Numbers 14:2-25

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

³And wherefore doth the LORD bring us unto this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will be a prey; were it not better for us to return into Egypt?'

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

⁵Then Moses and Aaron fell 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 Jephunneh, who were of them that spied out the land, rent their clothes.

⁷And they spoke unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying: 'The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceeding good land.

⁸If the LORD delight in us, then He will bring us into this land, and give it unto us — a land which floweth with milk and honey.

⁹Only rebel not against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us; their defence is removed from over them, and the LORD is with us; fear them not.'

¹⁰But all the congregation bade stone them with stones, when the glory of the LORD appeared in the tent of meeting unto all the children of Israel.

¹¹And the LORD said unto Moses: 'How long will this people despise Me? and how long will they not believe in Me, for all the signs which I have wrought 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 unto the LORD: 'When the Egyptians shall hear — for Thou broughtest up this people in Thy might from among them —

¹⁴they will say to the inhabitants of this land, who have heard that Thou LORD art in the midst of this people; inasmuch as Thou LORD art seen face to face, and Thy cloud standeth over them, and Thou goest before them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night;

¹⁵now if Thou shalt kill this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of Thee will speak, saying:

¹⁶Because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land which He swore unto them, therefore He hath slain them in the wilderness.

¹⁷And now, I pray Thee, let the power of the Lord be great, according as Thou hast spoken, saying:

¹⁸The LORD is slow to anger, and plenteous in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and that 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 pray Thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of Thy lovingkindness, and according as Thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.'

²⁰And the LORD said: 'I have pardoned according to thy word.

²¹But in very deed, as I live — and all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD —

²²surely all those men that have seen My glory, and My signs, which I wrought in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have put Me to proof these ten times, and have not hearkened to My voice;

²³surely they shall not see the land which I swore unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that despised Me see it.

²⁴But My servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed Me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.

²⁵Now the Amalekite and the Canaanite dwell in the Vale; tomorrow turn ye, and get you into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.'