1Therefore all the company cried, and wept in that night,

2and all the sons of Israel grutched against Moses and Aaron, and said, We would that we had been dead in Egypt, either that we were dead in this wilderness; we would that we perished,

3and that the Lord lead us not into this land, lest we fall by sword, and our wives and our free children be led, or taken, prisoners; whether it is not better to us to turn again into Egypt?

4And they said one to another, Ordain we a duke, or a leader, to us, and turn we again into Egypt.

5And when this was heard, Moses and Aaron fell down low to the earth, before all the multitude of the sons of Israel.

6And soothly Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, which also compassed the land, rent their clothes,

7and they spake thus to all the multitude of the sons of Israel, The land which we compassed is full good;

8if the Lord is merciful to us, he shall lead us into it, and he shall give us the land flowing with milk and honey.

9Do not ye rebel against the Lord, neither dread ye the people of this land, for we be able to devour them so as bread; all their help hath passed away from them, the Lord is with us, do not ye dread.

10And when all the multitude cried, and would have oppressed them with stones, the glory of the Lord appeared upon the roof of the bond of peace, while all the sons of Israel saw.

11And the Lord said to Moses, How long shall this people backbite me, or mis-deem me? How long shall they not believe to me, in all the signs which I have done before them?

12Therefore I shall smite them with pestilence, and I shall waste them; soothly I shall make thee prince upon a greater folk, and stronger than is this.

13And Moses said to the Lord, [The] Egyptians hear not, from whose middle thou leddest out this people,

14and the dwellers of this land, which heard that thou, Lord, art in this people, and art seen face to face, and that thy cloud defendeth them, and that thou goest before them in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night,

15that thou hast slain so great a multitude as one man, and say,

16He might not bring this people into the land for which he swore to give to them, therefore he killed them in wilderness;

17therefore the strength of the Lord be magnified, or made great, as thou hast sworn,

18[The] Lord is patient, and of much mercy, doing away wickedness and trespasses, and leaving no man unguilty, which visitest the sins of fathers into sons into the third and fourth generation,

19I beseech thee, forgive thou the sin of this thy people, after the greatness of thy mercy, as thou were merciful to them going out of Egypt till to this place.

20And the Lord said, I have forgiven to them, by thy word.

21And as soothly I live; and the glory of the Lord shall be filled in all [the] earth;

22nevertheless all [the] men that saw my majesty, and my signs, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and [have] tempted me now by ten times, and obeyed not to my voice,

23shall not see the land for which I swore to their fathers, neither any of them that backbited me, shall see it.

24I shall lead my servant Caleb, that was full of another spirit and followed me, into this land, which he compassed, and his seed shall wield it.

25For Amalek and Canaanites dwell in the valleys, tomorrow move ye [the] tents, and turn ye again into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.

26And the Lord spake to Moses and to Aaron, and said,

27How long grutcheth this worst multitude against me? I have heard the grutching complaints of the sons of Israel.

28Therefore say thou to them, I live, saith the Lord; as ye spake while I heard, so I shall do to you;

29your carrions, or dead bodies, shall lie in this wilderness. All ye that be numbered, from twenty years and above, and have grutched against me,

30shall not enter into the land, upon which I have raised mine hand, that I should make you to dwell there, except Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, the son of Nun.

31Forsooth I shall lead in your little children, of which ye said that they should be preys, either ravens, to enemies, that they see the land which displeased you.

32Forsooth your carrions shall lie in the wilderness;

33your sons shall be walkers-about in the desert by forty years, and they shall bear your fornication, till the carrions of their fathers be wasted in desert,

34by the number of forty days, in which ye beheld the land; a year shall be reckoned for a day, and by forty years ye shall receive your wickedness, or be punished for your grutching, and ye shall know my vengeance.

35For as I spake, so I shall do to all this worst multitude, that rose together against me; it shall fail, and shall die in this wilderness.

36Therefore all the men which Moses had sent to see the land, and which turned again, and made all the multitude to grutch against him, and depraved the land,

37that it was evil, were dead, and smitten in the sight of the Lord ⁵.

38Soothly Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, lived, of all the men, that went to see the land.

39And Moses spake all these words to all the sons of Israel, and the people mourned greatly.

40And, lo! they rose in the morrow-tide first, and they went up into the top of the hill, and said, We be ready to go up to the place, of which the Lord spake, for we have sinned.

41To whom Moses said, Why over-pass ye the word of the Lord, that shall not befall to you into prosperity?

42Do not ye go up, for the Lord is not with you, lest ye fall before your enemies.

43Amalek and Canaanites be before you, by the sword of which ye shall fall, for ye would not assent to the Lord, neither the Lord shall be with you.

44And they were made dark, that is, blinded in their sin, and went up into the top of the hill; forsooth the ark of the testament of the Lord and Moses went not away from the tents.

45And Amalek came down, and Canaanites, that dwelled in the hill, and he smote the children of Israel, and he cutted them down, and pursued them to Hormah.