Numbers 14:11-38

11And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people adespise me? And how long will they not bbelieve in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? 12I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I cwill make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”

Moses Intercedes for the People

13But dMoses said to the Lord, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for you brought up this people in your might from among them, 14and they will tell the inhabitants of this land. eThey have heard that you, O Lord, are in the midst of this people. For you, O Lord, are seen face to face, and fyour cloud stands over them and you go before them, in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. 15Now if you kill this people as one man, then the nations who have heard your fame will say, 16‘It is because the Lord gwas not able to bring this people into the land that he swore to give to them that he has killed them in the wilderness.’ 17And now, please let the power of the Lord be great as you have promised, saying, 18 h‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, ivisiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.’ 19Please jpardon the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just kas you have forgiven this people, from Egypt until now.”

God Promises Judgment

20Then the Lord said, “I have pardoned, laccording to your word. 21But truly, as I live, and as all mthe earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, 22 nnone of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these oten times and have not obeyed my voice, 23 pshall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it. 24But my servant qCaleb, because he has a different spirit and has rfollowed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it. 25 sNow, since the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valleys, tturn tomorrow and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.”

26And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 27How long shall uthis wicked congregation grumble against me? vI have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against me. 28Say to them, w‘As I live, declares the Lord, xwhat you have said in my hearing I will do to you: 29 yyour dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and zof all your number, listed in the census aafrom twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me, 30not one shall come into the land where I abswore that I would make you dwell, acexcept Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. 31 adBut your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that aeyou have rejected. 32But as for you, afyour dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. 33And your children agshall be shepherds in the wilderness ahforty years and shall aisuffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. 34 ajAccording to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, akforty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.’ 35 alI, the Lord, have spoken. Surely this will I do to all amthis wicked congregation who are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die.”

36 anAnd the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing up a bad report about the land 37the men who brought up a bad report of the landaodied by plague before the Lord. 38Of those men who went to spy out the land, aponly Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive.

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