The People Rebel

1And all the congregation 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 congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness!

3And why has the LORD brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt?

4And they said one to another, Let us choose a leader, 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 searched the land, tore their clothes:

7And they spoke unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceedingly good land.

8If the LORD delights in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it to us; a land which flows with milk and honey.

9Only rebel not against the LORD, neither fear you the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defense is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not.

10But all the congregation said to stone them with stones. And the glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of meeting before all the children of Israel.

11And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this people despise me? and how long will it be before they believe me, with all the signs which I have shown among them?

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

Moses Intercedes

13And Moses said unto the LORD, Then the Egyptians shall hear it, (for you brought up this people in your might from among them;)

14And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: for they have heard that you LORD are among this people, that you LORD are seen face to face, and that your cloud stands over them, and that you go before them, by daytime in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night.

15Now if you shall kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of you will speak, saying,

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

17And now, I beseech you, let the power of my LORD be great, according as you have spoken, saying,

18The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.

19Pardon, I beseech you, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of your mercy, and as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.

20And the LORD said, I have pardoned according to your word:

21But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.

22Because all those men who have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put me to the test now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;

23Surely they shall not see the land which I swore to give unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:

24But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and has followed me fully, him will I bring into the land in which he went; and his descendants shall possess it.

25(Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley.) Tomorrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea.

26And the LORD spoke unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,

27How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me.

28Say unto them, As truly as I live, says the LORD, as you have spoken in my ears, so will I do to you:

29Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me,

30Doubtless you shall not come into the land, concerning which I swore to make you dwell therein, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.

31But your little ones, whom you said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which you have despised.

32But as for you, your carcasses, they shall fall in this wilderness.

33And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your harlotries, until your carcasses are consumed in the wilderness.

34After the number of the days in which you searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall you bear your iniquities, even forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.

35I the LORD have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.

Death of the Ten Spies

36And the men, whom Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land,

37Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the LORD.

38But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were of the men that went to search the land, lived still.

39And Moses told these sayings unto all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly.

40And they rose up early in the morning, and went up into the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we are here, and will go up unto the place which the LORD has promised: for we have sinned.

41And Moses said, Why now do you transgress the commandment of the LORD? but it shall not prosper.

42Go not up, for the LORD is not among you; that you be not smitten before your enemies.

43For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you shall fall by the sword: because you have turned away from the LORD, therefore the LORD will not be with you.

44But they presumed to go up unto the mountaintop: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and Moses, departed not out of the camp.

45Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites who dwelt in that hill country, and struck them, and routed them, even unto Hormah.