| 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. |
