Chapter 14

Threats of Revolt. ¹ At this, the whole community broke out with loud cries, and the people wept into the night. ^2 (A)All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, the whole community saying to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt,” or “If only we would die here in the wilderness! ³ Why is the Lord bringing us into this land only to have us fall by the sword? Our wives and little ones will be taken as spoil. Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” ⁴ So they said to one another, “Let us appoint a leader and go back to Egypt.”

⁵ But Moses and Aaron fell prostrate before the whole assembled community of the Israelites; ⁶ while Joshua, son of Nun, and Caleb, son of Jephunneh, who had been among those that reconnoitered the land, tore their garments ⁷ and said to the whole community of the Israelites,^(B) “The land which we went through and reconnoitered is an exceedingly good land. ⁸ If the Lord is pleased with us, he will bring us in to this land and give it to us, a land which flows with milk and honey. ^9 (C)Only do not rebel against the Lord! You need not be afraid of the people of the land, for they are but food for us!^[a] Their protection has left them, but the Lord is with us. Do not fear them.”

The Lord’s Sentence. ¹⁰ The whole community threatened to stone them. But the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the Israelites. ¹¹ And the Lord said to Moses: How long will this people spurn me? How long will they not trust me, despite all the signs I have performed among them?^{(D) 12} I will strike them with pestilence and disown them. Then I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.^(E)

^13 (F)But Moses said to the Lord: “The Egyptians will hear of this, for by your power you brought out this people from among them. ¹⁴ They will tell the inhabitants of this land, who have heard that you, Lord, are in the midst of this people; you, Lord, who directly revealed yourself! Your cloud stands over them, and you go before them by day in a column of cloud and by night in a column of fire.^{(G) 15} If now you slay this people all at once, the nations who have heard such reports of you will say, ¹⁶ ‘The Lord was not able to bring this people into the land he swore to give them; that is why he slaughtered them in the wilderness.’^{(H) 17} Now then, may my Lord’s forbearance be great, even as you have said, ^18 (I)‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in kindness, forgiving iniquity and rebellion; yet certainly not declaring the guilty guiltless, but punishing children to the third and fourth generation for their parents’ iniquity.’ ¹⁹ Pardon, then, the iniquity of this people in keeping with your great kindness, even as you have forgiven them from Egypt until now.”^(J)

²⁰ The Lord answered: I pardon them as you have asked. ²¹ Yet, by my life and the Lord’s glory that fills the whole earth, ²² of all the people who have seen my glory and the signs I did in Egypt and in the wilderness,^(K) and who nevertheless have put me to the test ten times already and have not obeyed me, ²³ not one shall see the land which I promised on oath to their ancestors. None of those who have spurned me shall see it. ²⁴ But as for my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and follows me unreservedly,^(L) I will bring him into the land which he entered, and his descendants shall possess it. ²⁵ But now, since the Amalekites and Canaanites are living in the valleys,^[b] turn away tomorrow and set out into the wilderness by way of the Red Sea road.

²⁶ The Lord also said to Moses and Aaron: ²⁷ How long will this wicked community grumble against me?^(M) I have heard the grumblings of the Israelites against me. ²⁸ Tell them:^[c] “By my life”—oracle of the Lord—“I will do to you just what I have heard you say. ²⁹ Here in the wilderness^(N) your dead bodies shall fall. Of all your men of twenty years or more, enrolled in your registration, who grumbled against me, ³⁰ not one of you shall enter the land where I solemnly swore to settle you, except Caleb, son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, son of Nun. ³¹ Your little ones, however, who you said would be taken as spoil, I will bring in, and they shall know the land you rejected.^{(O) 32} But as for you, your bodies shall fall here in the wilderness, ³³ while your children will wander for forty years, suffering for your infidelity, till the last of you lies dead in the wilderness.^{(P) 34} Corresponding to the number of days you spent reconnoitering the land—forty days—you shall bear your punishment one year for each day: forty years. Thus you will realize what it means to oppose me. ³⁵ I, the Lord, have spoken; and I will surely do this to this entire wicked community that conspired against me: here in the wilderness they shall come to their end and there they will die.”

³⁶ And the men whom Moses had sent to reconnoiter the land^(Q) and who on returning had set the whole community grumbling against him by spreading discouraging reports about the land— ³⁷ these men who had spread discouraging reports about the land were struck down by the Lord and died. ³⁸ Only Joshua, son of Nun, and Caleb, son of Jephunneh, survived of all the men who had gone to reconnoiter the land.^(R)

The Twelve Scouts. ^19 (A)Then we set out from Horeb and journeyed through that whole vast and fearful wilderness that you have seen, in the direction of the hill country of the Amorites, as the Lord, our God, had commanded; and we came to Kadesh-barnea.^{(B) 20} I said to you, “You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord, our God, is giving us. ²¹ See, the Lord, your God, has given this land over to you. Go up and take possession of it, as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has promised you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” ²² Then all of you approached me and said, “Let us send men ahead to spy out the land for us and report to us on the road we should follow and the cities we will come upon.” ²³ Agreeing with the proposal, I took twelve men from your number, one from each tribe. ²⁴ They set out into the hill country as far as the Wadi Eshcol, and explored it. ²⁵ Then, taking along some of the fruit of the land, they brought it down to us and reported, “The land the Lord, our God, is giving us is good.”

Threats of Revolt. ^26 (C)But you refused to go up;^(D) you defied the command of the Lord, your God. ²⁷ You set to murmuring in your tents, “Out of hatred for us the Lord has brought us out of the land of Egypt,^(E) to deliver us into the power of the Amorites and destroy us. ²⁸ What shall we meet with up there? Our men have made our hearts melt by saying, ‘The people are bigger and taller than we, and their cities are large and fortified to the sky; besides, we saw the Anakim^[a] there.’”^(F)

²⁹ But I said to you, “Have no dread or fear of them. ^30 (G)The Lord, your God, who goes before you, is the one who will fight for you, just as he acted with you before your very eyes in Egypt, ³¹ as well as in the wilderness, where you saw how the Lord, your God, carried you, as one carries his own child, all along your journey until you arrived at this place.” ³² Despite this, you would not trust the Lord, your God, ³³ who journeys before you to find you a place to camp—by night in the fire, and by day in the cloud, to show you the way to go.^{(H) 34} When the Lord heard your words, he was angry, and took an oath: ³⁵ Not a single one of this evil generation shall look upon the good land I swore to give to your ancestors, ³⁶ except Caleb,^[b] son of Jephunneh. He shall see it, for to him and to his descendants I will give the land he trod upon,^(I) because he has fully followed the Lord.

³⁷ The Lord was angered against me also on your account, and said, You shall not enter there either,^{(J) 38} but Joshua,^(K) son of Nun, your attendant, shall enter. Encourage him, for he is the one who is to give Israel its possession. ³⁹ Your little ones, who you said would become plunder, and your children, who as yet do not know good from evil—they shall enter there; to them I will give it, and they shall take possession of it. ⁴⁰ But as for yourselves: turn back and proceed into the wilderness on the Red Sea road.