¹⁹ “Then we set out from ^(A)Horeb and went through all that ^(B)great and fearsome wilderness which you saw on the way to the ^(C)hill country of the Amorites, just as Yahweh our God had commanded us; and we came to ^(D)Kadesh-barnea. ²⁰ And I said to you, ‘You have come to the hill country of the Amorites which Yahweh our God is about to give us. ²¹ See, Yahweh your God has given over the land before you; go up, take possession, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has spoken to you. ^(E)Do not fear or be dismayed.’

²² “^(F)Then all of you came near to me and said, ‘Let us send men before us, that they may search out the land for us and bring back to us word of the way by which we should go up and the cities which we shall enter.’ ²³ And the thing was good in my sight, and I took twelve of your men, one man for each tribe. ^24 (G)Then they turned and went up into the hill country and came to the valley of Eshcol and spied it out. ²⁵ Then they took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us; and they brought word back to us and said, ‘It is a good land which Yahweh our God is about to give us.’

²⁶ “^(H)Yet you were not willing to go up, but ^(I)rebelled against the ^[a]command of Yahweh your God; ²⁷ and ^(J)you grumbled in your tents and said, ‘Because Yahweh hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to give us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us. ²⁸ Where can we go up? Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, “The people are bigger and taller than we; the cities are large and fortified to heaven. And moreover, we saw ^(K)the sons of the Anakim there.”’ ²⁹ Then I said to you, ‘Do not be in dread, nor fear them. ³⁰ Yahweh your God, who goes before you, will ^(L)Himself fight on your behalf, ^[b]just as He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, ³¹ and in the wilderness where you saw how ^(M)Yahweh your God carried you, just as a man carries his son, in all the way which you have walked until you came to this place.’ ³² But ^[c](N)for all this, you did not believe Yahweh your God, ^33 (O)who goes before you on your way, ^(P)to spy out a place for you to encamp, in fire by night and cloud by day, to show you the way in which you should go.