Numbers 14:13-39

131But Moses said to the Lord, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for by Your strength You brought this people up from their midst, 14and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that You, Lord, are in the midst of this people, because 2You, Lord, are seen eye to eye, while 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. 15Now if You put this people to death 3all at once, 4then the nations who have heard of Your fame will 5say, 16‘Since the Lord 6could not bring this people into the land which He promised them by oath, He slaughtered them in the wilderness.’ 17So now, please, let the power of the Lord be great, just as You have declared, saying, 18‘7The Lord is slow to anger and abundant in mercy, forgiving wrongdoing and violation of His Law; but 8He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, 9inflicting the 10punishment of the fathers on the children 11to the third and the fourth generations.’ 19Please 12forgive the guilt of this people in accordance with the greatness of Your mercy, just as You also have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.”

20So the Lord said, “13I have forgiven them in accordance with your word; 21however, 14as I live, 1516all the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord. 22Certainly 17all the people who have seen My glory and My signs which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet 18have put Me to the test these ten times and have not listened to My voice, 2319shall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who were disrespectful to Me see it. 24But as for My servant Caleb, 20because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, 21I will bring him into the land which he 22entered, and his 23descendants shall take possession of it. 2524Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites live in the valleys; turn tomorrow and set out for the wilderness by the way of the 25Red Sea.”

26The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron again, saying, 27“How long shall I put up with this evil congregation who are 26grumbling against Me? I have heard the complaints of the sons of Israel which they are 27voicing against Me. 28Say to them, ‘28As I live,’ declares the Lord, ‘just as 29you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you; 2930your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness, all 31your 32numbered men according to your complete number from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against Me. 30By no means will you come into the land where I 33swore to settle you, 34except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. 3135Your children, however, whom you said would become plunder--I will bring them in, and they will know the land which you have rejected. 3236But as for you, your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness. 33Also, your sons will be shepherds in the wilderness for 37forty years, and they will 38suffer for your unfaithfulness, until your bodies perish in the wilderness. 34In accordance with the 39number of days that you spied out the land, forty days, for every day you shall suffer the punishment for your 40guilt a year, that is, forty years, and you will know My opposition. 3541I, the Lord, have spoken, I certainly will do this to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. They shall be worn out in this wilderness, and there they shall die.’”

3642As for the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, and who returned and led all the congregation to grumble against him by bringing a bad report about the land, 3743those men who brought the bad report of the land also died by a 44plague in the presence of the Lord. 38But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive out of those men who went to spy out the land.

39Now when Moses spoke 45these words to all the sons of Israel, 46the people mourned greatly.