Numbers 14 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

That night, the entire community broke down and wept out loud.

All the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron. The whole community said to them, "If only we had died in Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness!"

"Why is Yahweh bringing us into this land just to be killed in battle? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder! Wouldn't it be better for us to go back to Egypt?"

And they said to each other, "Let's pick a leader and go back to Egypt."

Then Moses and Aaron fell facedown in front of the entire assembled community of Israel.

Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had scouted the land, tore their clothes

and said to the whole Israelite community: "The land we passed through and scouted is incredibly good.

If Yahweh is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land and give it to us — a land flowing with milk and honey.

Just don't rebel against Yahweh. And don't be afraid of the people of the land — we'll swallow them up. Their protection is gone, but Yahweh is with us. Don't be afraid of them!"

But the whole community talked about stoning them. Then the radiant presence of Yahweh appeared at the tent of meeting to all the Israelites.

Yahweh said to Moses, "How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to trust me, despite all the signs I've performed among them?

I will strike them with a plague and wipe them out, and I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than they are."

Moses said to Yahweh, "But the Egyptians will hear about it! You brought these people up from among them by your power,

and they will tell the inhabitants of this land about it. They have already heard that you, Yahweh, are among this people, that you, Yahweh, have been seen face to face, that your cloud stands over them, and that you go ahead of them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

If you put all these people to death at once, the nations who have heard about your fame will say,

'Yahweh was not able to bring these people into the land he promised them with an oath, so he slaughtered them in the wilderness.'

"Now, please—let the power of my Lord be shown to be as great as you declared when you said,

'Yahweh is slow to anger and overflowing with loyal love, forgiving wrongdoing and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he holds children accountable for the wrongdoing of their parents to the third and fourth generation.'

Please forgive the wrongdoing of this people, in keeping with the greatness of your loyal love, just as you have carried this people all the way from Egypt until now."

Yahweh replied, "I have forgiven them, as you asked.

But as surely as I live and as surely as the radiant presence of Yahweh fills the whole earth,

not one of the people who saw my radiant presence and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness — and who tested me these ten times and did not listen to my voice —

not one of them will ever see the land I promised with an oath to their ancestors. No one who treated me with contempt will ever see it.

But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and has followed me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he explored, and his descendants will possess it.

Now, since the Amalekites and Canaanites are living in the valleys, turn back tomorrow and head into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea."

Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron,

"How long will this wicked community keep complaining against me? I have heard the complaints that these Israelites are making against me.

Tell them, 'As surely as I live' — this is Yahweh's declaration — 'I will do to you exactly what I heard you say.

Your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness. Every one of you who was counted in the census, everyone twenty years old or more who complained against me—

not one of you will enter the land I swore to settle you in, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.

As for your children—the ones you said would be taken as plunder—I will bring them in, and they will enjoy the land you rejected.

But as for you, your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness.

Your children will be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years, bearing the consequences of your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies dead in the wilderness.

For forty years — one year for each of the forty days you explored the land — you will bear the weight of your wrongdoing. Then you will know what it means to have me against you.'

I, Yahweh, have spoken, and I will certainly do these things to this entire wicked community that has banded together against me. They will meet their end in this wilderness — here they will die."

Now the men Moses had sent to scout the land—the ones who returned and made the whole community complain against him by spreading a negative report about the land—

those men who spread the negative report about the land were struck down by a plague in Yahweh's presence.

Of those men who went to scout the land, only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh survived.

When Moses reported all this to the Israelites, the people were deeply grieved.

Early the next morning they headed up toward the high hill country and said, "Here we are! We will go up to the place Yahweh promised. We admit we were wrong."

But Moses said, "Why are you disobeying Yahweh's command? This won't succeed!

Don't go up there, because Yahweh is not with you. You'll be crushed by your enemies.

The Amalekites and Canaanites are there waiting for you, and you will be cut down by the sword. Because you turned away from Yahweh, Yahweh will not be with you."

But they defiantly marched up toward the high hill country, even though neither the ark of Yahweh's covenant nor Moses left the camp.

Then the Amalekites and Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down, attacked them, and beat them back all the way to Hormah.