The People Rebel

(Deuteronomy 1:26-33)

1And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. 2And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness! 3And wherefore doth the LORD bring us unto this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones shall be a prey: were it not better for us to return into Egypt? 4And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.

5Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel. 6And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that spied out the land, rent their clothes: 7and they spake unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceeding good land. 8If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it unto us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. 9Only rebel not against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is removed from over them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not. 10But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the glory of the LORD appeared in the tent of meeting unto all the children of Israel.

11And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this people despise me? and how long will they not believe in me, for all the signs which I have wrought among them? 12I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a nation greater and mightier than they.

Moses Intercedes for the People

13And Moses said unto the LORD, Then the Egyptians shall hear it; for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them; 14and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: they have heard that thou LORD art in the midst of this people; for thou LORD art seen face to face, and thy cloud standeth over them, and thou goest before them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night. 15Now if thou shalt kill this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, 16Because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness. 17And now, I pray thee, let the power of the Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, 18The LORD is slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation. 19Pardon, I pray thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and according as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.

God's Forgiveness and Judgment

(Deuteronomy 1:34-40)

20And the LORD said, I have pardoned according to thy word: 21but in very deed, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD; 22because all those men which have seen my glory, and my signs, which I wrought in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tempted me these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; 23surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that despised me see it: 24but my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it. 25Now the Amalekite and the Canaanite dwell in the valley: tomorrow turn ye, and get you into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.

26And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, 27How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me. 28Say unto them, As I live, saith the LORD, surely as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: 29your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me, 30surely ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I lifted up my hand that I would make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. 31But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have rejected. 32But as for you, your carcases shall fall in this wilderness. 33And your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be consumed in the wilderness. 34After the number of the days in which ye spied out the land, even forty days, for every day a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my alienation. 35I the LORD have spoken, surely this will I do unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.

The Plague on the Ten Spies

36And the men, which 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, 37even those men that did bring up an evil report of the land, died by the plague before the LORD. 38But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, remained alive of those men that went to spy out the land.

39And Moses told these words unto all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly.

Defeat by Amalekites and Canaanites

40And they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up to the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place which the LORD hath promised: for we have sinned. 41And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the LORD, seeing it shall not prosper? 42Go not up, for the LORD is not among you; that ye be not smitten down before your enemies. 43For there the Amalekite and the Canaanite are before you, and ye shall fall by the sword: because ye are turned back from following the LORD, therefore the LORD will not be with you. 44But they presumed to go up to the top of the mountain: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and Moses, departed not out of the camp. 45Then the Amalekite came down, and the Canaanite which dwelt in that mountain, and smote them and beat them down, even unto Hormah.