⁸ And the officers shall speak further to the people, and say, ^(A)‘Is there any man who is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go back to his house, lest he make the heart of his fellows melt like his own.’

³ Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, ^(A)‘Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home and hurry away from Mount Gilead.’” Then 22,000 of the people returned, and 10,000 remained.

^8 (A)But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, ^(B)their portion will be in ^(C)the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is ^(D)the second death.”

²⁸ Where are we going up? ^(A)Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, ^(B)“The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to heaven. And besides, we have seen ^(C)the sons of the Anakim there.”’

³⁷ Now Barnabas wanted to take with them ^(A)John called Mark. ³⁸ But Paul thought best not to take with them one ^(B)who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work.

¹⁶ So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.

⁶² Jesus said to him, ^(A)“No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Uncleanness in the Camp

⁹ “When you are encamped against your enemies, then you shall keep yourself from every evil thing.

⁹ For when they went up to the Valley of Eshcol and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the people of Israel from going into the land that the Lord had given them.

^31 (A)Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.” ³² So ^(B)they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and ^(C)all the people that we saw in it are of great height. ³³ And there we saw the ^(D)Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the ^(E)Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves ^(F)like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”

The People Rebel

14 Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people ^(G)wept that night. ² And all the people of Israel ^(H)grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or ^(I)would that we had died in this wilderness! ³ Why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? ^(J)Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?”