Numbers 14
14
The People Complain
1All night long the people cried out in distress. 2They complained against Moses and Aaron, and said, “It would have been better to die in Egypt or even here in the wilderness! 3Why is the LORD taking us into that land? We will be killed in battle, and our wives and children will be captured. Wouldn't it be better to go back to Egypt?” 4So they said to one another, “Let's choose a leader and go back to Egypt!”
5Then Moses and Aaron bowed to the ground in front of all the people. 6And Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, two of the spies, tore their clothes in sorrow 7and said to the people, “The land we explored is an excellent land. 8If the LORD is pleased with us, he will take us there and give us that rich and fertile land. 9#Heb 3.16Do not rebel against the LORD and don't be afraid of the people who live there. We will conquer them easily. The LORD is with us and has defeated the gods who protected them; so don't be afraid.” 10The whole community was threatening to stone them to death, but suddenly the people saw the dazzling light of the LORD's presence appear over the tent.
Moses Prays for the People
11The LORD said to Moses, “How much longer will these people reject me? How much longer will they refuse to trust in me, even though I have performed so many miracles among them? 12I will send an epidemic and destroy them, but I will make you the father of a nation that is larger and more powerful than they are!”
13 #
Ex 32.11–14
But Moses said to the LORD, “You brought these people out of Egypt by your power. When the Egyptians hear what you have done to your people, 14they will tell it to the people who live in this land. These people have already heard that you, LORD, are with us, that you are plainly seen when your cloud stops over us, and that you go before us in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. 15Now if you kill all your people, the nations who have heard of your fame will say 16that you killed your people in the wilderness because you were not able to bring them into the land you promised to give them. 17So now LORD, I pray, show us your power and do what you promised when you said, 18#Ex 20.5–6; 34.6–7; Deut 5.9–10; 7.9–10‘I, the LORD, am not easily angered, and I show great love and faithfulness and forgive sin and rebellion. Yet I will not fail to punish children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation for the sins of their parents.’ 19And now, LORD, according to the greatness of your unchanging love, forgive, I pray, the sin of these people, just as you have forgiven them ever since they left Egypt.”
20The LORD answered, “I will forgive them, as you have asked. 21#Heb 3.18But I promise that as surely as I live and as surely as my presence fills the earth, 22none of these people will live to enter that land. They have seen the dazzling light of my presence and the miracles that I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, but they have tried my patience over and over again and have refused to obey me. 23They will never enter the land which I promised to their ancestors. None of those who have rejected me will ever enter it. 24#Josh 14.9–12But because my servant Caleb has a different attitude and has remained loyal to me, I will bring him into the land which he explored, and his descendants will possess the land 25in whose valleys the Amalekites and the Canaanites now live. Turn back tomorrow and go into the wilderness in the direction of the Gulf of Aqaba.”
The Lord Punishes the People for Complaining
26The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, 27“How much longer are these wicked people going to complain against me? I have heard enough of these complaints! 28Now give them this answer: ‘I swear that as surely as I live, I will do to you just what you have asked. I, the LORD, have spoken. 29#Heb 3.17You will die and your corpses will be scattered across this wilderness. Because you have complained against me, none of you over twenty years of age will enter that land. 30I promised to let you live there, but not one of you will, except Caleb and Joshua. 31You said that your children would be captured, but I will bring them into the land that you rejected, and it will be their home. 32You will die here in this wilderness. 33#Acts 7.36Your children will wander in the wilderness for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last one of you dies. 34You will suffer the consequences of your sin for forty years, one year for each of the forty days you spent exploring the land. You will know what it means to have me against you! 35I swear that I will do this to you wicked people who have gathered together against me. Here in the wilderness every one of you will die. I, the LORD, have spoken.’ ”
36-37The men Moses had sent to explore the land brought back a false report which caused the people to complain against the LORD. And so the LORD struck them with a disease, and they died. 38Of the twelve spies only Joshua and Caleb survived.
The First Attempt to Invade the Land
(Deut 1.41–46)
39When Moses told the Israelites what the LORD had said, they mourned bitterly. 40Early the next morning they started out to invade the hill country, saying, “Now we are ready to go to the place which the LORD told us about. We admit that we have sinned.”
41But Moses said, “Then why are you disobeying the LORD now? You will not succeed! 42Don't go. The LORD is not with you, and your enemies will defeat you. 43When you face the Amalekites and the Canaanites, you will die in battle; the LORD will not be with you, because you have refused to follow him.”
44Yet they still dared to go up into the hill country, even though neither the LORD's Covenant Box nor Moses left the camp. 45Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived there attacked and defeated them, and pursued them as far as Hormah.
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Good News Bible with Deuterocanonicals/Apocrypha. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.
Numbers 14
14
Israel’s Refusal to Enter Canaan
1Then the whole community broke into loud cries, and the people wept that night. 2All the Israelites complained about Moses and Aaron, # Ex 16:2,7-8; 17:3; Nm 14:27; 16:11,41; Ps 59:15 and the whole community told them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this wilderness! 3Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to die by the sword? Our wives and little children will become plunder. # Gn 34:29; Nm 14:31 Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt? ” # Nm 11:5; Dt 17:16; Neh 9:17; Ac 7:39 4So they said to one another, “Let’s appoint a leader and go back to Egypt.”
5Then Moses and Aaron fell down with their faces to the ground in front of the whole assembly of the Israelite community. 6Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who scouted out the land, tore their clothes 7and said to the entire Israelite community: “The land we passed through and explored is an extremely good land. # Ex 3:8; Nm 13:27; Dt 1:25; 3:25 8If the Lord is pleased with us, He will bring us into this land, a land flowing with milk and honey, # Ex 3:8; Lv 20:24; Nm 13:17; 16:13-14 and give it to us. 9Only don’t rebel against the Lord, and don’t be afraid of the people of the land, for we will devour them. # Nm 14:3 Their protection # Ps 17:8; 36:7; 57:1; 63:7; 91:1; Is 49:2; 51:16 has been removed from them, and the Lord is with us. Don’t be afraid of them! ”
10While the whole community threatened to stone them, # Ex 17:4; Mt 23:37 the glory of the Lord appeared to all the Israelites at the tent of meeting.
