Numbers, Chapter 14:

Number Verses, Chapter 14 of the Bible's Book of Numbers.

Numbers - Old Testament — Numbers – Old Testament

The Israelis want to return to Egypt

1. Then the whole congregation shouted and shouted, and the people wept that night.
2. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron; and all the congregation said unto them, We had rather died in the land of Egypt, or in this wilderness!
3. And why does the Lord bring us to this land to fall by the sword, and to have our women and our children become prey? Wouldn't it be better for us to return to Egypt?
4. And they said to one another, Let us raise up a captain, and let us return to Egypt.
5. Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the congregation of the children of Israel.
6. And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were of those who spied the land, tore their clothes.
7. And they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying: The land, which we passed through to explore, is a very good land.
8. If the Lord is pleased with us, then he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land flowing with milk and honey.
9. Only do not rebel against the Lord, and do not fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection is gone from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.
10. But the whole congregation told them to stone them; Then the glory of the Lord appeared in the tent of meeting to all the children of Israel.
11. And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? How long will he not believe in me, despite all the signs I have done in his midst?
12. I will smite him with pestilence and disinherit him; and I will make you a nation greater and stronger than he.
13. But Moses said to the Lord: Then the Egyptians will hear him (because you brought this people out from among them by your strength).
14. And they will say it to the inhabitants of this land, who have heard that you, Lord, are among this people, that you, Lord, show yourself face to face, and your cloud is over them, and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.
15. If you kill this people as one man, then the nations that hear your fame will speak,
16. Saying: Because the Lord could not bring this people into the land which he swore to them, therefore he killed them in the wilderness.
17. Now therefore, let the strength of the Lord be great, as you said, saying:
18. The Lord is long-suffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, which the guilty do not hold innocent, and visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.
19. Therefore forgive the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of your mercy, as you have forgiven them from Egypt until now.
20. And the Lord said, I have forgiven him, according to thy word.
21. But as I live, the whole earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord.
22. For all those men who saw my glory and my signs, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tested me ten times and have not listened to my voice,
23. Surely they will not see the land about which I swore to their fathers, and none of those who despised me will see it.
24. But my servant Caleb, because there was another spirit with him and he continued to follow me, I will bring him into the land he entered, and his posterity will possess it.
25. Now the Amalekite and the Canaanite dwell in the valley; return tomorrow and walk into the wilderness, by the way of the Red Sea.
26. And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying:
27. How long will I suffer this evil congregation, which murmurs against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, that they murmur against me.
28. Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in my ears, so will I do unto you.
29. Your corpses will fall in this desert; yes, all the numbered of you, according to all your number, from the age of twenty years and upward, who murmured against me.
30. But you shall not enter the land where I lifted up my hand to you with an oath to make you live there; except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.
31. But your children, of whom you say, They shall be a prey, I will bring them in, that they may know the land which you have rejected.
32. But as for you, your corpses will fall in this wilderness.
33. And your children will shepherd in this desert forty years and will bear your unfaithfulness, until your carcasses are consumed in this desert.
34. According to the number of days in which you searched this land, forty days, each day representing a year, you will bear your iniquities for forty years and you will know my repulsion.
35. I, the Lord, said that I will do this to all this evil congregation that has gathered together against me; in this desert they will be consumed and there they will die.
36. And the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, and who, when they returned, caused the whole congregation to murmur against him, and made the land infamous,
37. These men who disgraced the land died of plague before the Lord.
38. But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh were left alive among the men who went to spy out the land.
39. And Moses spoke these words to all the children of Israel; So the people were very sad.
40. And they rose up early in the morning, and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, Here we are, we will go up to the place of which the Lord spake, because we have sinned.
41. And Moses said, Why transgress ye the commandment of the Lord? For that will not prosper you.
42. Do not go up, for the Lord is not among you, lest you be smitten before your enemies.
43. For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you will fall by the sword; for because you have turned away from the Lord, the Lord will not be with you.
44. However, they presumed to go up to the top of the mountain; But the ark of the covenant of the Lord and Moses did not leave the camp.
45. Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that mountain came down and struck them and pursued them as far as Hormah.