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¹ And all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried; and the people wept during that night.² And all the sons of Israel murmured against Moses, and against Aaron. And all the congregation said to them, Oh that we had died in the land of Egypt, or in this wilderness, oh that we had died!³ And why is Jehovah bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our infants have become a prey. Is it not good for us to return to Egypt?⁴ And they said each to his brother, Let us give a leader and return to Egypt.

⁵ And Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the sons of Israel.⁶ And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, of those who spied out the land, tore their garments.⁷ And they spoke to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying, The land into which we passed, to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land.⁸ If Jehovah has delighted in us, then He will bring us into this land and will give it to us, a land which is flowing with milk and honey.⁹ Only, do not rebel against Jehovah. And you, do not fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their defense has turned away from them; and Jehovah is with us; do not be afraid of them.¹⁰ And all the congregation said to stone them with stones. And the glory of Jehovah appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation, to all the sons of Israel.

¹¹ And Jehovah said to Moses, Until when will this people despise Me? And until when will they continue not to believe in Me for all the signs I have done in its midst?¹² I shall strike it with pestilence and dispossess it. And I will make you a nation greater and mightier than it.¹³ And Moses said to Jehovah, And the Egyptians will hear. For You have brought up this people out of their midst with Your power.¹⁴ And they will say to the one living in this land, They have heard that You, Jehovah, are in the midst of this people, who is seen eye to eye. You are Jehovah, and Your cloud stands over them; in a pillar of cloud You go before them by day, and in a pillar of fire by night.¹⁵ And will You cause this people to die as one man? Then the nations who have heard Your fame will speak, saying,¹⁶ Because Jehovah is not able to bring this people into the land which He swore to them, therefore He has slain them in the wilderness.¹⁷ And now, I beseech You, let the power of my Lord be great, as You have spoken, saying,¹⁸ Jehovah is slow to anger, and of great mercy, bearing away iniquity and transgression; and by no means will clear the guilty , visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the sons, on the third and on the fourth generation .¹⁹ I pray, forgive the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of Your mercy, and as You have gone with this people from Egypt, even until now.

²⁰ And Jehovah said, I have forgiven according to your word;²¹ but as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of Jehovah;²² for all the men who are seeing My glory, and My miracles which I have done in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tried Me these ten times, and have not listened to My voice,²³ they shall not see the land which I have sworn to their fathers. Yea, not one of those scorning Me shall see it.²⁴ And My servant Caleb, because there is another spirit in him, and he is fully following Me, I shall bring him into the land into which he has gone, and his seed shall possess it.²⁵ And the Amalekite and the Canaanite were living in the valley. Tomorrow turn and pull up stakes for yourselves; going into the wilderness, the way of the Sea of Reeds.²⁶ And Jehovah spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,²⁷ Until when shall I bear with this evil company who are murmuring against Me? I have heard the murmurings of the sons of Israel which they are murmuring against Me.²⁸ Say to them, As I live, says Jehovah, as surely as you have spoken in My ears, so I will do to you.²⁹ Your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, even all your numbered sons, as to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, in that you have murmured against Me.³⁰ You shall certainly not come into the land which I lifted up My hand to cause you to live in it, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.³¹ As for your infants, of whom you have said, They shall be a prey, I shall bring them in, and they shall know the land which you have rejected.³² As for you, your carcases shall fall in this wilderness.³³ And your sons shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your fornications until your carcases are wasted in the wilderness;³⁴ by the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a day for a year, a day for a year; you shall bear your iniquities forty years; you shall know My alienation from you .³⁵ I am Jehovah; I have spoken. I shall do this to all this evil company who are gathered together against Me. They shall be brought to an end in this wilderness, and there they shall die.

³⁶ And the men whom Moses had sent to spy out the land, and who, when they returned, made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up an evil report against the land,³⁷ even those men bringing up an evil report of the land died by the plague before Jehovah.³⁸ But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, remained alive of those men that went to spy out the land.³⁹ And Moses told these words to all the sons of Israel; and the people mourned deeply.⁴⁰ And they rose up early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, Behold, we are here, and we will go up to the place which Jehovah has said, for we have sinned.⁴¹ And Moses said, Why do you now transgress the mouth of Jehovah, since it will not prosper?⁴² Do not go up, for Jehovah is not in your midst, and you will be defeated by your enemies.⁴³ For the Amalekite and the Canaanite are there before you; and you shall fall by the sword because you have turned back from following Jehovah; and Jehovah is not with you.⁴⁴ And they presumed to go up to the top of the mountain, but the ark of the covenant of Jehovah and Moses did not leave the middle of the camp.⁴⁵ And the Amalekite and the Canaanite living in that mountain came down and struck them, and beat them down, to Hormah.