King James Version, Updated™

(1) All the congregation lifted up their voices, and cried, and the people wept that night.

(2) And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron; and the whole congregation said to them, "We wish to God that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or we wish to God we had died in this wilderness!

(3) Why has the LORD brought us to this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should become prey? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?"

(4) They said one to another, "Let us appoint a leader, and let us return to Egypt."

(5) Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.

(6) Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were of them who spied out the land, tore their clothes;

(7) And they spoke to all the company of the children of Israel, saying, "The land, which we passed through to spy out, is an exceedingly good land.

(8) If the LORD delights in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it to us; a land which flows with milk and honey.

(9) Only do not rebel against the LORD, neither fear the people of the land; for they are bread for us; their protection has departed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them."

(10) But all the congregation said to stone them with stones. Then the glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel.

(11) And the LORD said to Moses, "How long will this people reject me? And how long will it be that they do not believe me, with all the signs which I have showed among them?

(12) I will strike them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make from you a nation greater and mightier than they."

(13) And Moses said to the LORD, "Then the Egyptians shall hear of it, for you brought up this people in your might from among them;

(14) Then they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land, for they have heard that you LORD are among this people; that you LORD are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them, and that you go before them, by day time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night.

(15) Now if you kill this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of you will speak, saying,

(16) 'Because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land which he swore to them, therefore he has slain them in the wilderness.'

(17) Now, I implore you, let the power of my Lord be great, according as you have spoken, saying,

(18) 'The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.'

(19) I implore you, pardon the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your mercy, and as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now."

(20) Then the LORD said, "I have pardoned according to your word;

(21) But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.

(22) Because all those men who have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these 10 times, and have not listened to my voice,

(23) surely they shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers, neither shall any of them who provoked me see it;

(24) But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and has followed me fully, him I will bring into the land into which he went; and his descendants shall possess it.

(25) (Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valley.) Tomorrow YOU turn, and go into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea."

(26) The LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,

(27) "How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, who murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me.

(28) Say to them, 'As I live, says the LORD, as YOU have spoken in my ears, so will I do to YOU;

(29) YOUR carcasses shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of YOU, according to YOUR whole number, from 20 years old and upward, who have murmured against me,

(30) without a doubt YOU shall not come into the land, which I swore to that I would make YOU dwell in it, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.

(31) But YOUR little ones, who YOU said would be prey, I will bring them in, and they shall know the land which YOU have despised.

(32) But as for YOU, YOUR carcasses, they shall fall in this wilderness.

(33) YOUR children shall wander in the wilderness 40 years, and bear YOUR whoredoms, until YOUR carcasses are wasted in the wilderness.

(34) According to the number of the days in which YOU spied out the land, 40 days, a year for each day, YOU shall bear YOUR iniquities, for 40 years, and YOU shall know my opposition.

(35) I the LORD have spoken, I will surely do it to all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me; in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.' "

(36) And the men, whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up an evil report of the land,

(37) even those men who brought up the evil report of the land, died by the plague before the LORD.

(38) But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among the men who went to spy out the land, lived.

(39) And Moses told these words to all the children of Israel, and the people mourned greatly.

(40) They rose up early in the morning, and they went up to the top of the mountain, saying, "See, we are here, and will go up to the place which the LORD has promised, for we have sinned."

(41) And Moses said, "Why now do YOU transgress the commandment of the LORD? For it will not succeed.

(42) Do not go up, for the LORD is not among YOU; lest YOU not be struck down before YOUR enemies.

(43) For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before YOU, and YOU shall fall by the sword; because YOU have turned away from the LORD, therefore the LORD will not be with YOU."

(44) But they presumed to go up to the hill top; nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and Moses, did not depart out of the camp.

(45) Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites who dwelt on that hill, and attacked them, and beat them down, even to Hormah.