Numbers 14:1-28

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: