Numbers 14

14 ¹ Then the whole congregation raised their voices and cried out, and the people wept that night. ² And all the children of Israel grumbled against Moses and against Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, "If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness! ³ Why is our Father bringing us to this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder. Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?" ⁴ And they said to one another, "Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt."

⁵ Then Moses and Aaron fell facedown before the whole assembly of Israel.

⁶ And Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who spied out the land, tore their clothes, ⁷ and they said to all the congregation of the children of Israel, "The land we traveled through and explored is an exceedingly good land. ⁸ If our Father delights in us, 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 our Father, and do not fear the people of the land, for they are easy prey for us. Their protection has left them, and our Father is with us. Do not fear them."

¹⁰ But the whole congregation called out to stone them. Then the glory of our Father appeared at the tent of meeting to all the children of Israel.

¹¹ And our Father said to Moses, "How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, despite all the signs that I have done among them? ¹² I will strike them with the plague and disinherit them, and I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they."

Moses Pleads With the Father

¹³ But Moses said to our Father, "Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for you brought up this people in your might from among them, ¹⁴ and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you, our Father, are in the midst of this people, that you, our Father, are seen face to face, and that your cloud stands over them, and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. ¹⁵ Now if you wipe out all these people at once, then the nations who have heard your fame will say, ¹⁶ 'Because our Father was not able to bring this people into the land that he swore to give them, he has slaughtered them in the wilderness.' ¹⁷ And now, please, let the power of the Sovereign Father be great, as you have spoken, saying, ¹⁸ 'Our Father is slow to anger and abundant in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, bringing the fathers' sins down on their children, to the third and the 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 until now."

The Father Pardons and Disciplines

²⁰ Then our Father said, "I have pardoned, according to your word. ²¹ But truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with my glory— ²² surely all the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have tested me these ten times and have not listened to my voice, ²³ they shall not see the land that I swore to their fathers. None of those who despised me shall see it. ²⁴ But my servant Caleb, because a different spirit was in him and he has followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his offspring shall possess it. ²⁵ Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites live in the valleys. Tomorrow turn and head into the wilderness toward the Red Sea." ²⁶ And our Father spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, ²⁷ "How long shall this evil congregation grumble against me? I have heard the Israelites' grumbling against me. ²⁸ Say to them, 'As I live, declares our Father, I will do to you exactly what you have said: ²⁹ You will all fall dead in this wilderness — all of you who were counted, the full number of you, from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me. ³⁰ Not one of you shall come into the land in which I swore to make you dwell, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. ³¹ But your little ones, whom you said would become plunder, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have rejected. ³² But as for you, you will fall dead in this wilderness. ³³ And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and shall bear your unfaithfulness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. ³⁴ According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a day for each year, you shall bear your iniquities forty years, and you will find out what it means to have me against you. ³⁵ I, your Father, have spoken. Surely I will do this to all this evil congregation gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to an end, and there they shall die.

The Faithless Spies Judged

³⁶ And 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— ³⁷ the men who brought up a bad report of the land died by plague before our Father. ³⁸ But Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh remained alive, of those men who went to spy out the land.

³⁹ When Moses told these words to all the children of Israel, the people mourned greatly.

Defeated at Hormah

⁴⁰ And they rose early in the morning and went up to the heights of the hill country, saying, "Here we are. We will go up to the place that our Father has promised, for we have sinned."

⁴¹ But Moses said, "Why now are you disobeying the command of our Father, when it will not succeed? ⁴² Do not go up, for our Father is not in your midst, lest you be struck down before your enemies. ⁴³ For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you shall fall by the sword. Because you have turned back from following our Father, he will not be with you."

⁴⁴ But they went up anyway to the heights of the hill country, though the ark of the covenant of our Father and Moses did not leave the camp. ⁴⁵ Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and struck them and beat them down as far as Hormah.