|
Chapter 14 |
| 1 | And all the
congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that
night. |
| 2 |
And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and
against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had
died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness!
|
| 3 | And wherefore hath the LORD brought us unto this land, to fall by the
sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for
us to return into Egypt? |
| 4 | And they said one to another, Let us make a
captain, and let us return into Egypt. |
| 5 | Then Moses and Aaron fell on
their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of
Israel. |
| 6 |
And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh,
which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes: |
| 7 | And
they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land,
which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. |
| 8 |
If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it
us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. |
| 9 | Only rebel not
ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread
for us: their defense is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them
not. |
| 10 |
But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the
glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the
children of Israel. |
| 11 | And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will
this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all
the signs which I have showed among them? |
|
12 | I will smite them with the
pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and
mightier than they. |
| 13 | And Moses said unto the LORD, Then the
Egyptians shall hear it, (for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from
among them;) |
|
14 | And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this
land: for they have heard that thou LORD art among this people, that thou LORD
art seen face to face, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou
goest before them, by day time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire
by night. |
| 15
| Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then
the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, |
| 16 |
Because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware
unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness. |
| 17 | And now,
I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast
spoken, saying, |
|
18 | The LORD is long-suffering, and of great mercy,
forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty,
visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and
fourth generation. |
| 19 | Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this
people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven
this people, from Egypt even until now. |
|
20 | And the LORD said, I have
pardoned according to thy word: |
| 21 | But as truly as I live, all
the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD. |
| 22 | Because all
those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and
in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not
hearkened to my voice; |
| 23 | Surely they shall not see the land which I
sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see
it: |
| 24 |
But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him,
and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went;
and his seed shall possess it. |
| 25 | (Now the Amalekites and the
Canaanites dwelt in the valley.) Tomorrow turn you, and get you into the
wilderness by the way of the Red sea. |
| 26 | And the LORD spake unto Moses
and unto Aaron, saying, |
| 27 | How long shall I bear with this evil
congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the
children of Israel, which they murmur against me. |
| 28 | Say unto
them, As truly as I live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so
will I do to you: |
| 29 | Your carcasses shall fall in this
wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number,
from twenty years old and upward which have murmured against me. |
| 30 |
Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you
dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of
Nun. |
| 31 |
But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them
will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised.
|
| 32 | But as for you, your carcasses, they shall fall in this
wilderness. |
|
33 | And your children shall wander in the wilderness
forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcasses be wasted in the
wilderness. |
|
34 | After the number of the days in which ye searched
the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities,
even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise. |
| 35 | I the
LORD have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are
gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and
there they shall die. |
| 36 | And the men, which Moses sent to search the
land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by
bringing up a slander upon the land, |
| 37 | Even those men that did bring
up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the LORD.
|
| 38 | But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of
the men that went to search the land, lived still. |
| 39 | And Moses
told these sayings unto all the children of Israel: and the people mourned
greatly. |
| 40
| And they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up
into the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the
place which the LORD hath promised: for we have sinned. |
| 41 | And Moses
said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the LORD? but it shall
not prosper. |
|
42 | Go not up, for the LORD is not among you; that ye
be not smitten before your enemies. |
| 43 | For the Amalekites and the
Canaanites are there before you, and ye shall fall by the sword: because ye are
turned away from the LORD, therefore the LORD will not be with you. |
| 44 |
But they presumed to go up unto the hill top: nevertheless the ark of the
covenant of the LORD, and Moses, departed not out of the camp. |
| 45 | Then
the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and
smote them, and discomfited them, even unto Hormah. |
