The People Rebel

14 That night all the members of the community raised their voices and wept aloud.^{(A) 2} All the Israelites grumbled^(B) against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, “If only we had died in Egypt!^(C) Or in this wilderness!^{(D) 3} Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword?^(E) Our wives and children^(F) will be taken as plunder.^(G) Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?^(H)” ⁴ And they said to each other, “We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.^(I)”

Rebellion Against the Lord

²⁶ But you were unwilling to go up;^(A) you rebelled^(B) against the command of the Lord your God. ²⁷ You grumbled^(C) in your tents and said, “The Lord hates us; so he brought us out of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us. ²⁸ Where can we go? Our brothers have made our hearts melt in fear. They say, ‘The people are stronger and taller^(D) than we are; the cities are large, with walls up to the sky. We even saw the Anakites^(E) there.’”

²⁹ Then I said to you, “Do not be terrified; do not be afraid^(F) of them.^{(G) 30} The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight^(H) for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, ³¹ and in the wilderness. There you saw how the Lord your God carried^(I) you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.”^(J)

³² In spite of this,^(K) you did not trust^(L) in the Lord your God, ³³ who went ahead of you on your journey, in fire by night and in a cloud by day,^(M) to search^(N) out places for you to camp and to show you the way you should go.