⁸ Then the officers shall add, “Is anyone afraid or fainthearted? Let him go home so that his fellow soldiers will not become disheartened too.”^(A)

³ Now announce to the army, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.^(A)’” So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained.

⁸ But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars^(A)—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur.^(B) This is the second death.”^(C)

²⁸ Where can we go? Our brothers have made our hearts melt in fear. They say, ‘The people are stronger and taller^(A) than we are; the cities are large, with walls up to the sky. We even saw the Anakites^(B) there.’”

³⁷ Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark,^(A) with them, ³⁸ but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them^(B) in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work.

⁶² Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

Uncleanness in the Camp

⁹ When you are encamped against your enemies, keep away from everything impure.^(A)

⁹ After they went up to the Valley of Eshkol^(A) and viewed the land, they discouraged the Israelites from entering the land the Lord had given them.

³¹ But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.”^{(A) 32} And they spread among the Israelites a bad report^(B) about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours^(C) those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size.^{(D) 33} We saw the Nephilim^(E) there (the descendants of Anak^(F) come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers^(G) in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

The People Rebel

14 That night all the members of the community raised their voices and wept aloud.^{(H) 2} All the Israelites grumbled^(I) against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, “If only we had died in Egypt!^(J) Or in this wilderness!^{(K) 3} Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword?^(L) Our wives and children^(M) will be taken as plunder.^(N) Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?^(O)”