1And all the congregation raised and let out their voices! And the people wept that night. 2And all the children of Israel complained at Moses and at Aaron, and all the congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or in this wilderness, if only we had died! 3And why is YHWH bringing us to this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our infants will become a spoil! Isn’t it better for us to go back to Egypt?” 4And they said, each man to his brother, “Let’s appoint a chief and go back to Egypt.”
5And Moses and Aaron fell on their faces in front of all the community of the congregation of the children of Israel.
6And Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, from those who had scouted the land, had torn their clothes. 7And they said to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, “The land through which we passed to scout it: the land is very, very good! 8If YHWH desires us, then He’ll bring us to this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey! 9Just don’t revolt against YHWH. And you, don’t fear the people of the land, because they’re our bread! Their protection has turned from them, while YHWH is with us. Don’t fear them.”
10And all the congregation said to batter them with stones.
And YHWH’s glory appeared at the Tent of Meeting to all the children of Israel!
11And YHWH said to Moses, “How long will this people reject me, and how long will they not trust in me, with all the signs that I’ve done among them? 12I’ll strike them with an epidemic and dispossess them, and I’ll make you into a bigger and more powerful nation than they are.”
13And Moses said to YHWH, “And Egypt will hear it, for you brought this people up from among them with your power, 14and they’ll say it to those who live in this land. They’ve heard that you, YHWH, are among this people; that you, YHWH, have appeared eye-to-eye; and your cloud stands over them; and you go in front of them in a column of cloud by day and in a column of fire by night. 15And if you kill this people as one man, then the nations that have heard about you will say it, saying, l6‘Because YHWH wasn’t able to bring this people to the land that He swore to them, He slaughtered them in the wilderness.’ 17And now, let my Lord’s power be big, as you spoke, saying, 18#x2018;YHWH is slow to anger and abounding in kindness, bearing crime and offense; though not making one innocent: reckoning fathers’ crime on children, on third generations and on fourth generations.’148 19Forgive this people’s crime in proportion to the magnitude of your kindness and as you’ve borne this people from Egypt to here.”
20And YHWH said, “I’ve forgiven according to your word. 2IBut indeed, as I live, and as YHWH’s glory has filled all the earth, 22I swear that all of these people, who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness and who have tested me ten times now and haven’t listened to my voice, 23won’t see the land that I swore to their fathers, and all those who rejected me won’t see it. 24And my servant Caleb, because a different spirit was with him, and he went after me completely, I’ll bring him to the land where he went, and his seed will possess it.149 25And the Amalekite and the Canaanite live in the valley.150 Turn and travel tomorrow to the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.”
26And YHWH spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 27“How much further for this bad congregation, that they’re complaining against me? I’ve heard the complaints of the children of Israel that they’re making against me. 28Say to them: As I live—word of YHWH—what you have spoken in my ears, that is what I’ll do to you! 29In this wilderness your carcasses will fall; and all of you who were counted, for all your number, from twenty years old and up, who complained against me, 30I swear that you won’t come to the land that I raised my hand to have you reside there—except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. 31And your infants, whom you said would become a spoil: I’ll bring them, and they will know the land that you rejected! 32And you: your carcasses will fall in this wilderness. 33And your children will be roving in the wilderness forty years, and they’ll bear your whoring until the end of your carcasses in the wilderness. 34For the number of days that you scouted the land, forty days, you shall bear your crimes a day for each year, forty years, and you shall know my frustration! 35I, YHWH, have spoken: If I shall not do this to all this bad congregation who are gathered against me: in this wilderness they shall end, and they shall die there!”
36And the men whom Moses sent to scout the land and came back and caused all the congregation to complain against him, bringing out a report about the land: 37the men who brought out the bad report of the land died in a plague in front of YHWH. 38But, out of those men who went to scout the land, Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh lived.
39And Moses spoke these things to all the children of Israel, and the people mourned very much. 4°And they got up in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, “Here we are, and we’ll go up to the place that YHWH said, because we’ve sinned.”
4IAnd Moses said, “Why are you violating YHWH’s word? And it won’t succeed. 42Don’t go up, so you won’t be stricken in front of your enemies, because YHWH isn’t among you. 43Because the Amalekite and the Canaanite are there in front of you, and you’ll fall by the sword because of the fact that you’ve gone back from following YHWH, and YHWH won’t be with you.”
44And they acted heedlessly, going up to the top of the mountain. And the ark of the covenant of YHWH and Moses did not draw away from the camp. 45And the Amalekite and the Canaanite who lived in that mountain came down, and they struck them and crushed them as far as Hormah.