14:1 And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried;
and the people wept that night.
14:2 And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and
against Aaron: and the whole congregation said to them, O that
we had died in the land of Egypt! or O that we had died in this
wilderness!
14:3 And why hath the LORD brought us to this land, to fall by
the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey?
were it not better for us to return into Egypt?
14:4 And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and
let us return into Egypt.
14:5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the
assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.
14:6 And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh,
[who were] of them that searched the land, rent their clothes:
14:7 And they spoke to all the company of the children of
Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it,
[is] an exceeding good land.
14:8 If the LORD delighteth in us, then he will bring us into
this land, and give it to us; a land which floweth with milk
and honey.
14:9 Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the
people of the land; for they [are] bread for us: their defense
has departed from them, and the LORD [is] with us: fear them
not.
14:10 But all the congregation required to stone them with
stones: and the glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of
the congregation before all the children of Israel.
14:11 And the LORD said to 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 shown among them?
14:12 I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit
them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than
they.
14:13 And Moses said to the LORD, Then the Egyptians will hear
[it], (for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from
among them;)
14:14 And they will tell [it] to the inhabitants of this land:
[for] they have heard that thou LORD [art] among this people,
that thou LORD art seen face to face, and [that] thy cloud
standeth over them, and [that] thou goest before them, by
day-time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by
night.
14:15 Now [if] thou shalt kill [all] this people as one man,
then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak,
saying,
14:16 Because the LORD was not able to bring this people into
the land which he swore to them, therefore he hath slain them
in the wilderness.
14:17 And now, I beseech thee, let the power of my LORD be
great, according as thou hast spoken, saying,
14:18 The LORD [is] long-suffering, and of great mercy,
forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing
[the guilty], visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the
children to the third and fourth [generation].
14:19 Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people
according to the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast
forgiven this people, from Egypt, even until now.
14:20 And the LORD said, I have pardoned according to thy word:
14:21 But [as] truly [as] I live, all the earth shall be filled
with the glory of the LORD.
14:22 Because all those men who have seen my glory, and my
miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have
tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my
voice;
14:23 Surely they shall not see the land which I swore to their
fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:
14:24 But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with
him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land
into which he went; and his seed shall possess it.
14:25 (Now the Amalekites, and the Canaanites dwelt in the
valley.) To-morrow turn you, and pass into the wilderness, by
the way of the Red sea.
14:26 And the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,
14:27 How long [shall I bear with] this evil congregation, which
murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children
of Israel, which they murmur against me.
14:28 Say to them, [As truly as] I live, saith the LORD, as ye
have spoken in my ears, so will I do to you:
14:29 Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness; and all that
were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from
twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me,
14:30 Doubtless ye shall not come into the land [concerning]
which I swore to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of
Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.
14:31 But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them
will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have
despised.
14:32 But [as for] you, your carcasses, they shall fall in this
wilderness.
14:33 And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty
years, and bear your lewd deeds, until your carcasses shall be
wasted in the wilderness.
14:34 After the number of the days in which ye searched the
land, [even] forty days (each day for a year) shall ye bear
your iniquities, [even] forty years, and ye shall know my
breach of promise.
14:35 I the LORD have said, I will surely do it to all this evil
congregation, that are gathered against me: in this wilderness,
they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.
14:36 And the men whom Moses sent to search the land, who
returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him,
by bringing a slander upon the land,
14:37 Even those men that brought the evil report upon the land,
died by the plague before the LORD.
14:38 But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh,
[who were] of the men that went to search the land, lived
[still].
14:39 And Moses told these sayings to all the children of
Israel: and the people mourned greatly.
14:40 And they rose early in the morning, and ascended to the
top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we [are here], and will go up
to the place which the LORD hath promised: for we have sinned.
14:41 And Moses said, Why now do ye transgress the commandment
of the LORD? but it shall not prosper.
14:42 Go not up, for the LORD is not among you; that ye be not
smitten before your enemies.
14:43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites [are] there before
you, and ye shall fall by the sword: because ye are turned away
from the LORD, therefore the LORD will not be with you.
14:44 But they presumed to go up to the hill-top: nevertheless
the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and Moses, departed not
out of the camp.
14:45 Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which
dwelt in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them,
[even] to Hormah.
|