¹ Then did all the assembly lift up, and give forth their voice,—and the people wept throughout that night.

² And all the sons of Israel, murmured against Moses and against Aaron,—and all the assembly said unto them—Oh that we had died in the land of Egypt, Or in this wilderness, oh that we had died!

³ Wherefore then is Yahweh bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and little ones, will become a prey! Would it not be well for us to go back towards Egypt?

⁴ And they said, one to another,—Let us appoint a head and let us go back towards Egypt.

⁵ Then did Moses and Aaron fall upon their faces,—before all the convocation of the assembly of the sons of Israel.

⁶ But, Joshua son of Nun, and Caleb son of Jephunneh, of them who spied out the land, rent their clothes;

⁷ and spake unto all the assembly of the sons of Israel, saying,—As for the land through which we passed to spy it out, Good, is the land, exceedingly,

⁸ If Yahweh delight in us, then will he bring us into this land, and give it unto us,—A land which doth flow with milk and honey.

⁹ Only against Yahweh, do not rebel. Do not, ye, fear the people of the land, For our food, they are,—Their shade hath departed, from over them. And Yahweh is with us, Do not fear them!

¹⁰ But when all the assembly bade stone them with stones, the glory of Yahweh, appeared, in the tent of meeting, unto all the sons of Israel.

¹¹ Then said Yahweh unto Moses How long! must this people, despise me? And how long can they not believe in me. in view of all the signs which I have done in their midst?

¹² Let me smite them with pestilence, and disinherit them,—And make thee into a nation greater and more mighty than they!

¹³ Then said Moses unto Yahweh,—So shall the Egyptians hear, For thou hast brought up. in thy might, this people out of their midst;

¹⁴ And will tell it unto the inhabitants of this land: They have heard, That, thou, Yahweh, art in the midst of this people,—That eye to eye, is he seen—thou, Yahweh, And thy cloud, is standing over them, And in a pillar of cloud, thou thyself, art going on before them by day, And in a pillar of fire, by night.

¹⁵ As soon, therefore, as thou hast put to death this people as one man, so soon will the nations who have heard thy fame speak saying:

¹⁶ Because Yahweh, was not able, to bring in this people into the land which he had sworn unto them, therefore did he slay them in the desert.

¹⁷ Now, therefore, I beseech thee let the might of My Lord, be magnified,—according as thou didst speak saying:

¹⁸ Yahweh—slow to anger and great in lovingkindness, Forgiving iniquity and transgression: Though he will not leave, wholly unpunished, Visiting the iniquity of fathers upon sons, Upon a third generation, and upon a fourth.

¹⁹ Pardon I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people, According to the greatness of thy lovingkindness,—And according as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even thus far.

²⁰ And Yahweh said, I have pardoned according to thy word;

²¹ Nevertheless as I live,—and that all the earth may be filled with the glory of Yahweh,

²² Verily, none of the men who have been beholding my glory and my signs, which I have done in Egypt and in the desert,—and have put me to the proof these ten times, and have not hearkened unto my voice,

²³ shall see the land, which I sware to their fathers,—yea, none of my despisers, shall see it.

²⁴ But my servant Caleb—because there was another spirit with him, and he followed me fully, therefore will I bring him into the land whereinto he entered, and his seed, shall possess it.

²⁵ Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites, are dwelling in the valley,—to-morrow, turn ye away; and set yourselves forward towards the desert by the way of the Red Sea.

²⁶ Then spake Yahweh unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying:

²⁷ How long, as regardeth this evil assembly, are they to be murmuring against me? The murmuring of the sons of Israel which, they, have been murmuring against me, have I heard,

²⁸ Say unto them: As I live, is the oracle of Yahweh: Surely as ye have spoken in mine ears, so, will I do unto you:—

²⁹ In this desert, shall your dead bodies fall And none of you who were numbered in all your counting, from twenty years old and upwards,—who have murmured against me,

³⁰ none of you, shall enter into the land, as to which I uplifted my hand to give you an abode therein,—save Caleb son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, son of Nun:

³¹ whereas, your little ones, of whom ye said, they should become, a prey, I will bring them in, and they shall acknowledge the land which ye refused.

³² But, your own dead bodies, shall fall in this desert;

³³ and your sons, shall be shepherds in the desert forty years, and shall bear your unchastities,—until your dead bodies are consumed in the desert.

³⁴ By the number of the days wherein ye spied out the land—forty days, each day for a year, shall they bear your iniquities—forty years,—so shall ye know my opposition.

³⁵ I—Yahweh, have spoken, Verily this, will I do to all this evil assembly, who have conspired against me,—In this desert, shall they be consumed And there, shall they die.

³⁶ Now as for the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land,—who returned and caused all the assembly to murmur against him by giving out a rumour against the land,

³⁷ they died—the men who gave out an evil rumour of the land,—by the plague, before Yahweh.

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

³⁹ And Moses spake these words unto all the sons of Israel, and the people were greatly depressed.

⁴⁰ So they arose early in the morning, and went up into the top of the mountain, saying,—We are here—therefore will we go up into the place as to which Yahweh hath said that we have sinned.

⁴¹ But Moses said, Wherefore is it that, ye, are going beyond the bidding of Yahweh,—since that cannot prosper?

⁴² Do not go up, For Yahweh is not in your midst,—Lest ye be smitten down before your enemies.

⁴³ For, the Amalekites and the Canaanites, are there before you, So shall ye fall by the sword,—For inasmuch as ye have turned back from following Yahweh, Therefore will Yahweh not be with you.