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Numbers 14:1-45 — The People Rebel

Num.14.1-45

¹Then the whole congregation lifted up their voices and cried out, and the people wept that night. ²All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, "If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this wilderness! ³Why is the LORD bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder. Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?" ⁴And they said to one another, “Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt.” ⁵Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before the entire assembly of the congregation of the Israelites. ⁶And Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes. ⁷And they spoke to the whole congregation of the Israelites, saying, "The land that we passed through to spy it out is an exceedingly good land. ⁸If the LORD delights in us, He will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. ⁹Only do not rebel against the LORD, and do not be afraid of the people of the land, for they are our bread. Their protection has been removed from them, and the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them!" ¹⁰But the whole congregation talked of stoning them with stones. Then the glory of the LORD appeared at the tent of meeting to all the Israelites. ¹¹And the LORD said to Moses, "How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, despite all the signs that I have performed among them? ¹²I will strike them with pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they." ¹³But Moses said to the LORD, "Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for by your power you brought this people up from among them. ¹⁴And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you, O LORD, are in the midst of this people, that you, O LORD, are seen eye to eye, and that your cloud stands over them, and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. ¹⁵If you put this people to death as one man, then the nations who have heard of your fame will speak, saying, ¹⁶'Because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land that he swore to give them, he has slaughtered them in the wilderness.' ¹⁷So now, please let the power of the Lord be great, just as you have spoken, saying, ¹⁸'The LORD is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, to the third and the fourth generation.' ¹⁹Please pardon the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just as you have forgiven this people from Egypt even until now." ²⁰And the LORD said, "I have pardoned them according to your word. ²¹But truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD, ²²none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have tested me these ten times and have not listened to my voice, ²³shall surely not see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. None of those who despise me shall see it. ²⁴But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit with him and has followed me fully, I will bring him into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it. ²⁵Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites are dwelling in the valley. Tomorrow turn and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea." ²⁶And the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, ²⁷"How long shall this evil congregation grumble against me? I have heard the grumblings of the Israelites, which they grumble against me. ²⁸Say to them, 'As I live, declares the LORD, just as you have spoken in my hearing, so I will do to you: ²⁹Your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and all of you who were numbered in the census, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me, ³⁰shall surely not come into the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. ³¹But your little ones, who you said would become plunder, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have rejected. ³²But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. ³³And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years, and they shall bear your unfaithfulness, until your dead bodies are consumed in the wilderness. ³⁴According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquities for forty years, and you shall know my opposition.' ³⁵I, the LORD, have spoken. Surely this I will do to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die." ³⁶And the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made the whole congregation grumble against him by bringing up a bad report about the land— ³⁷those men who brought up a bad report of the land died by a plague before the LORD. ³⁸But Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh remained alive of those men who went to spy out the land. ³⁹When Moses spoke these words to all the Israelites, the people mourned greatly. ⁴⁰And they rose up early in the morning and went up to the heights of the hill country, saying, “Here we are, and we will go up to the place that the LORD has promised, for we have sinned.” ⁴¹But Moses said, "Why then are you transgressing the command of the LORD, since it will not succeed? ⁴²Do not go up, for the LORD is not among you, lest you be struck down before your enemies. ⁴³For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you will fall by the sword. Because you have turned back from following the LORD, the LORD will not be with you." ⁴⁴But they presumed to go up to the heights of the hill country, though neither the ark of the covenant of the LORD nor Moses departed from the midst of the camp. ⁴⁵Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and struck them and beat them down, all the way to Hormah .

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4/11/2026

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