Numbers 14:13-38

New American Standard Bible 1995

^13 (A)But Moses said to the Lord, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for by Your strength You brought up this people from their midst, ¹⁴ and 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 ^(B)You, O Lord, are seen eye to eye, while 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 slay this people as one man, ^(C)then the nations who have heard of Your fame will ^[a]say, ¹⁶ ‘Because the Lord ^(D)could not bring this people into the land which He promised them by oath, therefore He slaughtered them in the wilderness.’ ¹⁷ But now, I pray, let the power of the Lord be great, just as You have ^[b]declared, ¹⁸ ‘^(E)The Lord is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but ^(F)He will by no means clear the guilty, ^(G)visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children ^[c]to the third and the fourth generations.’ ^19 (H)Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of Your lovingkindness, just as You also have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.”

The Lord Pardons and Rebukes

²⁰ So the Lord said, “^(I)I have pardoned them according to your word; ²¹ but indeed, ^(J)as I live, ^[d](K)all the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord. ²² Surely ^(L)all the men who have seen My glory and My signs which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet ^(M)have put Me to the test these ten times and have not listened to My voice, ^23 (N)shall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who spurned Me see it. ²⁴ But My servant Caleb, ^(O)because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, ^[e](P)I will bring into the land ^[f]which he entered, and his ^[g]descendants shall take possession of it. ^25 (Q)Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites live in the valleys; turn tomorrow and set out to the wilderness by the way of the ^[h]Red Sea.”

²⁶ The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, ²⁷ “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who are ^(R)grumbling against Me? I have heard the complaints of the sons of Israel, which they are ^[i]making against Me. ²⁸ Say to them, ‘^(S)As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘just as ^(T)you have spoken in My hearing, so I will surely do to you; ^29 (U)your corpses will fall in this wilderness, even all ^(V)your ^[j]numbered men, according to your complete number from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against Me. ³⁰ Surely you shall not come into the land in which I ^[k]swore to settle you, ^(W)except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. ^31 (X)Your children, however, whom you said would become a prey—I will bring them in, and they will know the land which you have rejected. ^32 (Y)But as for you, your corpses will fall in this wilderness. ³³ Your sons shall be shepherds for ^(Z)forty years in the wilderness, and they will ^[l]suffer for your ^[m]unfaithfulness, until your corpses ^[n]lie in the wilderness. ³⁴ According to the ^(AA)number of days which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day you shall bear your ^[o]guilt a year, even forty years, and you will know My opposition. ^35 (AB)I, the Lord, have spoken, surely this I will do to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be destroyed, and there they will die.’”

^36 (AC)As for the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land and who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing out a bad report concerning the land, ³⁷ even ^(AD)those men who brought out the very bad report of the land died by a ^(AE)plague before the Lord. ³⁸ But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive out of those men who went to spy out the land.