Numbers 14
14
The People Rebel against the LORD
1Then all the people in the Israelite community raised their voices and cried out loud all that night. 2They complained to Moses and Aaron, “If only we had died in Egypt or this desert! 3Why is the Lord bringing us to this land—just to have us die in battle? Our wives and children will be taken as prisoners of war! Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?” 4They said to each other, “Let’s choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”
5Immediately, Moses and Aaron bowed with their faces touching the ground in front of the whole community of Israel assembled there. 6At the same time, two of those who had explored the land, Joshua (son of Nun) and Caleb (son of Jephunneh), tore their clothes in despair. 7They said to the whole community of Israel, “The land we explored is very good. 8If the Lord is pleased with us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us. This is a land flowing with milk and honey! 9Don’t rebel against the Lord, and don’t be afraid of the people of the land. We will devour them like bread. They have no protection, and the Lord is with us. So don’t be afraid of them.”
10But when the whole community of Israel talked about stoning Moses and Aaron to death, they all saw the glory of the Lord ⌞shining⌟ at the tent of meeting. 11The Lord said to Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to trust me in spite of all the miraculous signs I have done among them? 12I’ll strike them with a plague, I’ll destroy them,#14:12 Or “I’ll take away the land I promised them.” and I’ll make you into a nation larger and stronger than they are.”
13But Moses said to the Lord, “What if the Egyptians hear about it? (You used your power to take these people away from them.) 14What if the Egyptians tell the people who live in this land? Lord, they have already heard that you are with these people, that they have seen you with their own eyes, that your column of smoke stays over them, and that you go ahead of them in a column of smoke by day and in a column of fire by night. 15But if you kill all these people at the same time, then the nations who have heard these reports about you will say, 16‘The Lord wasn’t able to bring these people into the land he promised them, so he slaughtered them in the desert.’
17“Lord, let your power be as great as when you said, 18‘The Lord … patient, forever loving…. He forgives wrongdoing and disobedience…. He never lets the guilty go unpunished, punishing children … for their parents’ sins to the third and fourth generation….’ 19By your great love, please forgive these people’s sins, as you have been forgiving them from the time they left Egypt until now.”
20The Lord said, “I forgive them, as you have asked. 21But as I live and as the glory of the Lord fills the whole earth, I solemnly swear that 22none of the people who saw my glory and the miraculous signs I did in Egypt and in the desert will see the land which I promised their ancestors. They have tested me now ten times and refused to obey me.#14:22 Part of verse 23 (in Hebrew) has been placed in verse 22 to express the complex Hebrew sentence structure more clearly in English. 23None of those who treat me with contempt will see it! 24But because my servant Caleb has a different attitude and has wholeheartedly followed me, I’ll bring him to the land he already explored. His descendants will possess it. 25(The Amalekites and Canaanites are living in the valleys.) Tomorrow you must turn around, go back into the desert, and follow the road that goes to the Red Sea.”
26Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 27“How long must I put up with this wicked community that keeps complaining about me? I’ve heard the complaints the Israelites are making about me. 28So tell them, ‘As I live, declares the Lord, I solemnly swear I will do everything to you that you said I would do. 29Your bodies will drop dead in this desert. All of you who are at least 20 years old, who were registered and listed, and who complained about me will die. 30I raised my hand and swore an oath to give you this land to live in. But none of you will enter it except Caleb (son of Jephunneh) and Joshua (son of Nun). 31You said your children would be taken as prisoners of war. Instead, I will bring them into the land you rejected, and they will enjoy it. 32However, your bodies will drop dead in this desert. 33Your children will be shepherds in the desert for 40 years. They will suffer for your unfaithfulness until the last of your bodies lies dead in the desert. 34For 40 days you explored the land. So for 40 years—one year for each day—you will suffer for your sins and know what it means for me to be against you.’ 35I, the Lord, have spoken. I swear I will do these things to all the people in this whole wicked community who have joined forces against me. They will meet their end in this desert. Here they will die!”
36So the men Moses sent to explore the land died in front of the Lord from a plague. 37They died because they had returned and made the whole community complain about Moses by spreading lies about the land.#14:37 Part of verse 37 (in Hebrew) has been placed at the end of verse 36 to express the complex Hebrew sentence structure more clearly in English. 38Of all the men who went to explore the land, only Joshua (son of Nun) and Caleb (son of Jephunneh) survived.
The Amalekites and Canaanites Defeat Israel
39When Moses told these things to all the Israelites, the people mourned bitterly, as if someone had died. 40Early the next morning they headed into the mountain region. They said, “We have sinned. Now we’ll go to the place the Lord promised.”
