Numbers 14:1-19 ▼

1 And all the congregation lifts up, and they give forth their voice, and the people weep during that night;

2 and all the sons of Israel murmur against Moses and against Aaron, and all the congregation says 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 say to one another, “Let us appoint a head and return to Egypt.”

5 And Moses falls—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, have torn their garments,

7 and they speak 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 has brought us into this land, and has given it to us, a land which is flowing with milk and honey;

9 only, do not rebel against YHWH: and you, do not fear the people of the land, for they [are] our bread; their defense has turned aside from off them, and YHWH [is] with us; do not fear them.”

10 And all the congregation says to stone them with stones, and the glory of YHWH has appeared in the Tent of Meeting to all the sons of Israel.

11 And YHWH says to Moses, “Until when does this people despise Me? And until when do they not believe in Me, for all the signs which I have done in its midst?

12 I strike it with pestilence, and dispossess it, and make you become a nation greater and mightier than it.”

13 And Moses says to YHWH, “Then the Egyptians have heard! For with Your power You have brought up this people out of their midst,

14 and they have said [it] to the inhabitant of this land, they have heard that You, YHWH, [are] in the midst of this people, that You are seen eye to eye—O YHWH, and Your cloud is standing over them—and in a pillar of cloud You are going before them by day, and in a pillar of fire by night.

15 And You have put to death this people as one man, and the nations who have heard Your fame have spoken, saying,

16 From YHWH’s want of ability to bring in this people to the land which He has sworn to them, He slaughters 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.”