Numbers 14

And all the congregation lifted up and gave voice, and the people wept all that night.

And all the sons of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron, and all the congregation said to them: Would that we had died in the land of Egypt, or in this wilderness; if only we had died!

And why does the Lord bring us into this land to fall in war? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder. Now therefore it is better for us to return to Egypt.

And they said one to another: Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt.

And Moses and Aaron fell upon their face before all the congregation of the sons of Israel.

But Joshua son of Naue and Chaleb son of Iephonne, of those who had spied out the land, tore their garments;

and they said to all the congregation of the sons of Israel: The land which we spied out is exceedingly, exceedingly good.

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

Only do not become apostates from the Lord; and do not fear the people of the land, for they are food for us; for the season has departed from them, but the Lord is among us; do not fear them.

But all the congregation said to stone them with stones. And the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud upon the tent of testimony before all the sons of Israel.

And the Lord said to Moses: How long does this people provoke me? And how long do they not believe me, for all the signs which I have done among them?

I will strike them with death and destroy them, and I will make you and your father's house into a nation great and far more numerous than this.

And Moses said to the Lord: But Egypt will hear that you brought up this people from among them by your strength;

and moreover all who dwell upon this land have heard that you are Lord among this people, who are seen eye to eye, O Lord, and your cloud stands over them, and in a pillar of cloud you go before them by day, and in a pillar of fire by night.

And if you wipe out this people as one man, then the nations, as many as have heard your name, will speak, saying:

Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which he swore to them, he laid them low in the wilderness.

And now let your strength be exalted, O Lord, in the manner you spoke, saying:

The Lord is longsuffering and greatly merciful and true, taking away lawlessness and injustices and sins; yet by no means will he clear the guilty, repaying the sins of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation.

Forgive the sin of this people according to your great mercy, even as you have been gracious to them from Egypt until now.

And the Lord said to Moses: I am gracious to them according to your word.

But as I live, and as my name lives, the glory of the Lord shall fill all the earth.

For all the men who see my glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in this wilderness, and who have tempted me this tenth time and have not hearkened to my voice —

surely they shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers; but rather their children, who are here with me, all who know neither good nor evil, every young one without experience — to these I will give the land; but all those who provoked me shall not see it.

But my servant Chaleb, because another spirit was in him and he followed after me, I will bring him into the land into which he entered there, and his seed shall inherit it.

But Amalek and the Chananite dwell in the valley; tomorrow turn back and set out for the wilderness, by the way of the Red Sea.

And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying:

How long shall this evil congregation be, in what they murmur before me? The murmuring of the sons of Israel, which they murmured concerning you, I have heard.

Say to them: As I live, says the Lord, surely as you have spoken into my ears, so will I do to you.

In this wilderness your carcasses shall fall, even all your numbering and all of you who were counted from twenty years old and upward, as many as murmured against me.

Surely you shall not enter into the land over which I stretched out my hand to settle you upon it, except Chaleb son of Iephonne and Joshua son of Naue.

But your little ones, of whom you said they would be for plunder, I will bring them into the land, and they shall inherit the land which you departed from.

And your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness.

But your sons shall be pasturing in the wilderness forty years, and they shall bear your fornication, until your carcasses are consumed in the wilderness.

According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a day for a year, you shall bear your sins forty years, and you shall know the fury of my anger.

I the Lord have spoken: surely thus will I do to this evil congregation that has gathered itself together against me; in this wilderness they shall be utterly consumed, and there they shall die.

And as for the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, and who when they returned murmured against it to the congregation, bringing out evil words about the land —

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

But Joshua son of Naue and Chaleb son of Iephonne lived, of those men who had gone to spy out the land.

And Moses spoke these words to all the sons of Israel, and the people mourned exceedingly.

And rising early in the morning they went up to the top of the mountain, saying: Behold, here we are, we will go up to the place of which the Lord spoke, for we have sinned.

And Moses said: Why do you transgress the word of the Lord? It will not prosper for you.

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

For Amalek and the Chananite are there before you, and you will fall by the sword; because you turned away in disobedience to the Lord, and the Lord will not be among you.

But forcing their way they went up to the top of the mountain; yet the ark of the covenant of the Lord and Moses did not move from the camp.

And Amalek and the Chananite who dwelt in that mountain came down and routed them and cut them down as far as Herman; and they returned to the camp.