Numbers 14:20-35
New Catholic Bible
20 The Lord answered, “I have forgiven them, just as you have asked. 21 But assuredly, just as I live and the glory of the Lord fills the whole earth, 22 because this entire people has witnessed my glory and the miracles that I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet they have put me to the test these ten times and have not heeded my voice, 23 none of them will see the land that I promised to their fathers. None of those who despised me will see it. 24 But I will bring my servant Caleb into the land that he entered because he has a different spirit and wholeheartedly follows me. His descendants will inherit it. 25 Turn back tomorrow and set out for the wilderness along the route to the Red Sea for the Amalekites and the Canaanites are living in the valley.”
26 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 27 “How long will this wicked assembly grumble against me? I have heard the complaints of the people of Israel that they grumble against me. 28 So I declare to them: As I live, says the Lord, I will make the things you have said in my hearing happen: 29 your dead bodies will fall to the ground in this wilderness. None of you who are twenty years or older and who have complained about me 30 will enter the land in which I swore I would make you dwell except for Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, the son of Nun. 31 However, as for your little ones whom you said would become plunder, I will bring them in and they will come to know the land that you have despised. 32 But your dead bodies will fall to the ground in this wilderness. 33 Your children will wander in this wilderness for forty years, and they will bear the burden of your unfaithfulness, until your dead bodies lie in the wilderness. 34 The number of days that you explored the land was forty, and there will be one year for each day. You will bear the burden of your sins for forty years and you will come to know my rejection.[a] 35 I, the Lord, have proclaimed this. I will surely do this to this evil assembly that has gathered together against me. In this wilderness they will come to an end, there they will die.”
Footnotes
- Numbers 14:34 The Lord metes out punishment on the unfaithful people, condemning them to die in the desert as they had wished.
