¹ And all the congregation lifted up their voice, 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 unto them, Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would that we had died in this wilderness!

³ And wherefore doth Jehovah bring us unto this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will be a prey: were it not better for us to return into Egypt?

⁴ And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us 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 And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were of them that spied out the land, rent their clothes:

⁷ and 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.

⁸ If Jehovah delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it unto us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.

⁹ Only rebel not against Jehovah, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is removed from over them, and Jehovah is with us: fear them not.

¹⁰ But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the glory of Jehovah appeared in the tent of meeting unto all the children of Israel.

¹¹ And Jehovah 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?

¹² I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a nation greater and mightier than they.

¹³ And Moses said unto Jehovah, Then the Egyptians will hear it; for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them;

¹⁴ and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that thou Jehovah art in the midst of this people; for thou Jehovah 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.

¹⁵ Now if thou shalt kill this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying,

¹⁶ Because Jehovah was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness.

¹⁷ And now, I pray thee, let the power of the Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying,

¹⁸ Jehovah is slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness, 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.

¹⁹ Pardon, I pray thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy lovingkindness, and according as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.

²⁰ And Jehovah said, I have pardoned according to thy word:

²¹ but in very deed, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of Jehovah;

²² because all those men that 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;

²³ surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that despised me see it:

²⁴ but 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.

²⁵ Now the Amalekite and the Canaanite dwell in the valley: to-morrow turn ye, and get you into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.

²⁶ And Jehovah spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,

²⁷ How long [shall I bear] with this evil congregation, that murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me.

²⁸ Say unto them, As I live, saith Jehovah, surely as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you:

²⁹ your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, that have murmured against me,

³⁰ surely ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware that I would make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.

³¹ But your little ones, that ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have rejected.

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

³³ And your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your whoredoms, until your dead bodies be consumed in the wilderness.

³⁴ After 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.

³⁵ I, Jehovah, 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.

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 against the land,

³⁷ even those men that did bring up an evil report of the land, died by the plague before Jehovah.

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

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

⁴⁰ And they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up to the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we are here, and will go up unto the place which Jehovah hath promised: for we have sinned.

⁴¹ And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of Jehovah, seeing it shall not prosper?

⁴² Go not up, for Jehovah is not among you; that ye be not smitten down before your enemies.

⁴³ For there the Amalekite and the Canaanite are before you, and ye shall fall by the sword: because ye are turned back from following Jehovah, therefore Jehovah will not be with you.

⁴⁴ But they presumed to go up to the top of the mountain: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, and Moses, departed not out of the camp.

⁴⁵ Then the Amalekite came down, and the Canaanite who dwelt in that mountain, and smote them and beat them down, even unto Hormah.

¹ Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of cattle: and when they saw the land of Jazer, and the land of Gilead, that, behold, the place was a place for cattle;

² the children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spake unto Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and unto the princes of the congregation, saying,

³ Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jazer, and Nimrah, and Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Sebam, and Nebo, and Beon,

⁴ the land which Jehovah smote before the congregation of Israel, is a land for cattle; and thy servants have cattle.

⁵ And they said, If we have found favor in thy sight, let this land be given unto thy servants for a possession; bring us not over the Jordan.

⁶ And Moses said unto the children of Gad, and to the children of Reuben, Shall your brethren go to the war, and shall ye sit here?

⁷ And wherefore discourage ye the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which Jehovah hath given them?

⁸ Thus did your fathers, when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to see the land.

⁹ For when they went up unto the valley of Eshcol, and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel, that they should not go into the land which Jehovah had given them.

¹⁰ And Jehovah's anger was kindled in that day, and he sware, saying,

¹¹ Surely none of the men that came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob; because they have not wholly followed me:

¹² save Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, and Joshua the son of Nun; because they have wholly followed Jehovah.

¹³ And Jehovah's anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander to and fro in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation, that had done evil in the sight of Jehovah, was consumed.

¹⁴ And, behold, ye are risen up in your fathers' stead, an increase of sinful men, to augment yet the fierce anger of Jehovah toward Israel.

¹⁵ For if ye turn away from after him, he will yet again leave them in the wilderness; and ye will destroy all this people.

¹⁶ And they came near unto him, and said, We will build sheepfolds here for our cattle, and cities for our little ones:

¹⁷ but we ourselves will be ready armed to go before the children of Israel, until we have brought them unto their place: and our little ones shall dwell in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land.

¹⁸ We will not return unto our houses, until the children of Israel have inherited every man his inheritance.

¹⁹ For we will not inherit with them on the other side of the Jordan, and forward; because our inheritance is fallen to us on this side of the Jordan eastward.

²⁰ And Moses said unto them, If ye will do this thing, if ye will arm yourselves to go before Jehovah to the war,

²¹ and every armed man of you will pass over the Jordan before Jehovah, until he hath driven out his enemies from before him,

²² and the land is subdued before Jehovah; then afterward ye shall return, and be guiltless towards Jehovah, and towards Israel; and this land shall be unto you for a possession before Jehovah.

²³ But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against Jehovah; and be sure your sin will find you out.

²⁴ Build you cities for your little ones, and folds for your sheep; and do that which hath proceeded out of your mouth.

²⁵ And the children of Gad and the children of Reuben spake unto Moses, saying, Thy servants will do as my lord commandeth.

²⁶ Our little ones, our wives, our flocks, and all our cattle, shall be there in the cities of Gilead;

²⁷ but thy servants will pass over, every man that is armed for war, before Jehovah to battle, as my lord saith.

²⁸ So Moses gave charge concerning them to Eleazar the priest, and to Joshua the son of Nun, and to the heads of the fathers' [houses] of the tribes of the children of Israel.

²⁹ And Moses said unto them, If the children of Gad and the children of Reuben will pass with you over the Jordan, every man that is armed to battle, before Jehovah, and the land shall be subdued before you; then ye shall give them the land of Gilead for a possession:

³⁰ but if they will not pass over with you armed, they shall have possessions among you in the land of Canaan.

³¹ And the children of Gad and the children of Reuben answered, saying, As Jehovah hath said unto thy servants, so will we do.

³² We will pass over armed before Jehovah into the land of Canaan, and the possession of our inheritance [shall remain] with us beyond the Jordan.

³³ And Moses gave unto them, even to the children of Gad, and to the children of Reuben, and unto the half-tribe of Manasseh the son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, the land, according to the cities thereof with [their] borders, even the cities of the land round about.

³⁴ And the children of Gad built Dibon, and Ataroth, and Aroer,

³⁵ and Atrothshophan, and Jazer, and Jogbehah,

³⁶ and Beth-nimrah, and Beth-haran: fortified cities, and folds for sheep.

³⁷ And the children of Reuben built Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Kiriathaim,

³⁸ and Nebo, and Baal-meon, (their names being changed,) and Sibmah: and they gave other names unto the cities which they builded.

³⁹ And the children of Machir the son of Manasseh went to Gilead, and took it, and dispossessed the Amorites that were therein.

⁴⁰ And Moses gave Gilead unto Machir the son of Manasseh; and he dwelt therein.

⁴¹ And Jair the son of Manasseh went and took the towns thereof, and called them Havvoth-jair.

⁴² And Nobah went and took Kenath, and the villages thereof, and called it Nobah, after his own name.