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¹ And all the congregation lifts up, and they give forth their voice, and the people weep during that night;² and all the sons of Israel murmur against Moses and against Aaron, and all the congregation says to them, "O that we had died in the land of Egypt, or in this wilderness, O that we had died!³ And why is YHWH bringing us to this land to fall by the sword, [that] our wives and our infants become a prey? Is it not good for us to return to Egypt?"⁴ And they say to one another, "Let us appoint a head and return to Egypt."

⁵ And Moses falls—Aaron also—on their faces, before all the assembly of the congregation of the sons of Israel.⁶ And Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, of those spying out the land, have torn their garments,⁷ and they speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying, "The land into which we have passed over to spy it out [is] a very, very good land;⁸ if YHWH has delighted in us, then He has brought us into this land, and has given it to us, a land which is flowing with milk and honey;⁹ only, do not rebel against YHWH: and you, do not fear the people of the land, for they [are] our bread; their defense has turned aside from off them, and YHWH [is] with us; do not fear them."¹⁰ And all the congregation says to stone them with stones, and the glory of YHWH has appeared in the Tent of Meeting to all the sons of Israel.

¹¹ And YHWH says to Moses, "Until when does this people despise Me? And until when do they not believe in Me, for all the signs which I have done in its midst?¹² I strike it with pestilence, and dispossess it, and make you become a nation greater and mightier than it."¹³ And Moses says to YHWH, "Then the Egyptians have heard! For with Your power You have brought up this people out of their midst,¹⁴ and they have said [it] to the inhabitant of this land, they have heard that You, YHWH, [are] in the midst of this people, that You are seen eye to eye—O YHWH, and Your cloud is standing over them—and in a pillar of cloud You are going before them by day, and in a pillar of fire by night.¹⁵ And You have put to death this people as one man, and the nations who have heard Your fame have spoken, saying,¹⁶ From YHWH's want of ability to bring in this people to the land which He has sworn to them, He slaughters them in the wilderness.¹⁷ And now, please let the power of my Lord be great, as You have spoken, saying,¹⁸ YHWH [is] slow to anger and of great kindness, bearing away iniquity and transgression, and not entirely acquitting, charging iniquity of fathers on sons, on a third and on a fourth [generation]—¹⁹ please forgive the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of Your kindness, and as You have borne with this people from Egypt, even until now."

²⁰ And YHWH says, "I have forgiven according to your word,²¹ but nevertheless, as I live, indeed, the whole earth is filled [with] the glory of YHWH,²² for all the men who are seeing My glory and My signs which I have done in Egypt and in the wilderness, and try Me these ten times, and have not listened to My voice—²³ they do not see the land which I have sworn to their fathers, indeed, none of those despising Me see it;²⁴ but My servant Caleb, because there has been another spirit with him, and he is fully after Me—I have brought him into the land to where he has entered, and his seed possesses it.²⁵ And the Amalekite and the Canaanite are dwelling in the valley; tomorrow turn and journey for yourselves into the wilderness—the way of the Red Sea."²⁶ And YHWH speaks to Moses and to Aaron, saying,²⁷ "Until when [do I bear] with this evil congregation—they who are murmuring against Me? The murmurings of the sons of Israel, which they are murmuring against Me, I have heard;²⁸ say to them: As I live—a declaration of YHWH—if, as you have spoken in My ears, do I not do so to you?²⁹ Your carcasses fall in this wilderness, even all your numbered ones, to all your number, from a son of twenty years and upward, who have murmured against Me;³⁰ you do not come into the land [for] which I have lifted up My hand to cause you to dwell in it, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.³¹ As for your infants—of whom you have said, They become a spoil—I have even brought them in, and they have known the land which you have kicked against;³² as for you—your carcasses fall in this wilderness,³³ and your sons are shepherding in the wilderness [for] forty years, and have borne your whoredoms until your carcasses are consumed 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 bear your iniquities [for] forty years, and you have known My opposition;³⁵ I, YHWH, have spoken; if, nonetheless, I do this to all this evil congregation who are meeting against Me—they are consumed in this wilderness, and there they die."

³⁶ Then the men whom Moses has sent to spy out the land, [who] then return and cause all the congregation to murmur against him by bringing out an evil account concerning the land,³⁷ even the men bringing out an evil account of the land, they die by the plague before YHWH;³⁸ and Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh have lived, of those men who go to spy out the land.³⁹ And Moses speaks these words to all the sons of Israel, and the people mourn exceedingly,⁴⁰ and they rise early in the morning, and go up to the top of the mountain, saying, "Here we [are], and we have come up to the place which YHWH has spoken of, for we have sinned."⁴¹ And Moses says, "Why [is] this [that] you are transgressing the command of YHWH? For it does not prosper;⁴² do not go up, for YHWH is not in your midst, and you are not struck before your enemies;⁴³ for the Amalekite and the Canaanite [are] there before you, and you have fallen by the sword, because that you have turned back from after YHWH, and YHWH is not with you."⁴⁴ And they presume to go up to the top of the mountain, but the Ark of the Covenant of YHWH, and Moses, have not departed out of the midst of the camp.⁴⁵ And the Amalekite and the Canaanite who are dwelling in that mountain come down and strike them, and beat them down to Hormah.