Catholic Bible
not. Be courageous, and bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the time of the first-ripe grapes.
21 So they went up, and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, to the entrance of Hamath. 22 They went up by the South, and came to Hebron; and Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were there. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) 23 They came to the valley of Eshcol, and cut down from there a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bore it on a staff between two. They also brought some of the pomegranates and figs. 24 That place was called the valley of Eshcol, because of the cluster which the children of Israel cut down from there. 25 They returned from spying out the land at the end of forty days. 26 They went and came to Moses, to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, to the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word to them and to all the congregation. They showed them the fruit of the land. 27 They told him, and said, “We came to the land where you sent us. Surely it flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. 28 However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. Moreover, we saw the children of Anak there. 29 Amalek dwells in the land of the South. The Hittite, the Jebusite, and the Amorite dwell in the hill country. The Canaanite dwells by the sea, and along the side of the Jordan.”
30 Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, “Let’s go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it!”
31 But the men who went up with him said, “We aren’t able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.” 32 They brought up an evil report of the land which they had spied out to the children of Israel, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that eats up its inhabitants; and all the people who we saw in it are men of great stature. 33 There we saw the Nephilim,† the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim.‡ We were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.”
14
1 All the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. 2 All the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “We wish that we had died in the land of Egypt, or that we had died in this wilderness! 3 Why does the LORD bring us to this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones
will be captured or killed! Wouldn’t it be better for us to return into Egypt?” 4 They said to one another, “Let’s choose a leader, and let’s return into 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 those who spied out the land, tore their clothes. 7 They spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, “The land, which we passed through to spy it 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 don’t rebel against the LORD, neither fear the people of the land; for they are bread for us. Their defence is removed from over them, and the LORD is with us. Don’t fear them.”
10 But all the congregation threatened to stone them with stones.
The LORD’s glory appeared in the Tent of Meeting to all the children of Israel. 11 The LORD said to Moses, “How long
will this people despise me? How long
will they not believe in me, for all the signs which I have worked amongst them? 12 I
will strike them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and
will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”
13 Moses said to the LORD, “Then the Egyptians
will hear it; for you brought up this people in your might from amongst them. 14 They
will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you LORD are amongst this people; for you LORD are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them, and you go before them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night. 15 Now if you killed 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 please let the
power of the Lord† be great, according as you have spoken, saying, 18 ‘The LORD is slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, forgiving iniquity and disobedience; and he
will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation.’ 19 Please pardon the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your loving kindness, and just as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.”
20 The LORD said, “I have pardoned according to your word; 21 but in very deed—as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the LORD’s glory— 22 because all those men who have seen my glory and my signs, which I worked in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tempted me these ten 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 those who despised 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. His offspring shall possess it. 25 Since the Amalekite and the Canaanite dwell in the valley, tomorrow turn and go into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.” 26 The LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 27 “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation that complain against me? I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel, which they complain against me. 28 Tell them, ‘As I live, says the LORD, surely as you have spoken in my ears, so I
will do to you. 29 Your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and all who were counted of you, according to your whole
number, from twenty years old and upward, who have complained against me, 30 surely you shall not come into the land concerning which I swore that I would make you dwell therein, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. 31 But I
will bring in your little ones that you said should be captured or killed, and they shall know the land which you have rejected. 32 But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. 33 Your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your prostitution, until your dead bodies are consumed in the wilderness. 34 After the
number of the days in which you spied out the land, even forty days, for every day a year, you
will bear your iniquities, even forty years, and you
will know my
alienation.’ 35 I, the LORD, have spoken. I
will surely do this to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against me. In this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.”
36 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 against the land, 37 even those men who brought up an 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 remained alive of those men who went to spy out the land.
39 Moses told these words to all the children of Israel, and the people mourned greatly. 40 They rose up early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, “Behold, we are here, and
will go up to the place which the LORD has promised; for we have sinned.”
41 Moses said, “Why now do you disobey the commandment of the LORD, since it shall not prosper? 42 Don’t go up, for the LORD isn’t amongst you; that way you won’t be struck down before your enemies. 43 For there the Amalekite and the Canaanite are before you, and you
will fall by the sword because you turned back from following the LORD; therefore the LORD
will not be with you.”
44 But they presumed to go up to the top of the mountain. Nevertheless, the ark of the LORD’s covenant and Moses didn’t depart out of the camp. 45 Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites who lived in that mountain, and struck them and beat them