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          DASV: Numbers 14    

1 Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people
wept that night.
2 All the Israelites murmured against Moses and Aaron;
and the whole congregation complained to them, "If only we
had died in the land of Egypt! Or, if only we had died in
this wilderness!
3 Why has the LORD brought us to this land just to let us
die by the sword? Our wives and our children will become plunder.
Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?"
4 So they conspired with each other, "Let us choose a
leader and return to Egypt."

5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the
assembly of the congregation of the Israelites.
6 Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh,
who were among those who had explored the land, tore
their clothes
7 and they spoke to all the congregation of the Israelites,
saying, "The land that we passed through to explore it,
is an exceedingly good land.
8 If the LORD delights in us, then he will bring us into
this land and give it to us, a land flowing with milk
and honey.
9 Only do not rebel against the LORD, and do not fear the
people of the land; for they are bread for us to devour.
Their protection is gone from over them, and the LORD
is with us. Do not fear them."

10 But the whole congregation threatened to stone them
with stones. But the glory of the LORD appeared at the
Tent of Meeting to all the Israelites.

11 Then the LORD said to Moses, "How long will this people
despise me? And how long will they not believe in me,
even with all the signs that I have done among them?
12 I will strike them with the pestilence and
disinherit them, then I will make you into a nation
greater and mightier than they are."
13 But Moses said to the LORD, "Then the Egyptians
will hear it; for you brought up this people by your
might from among them,
14 then they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land.
They have heard that you O LORD are in the midst of
this people; for you O LORD are seen face to face,
and your cloud stands over them, and you go before them,
in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night.
15 Now if you kill this people all at once, then the
nations that have heard of your fame will say,
16 'It was because the LORD was not able to bring this
people into the land that he swore to them, so he
killed them in the wilderness.'
17 So now, please let the power of the Lord be great,
just as you have promised, saying,
18 'The LORD is slow to anger, abundant in steadfast love,
forgiving iniquity and transgression; and by no means
clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the
fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.'
19 Please pardon the iniquity of this people according
to the greatness of your steadfast love, just as you
have forgiven this people from Egypt even until now."
20 Then the LORD responded, "I have pardoned them
as you asked,
21 but as truly as I live, all the earth will be filled
with the glory of the LORD.
22 None of those men who have seen my glory and my signs,
that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet
have tempted me these ten times, and have not
listened to my voice;
23 they will not see the land that I swore to their
forefathers, nor will any of those who despised me see it.
24 But my servant Caleb, because he had different spirit
and has followed me fully, I will bring him into the
land he explored and his descendants will possess it.
25 Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites live in the
valleys, tomorrow turn and set out for the wilderness
by the way to the Red Sea."

26 Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying,
27 "How long do I have to put up with this evil congregation
that murmurs against me? I have heard the complaints
of the Israelites, that they murmur against me.
28 Tell them, 'As I live, says the LORD, I will do to
you exactly as you have spoken in my hearing.
29 Your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness,
and all of you who were numbered, according to your census,
from twenty years old and upward, who have complained
against me.
30 Surely you will not enter the land concerning which
I swore to settle you in, except Caleb the son of
Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.
31 But your children, who you said would be plunder,
I will bring them in, and they will know the land you
have rejected.
32 But as for you, your bodies will drop dead in this desert.
33 Your children will wander in the wilderness for forty years,
and will suffer for your unfaithfulness, until the last
of your dead bodies lie in the wilderness.
34 According to the number of the days you explored
out the land, forty days, for every day a year, you will
bear your iniquities, forty years, and you will know
my displeasure.
35 I, the LORD, have spoken. Surely I will do this to all
this evil congregation who has conspired together against me.
In this wilderness they will be destroyed and there
they will die."

36 Then the men whom Moses sent to explore the land, who
returned and made all the congregation complain against
him by bringing back a bad report against the land,
37 even these men who brought an evil report of the land,
died by a plague before the LORD.
38 But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh,
were the only ones who remained alive from those who went
to explore the land.
39 Then Moses reported these words to all the Israelites
and the people mourned greatly.
40 Then they got up early the next morning and went up to
the top of the mountain, saying, "Here we are, and we will
go up to the place the LORD has promised, for we have
sinned."
41 But Moses said, "Why are you continuing to transgress
the command of the LORD? It will not succeed!
42 Do not go up, for the LORD is not among you; and you
will be struck down before your enemies.
43 For there the Amalekites and the Canaanites are
opposing you, and you will fall by the sword. Because you
turned away from following the LORD, therefore the LORD
will not be with you."
44 But they presumed to go up to the top of the mountain anyway,
although neither the ark of the covenant of the LORD nor
Moses left the camp.
45 Then the Amalekites and Canaanites who lived in that
hill country came down and defeated them and chased them
even as far as Hormah.

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