41But Moses asked, “Why are you disobeying the Lord’s command? Your plan won’t work! 42Don’t go! You will be defeated by your enemies because the Lord is not with you. 43The Amalekites and Canaanites are there, and you will die in battle. Now that you have turned away from the Lord, the Lord will not be with you.”
44But they headed into the mountain region anyway, even though the ark of the Lord’s promise and Moses stayed in the camp. 45The Amalekites and Canaanites who lived there came down from those mountains, attacked the Israelites, and defeated them at Hormah.#14:45 Or “and defeated them, chasing them all the way to Hormah.”
Currently Selected:
Numbers 14: GW
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
GOD'S WORD® Translation ©1995, 2003, 2013, 2014, 2019, 2020 by God's Word to the Nations Mission Society. All rights reserved.
Numbers 14
14
1And the whole assembly lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. 2And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron; and the whole assembly said to them, Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! or in this wilderness would that we had died! 3And why is Jehovah bringing us to this land that we may fall by the sword, that our wives and our little ones may become a prey? Is it not better for us to return to Egypt? 4And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return to Egypt.
5Then Moses and Aaron fell upon their faces before the whole congregation of the assembly of the children of Israel. 6And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, of them that searched out the land, rent their garments. 7And they spoke to the whole assembly of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it out, is a very, very good land. 8If Jehovah delight in us, he will bring us into this land, and give it us, a land that flows with milk and honey; 9only rebel not against Jehovah; and fear not the people of the land; for they shall be our food. Their defence is departed from them, and Jehovah is with us: fear them not. 10And the whole assembly said that they should be stoned with stones. And the glory of Jehovah appeared in the tent of meeting to all the children of Israel.
11And Jehovah said to Moses, How long will this people despise me? and how long will they not believe me, for all the signs which I have done among them? 12I will smite them with the pestilence, and destroy them, and will make of thee a nation greater and mightier than they. 13And Moses said to Jehovah, Then the Egyptians will hear it; for in thy might thou broughtest up this people from the midst of them; 14and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land, who have heard that thou, Jehovah, art in the midst of this people, that thou, Jehovah, lettest thyself be seen eye to eye, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou goest before them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night; 15if thou now slayest this people as one man, then the nations that have heard thy fame will speak, saying, 16Because Jehovah was not able to bring this people into the land that he had sworn unto them, he has therefore slain them in the wilderness. 17And now, I beseech thee, let the power of the Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, 18Jehovah is slow to anger, and abundant in goodness, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and fourth generation. 19Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of thy loving-kindness, and as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.
20And Jehovah said, I have pardoned according to thy word. 21But as surely as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of Jehovah! 22for all those men who have seen my glory, and my signs, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice, 23shall in no wise see the land which I did swear unto their fathers: none of them that despised me shall see it. 24But my servant Caleb, because he hath another spirit in him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he came; and his seed shall possess it. 25(Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valley.) To-morrow turn you, and take your journey into the wilderness, on the way to the Red sea. 26And Jehovah spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 27How long shall I bear with this evil assembly, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me. 28Say unto them, As surely as I live, saith Jehovah, if I do not do unto you as ye have spoken in mine ears! 29In this wilderness shall your carcases fall; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number from twenty years old and upwards, who have murmured against me, 30shall in no wise come into the land, concerning which I have lifted up my hand to make you dwell in it; save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. 31But your little ones, of whom ye said they should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land that ye have despised. 32And as to you, your carcases shall fall in this wilderness. 33And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness. 34After the number of the days in which ye have searched out the land, forty days, each day for a year shall ye bear your iniquities forty years, and ye shall know mine estrangement from you. 35I Jehovah have spoken; I will surely do it unto all this evil assembly which have gathered together against me! in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.
36And the men whom Moses had sent to search out the land, who returned, and made the whole assembly to murmur against him, by bringing up an evil report upon the land, 37even those men who had brought up an evil report upon the land, died by a plague before Jehovah. 38But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, lived still of the men that had gone to search out the land. 39And Moses told all these sayings to all the children of Israel; then the people mourned greatly. 40And they rose up early in the morning, and went up to the hill-top, saying, Here are we, and we will go up to the place of which Jehovah has spoken; for we have sinned. 41And Moses said, Why now do ye transgress the commandment of Jehovah? but it shall not prosper! 42Go not up, for Jehovah is not among you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies; 43for the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and ye shall fall by the sword; for as ye have turned away from Jehovah, Jehovah will not be with you. 44Yet they presumed to go up to the hill-top; but the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, and Moses, did not depart from the midst of the camp. 45And the Amalekites and the Canaanites who dwelt on that hill, came down and smote them, and cut them to pieces, as far as Hormah.
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
First published in 1890. This edition is maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.