God’s Judgment of Israel’s Rebellion
11The Lord said to Moses, “How long will these people despise Me? How long will they not trust in Me despite all the signs I have performed among them? # Ex 4:1–12:31; 14:11,21-22; Nm 14:22 12I will strike them with a plague and destroy them. Then I will make you into a greater and mightier nation than they are.” # Gn 12:2; Ex 32:10
13But Moses replied to the Lord, “The Egyptians will hear about it, for by Your strength You brought up this people from them. 14They will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. # Ex 15:13-15; Dt 2:25 They have heard that You, Lord, are among these people, how You, Lord, are seen face to face, how Your cloud stands over them, and how You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. # Ex 13:21-22; Nm 9:16-17; Dt 1:33 15If You kill this people with a single blow, # Lit people as one man # Ex 32:9-12 the nations that have heard of Your fame # Dt 2:25; Jos 2:10; 9:9; Is 66:19; Hab 3:2 will declare, 16‘Since the Lord wasn’t able to bring this people into the land He swore to give them, # Gn 12:7; 13:14-17; 15:7; Ac 7:5 He has slaughtered them in the wilderness.’ # Dt 9:28
17“So now, may my Lord’s power be magnified just as You have spoken: 18The Lord is slow to anger and rich in faithful love, # Neh 9:17; Ps 86:5,15; 103:8; 145:8; Jl 2:13; Jnh 4:2 forgiving wrongdoing and rebellion. # Ezr 9:13; Ps 78:38; 85:2; Is 43:25; 44:22 But He will not leave the guilty unpunished, # Pr 11:21; Jr 25:29; Nah 1:3 bringing the consequences of the fathers’ wrongdoing on the children to the third and fourth generation. # Ex 20:5; 34:6-7; Dt 5:9; Jr 32:18 19Please pardon the wrongdoing of this people, in keeping with the greatness of Your faithful love, # Ex 34:9; Ps 25:11; 86:5; Jl 2:13 just as You have forgiven them from Egypt until now.”
20The Lord responded, “I have pardoned them as you requested. 21Yet as surely as I live and as the whole earth is filled with the Lord’s glory, # Ps 72:19; Hab 2:14 22none of the men who have seen My glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tested Me these 10 times and did not obey Me, 23will ever see the land I swore to give their fathers. # Gn 12:7; 13:14-17; 15:7; Ac 7:5 None of those who have despised Me # Nm 14:11; Dt 31:20; Ps 74:18 will see it. 24But since My servant Caleb has a different spirit and has followed Me completely, I will bring him into the land where he has gone, and his descendants will inherit it. # Jos 14:6-15; Jdg 1:10-12,20 25Since the Amalekites and Canaanites are living in the lowlands, # Lit valley turn back tomorrow and head for the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea.” # Nm 21:4; Dt 1:40; 2:1
26Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron: 27“How long must I endure this evil community that keeps complaining about Me? I have heard the Israelites’ complaints that they make against Me. # Ex 16:2,7-8; 17:3; Nm 14:29,36; 16:11,41; Dt 1:27 28Tell them: As surely as I live,” this is the Lord’s declaration, “I will do to you exactly as I heard you say. 29Your corpses will fall in this wilderness — all of you who were registered in the census, the entire number of you 20 years old or more # Nm 1:3 — because you have complained about Me. 30I swear that none of you will enter the land I promised # Lit I raised My hand to settle you in, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. 31I will bring your children whom you said would become plunder # Nm 14:3 into the land you rejected, and they will enjoy it. # Dt 1:39 32But as for you, your corpses will fall in this wilderness. 33Your children will be shepherds in the wilderness for 40 years and bear the penalty for your acts of unfaithfulness until all your corpses lie scattered in the wilderness. 34You will bear the consequences of your sins 40 years based on the number of the 40 days that you scouted the land, a year for each day. # Lit a day for the year, a day for the year # Nm 13:25; 32:13; Dt 2:14; Ps 95:10; Ezk 4:6 You will know My displeasure. # Or My opposition 35I, Yahweh, have spoken. I swear that I will do this to the entire evil community that has conspired against Me. # Nm 16:11; 27:3; Ps 2:1-3 They will come to an end in the wilderness, and there they will die.” # Nm 14:30; 26:64-65; 1Co 10:5
36So the men Moses sent to scout out the land, and who returned and incited the entire community to complain about him by spreading a negative report about the land — 37those men who spread the negative report about the land were struck down by the Lord. 38Only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh remained alive of those men who went to scout out the land.
Israel Routed
39When Moses reported these words to all the Israelites, the people were overcome with grief. 40They got up early the next morning and went up the ridge of the hill country, saying, “Let’s go to the place the Lord promised, for we were wrong.” # Dt 1:41-44
41But Moses responded, “Why are you going against the Lord’s command? It won’t succeed. 42Don’t go, because the Lord is not among you and you will be defeated by your enemies. 43The Amalekites and Canaanites are right in front of you, and you will fall by the sword. The Lord won’t be with you, since you have turned from following Him.”
44But they dared to go up the ridge of the hill country, even though the ark of the Lord’s covenant and Moses did not leave the camp. 45Then the Amalekites and Canaanites who lived in that part of the hill country came down, attacked them, and routed them as far as Hormah. # Nm 21:3; Jdg 1:17
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