Good News Translation GNT
World English Bible WEB
1 All night long the people cried out in distress.
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All the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.
2 They complained against Moses and Aaron, and said, "It would have been better to die in Egypt or even here in the wilderness!
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All the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said to them, Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would that we had died in this wilderness!
3 Why is the Lord taking us into that land? We will be killed in battle, and our wives and children will be captured. Wouldn't it be better to go back to Egypt?"
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Why does Yahweh bring us to this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will be a prey: wouldn't it be better for us to return into Egypt?
4 So they said to one another, "Let's choose a leader and go back to Egypt!"
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They said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.
5 Then Moses and Aaron bowed to the ground in front of all the people.
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Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.
6 And Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, two of the spies, tore their clothes in sorrow
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Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were of those who spied out the land, tore their clothes:
7 and said to the people, "The land we explored is an excellent land.
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and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceeding good land.
8 If the Lord is pleased with us, he will take us there and give us that rich and fertile land.
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If Yahweh delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it to us; a land which flows with milk and honey.
9 Do not rebel against the Lord and don't be afraid of the people who live there. We will conquer them easily. The Lord is with us and has defeated the gods who protected them; so don't be afraid."
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Only don't rebel against Yahweh, neither fear the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defense is removed from over them, and Yahweh is with us: don't fear them.
10 The whole community was threatening to stone them to death, but suddenly the people saw the dazzling light of the Lord's presence appear over the Tent.
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But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. The glory of Yahweh appeared in the tent of meeting to all the children of Israel.
11 The Lord said to Moses, "How much longer will these people reject me? How much longer will they refuse to trust in me, even though I have performed so many miracles among them?
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Yahweh said to Moses, How long will this people despise me? and how long will they not believe in me, for all the signs which I have worked among them?
12 I will send an epidemic and destroy them, but I will make you the father of a nation that is larger and more powerful than they are!"
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I will strike them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.
13 But Moses said to the Lord, "You brought these people out of Egypt by your power. When the Egyptians hear what you have done to your people,
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Moses said to Yahweh, Then the Egyptians will hear it; for you brought up this people in your might from among them;
14 they will tell it to the people who live in this land. These people have already heard that you, Lord, are with us, that you appear in plain sight when your cloud stops over us, and that you go before us in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.
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and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you Yahweh are in the midst of this people; for you Yahweh are seen face to face, and 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 kill all your people, the nations who have heard of your fame will say
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Now if you shall kill this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of you will speak, saying,
16 that you killed your people in the wilderness because you were not able to bring them into the land you promised to give them.
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Because Yahweh was not able to bring this people into the land which he swore to them, therefore he has slain them in the wilderness.
17 So now, Lord, I pray, show us your power and do what you promised when you said,
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Now please let the power of the Lord be great, according as you have spoken, saying,
18 "I, the Lord, am not easily angered, and I show great love and faithfulness and forgive sin and rebellion. Yet I will not fail to punish children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation for the sins of their parents.'
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Yahweh is slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and disobedience; and that will by no means clear [the guilty], visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation.
19 And now, Lord, according to the greatness of your unchanging love, forgive, I pray, the sin of these people, just as you have forgiven them ever since they left Egypt."
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Pardon, Please, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your lovingkindness, and according as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.
20 The Lord answered, "I will forgive them, as you have asked.
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Yahweh said, I have pardoned according to your word:
21 But I promise that as surely as I live and as surely as my presence fills the earth,
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but in very deed, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of Yahweh;
22 none of these people will live to enter that land. They have seen the dazzling light of my presence and the miracles that I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, but they have tried my patience over and over again and have refused to obey me.
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because all those men who have seen my glory, and my signs, which I worked in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tempted me these ten times, and have not listened to my voice;
23 They will never enter the land which I promised to their ancestors. None of those who have rejected me will ever enter it.
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surely they shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers, neither shall any of those who despised me see it:
24 But because my servant Caleb has a different attitude and has remained loyal to me, I will bring him into the land which he explored, and his descendants will possess the land
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but my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and has followed me fully, him will I bring into the land into which he went; and his seed shall possess it.
25 in whose valleys the Amalekites and the Canaanites now live. Turn back tomorrow and go into the wilderness in the direction of the Gulf of Aqaba."
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Now the Amalekite and the Canaanite dwell in the valley: tomorrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.
26 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron,
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Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,
27 "How much longer are these wicked people going to complain against me? I have heard enough of these complaints!
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How long [shall I bear] with this evil congregation, that murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me.
28 Now give them this answer: "I swear that as surely as I live, I will do to you just what you have asked. I, the Lord, have spoken.
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Tell them, As I live, says Yahweh, surely as you have spoken in my ears, so will I do to you:
29 You will die and your corpses will be scattered across this wilderness. Because you have complained against me, none of you over twenty years of age will enter that land.
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your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and all who were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me,
30 I promised to let you live there, but not one of you will, except Caleb and Joshua.
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surely you shall not come into the land, concerning which I swore that I would make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.
31 You said that your children would be captured, but I will bring them into the land that you rejected, and it will be their home.
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But your little ones, that you said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which you have rejected.
32 You will die here in this wilderness.
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But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness.
33 Your children will wander in the wilderness for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last one of you dies.
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Your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your prostitution, until your dead bodies be consumed in the wilderness.
34 You will suffer the consequences of your sin for forty years, one year for each of the forty days you spent exploring the land. You will know what it means to have me against you!
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After the number of the days in which you spied out the land, even forty days, for every day a year, shall you bear your iniquities, even forty years, and you shall know my alienation.
35 I swear that I will do this to you wicked people who have gathered together against me. Here in the wilderness every one of you will die. I, the Lord, have spoken.' "
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I, Yahweh, have spoken, surely this will I do to all this evil congregation, who are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.
36 The men Moses had sent to explore the land brought back a false report which caused the people to complain against the Lord. And so the Lord struck them with a disease, and they died.
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The men, whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up an evil report against the land,
38 Of the twelve spies only Joshua and Caleb survived.
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But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, remained alive of those men who went to spy out the land.
39 When Moses told the Israelites what the Lord had said, they mourned bitterly.
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Moses told these words to all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly.
40 Early the next morning they started out to invade the hill country, saying, "Now we are ready to go to the place which the Lord told us about. We admit that we have sinned."
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They rose up early in the morning, and got them up to the top of the mountain, saying, Behold, we are here, and will go up to the place which Yahweh has promised: for we have sinned.
41 But Moses said, "Then why are you disobeying the Lord now? You will not succeed!
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Moses said, Why now do you disobey the commandment of Yahweh, seeing it shall not prosper?
42 Don't go. The Lord is not with you, and your enemies will defeat you.
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Don't go up, for Yahweh isn't among you; that you not be struck down before your enemies.
43 When you face the Amalekites and the Canaanites, you will die in battle; the Lord will not be with you, because you have refused to follow him."
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For there the Amalekite and the Canaanite are before you, and you shall fall by the sword: because you are turned back from following Yahweh, therefore Yahweh will not be with you.
44 Yet they still dared to go up into the hill country, even though neither the Lord's Covenant Box nor Moses left the camp.
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But they presumed to go up to the top of the mountain: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, and Moses, didn't depart out of the camp.
45 Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived there attacked and defeated them, and pursued them as far as Hormah.
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Then the Amalekite came down, and the Canaanite who lived in that mountain, and struck them and beat them down, even to Hormah.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.
The World English Bible is in the public domain.