Numbers 14:1-19

¹And the whole assembly lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.

²And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron; and the whole assembly said to them, Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! or in this wilderness would that we had died!

³And why is Jehovah bringing us to this land that we may fall by the sword, that our wives and our little ones may become a prey? Is it not better for us to return to Egypt?

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

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

⁶And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, of them that searched out the land, rent their garments.

⁷And they spoke to the whole assembly of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it out, is a very, very good land.

⁸If Jehovah delight in us, he will bring us into this land, and give it us, a land that flows with milk and honey;

⁹only rebel not against Jehovah; and fear not the people of the land; for they shall be our food. Their defence is departed from them, and Jehovah is with us: fear them not.

¹⁰And the whole assembly said that they should be stoned with stones. And the glory of Jehovah appeared in the tent of meeting to all the children of Israel.

¹¹And Jehovah said to Moses, How long will this people despise me? and how long will they not believe me, for all the signs which I have done among them?

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

¹³And Moses said to Jehovah, Then the Egyptians will hear it; for in thy might thou broughtest up this people from the midst of them;

¹⁴and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land, who have heard that thou, Jehovah, art in the midst of this people, that thou, Jehovah, lettest thyself be seen eye to eye, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou goest before them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night;

¹⁵if thou now slayest this people as one man, then the nations that have heard thy fame will speak, saying,

¹⁶Because Jehovah was not able to bring this people into the land that he had sworn unto them, he has therefore slain them in the wilderness.

¹⁷And now, I beseech thee, let the power of the Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying,

¹⁸Jehovah is slow to anger, and abundant in goodness, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and fourth generation.

¹⁹Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of thy loving-kindness, and as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.