The People Want to Return to Egypt

1 The assembled people raised their voices, and the people wept that night. 2 All the sons of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and all the assembled people said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! If only we had died in this wilderness! 3 Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and children will become captives. Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” 4 Each man said to his companion, “Let us appoint a king over us and return to Egypt.” 5 Moses and Aaron bowed with their faces to the ground before the congregation of the sons of Israel. 6 Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes. 7 They said to the whole congregation of the sons of Israel, “The land we passed through to explore is an extremely good land. 8 If the Lord takes pleasure in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land producing good fruit, pure as milk and sweet as honey. 9 Only do not rebel against the Glory of the Shekinah of the Lord. Do not fear the people of the land, for just as eating bread is easy for us, destroying them seems easy to us.⁠a Their protective shadow has left them, and the Memra of the Lord is with us. Do not fear them.” 10 All the assembled people said to stone them. The Glory of the Shekinah of the Lord was revealed in the tent of meeting to all the sons of Israel. 11 The Lord said to Moses, “How long will these people be angry before me? How long will they refuse to believe in the Name of my Memra, despite all the signs of my miraculous wonders that I have done among them?⁠b 12 I will kill them with pestilence and destroy them. It is possible before me to make you a nation greater and stronger than they are.”

Moses Intercedes for Israel

13 Moses said before the Lord, “The Egyptians will hear that you brought these people up from among them by your strength. 14 They will tell the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you are the one whose Shekinah’s Glory is among these people, that you, Lord, have been revealed in your Memra, appearance to appearance, that the cloud of the Glory of your Shekinah was over them, and that you walked before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. 15 If you kill these people as one man, the nations that have heard reports about you will say, 16 ‘It was not possible before the Lord to bring these people into the land he swore to them, and he slaughtered them in the wilderness.’ 17 Now, Lord, please let your strength grow great, as you spoke, saying, 18 ‘The Lord is patient, far from anger and near in mercy, generous in doing kindness, forgiving and remitting sins, pardoning rebellion and wiping away sins. Yet he will certainly not acquit ⟨the guilty⟩. On the day of the great judgment he recalls the sins of wicked fathers against rebellious sons, against the third and fourth generations.’ 19 Please forgive and remit the sins of these people according to the greatness of your kindness, as you have borne these people from Egypt until now.” 20 The Lord said, “I forgive and remit, as you have spoken. 21 But as I live and endure in my Memra forever, and the Glory of the Shekinah of the Lord fills the whole earth, 22 all the men who saw my Glory and the signs of my wonders that I did in Egypt and the wilderness, yet tested me these ten times and did not listen to my voice, 23 will not see the land I swore to their fathers. None who provoked before me will see it. 24 But my servant Caleb had a holy spirit with him and followed my Memra faithfully. I will bring him into the land he entered, and his sons will possess it. 25 The Amalekites and Canaanites live in the valley. Tomorrow, turn and travel ⟨to⟩ the wilderness by the road to the Red Sea.”

Forty Years in the Wilderness

26 The Lord spoke with Moses and Aaron, saying: 27 “How long will this evil congregation complain before me against me? ⟨The complaints of the sons of Israel that they make against me⟩ have been heard before me. 28 Tell them, ‘As I live and endure in my Memra, says the Lord, I will do to you just as you spoke in my hearing. 29 Your corpses will fall in this wilderness, all those counted in your census, all those among you from twenty years old and above who complained before me. 30 You will not enter the land where I raised my hand in an oath to settle you, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. 31 I will bring in your children, whom you said would become captives, and they will see the land you rejected. 32 But your own corpses will fall in this wilderness. 33 Your sons will wander in the wilderness for forty years and receive the consequence of your abomination until your corpses come to an end in the wilderness. 34 For the number of days you explored, forty days, a year for each day, you will receive the consequence of your sins for forty years and know what it means to complain against me. 35 I, the Lord, have spoken. I will certainly do this to all this evil congregation that complained before me. In this wilderness they will come to an end, and there they will die.’” 36 The men Moses sent to explore the land returned and stirred the whole congregation against him, spreading a very bad report about the land. 37 Those men who spread the bad report about the land died a sudden death before the Lord. 38 Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh ⟨remained alive⟩ among those men who went to explore the land.

The Failed Attack

39 Moses spoke these words with all the sons of Israel, and the people mourned deeply. 40 They rose early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, “We are here. We will go up to the place the Lord promised, for we have sinned.” 41 Moses said, “Why are you transgressing the decree of the Memra of the Lord? It will not succeed. 42 Do not go up, for the Glory of the Shekinah of the Lord does not dwell upon you. You will be struck down before your enemies. 43 The Amalekites and Canaanites are there before you, and you will fall by the sword. You turned back from the Memra of the Lord, and the Lord will not be with you.” 44 They went up secretly to the top of the mountain, but the ark of the covenant of the Lord and Moses did not move from the camp. 45 The Amalekites and Canaanites living on that mountain came down, struck them, and crushed them to destruction.