Read Amplified Bible, 2015 Numbers 14 Bible Online

Numbers 14 - Amplified Bible, 2015 bible

Numbers 14

¹Then all the congregation [of Israel] raised their voices and cried out, and the people wept that night.

²All the Israelites murmured [in discontent] against Moses and Aaron; and the whole congregation said to them, "Oh that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or that we had died in this wilderness!

³Why is the LORD bringing us to this land [of Canaan], to fall by the sword? Our wives and[1] children will become plunder. Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?"

⁴So they said one to another, "Let us appoint a [new] leader and return to Egypt."

⁵Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the Israelites.

⁶Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes [as a sign of grief],

⁷and they spoke to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying, "The land through which we passed as spies is an exceedingly good land.

⁸If the LORD delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land which[2] flows with milk and honey.

⁹Only do not rebel against the LORD; and do not fear the people of the land, for they will be our prey. Their protection has been removed from them, and the LORD is with us. Do not fear them."

¹⁰But all the congregation said to stone Joshua and Caleb with stones. But the glory and brilliance of the LORD appeared at the Tent of Meeting (tabernacle) before all the sons of Israel.

¹¹The LORD said to Moses, "How long will these people treat me disrespectfully and reject Me? And how long will they not believe in Me, despite all the [miraculous] signs which I have performed among them?

¹²I will strike them with the pestilence (plague) and dispossess them, and 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 strength You brought up these people from among them,

¹⁴and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that You, LORD, are among these people [of Israel], that You, LORD, are seen face to face, while 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.

¹⁵Now if You kill these people as one man, then the nations (Gentiles) that have heard of Your fame will say,

¹⁶'Because the LORD was not able to bring these people into the land which He promised to give them, therefore He slaughtered them in the wilderness.'

¹⁷But now, please, let the power of the Lord be great, just as You have declared, saying,

¹⁸'The LORD is slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving wickedness and transgression; but He will by no means clear the guilty, visiting (avenging) the wickedness and guilt of the fathers on the children, to the third and fourth generations [that is, calling the children to account for the sins of their fathers].'

¹⁹Please pardon the wickedness and guilt of these people according to the greatness of Your lovingkindness, just as You have forgiven these people, from Egypt even until now."

²⁰So the LORD said, "I have pardoned them according to your word;

²¹but indeed as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the LORD.

²²Surely all the men who have seen My glory and My [miraculous] signs which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have put Me to the test these ten times and have not listened to My voice,

²³will by no means see the land which I swore to [give to] their fathers; nor will any who treated me disrespectfully and rejected Me see it.

²⁴But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land into which he entered, and his descendants shall take possession of it.

²⁵Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites live in the valley; tomorrow turn and set out for the wilderness by way of the Red Sea."

²⁶The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying,

²⁷"How long shall I put up with this evil congregation who murmur [in discontent] against Me? I have heard the complaints of the Israelites, which they are making against Me.

²⁸Say to them, 'As I live,' says the LORD, 'just what you have spoken in My hearing I will most certainly do to you;

²⁹your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness, even all who were numbered of you, your entire number from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against Me.

³⁰Except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun, not one of you shall enter the land in which I swore [an oath] to settle you.

³¹But your children whom you said would become plunder, I will bring in, and they will know the land which you have despised and rejected.

³²But as for you, your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness.

³³Your sons shall be wanderers and shepherds in the wilderness for forty years, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness (spiritual infidelity), until your corpses are consumed in the wilderness.

³⁴According to the number of days in which you spied out the land [of Canaan], forty days, for each day, you shall bear and suffer a year for your sins and guilt, for forty years, and you shall know My displeasure [the revoking of My promise and My estrangement because of your sin].

³⁵I, the LORD, have spoken. I will most certainly do this to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be consumed [by war, disease, and plagues], and here they shall die.'"

³⁶As for the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, and who returned and made all the congregation murmur and complain against him by bringing back a bad report concerning the land,

³⁷even those [ten] men who brought back the very bad report of the land died by a plague before the LORD.

³⁸But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive out of those men who went to spy out the land.

³⁹Moses spoke the Lord's words to all the Israelites, and the people mourned greatly.

⁴⁰They got up early in the morning and went up to the ridge of the hill country, saying, "Look, here we are; we have indeed sinned, but we will go up to the place which the LORD has promised."

⁴¹But Moses said, "Why then are you transgressing the commandment of the LORD, when it will not succeed?

⁴²Do not go up, or you will be struck down before your enemies, for the LORD is not among you.

⁴³For the Amalekites and the Canaanites will be there in front of you, and you will fall by the sword, because you have turned away from following the LORD; therefore the LORD will not be with you."

⁴⁴But [in their arrogance] they dared to go up to the ridge of the hill country; however, neither the ark of the covenant of the LORD nor Moses left the camp.

⁴⁵Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and struck the Israelites and scattered them as far as Hormah.