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'Because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land which he swore to give to them, therefore he has slain them in the wilderness.'
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And now, I pray thee, let the power of the LORD be great as thou hast promised, saying,
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'The LORD is slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of fathers upon children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation.'
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Pardon the iniquity of this people, I pray thee, according to the greatness of thy steadfast love, and according as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now."
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Then the LORD said, "I have pardoned, according to your word;
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but truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD,
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none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs which I wrought in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the proof these ten times and have not hearkened to my voice,
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shall see the land which I swore to give to their fathers; and none of those who despised me shall see it.
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But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it.
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Now, since the Amal'ekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valleys, turn tomorrow and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea."
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And the LORD said to Moses and to Aaron,
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"How long shall this wicked congregation murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the people of Israel, which they murmur against me.
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Say to them, 'As I live,' says the LORD, 'what you have said in my hearing I will do to you:
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your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and of all your number, numbered from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me,
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not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell, except Caleb the son of Jephun'neh and Joshua the son of Nun.
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But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land which you have despised.
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But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness.
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And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years, and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness.
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According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day a year, you shall bear your iniquity, forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.'
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I, the LORD, have spoken; surely this will I do to all this wicked congregation that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die."
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And the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, and who returned and made all the congregation to murmur against him by bringing up an evil report against the land,
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the men who brought up an evil report of the land, died by plague before the LORD.
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But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephun'neh remained alive, of those men who went to spy out the land.
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And Moses told these words to all the people of Israel, and the people mourned greatly.
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And they rose early in the morning, and went up to the heights of the hill country, saying, "See, we are here, we will go up to the place which the LORD has promised; for we have sinned."
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But Moses said, "Why now are you transgressing the command of the LORD, for that will not succeed?
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Do not go up lest you be struck down before your enemies, for the LORD is not among you.
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For there the Amal'ekites and the Canaanites are before you, and you shall fall by the sword; because you have turned back from following the LORD, the LORD will not be with you."
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But they presumed to go up to the heights of the hill country, although neither the ark of the covenant of the LORD, nor Moses, departed out of the camp.
