¹ And all the company lifteth up and give forth their voice, and the people weep during that night;

² and all the sons of Israel murmur against Moses, and against Aaron, and all the company say unto them, `O that we had died in the land of Egypt, or in this wilderness, O that we had died!

³ and why is Jehovah bringing us in unto this land to fall by the sword? our wives and our infants are become a prey; is it not good for us to turn back to Egypt?'

⁴ And they say one unto another, `Let us appoint a head, and turn back to Egypt.'

⁵ And Moses falleth -- Aaron also -- on their faces, before all the assembly of the company of the sons of Israel.

⁶ And Joshua son of Nun, and Caleb son of Jephunneh, of those spying the land, have rent their garments,

⁷ and they speak unto all the company of the sons of Israel, saying, `The land into which we have passed over to spy it, [is] a very very good land;

⁸ if Jehovah hath delighted in us, then He hath brought us in unto this land, and hath given it to us, a land which is flowing with milk and honey;

⁹ only, against Jehovah rebel not ye: and ye, fear not ye the people of the land, for our bread they [are]; their defence hath turned aside from off them, and Jehovah [is] with us; fear them not.'

¹⁰ And all the company say to stone them with stones, and the honour of Jehovah hath appeared in the tent of meeting unto all the sons of Israel.

¹¹ And Jehovah saith unto Moses, `Until when doth this people despise Me? and until when do they not believe in Me, for all the signs which I have done in its midst?

¹² I smite it with pestilence, and dispossess it, and make thee become a nation greater and mightier than it.'

¹³ And Moses saith unto Jehovah, `Then have the Egyptians heard! for Thou hast brought up with Thy power this people out of their midst,

¹⁴ and they have said [it] unto the inhabitant of this land, they have heard that Thou, Jehovah, [art] in the midst of this people, that eye to eye Thou art seen -- O Jehovah, and Thy cloud is standing over them, -- and in a pillar of cloud Thou art going before them by day, and in a pillar of fire by night.

¹⁵ `And Thou hast put to death this people as one man, and the nations who have heard Thy fame have spoken, saying,

¹⁶ From Jehovah's want of ability to bring in this people unto the land which He hath sworn to them -- He doth slaughter them in the wilderness.

¹⁷ `And now, let, I pray Thee, the power of my Lord be great, as Thou hast spoken, saying:

¹⁸ Jehovah [is] slow to anger, and of great kindness; bearing away iniquity and transgression, and not entirely acquitting, charging iniquity of fathers on sons, on a third [generation], and on a fourth; --

¹⁹ forgive, I pray Thee, the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of Thy kindness, and as Thou hast borne with this people from Egypt, even until now.'

²⁰ And Jehovah saith, `I have forgiven, according to thy word;

²¹ and yet, I live -- and it is filled -- the whole earth -- [with] the honour of Jehovah;

²² for all the men who are seeing My honour, and My signs, which I have done in Egypt, and in the wilderness, and try Me these ten times, and have not hearkened to My voice --

²³ they see not the land which I have sworn to their fathers, yea, none of those despising Me see it;

²⁴ and My servant Caleb, because there hath been another spirit with him, and he is fully after Me -- I have brought him in unto the land whither he hath entered, and his seed doth possess it.

²⁵ `And the Amalekite and the Canaanite are dwelling in the valley; to-morrow turn ye and journey for yourselves into the wilderness -- the way of the Red Sea.'

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

²⁷ `Until when hath this evil company that which they are murmuring against Me? the murmurings of the sons of Israel, which they are murmuring against Me, I have heard;

²⁸ say unto them, I live -- an affirmation of Jehovah -- if, as ye have spoken in Mine ears -- so I do not to you;

²⁹ in this wilderness do your carcases fall, even all your numbered ones, to all your number, from a son of twenty years and upward, who have murmured against Me;

³⁰ ye -- ye come not in unto the land which I have lifted up My hand to cause you to tabernacle in it, except Caleb son of Jephunneh, and Joshua son of Nun.

³¹ `As to your infants -- of whom ye have said, A spoil they are become -- I have even brought them in, and they have known the land which ye have kicked against;

³² as to you -- your carcases do fall in this wilderness,

³³ and your sons are evil in the wilderness forty years, and have borne your whoredoms till your carcases are consumed in the wilderness;

³⁴ by the number of the days [in] which ye spied the land, forty days, -- a day for a year, a day for a year -- ye do bear your iniquities, forty years, and ye have known my breaking off;

³⁵ I [am] Jehovah, I have spoken; if I do not this to all this evil company who are meeting against me; -- in this wilderness they are consumed, and there they die.'

³⁶ And the men whom Moses hath sent to spy the land, and they turn back and cause all the company to murmur against him, by bringing out an evil account concerning the land,

³⁷ even the men bringing out an evil account of the land die by the plague before Jehovah;

³⁸ and Joshua son of Nun, and Caleb son of Jephunneh, have lived of those men who go to spy out the land.

³⁹ And Moses speaketh these words unto all the sons of Israel, and the people mourn exceedingly,

⁴⁰ and they rise early in the morning, and go up unto the top of the mountain, saying, `Here we [are], and we have come up unto the place which Jehovah hath spoken of, for we have sinned.'

⁴¹ And Moses saith, `Why [is] this? -- ye are transgressing the command of Jehovah, and it doth not prosper;

⁴² go not up, for Jehovah is not in your midst, and ye are not smitten before your enemies;

⁴³ for the Amalekite and the Canaanite [are] there before you, and ye have fallen by the sword, because that ye have turned back from after Jehovah, and Jehovah is not with you.'

⁴⁴ And they presume to go up unto the top of the mountain, and the ark of the covenant of Jehovah and Moses have not departed out of the midst of the camp.

⁴⁵ And the Amalekite and the Canaanite who are dwelling in that mountain come down and smite them, and beat them down -- unto Hormah.

¹ Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

² "Send men, that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel. Of every tribe of their fathers, you shall Send a man, every one a prince among them."

³ Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran according to the commandment of Yahweh: all of them men who were heads of the children of Israel.

⁴ These were their names: Of the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur.

⁵ Of the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori.

⁶ Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh.

⁷ Of the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph.

⁸ Of the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Nun.

⁹ Of the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu.

¹⁰ Of the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi.

¹¹ Of the tribe of Joseph, [namely], of the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi.

¹² Of the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli.

¹³ Of the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael.

¹⁴ Of the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi.

¹⁵ Of the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi.

¹⁶ These are the names of the men who Moses sent to spy out the land. Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun Joshua.

¹⁷ Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, "Go up this way by the South, and Go up into the hill country:

¹⁸ and see the land, what it is; and the people who dwell therein, whether they are strong or weak, whether they are few or many;

¹⁹ and what the land is that they dwell in, whether it is good or bad; and what cities they are that they dwell in, whether in camps, or in strongholds;

²⁰ and what the land is, whether it is fat or lean, whether there is wood therein, or not. Be courageous, and bring 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 brought] also of the pomegranates, and of the 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, and 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, and showed them the fruit of the land.

²⁷ They told him, and said, "We came to the land where you sent us; and 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 great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there.

²⁹ Amalek dwells in the land of the South: and the Hittite, and the Jebusite, and the Amorite, dwell in the hill country; and the Canaanite dwells by the sea, and along by the side of the Jordan."

³⁰ Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, "Let us 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 of the Nephilim: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight."