Numbers 14
Christian Standard Bible Anglicised
Israel’s Refusal to Enter Canaan
14 Then the whole community broke into loud cries, and the people wept that night. 2 All the Israelites complained about Moses and Aaron,(A) and the whole community told them, ‘If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this wilderness! 3 Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to die by the sword? Our wives and children will become plunder.(B) Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt? ’(C) 4 So they said to one another, ‘Let’s appoint a leader and go back to Egypt.’
5 Then Moses and Aaron fell face down in front of the whole assembly of the Israelite community. 6 Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who scouted out the land, tore their clothes 7 and said to the entire Israelite community, ‘The land we passed through and explored is an extremely good land.(D) 8 If the Lord is pleased with us, he will bring us into this land, a land flowing with milk and honey,(E) and give it to us. 9 Only don’t rebel against the Lord, and don’t be afraid of the people of the land, for we will devour them.(F) Their protection(G) has been removed from them, and the Lord is with us. Don’t be afraid of them! ’
10 While the whole community threatened to stone them,(H) the glory of the Lord appeared to all the Israelites at the tent of meeting.
God’s Judgement of Israel’s Rebellion
11 The Lord said to Moses, ‘How long will these people despise me? How long will they not trust in me despite all the signs I have performed among them?(I) 12 I will strike them with a plague and destroy them. Then I will make you into a greater and mightier nation than they are.’(J)
13 But Moses replied to the Lord, ‘The Egyptians will hear about it, for by your strength you brought up this people from them. 14 They will tell it to the inhabitants of this land.(K) They have heard that you, Lord, are among these people, how you, Lord, are seen face to face, how your cloud stands over them, and how you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night.(L) 15 If you kill this people with a single blow,[a](M) the nations that have heard of your fame(N) will declare, 16 “Since the Lord wasn’t able to bring this people into the land he swore to give them,(O) he has slaughtered them in the wilderness.”(P)
17 ‘So now, may my Lord’s power be magnified just as you have spoken: 18 The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in faithful love,(Q) forgiving iniquity and rebellion.(R) But he will not leave the guilty unpunished,(S) bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children to the third and fourth generation.(T) 19 Please pardon the iniquity of this people, in keeping with the greatness of your faithful love,(U) just as you have forgiven them from Egypt until now.’
20 The Lord responded, ‘I have pardoned them as you requested. 21 Yet as I live and as the whole earth is filled with the Lord’s glory,(V) 22 none of the men who have seen my glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tested me these ten times and did not obey me, 23 will ever see the land I swore to give their ancestors.(W) None of those who have despised me(X) will see it. 24 But since my servant Caleb has a different spirit and has remained loyal to me, I will bring him into the land where he has gone, and his descendants will inherit it.(Y) 25 Since the Amalekites and Canaanites are living in the lowlands,[b] turn back tomorrow and head for the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea.’(Z)
26 Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron: 27 ‘How long must I endure this evil community that keeps complaining about me? I have heard the Israelites’ complaints that they make against me.(AA) 28 Tell them: As I live – this is the Lord’s declaration – I will do to you exactly as I heard you say. 29 Your corpses will fall in this wilderness – all of you who were registered in the census, the entire number of you twenty years old or more(AB) – because you have complained about me. 30 I swear that none of you will enter the land I promised[c] to settle you in, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. 31 I will bring your children whom you said would become plunder(AC) into the land you rejected, and they will enjoy it.(AD) 32 But as for you, your corpses will fall in this wilderness. 33 Your children will be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years and bear the penalty for your acts of unfaithfulness until all your corpses lie scattered in the wilderness. 34 You will bear the consequences of your iniquities for forty years based on the number of the forty days that you scouted the land, a year for each day.[d](AE) You will know my displeasure.[e] 35 I, the Lord, have spoken. I swear that I will do this to the entire evil community that has conspired against me.(AF) They will come to an end in the wilderness, and there they will die.’(AG)
36 So the men Moses sent to scout out the land, and who returned and incited the entire community to complain about him by spreading a negative report about the land – 37 those men who spread the negative report about the land were struck down by the Lord. 38 Only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh remained alive of those men who went to scout out the land.
Israel Routed
39 When Moses reported these words to all the Israelites, the people were overcome with grief. 40 They got up early the next morning and went up the ridge of the hill country, saying, ‘Let’s go to the place the Lord promised, for we were wrong.’(AH)
41 But Moses responded, ‘Why are you going against the Lord’s command? It won’t succeed. 42 Don’t go, because the Lord is not among you and you will be defeated by your enemies. 43 The Amalekites and Canaanites are right in front of you, and you will fall by the sword. The Lord won’t be with you, since you have turned from following him.’
44 But they dared to go up the ridge of the hill country, even though the ark of the Lord’s covenant and Moses did not leave the camp. 45 Then the Amalekites and Canaanites who lived in that part of the hill country came down, attacked them, and routed them as far as Hormah.(AI)
Numbers 14
1599 Geneva Bible
14 2 The people murmur against Moses. 10 They would have stoned Caleb and Joshua. 23 Moses pacifieth God by his prayer. 45 The people that would enter into the land contrary to God’s will, are slain.
1 Then all the Congregation lifted up their voice, and cried: and the [a]people wept that night,
2 And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron: and the whole assembly said unto them, Would God we had died in the land of Egypt, or in this wilderness: would God we were dead.
3 Wherefore now hath the Lord brought us into this land to fall upon the sword? our wives and our children shall be [b]a prey: were it not better for us to return into Egypt?
