Israel’s Refusal to Enter the Land^(A)

¹⁹ “So we departed from Horeb, ^(B)and went through all that great and terrible wilderness which you saw on the way to the mountains of the Amorites, as the Lord our God had commanded us. Then ^(C)we came to Kadesh Barnea. ²⁰ And I said to you, ‘You have come to the mountains of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us. ²¹ Look, the Lord your God has set the land before you; go up and possess it, as the Lord God of your fathers has spoken to you; ^(D)do not fear or be discouraged.’

²² “And every one of you came near to me and said, ‘Let us send men before us, and let them search out the land for us, and bring back word to us of the way by which we should go up, and of the cities into which we shall come.’

²³ “The plan pleased me well; so ^(E)I took twelve of your men, one man from each tribe. ^24 (F)And they departed and went up into the mountains, and came to the Valley of Eshcol, and spied it out. ²⁵ They also took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us; and they brought back word to us, saying, ‘It is a ^(G)good land which the Lord our God is giving us.’

^26 (H)“Nevertheless you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God; ²⁷ and you ^(I)complained in your tents, and said, ‘Because the Lord ^(J)hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. ²⁸ Where can we go up? Our brethren have ^[a]discouraged our hearts, saying, ^(K)“The people are greater and taller than we; the cities are great and fortified up to heaven; moreover we have seen the sons of the ^(L)Anakim there.” ’

²⁹ “Then I said to you, ‘Do not be terrified, ^(M)or afraid of them. ^30 (N)The Lord your God, who goes before you, He will fight for you, according to all He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, ³¹ and in the wilderness where you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a ^(O)man carries his son, in all the way that you went until you came to this place.’ ³² Yet, for all that, ^(P)you did not believe the Lord your God, ^33 (Q)who went in the way before you ^(R)to search out a place for you to pitch your tents, to show you the way you should go, in the fire by night and in the cloud by day.