Self-interpreting Bible

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Numbers 14

1The people murmur at the news. 6Joshua and Caleb labour to pacify them. 11God threateneth them. 13Moses intercedeth with God, and obtaineth pardon; 26but the murmurers are excluded from entering into the promised land. 36The men who raised the evil report concerning the land die by a plague. 40The people, that against the will of God would invade the land, are smitten by the inhabitants of it.

1 AND all the congregation alifted up their voice, and cried; and bthe people wept that night.

2 And all the children of Israel cmurmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, dWould God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness!

3 And ewherefore hath the LORD brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a *prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt?

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

5 Then Moses and Aaron gfell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.

6 ¶And hJoshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, irent their clothes:

7 And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, jThe land, which we passed through to search it, is an kexceeding good land.

8 If lthe LORD mdelight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; na land which floweth with milk and honey.

9 Only rebel not ye against the LORD, oneither fear ye the people of the land; for they are pbread for us: their 1defence is departed from them, and the qLORD is with us: fear them not.

10 But all the congregation *bade rstone them with stones. And the sglory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel.

11 ¶And the LORD said unto Moses, tHow long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they ubelieve me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them?

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

13 ¶And wMoses said unto the LORD, xThen the Egyptians shall 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: for they yhave heard that thou LORD art among this people, that thou LORD art seen face to face, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou goest before them, by day time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night.

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

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

17 And now, I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be bgreat, according as thou hast spoken, saying,

18 The LORD is clongsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.

19 dPardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people eaccording unto the greatness of thy mercy, and fas thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even 2until now.

20 And the LORD said, I have gpardoned according to thy word:

21 But as truly as I live, hall the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.

22 iBecause all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have jtempted me now these kten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;

23 Surely 3they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:

24 But my servant lCaleb, because he mhad 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 nthe Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley.) To morrow oturn you, and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea.

26 ¶And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,

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

    28 Say unto them, rAs truly as I live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you:

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

    30 Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I 4sware to make you dwell therein, t*save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.

    31 But your ulittle ones, which ye said should be a *prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know vthe land which ye have despised.

    32 But was for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness.

    33 And your children shall 5wander in the wilderness xforty years, and ybear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.

    34 After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even zforty days, each day for a year, shall ye abear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know 6my breach of promise.

    35 I the LORD have said, bI will surely do it unto all cthis evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.

    36 And the men, which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a dslander upon the land,

    37 Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, edied by the plague before the LORD.

    38 fBut Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of the men that went to search the land, lived still.

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

    40 ¶And they hrose up early in the morning, and *gat them up into the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place which the LORD hath promised: for we have sinned.

    41 And Moses said, iWherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the LORD? but it shall not prosper.

    42 jGo not up, for the LORD is not among you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies.

    43 For kthe Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and ye shall fall by the sword: because ye are turned away from the LORD, therefore the LORD will not be with you.

    44 But they lpresumed to go up unto the hill top: nevertheless mthe ark of the covenant of the LORD, and Moses, departed not out of the camp.

    45 Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and smote them, nand *discomfited them, even unto oHormah.