4 And they said one to another, Let us make a captain and return into Egypt.
5 Then Moses and Aaron [c]fell on their faces before all the assembly of the Congregation of the children of Israel.
6 And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh two of them that searched the land, [d]rent their clothes,
7 And spake unto all the assembly of the children of Israel, saying, The land which we walked through to search it, is a very good land.
8 If the Lord love us, he will bring us into this land, and give it us, which is a land that floweth with milk and honey.
9 But rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land: for they are but [e]bread for us: their shield is departed from them, and the Lord is with us, fear them not.
10 And all the multitude said, [f]Stone them with stones: but the glory of the Lord appeared in the Tabernacle of the Congregation before all the children of Israel.
11 And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me, and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have showed among them?
12 I will smite them with the pestilence and destroy them, and will make thee a greater nation and mightier than they.
13 But Moses said unto the Lord, (A)When the Egyptians shall hear it, (for thou broughtest this people by thy power from among them)
14 Then they shall say to the inhabitants of the land, (for they have heard, that thou Lord, art among this people, and that thou, Lord, art seen [g]face to face, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou (B)goest before them, by daytime in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night.)
15 That thou wilt kill this people as [h]one man: so the heathen which have heard the fame of thee, shall thus say,
16 Because the Lord was not (C)able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore hath he slain them in the wilderness.
17 And now, I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying,
18 The Lord is (D)slow to anger, and of great mercy, and (E)forgiving iniquity and sin, but not making the wicked innocent, and (F)visiting the wickedness of the fathers upon the children, in the third and fourth generation:
19 Be merciful, I beseech thee, unto the iniquity of this people, according to thy great mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt, even until now.
20 And the Lord said, I have forgiven [i]it, according to thy request.
21 Notwithstanding, as I live, all the earth, shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.
22 For all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles which I did in Egypt, and in the wilderness, and have tempted me this [j]ten times, and have not obeyed my voice,
23 Certainly they shall not see the land, whereof I sware unto their fathers: neither shall any that provoke me, see it.
24 But my servant (G)Caleb, because he had another [k]spirit, and hath followed me still, even him will I bring into the land, whither he went, and his seed shall inherit it.
25 Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites [l]remain in the valley: wherefore turn back tomorrow, and get you into the [m]wilderness, by the way of the red sea.
26 ¶ After, the Lord spake unto Moses and to Aaron, saying,
27 (H)How long shall I suffer this wicked multitude to murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me.
28 Tell them, As I (I)live (saith the Lord) I will surely do unto you, even as ye have spoken in mine ears.
29 Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness, and all you that were (J)counted through all your numbers, from twenty years old and above, which have murmured against me,
30 Ye shall not doubtless come into the land, for the which I (K)lifted up mine hand, to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.
31 But your children (which ye said should be a prey) them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have refused:
32 But even your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness.
33 And your children shall [n]wander in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your [o]whoredoms, until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness.
34 After the number of the days in the which ye searched out the land, even forty days, (L)every day for a year, shall you bear your iniquity, for (M)forty years, and ye [p]shall feel my breach of promise.
35 I the Lord have said, Certainly I will do so to all this wicked company that are gathered together against me: for in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.
36 And the men which Moses had sent to search the land (which when they came again, made all the people to murmur against him, and brought up a slander upon the land.)
37 Even those men that did bring up that vile slander upon the land, (N)shall die by a plague before the Lord.
38 But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, of those men that went to search the land, shall live.
39 ¶ Then Moses told these sayings unto all the children of Israel, and the people sorrowed greatly.
40 (O)And they rose up early in the morning, and got them up into the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be ready to go up to the place which the Lord hath promised: for we have [q]sinned.
41 But Moses said, Wherefore transgress ye thus the commandment of the Lord? it will not so come well to pass.
42 Go not up, (for the Lord is not among you) lest ye be overthrown before your enemies.
43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and ye shall fall by the sword: for inasmuch as ye are turned away from the Lord, the Lord also will not be with you.
44 Yet they presumed [r]obstinately to go up to the top of the mountain: but the Ark of the covenant of the Lord, and Moses departed not out of the camp.
45 Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites, which dwelt in that mountain, came down and smote them, (P)and consumed them unto Hormah.
Footnotes
- Numbers 14:1 Such as were afraid at the report of the ten spies.
- Numbers 14:3 To our enemies the Canaanites.
- Numbers 14:5 Lamenting the people, and praying for them.
- Numbers 14:6 For sorrow, hearing their blasphemy.
- Numbers 14:9 We shall easily overcome them.
- Numbers 14:10 This is the condition of them that would persuade in God’s cause, to be persecuted of the multitude.
- Numbers 14:14 Hebrew, eye to eye.
- Numbers 14:15 So that none shall escape.
- Numbers 14:20 In that he destroyed not them utterly, but left their posterity and certain to enter.
- Numbers 14:22 That is, sundry times and often.
- Numbers 14:24 A meek and obedient spirit, and not rebellious.
- Numbers 14:25 And lie in wait for you.
- Numbers 14:25 For I will not defend you.
- Numbers 14:33 The word signifieth to be shepherds, or to wander like shepherds to and fro.
- Numbers 14:33 Your infidelity and disobedience against God.
- Numbers 14:34 Whether my promise be true or no.
- Numbers 14:40 They confess they sinned by rebelling against God, but consider not they offended in going up without God’s commandment.
- Numbers 14:44 They could not be stayed by any means.
Copyright © 2024 by Holman Bible Publishers.
Geneva Bible, 1599 Edition. Published by Tolle Lege Press. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations in articles, reviews, and broadcasts.
