Numbers 14 :: New International Version (NIV)

The People Rebel

Num 14:1That night all the members of the community raised their voices and wept aloud.

Num 14:2All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, “If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this wilderness!

Num 14:3

Num 14:3Why is the LORD bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?”

Num 14:4

Num 14:4And they said to each other, “We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”

Num 14:5

Num 14:5Then Moses and Aaron fell facedown in front of the whole Israelite assembly gathered there.

Num 14:6

Num 14:6Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes

Num 14:7

Num 14:7and said to the entire Israelite assembly, “The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good.

Num 14:8

Num 14:8If the LORD is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us.

Num 14:9

Num 14:9Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them.”

Num 14:10

Num 14:10But the whole assembly talked about stoning them. Then the glory of the LORD appeared at the tent of meeting to all the Israelites.

Num 14:11

Num 14:11The LORD said to Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs I have performed among them?

Num 14:12

Num 14:12I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them, but I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than they.”

Num 14:13

Num 14:13Moses said to the LORD, “Then the Egyptians will hear about it! By your power you brought these people up from among them.

Num 14:14

Num 14:14And they will tell the inhabitants of this land about it. They have already heard that you, LORD, are with these people and that you, LORD, have been seen face to face, that your cloud stays over them, and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

Num 14:15

Num 14:15If you put all these people to death, leaving none alive, the nations who have heard this report about you will say,

Num 14:16

Num 14:16‘The LORD was not able to bring these people into the land he promised them on oath, so he slaughtered them in the wilderness.’

Num 14:17

Num 14:17“Now may the Lord’s strength be displayed, just as you have declared:

Num 14:18

Num 14:18‘The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.’

Num 14:19

Num 14:19In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now.”

Num 14:20

Num 14:20The LORD replied, “I have forgiven them, as you asked.

Num 14:21

Num 14:21Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the LORD fills the whole earth,

Num 14:22

Num 14:22not one of those who saw my glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times—

Num 14:23

Num 14:23not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their ancestors. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it.

Num 14:24

Num 14:24But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.

Num 14:25

Num 14:25Since the Amalekites and the Canaanites are living in the valleys, turn back tomorrow and set out toward the desert along the route to the Red Sea.[fn]”

Num 14:26

Num 14:26The LORD said to Moses and Aaron:

Num 14:27

Num 14:27“How long will this wicked community grumble against me? I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites.

Num 14:28

Num 14:28So tell them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the LORD, I will do to you the very thing I heard you say:

Num 14:29

Num 14:29In this wilderness your bodies will fall—every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me.

Num 14:30

Num 14:30Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.

Num 14:31

Num 14:31As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected.

Num 14:32

Num 14:32But as for you, your bodies will fall in this wilderness.

Num 14:33

Num 14:33Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness.

Num 14:34

Num 14:34For forty years—one year for each of the forty days you explored the land—you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you.’

Num 14:35

Num 14:35I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will surely do these things to this whole wicked community, which has banded together against me. They will meet their end in this wilderness; here they will die.”

Num 14:36

Num 14:36So the men Moses had sent to explore the land, who returned and made the whole community grumble against him by spreading a bad report about it—

Num 14:37

Num 14:37these men who were responsible for spreading the bad report about the land were struck down and died of a plague before the LORD.

Num 14:38

Num 14:38Of the men who went to explore the land, only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh survived.

(Deu 1:41–45 )

Num 14:39

Num 14:39When Moses reported this to all the Israelites, they mourned bitterly.

Num 14:40

Num 14:40Early the next morning they set out for the highest point in the hill country, saying, “Now we are ready to go up to the land the LORD promised. Surely we have sinned!”

Num 14:41

Num 14:41But Moses said, “Why are you disobeying the LORD’s command? This will not succeed!

Num 14:42

Num 14:42Do not go up, because the LORD is not with you. You will be defeated by your enemies,

Num 14:43

Num 14:43for the Amalekites and the Canaanites will face you there. Because you have turned away from the LORD, he will not be with you and you will fall by the sword.”

Num 14:44

Num 14:44Nevertheless, in their presumption they went up toward the highest point in the hill country, though neither Moses nor the ark of the LORD’s covenant moved from the camp.

Num 14:45

Num 14:45Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and attacked them and beat them down all the way to Hormah.

See the NIV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

NIV Footnotes

(14:25)

Or the Sea of Reeds

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Numbers Chapter 14 — Additional Translations:

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Numbers 14 :: New International Version (NIV)

The People Rebel

NIV Footnotes

Numbers Chapter 14 — Additional Translations:

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