The Holy Bible · Numbers

Numbers 14

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1The whole congregation raised its voice, and the people wept all that night.

2All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron. 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!

3Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall in war? Our wives and children will become plunder. So now it is better for us to return to Egypt.”

4They said to one another, “Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt.”

5Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before the whole congregation of Israelites.

6Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, among those who had explored the land, tore their garments.

7They said to the whole congregation of Israelites, “The land we inspected is exceedingly, exceedingly good.

8If the Lord chooses us, He will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land flowing with milk and honey.

9Only do not become deserters from the Lord. Do not fear the people of the land, for they are food for us. Their season has passed away from them, but the Lord is among us. Do not fear them.”

10The whole congregation said to stone them with stones. Then the Lord’s glory appeared in a cloud over the Tent of Testimony among all the Israelites.

11The Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people provoke Me? How long will they refuse to believe Me, despite all the signs I have done among them?

12I will strike them with death and destroy them, and I will make you and your father’s house into a nation greater and much more numerous than this one.”

13Moses said to the Lord, “Egypt will hear that by Your strength You brought this people up from among them.

14Indeed, all those living in this land have heard that You, the Lord, are among this people, that You appear eye to eye, O Lord, and that Your cloud stands over them, and You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

15If You wipe out this people as one man, the nations who have heard Your name will say,

16‘Because the Lord was unable to bring this people into the land He swore to them, He laid them low in the wilderness.’

17Now let Your strength be exalted, O Lord, as You have spoken, saying,

18‘The Lord is patient, abundant in mercy, and true, removing lawlessness, wrongdoing, and sins; yet He certainly will not cleanse the guilty, repaying the fathers’ sins upon the children to the third and fourth generations.’

19Forgive this people’s sin according to Your great mercy, as You have been gracious to them from Egypt until now.”

20The Lord said to Moses, “I am gracious to them according to your word.

21But I live, and My name lives, and the Lord’s glory will fill all the earth,

22all the men who have seen My glory and the signs I did in Egypt and this wilderness, and have tested Me this tenth time and have not listened to My voice,

23shall certainly not see the land I swore to their fathers. But their children who are here with Me, who do not know good or evil, every inexperienced young person—to these I will give the land. None of those who provoke Me shall see it.

24But My servant Caleb, because a different spirit was in him and he followed Me, I will bring into the land he entered, and his descendants shall inherit it.

25Amalek and the Canaanites live in the valley. Tomorrow turn and depart for the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.”

26The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying,

27“How long with this evil congregation? They grumble before Me; I have heard the Israelites’ grumbling that they have directed against you.

28Say to them, ‘I live, says the Lord: I will certainly do to you just as you have spoken into My ears.

29In this wilderness your limbs shall fall, with your entire registration and those of you counted from twenty years old and upward who grumbled against Me.

30You shall certainly not enter the land over which I stretched out My hand to settle you upon it, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.

31But the children whom you said would become plunder I will bring into the land, and they shall inherit the land from which you turned away.

32Your limbs shall fall in this wilderness.

33Your children shall live as herders in the wilderness for forty years and bear your prostitution, until your limbs are consumed in the wilderness.

34According to the number of days you inspected the land—forty days, a day for a year—you shall bear your sins for forty years, and you shall know the fury of My anger.

35I, the Lord, have spoken. I will certainly do this to this evil congregation that has banded together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.’”

36The men Moses had sent to inspect the land came back and grumbled against it before the congregation, bringing out evil words about the land.

37Those men who spoke evil against the land died in the plague before the Lord.

38But Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh lived, out of those men who had gone to explore the land.

39Moses spoke these words to all the Israelites, and the people mourned greatly.

40They rose early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, “Here we are! We will go up to the place the Lord has spoken of, for we have sinned.”

41Moses said, “Why are you transgressing the Lord’s word? Things will not go well for you.

42Do not go up, for the Lord is not with you, and you will fall before your enemies.

43Amalek and the Canaanites are there before you, and you will fall by the sword. Because you turned away in disobedience to the Lord, the Lord will not be among you.”

44But they forced their way up to the top of the mountain. The ark of the Lord’s covenant and Moses did not move from the camp.

45Amalek and the Canaanites who lived on that mountain came down, routed them, and cut them down as far as Erman. Then they returned to the camp.

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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · working draft awaiting specialist review.