NUMBERS 14:4-15

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, which were of them that spied out the land, rent their clothes:

⁷and they spake 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. And 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 disinherit them, and will make of thee a nation greater and mightier than they.

¹³And Moses said unto the LORD, Then the Egyptians shall hear it; for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them;

¹⁴and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: they have heard that thou LORD art in the midst of this people; for 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,