The People Rebel
1 Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people
1wept that night.
2
And all the people of Israel
2grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, "Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or
3would that we had died in this wilderness!
3
Why is the LORD bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword?
4Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?"
4
And they said to one another,
5"Let us choose a leader and
6go back to Egypt."
5
Then
7Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the people of Israel.
6
8And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes
7
and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel,
9"The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land.
8
If
10the LORD delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us,
11a land that flows with milk and honey.
9
Only
12do not rebel against the LORD. And
13do not fear the people of the land, for
14they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them."
10
15Then all the congregation said to stone them with stones. But
16the glory of the LORD appeared at the tent of meeting to all the people of Israel.
11
And the LORD said to Moses, "How long will this people
17despise me? And how long will they not
18believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them?
12
I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I
19will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they."
Moses Intercedes for the People
13 But
20Moses said to the LORD, "Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for you brought up this people in your might from among them,
14
and they will tell the inhabitants of this land.
21They have heard that you, O LORD, are in the midst of this people. For you, O LORD, are seen face to face, and
22your 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 kill this people as one man, then the nations who have heard your fame will say,
16
'It is because the LORD
23 was not able to bring this people into the land that he swore to give to them that he has killed them in the wilderness.'
17
And now, please let the power of the Lord be great as you have promised, saying,
18
24'The LORD is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty,
25visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.'
19
Please
26pardon the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just
27as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt until now."
God Promises Judgment
20 Then the LORD said, "I have pardoned,
28according to your word.
21
But truly, as I live, and as all
29the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD,
22
30none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these
31ten times and have not obeyed my voice,
23
32shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it.
24
But my servant
33Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has
34followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it.
25
35Now, since the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valleys,
36turn tomorrow and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea."