Numbers 14:20-38

English Standard Version

God Promises Judgment

²⁰ Then the Lord said, “I have pardoned, ^(A)according to your word. ²¹ But truly, as I live, and as all ^(B)the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, ^22 (C)none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ^(D)ten times and have not obeyed my voice, ^23 (E)shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it. ²⁴ But my servant ^(F)Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has ^(G)followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it. ^25 (H)Now, since the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valleys, ^(I)turn tomorrow and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.”

²⁶ And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, ²⁷ “How long shall ^(J)this wicked congregation grumble against me? ^(K)I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against me. ²⁸ Say to them, ^(L)‘As I live, declares the Lord, ^(M)what you have said in my hearing I will do to you: ^29 (N)your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and ^(O)of all your number, listed in the census ^(P)from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me, ³⁰ not one shall come into the land where I ^(Q)swore that I would make you dwell, ^(R)except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. ^31 (S)But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that ^(T)you have rejected. ³² But as for you, ^(U)your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. ³³ And your children ^(V)shall be shepherds in the wilderness ^(W)forty years and shall ^(X)suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. ^34 (Y)According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, ^(Z)forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.’ ^35 (AA)I, the Lord, have spoken. Surely this will I do to all ^(AB)this wicked congregation who are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die.”

^36 (AC)And the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing up a bad report about the land— ³⁷ the men who brought up a bad report of the land—^(AD)died by plague before the Lord. ³⁸ Of those men who went to spy out the land, ^(AE)only Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive.