¹ And it came to pass in the seventh year, in the fifth month, the tenth day of the month: there came men of the ancients of Israel to inquire of the Lord, and they sat before me.

² And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

³ Son of man, speak to the ancients of Israel, and say to them: Thus saith the Lord God: Are you come to inquire of me? As I live, I will not answer you, saith the Lord God.

⁴ If thou judgest them, if thou judgest, son of man, declare to them the abominations of their fathers.

⁵ And say to them: Thus saith the Lord God : In the day when I chose Israel, and lifted up my hand for the race of the house of Jacob: and appeared to them in the land of Egypt, and lifted up my hand for them, saying: I am the Lord your God:

⁶ In that day I lifted up my hand for them, to bring them out of the land of Egypt, into a land which I had provided for them, flowing with milk and honey, which excelleth amongst all lands.

⁷ And I said to them: Let every man cast away the scandals of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

⁸ But they provoked me, and would not hearken to me: they did not every man cast away the abominations of his eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt: and I said I would pour out my indignation upon them, and accomplish my wrath against them in the midst of the land of Egypt.

⁹ But I did otherwise for my name's sake, that it might not be violated before the nations, in the midst of whom they were, and among whom I made myself known to them, to bring them out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁰ Therefore I brought them out from the land of Egypt, and brought them into the desert.

¹¹ And I gave them my statutes, and I shewed them my judgments, which if a man do, he shall live in them.

¹² Moreover I gave them also my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them: and that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them.

¹³ But the house of Israel provoked me in the desert: they walked not in my statutes, and they cast away my judgments, which if a man do he shall live in them: and they grievously violated my sabbaths. I said therefore that I would pour out my indignation upon them in the desert, and would consume them.

¹⁴ But I spared them for the sake of my name, lest it should be profaned before the nations, from which I brought them out, in their sight.

¹⁵ So I lifted up my hand over them in the desert, not to bring them into the land which I had given them flowing with milk and honey, the best of all lands.

¹⁶ Because they cast off my judgments, and walked not in my statutes, and violated my sabbaths: for their heart went after idols.

¹⁷ Yet my eye spared them, so that I destroyed them not: neither did I consume them in the desert.

¹⁸ And I said to their children in the wilderness: Walk not in the statutes of your fathers, and observe not their judgments, nor be ye defiled with their idols:

¹⁹ I am the Lord your God: walk ye in my statutes, and observe my judgments, and do them.

²⁰ And sanctify my sabbaths, that they may be a sign between me and you: and that you may know that I am the Lord your God.

²¹ But their children provoked me, they walked not in my commandments, nor observed my judgments to do them: which if a man do, he shell live in them: and they violated my sabbaths: and I threatened to pour out my indignation upon them, and to accomplish my wrath in them in the desert.

²² But I turned away my hand, and wrought for my name's sake, that it might not be violated before the nations, out of which I brought them forth in their sight.

²³ Again I lifted up my hand upon them in the wilderness, to disperse them among the nations, and scatter them through the countries :

²⁴ Because they had not done my judgments, and had cast off my statutes, and had violated my sabbaths, and their eyes had been after the idols of their fathers.

²⁵ Therefore I also gave them statutes that were not good, and judgments, in which they shall not live.

²⁶ And I polluted them in their own gifts, when they offered all that opened the womb, for their offences: and they shall know that I am the Lord.

²⁷ Wherefore speak to the house of Israel, O son of man, and say to them: Thus saith the Lord God: Moreover in this also your fathers blasphemed me, when they had despised and contemned me;

²⁸ And I had brought them into the land, for which I lifted up my hand to give it them: they saw every high hill, and every shady tree, and there they sacrificed their victims: and there they presented the provocation of their offerings, and there they set their sweet odours, and poured forth their libations.

²⁹ And I said to them: What meaneth the high place to which you go? and the name thereof was called high-place even to this day.

³⁰ Wherefore say to the house of Israel: Thus saith the Lord God: Verily, you are defiled in the way of your fathers, and you commit fornication with their abominations.

³¹ And you defile yourselves with all your: idols unto this day, in the offering of your gifts, when you make your children pass through the fire: and shall I answer you, O house of Israel? As I live, saith the Lord God, I will not answer you.

³² Neither shall the thought of your mind come to pass, by which you say: We will be as the Gentiles, and as the families of the earth, to worship stocks and stones.

³³ As I live, saith the Lord God, I will reign over you with a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out.

³⁴ And I will bring you out from the people, and I will gather you out of the countries, in which you are scattered, I will reign over you with a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out.

³⁵ And I will bring you into the wilderness of people, and there will I plead with you face to face.

³⁶ As I pleaded against your fathers in the desert of the land of Egypt; even so will I judge you, saith the Lord God.

³⁷ And I will make you subject to my sceptre, and will bring you into the bands of the covenant.

³⁸ And I will pick out from among you the transgressors, and the wicked, and will bring them out of the land where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and you shall know that I am the Lord.

³⁹ And as for you, O house of Israel: thus saith the Lord God: Walk ye every one after your idols, and serve them. But if in this also you hear me not, but defile my holy name any more with your gifts, and with your idols;

⁴⁰ In my holy mountain, in the high mountain of Israel, saith the Lord God, there shall all the house of Israel serve me; all of them I say, in the land in which they shall please me, and there will I require your firstfruits, and the chief of your tithes with all your sanctifications.

⁴¹ I will accept of you for an odour of sweetness, when I shall have brought you out from the people, and shall have gathered you out of the lands into which you are scattered, and I will be sanctified in you in the sight of the nations.

⁴² And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall have brought you into the land of Israel, into the land for which I lifted up my hand to give it to your fathers.

⁴³ And there you shall remember your ways, and all your wicked doings with which you have been defiled; and you shall be displeased with yourselves in your own sight, for all your wicked deeds which you committed.

⁴⁴ And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall have done well by you for my own name's sake, and not according to your evil ways, nor according to your wicked deeds, O house of Israel, saith the Lord God.

⁴⁵ And the word of the Lord came to me, saying :

⁴⁶ Son of man, set thy face against the way of the south, and drop towards the south, and prophesy against the forest of the south field.

⁴⁷ And any to the south forest: Hear the word of the Lord: Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I will kindle a fire in thee, and will burn in thee every green tree, and every dry tree: the dame of the fire shall not be quenched: and every face shall be burned in it, from the south even to the north.

⁴⁸ And all flesh shall see, that I the Lord have kindled it, and it shall not be quenched.

⁴⁹ And I said: Ah, ah, ah, O Lord God: they say of me: Doth not this man speak by parables?

¹ Therefore the whole multitude crying wept that night.

² And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying:

³ Would God that we had died in Egypt and would God we may die in this vast wilderness, and that the Lord may not bring us into this land, lest we fall by the sword, and our wives and children be led away captives. Is it not better to return into Egypt?

⁴ And they said one to another: Let us appoint a captain, and let us return into Egypt.

⁵ And when Moses and Aaron heard this, they fell down flat upon the ground before the multitude of the children of Israel.

⁶ But Josue the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephone, who themselves also had viewed the land, rent their garments,

⁷ And said to all the multitude of the children of Israel: The land which we have gone round is very good:

⁸ If the Lord be favourable, he will bring us into it, and give us a land flowing with milk and honey.

⁹ Be not rebellious against the Lord: and fear ye not the people of this land, for we are able to eat them up as bread. All aid is gone from them: the Lord is with us, fear ye not.

¹⁰ And when all the multitude cried out, and would have stoned them, the glory of the Lord appeared over the tabernacle of the covenant to all the children of Israel.

¹¹ And the Lord said to Moses: How long will this people detract me? how long will they not believe me for all the signs that I have wrought before them?

¹² I will strike them therefore with pestilence, and will consume them: but thee I will make a ruler over a great nation, and a mightier than this is.

¹³ And Moses said to the Lord: That the Egyptians, from the midst of whom thou hast brought forth this people,

¹⁴ And the inhabitants of this land, (who have heard that thou, O Lord, art among this people, and art seen face to face, and thy cloud protecteth them, and thou goest before them in a pillar of a cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night,)

¹⁵ May hear that thou hast killed so great a multitude as it were one man and may say:

¹⁶ He could not bring the people into the land for which he had sworn, therefore did he kill them in the wilderness.

¹⁷ Let their the strength of the Lord be magnified, as thou hast sworn, saying:

¹⁸ The Lord is patient and full of mercy, taking away iniquity and wickedness, and leaving no man clear, who visitest the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.

¹⁹ Forgive, I beseech thee, the sins of this people, according to the greatness of thy mercy, as thou hast been merciful to them from their going out of Egypt unto this place.

²⁰ And the Lord said: I have forgiven according to thy word.

²¹ As I live: and the whole earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.

²² But yet all the men that have seen my majesty, and the signs that I have done in Egypt, and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now ten times, and have not obeyed my voice,

²³ Shall not see the land for which I aware to their fathers, neither shall any one of them that hath detracted me behold it.

²⁴ My servant Caleb, who being full of another spirit hath followed me, I will bring into this land which he hath gone round: and his seed shall possess it.

²⁵ For the Amalecite and the Chanaanite dwell in the valleys. To morrow remove the camp, and return into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.

²⁶ And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying:

²⁷ How long doth this wicked multitude murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel.

²⁸ Say therefore to them: As I live, saith the Lord: According as you have spoken in my hearing, so will I do to you.

²⁹ fin the wilderness shall your carcasses lie. All you that were numbered from twenty years old and upward, and have murmured against me,

³⁰ Shall not enter into the land, over which I lifted up my bend to make you dwell therein, except Caleb the son of Jephone, and Josue the son of Nun.

³¹ But your children, of whom you said, that they should be a prey to the enemies, will I bring in: that they may see the land which you have despised.

³² Your carcasses shall lie in the wilderness.

³³ Your children shall wander in the desert forty years, and shall bear your fornication, until the carcasses of their fathers be consumed ill the desert,

³⁴ According to the number of the forty days, wherein you viewed the land: a year shall be counted for a day. And forty years you shall receive your iniquities, and shall know my revenge:

³⁵ For as I have spoken, so will I do to all this wicked multitude, that hath risen up together against me: in this wilderness shall it faint away and die.

³⁶ Therefore all the men, whom Moses had sent to view the land, and who at their return had made the whole multitude to murmur against him, speaking ill of the land that it was naught,

³⁷ Died and were struck in the sight of the Lord.

³⁸ But Josue .the son of Nun. and Caleb the son of Jephone lived, of all them that had gone to view the land.

³⁹ And Moses spoke all these words to all the children of Israel, and the people mourned exceedingly.

⁴⁰ And behold rising up very early in the morning, they went up to the top of the mountain, and said: We are ready to go up to the place, of which the Lord hath spoken: for we have sinned.

⁴¹ And Moses said to them: Why transgress you the word of the Lord, which shall not succeed prosperously with you?

⁴² Go not up, for the Lord is not with you: lest you fall before your enemies.

⁴³ The Amalecite and the Chanaanite are before you, and by their sword you shall fall, because you would not consent to the Lord, neither will the Lord be with you.

⁴⁴ But they being blinded went up to the top of the mountain. But the ark of the testament of the Lord and Moses departed not from the camp.

⁴⁵ And the Amalecite came down, and the Chanaanite that dwelt in the mountain: and smiting and slaying them pursued them as far as Horma.