Judgment on False Teachers

⁵ Now I desire to remind you, though you are fully informed, once and for all, that Jesus, who saved^[a] a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.^(A)

⁶⁴ Among these there was not one of those enrolled by Moses and Aaron the priest, who had enrolled the Israelites in the wilderness of Sinai.^{(A) 65} For the Lord had said of them, “They shall die in the wilderness.” Not one of them was left, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.^(B)

¹⁶ Now who were they who heard and rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt under the leadership of Moses?^{(A) 17} And with whom was he angry forty years? Was it not those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?^{(B) 18} And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, if not to those who were disobedient?^{(C) 19} So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.^(D)

The Rest That God Promised

4 Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest is still open, let us take care that none of you should seem to have failed to reach it.^{(E) 2} For indeed the good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them because they were not united by faith with those who listened.^[a](F)

Warnings from Israel’s History

10 I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea,^{(A) 2} and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, ³ and all ate the same spiritual food,^{(B) 4} and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.^{(C) 5} Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, and they were struck down in the wilderness.^(D)

⁶ Now these things occurred as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did.^{(E) 7} Do not become idolaters as some of them did, as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play.”^{(F) 8} We must not engage in sexual immorality, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day.^{(G) 9} We must not put Christ^[a] to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents.^{(H) 10} And do not complain, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer.^{(I) 11} These things happened to them to serve as an example, and they were written down to instruct us, on whom the ends of the ages have come.^{(J) 12} So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall.

²² none of the people who have seen my glory and the signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness and yet have tested me these ten times and have not obeyed my voice ²³ shall see the land that I swore to give to their ancestors; none of those who despised me shall see it. ²⁴ But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me wholeheartedly, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it.^{(A) 25} Now, since the Amalekites and the Canaanites live in the valleys, turn tomorrow and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.”^[a](B)

An Attempted Invasion Is Repulsed

²⁶ And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, ²⁷ “How long shall this wicked congregation complain against me? I have heard the complaints of the Israelites, which they complain against me.^{(C) 28} Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘I will do to you the very things I heard you say:^{(D) 29} your dead bodies shall fall in this very wilderness, and of all your number included in the census from twenty years old and up who have complained against me,^{(E) 30} not one of you shall come into the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.^{(F) 31} But your little ones, who you said would become plunder, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have despised.^{(G) 32} But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness.^{(H) 33} And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness.^{(I) 34} According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day a year, you shall bear your iniquity, forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.’^{(J) 35} I the Lord have spoken; surely I will do thus to all this wicked congregation gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die.”^(K)

³⁶ And the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land who returned and made all the congregation complain against him by bringing a bad report about the land,^{(L) 37} the men who brought an unfavorable report about the land died by a plague before the Lord.