1 And all the congregation lifted up, and they gave out their voice, and the people wept during that night. 2 And all the sons of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, and all the congregation said to them, “O that we had died in the land of Egypt, or in this wilderness, O that we had died! 3 And why is YHWH bringing us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and our infants become a prey? Is it not good for us to return to Egypt?” 4 And they said to one another, “Let us appoint a head and return to Egypt.” 5 And Moses fell—Aaron also—on their faces, before all the assembly of the congregation of the sons of Israel. 6 And Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, of those spying out the land, had torn their garments, 7 and they spoke to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying, “The land into which we have passed over to spy it out is a very, very good land. 8 If YHWH has delighted in us, then He will bring us into this land, and give it to us, a land which is flowing with milk and honey. 9 Only, do not rebel against YHWH: and you, will not fear the people of the land, for they are our bread. Their defense will turn aside from off them, and YHWH will be with us. Do not fear them.” 10 And all the congregation said to stone them with stones, and the glory of YHWH had appeared in the Tent of Meeting to all the sons of Israel. 11 And YHWH says to Moses, “Until when do this people despise Me? And until when do they not believe in Me, for all the signs which I have done in its middle? 12 I will strike it with pestilence, and dispossess it, and make you become a nation greater and mightier than it.” 13 And Moses said to YHWH, “Then the Egyptians will hear! For with Your power You will bring up this people out of their middle, 14 And they will say to the inhabitants of this land, they have heard that You, YHWH, are in the middle of this people, that You will be seen eye to eye—O YHWH, and Your cloud will be standing over them—and in a pillar of cloud You will be going before them by day, and in a pillar of fire by night. 15 And You will put to death this people as one man, and the nations who have heard Your fame will speak, saying, 16 From YHWH’s want of ability to bring in this people to the land which He has sworn to them, He will slaughter them in the wilderness. 17 And now, please let the power of my Lord be great, as You have spoken, saying, 18 YHWH is slow to anger and of great kindness, bearing away iniquity and transgression, and not entirely acquitting, charging iniquity of fathers on sons, on a third and on a fourth generation— 19 please forgive the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of Your kindness, and as You have borne with this people from Egypt, even until now.” 20 And YHWH said, “I have forgiven according to your word, 21 but nevertheless, as I live, indeed, the whole earth will be filled with the glory of YHWH, 22 for all the men who are seeing My glory and My signs which I have done in Egypt and in the wilderness, and try Me these ten times, and have not listened to My voice— 23 they will not see the land which I have sworn to their fathers, indeed, none of those despising Me will see it. 24 But My servant Caleb, because there has been another spirit with him, and he is fully after Me—I will bring him into the land to where he will enter, and his seed will possess it. 25 And the Amalekite and the Canaanite will be staying in the valley. Tomorrow turn and journey for yourselves into the wilderness—the way of the Red Sea.” 26 And YHWH spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 27 “Until when do I bear with this evil congregation—they who are murmuring against Me? The murmurings of the sons of Israel, which they are murmuring against Me, I have heard. 28 Say to them: As I live—a declaration of YHWH—if, as you have spoken in My ears, do I not do so to you? 29 Your carcasses will fall in this wilderness, even all your numbered ones, to all your number, from a son of twenty years and upward, who have murmured against Me. 30 You will not come into the land for which I have lifted up My hand to cause you to stay in it, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. 31 As for your infants—of whom you have said, They will become a spoil—I will even bring them in, and they will know the land which you have kicked against. 32 As for you—your carcass will fall in this wilderness, 33 and your sons will be shepherding in the wilderness for 40 years, and will bear your whoredoms until your carcasses are consumed in the wilderness. 34 By the number of the days in which you spied out the land, 40 days—a day for a year, a day for a year—you will bear your iniquities for 40 years, and you will know My opposition. 35 I, YHWH, have spoken. If, nonetheless, I do this to all this evil congregation who are meeting against Me—they will be consumed in this wilderness, and there they will die.” 36 Then the men whom Moses had sent to spy out the land, who then returned and cause all the congregation to murmur against him by bringing out an evil account concerning the land, 37 Even the men bringing out an evil account of the land, they will die by the plague before YHWH. 38 And Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh will live, of those men who went to spy out the land. 39 And Moses spoke these words to all the sons of Israel, and the people mourned exceedingly, 40 and they rose early in the morning, and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, “Here we are, and we have come up to the place which YHWH has spoken of, for we have sinned.” 41 And Moses said, “Why is this that you are transgressing the command of YHWH? For it does not prosper. 42 Do not go up, for YHWH is not in your middle, and you will not strike before your enemies. 43 For the Amalekite and the Canaanite were there before you, and you will fall by the sword, because that you have turned back from after YHWH, and YHWH will not be with you.” 44 And they presumed to go up to the top of the mountain, but the Ark of the Covenant of YHWH, and Moses, had not departed out of the middle of the camp. 45 And the Amalekite and the Canaanite who were staying in that mountain come down and struck them, and beat them down to Hormah.