt! or that we might but die in this wilderness!

3And wherefore doth the Lord bring us unto yonder land, to fall by the sword? that our wives and our children may become a prey? is it not better for us to return to Egypt?

4And they said one to another, Let us appoint a chief, and let us return to Egypt.

5Then fell Moses and Aaron on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.

6And Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Yephunneh, of those that had spied out the land, rent their garments.

7And they said unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, as followeth, The land, through which we have passed to spy it out, this land is exceedingly good.

8If the Lord have delight in us, then will he bring us into this land, and give it to us: a land which is flowing with milk and honey.

9Only against the Lord do ye not rebel; and then ye need not fear the people of the land; for they are our bread: their shadow is departed from them, while the Lord is with us; fear them not.

10But all the congregation said to stone them with stones: when the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation unto all the children of Israel.

11And the Lord said unto Moses, How long yet shall this people provoke me? and how long yet will they not believe in me, with all the signs which I have shown in the midst of them?

12I will smite them with the pestilence, and root them out, and I will make of thee a nation greater and mightier than they.

13And Moses said unto the Lord, But when the Egyptian hear, from the midst of whom thou hast brought up in thy might this people;—

14And when they tell to the inhabitants of this land, who have heard that thou, Lord, art in the midst of this people, that face to face thou, Lord, art seen, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that in a pillar of cloud thou goest before them by day, and in a pillar of fire by night;—

15That thou hast killed this people as one man: then will the nations that have heard thy fame, say in this manner,

16That because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which he had sworn unto them, hath he slain them in the wilderness.

17And now, I beseech thee, let the greatness of the power of the Lord be made manifest, as thou hast spoken, saying,

18The Eternal is long-suffering, and abundant in beneficence, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation.

19Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of thy beneficence, and as thou hast been indulgent to this people, from Egypt even until hitherto.

20And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word.

21But as truly as I live, and as all the earth is filled with the glory of the Lord:—

22That all the men who have seen my glory, and my signs, which I have displayed in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice,

23Shall surely not see the land which I have sworn unto their fathers, yea all those that have provoked me shall not see it.

24But my servant Caleb, as a reward that he had another spirit with him, and followed me fully,—therefore will I bring him into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.

25And the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valley: tomorrow turn you, and set forward into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.

26And the Lord spoke unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,

27How long [shall indulgence be given] to this evil congregation, that murmur against me? the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me, have I heard.

28Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in my ears, so will I do to you:

29In this wilderness shall your carcasses fall, and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward; ye who have murmured against me;

30Truly ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I have lifted up my hand to let you dwell therein; save Caleb the son of Yephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.

31But your little ones of which ye said, They would become a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised.

32But as for you, your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness.

33And your children shall wander about in the wilderness forty years, and bear your backslidings, until your carcasses be spent in the wilderness.

34After the number of the days in which ye spied out the land, forty days, yea, each one day for a year, shall ye bear for your iniquities, forty years; and ye shall experience my withdrawal [of protection].

35I the Lord have spoken it, surely, this will I do unto all this evil congregation that have assembled against me: in this wilderness shall they be spent, and therein shall they die.

36And the men whom Moses had sent to spy out the land, and who returned, and caused all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up an evil report against the land,

37Even these men, that had brought up the evil report of the land, died by the plague before the Lord.

38But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Yephunneh, remained alive of those men, who had gone to spy out the land.

39And Moses spoke these words unto all the children of Israel; and the people mourned greatly.

40And they rose up early in the morning, and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, here we are, and we will go up unto the place of which the Lord hath spoken; for we have sinned.

41And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the order of the Lord? and it will not prosper.

42Do not go up, for the Lord is not among you; that ye may not be smitten before your enemies.

43For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and ye will fall by the sword; since, because ye are turned away from the Lord, the Lord also will not be with you.

44Yet they persisted to go up unto the top of the mountain; but the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and Moses, did not move out of the camp.

45Then came down the Amalekites, and the Canaanites that dwelt on that mountain, and smote them, and discomfited them, even unto Chormah.