13 Moses said to the Lord, “Then the Egyptians will hear about it! By your power you brought these people up from among them.(A) 14 And they will tell the inhabitants of this land about it. They have already heard(B) that you, Lord, are with these people(C) and that you, Lord, have been seen face to face,(D) that your cloud stays over them,(E) and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.(F) 15 If you put all these people to death, leaving none alive, the nations who have heard this report about you will say, 16 ‘The Lord was not able to bring these people into the land he promised them on oath,(G) so he slaughtered them in the wilderness.’(H)

17 “Now may the Lord’s strength be displayed, just as you have declared: 18 ‘The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion.(I) Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.’(J) 19 In accordance with your great love, forgive(K) the sin of these people,(L) just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now.”(M)

20 The Lord replied, “I have forgiven them,(N) as you asked. 21 Nevertheless, as surely as I live(O) and as surely as the glory of the Lord(P) fills the whole earth,(Q) 22 not one of those who saw my glory and the signs(R) I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times(S) 23 not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath(T) to their ancestors. No one who has treated me with contempt(U) will ever see it.(V) 24 But because my servant Caleb(W) has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly,(X) I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.(Y) 25 Since the Amalekites(Z) and the Canaanites(AA) are living in the valleys, turn(AB) back tomorrow and set out toward the desert along the route to the Red Sea.[a](AC)

26 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron: 27 “How long will this wicked community grumble against me? I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites.(AD) 28 So tell them, ‘As surely as I live,(AE) declares the Lord, I will do to you(AF) the very thing I heard you say: 29 In this wilderness your bodies will fall(AG)—every one of you twenty years old or more(AH) who was counted in the census(AI) and who has grumbled against me. 30 Not one of you will enter the land(AJ) I swore with uplifted hand(AK) to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh(AL) and Joshua son of Nun.(AM) 31 As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected.(AN) 32 But as for you, your bodies will fall(AO) in this wilderness. 33 Your children will be shepherds here for forty years,(AP) suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness. 34 For forty years(AQ)—one year for each of the forty days you explored the land(AR)—you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you.’ 35 I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will surely do these things(AS) to this whole wicked community, which has banded together against me. They will meet their end in this wilderness; here they will die.(AT)

36 So the men Moses had sent(AU) to explore the land, who returned and made the whole community grumble(AV) against him by spreading a bad report(AW) about it— 37 these men who were responsible for spreading the bad report(AX) about the land were struck down and died of a plague(AY) before the Lord. 38 Of the men who went to explore the land,(AZ) only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh survived.(BA)

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Footnotes

  1. Numbers 14:25 Or the Sea of Reeds

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