14 And all the congregation cried out with a loud voice, and [they] wept that night.

² All the Israelites grumbled and deplored their situation, accusing Moses and Aaron, to whom the whole congregation said, Would that we had died in Egypt! Or that we had died in this wilderness!

³ Why does the Lord bring us to this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and little ones will be a prey. Is it not better for us to return to Egypt?^(A)

⁴ And they said one to another, Let us choose a captain and return to Egypt.

⁵ Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of Israelites.

⁶ And Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among the scouts who had searched the land, rent their clothes,

⁷ And they said to all the company of Israelites, The land through which we passed as scouts is an exceedingly good land.

⁸ If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land flowing with milk and honey.

⁹ Only do not rebel against the Lord, neither fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their defense and the shadow [of protection] is removed from over them, but the Lord is with us. Fear them not.

¹⁰ But all the congregation said to stone [Joshua and Caleb] with stones. But the glory of the Lord appeared at the Tent of Meeting before all the Israelites.

¹¹ And the Lord said to Moses, How long will this people provoke (spurn, despise) Me? And how long will it be before they believe Me [trusting in, relying on, clinging to Me], for all the signs which I have performed among them?

¹² I will smite them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and will make of you [Moses] a nation greater and mightier than they.

¹³ But Moses said to the Lord, Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for You brought up this people in Your might from among them.

¹⁴ And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that You, Lord, are in the midst of this people [of Israel], that You, Lord, are seen face to face, and that Your cloud stands over them, and that You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night.

¹⁵ Now if You kill all this people as one man, then the nations that have heard Your fame will say,

¹⁶ Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which He swore to give to them, therefore He has slain them in the wilderness.

¹⁷ And now, I pray You, let the power of my Lord be great, as You have promised, saying,

¹⁸ The Lord is long-suffering and slow to anger, and abundant in mercy and loving-kindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and fourth generation.^(B)

¹⁹ Pardon, I pray You, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of Your mercy and loving-kindness, just as You have forgiven [them] from Egypt until now.

²⁰ And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to your word.

²¹ But truly as I live and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord,^(C)

²² Because all those men who have seen My glory and My [miraculous] signs which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tested and proved Me these ten times and have not heeded My voice,

²³ Surely they shall not see the land which I swore to give to their fathers; nor shall any who provoked (spurned, despised) Me see it.^(D)

²⁴ But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it.