¹³ Moses said to the Lord, “Then the Egyptians will hear about it! By your power you brought these people up from among them.^{(A) 14} And they will tell the inhabitants of this land about it. They have already heard^(B) that you, Lord, are with these people^(C) and that you, Lord, have been seen face to face,^(D) that your cloud stays over them,^(E) and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.^{(F) 15} If you put all these people to death, leaving none alive, the nations who have heard this report about you will say, ¹⁶ ‘The Lord was not able to bring these people into the land he promised them on oath,^(G) so he slaughtered them in the wilderness.’^(H)

¹⁷ “Now may the Lord’s strength be displayed, just as you have declared: ¹⁸ ‘The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion.^(I) Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.’^{(J) 19} In accordance with your great love, forgive^(K) the sin of these people,^(L) just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now.”^(M)

²⁰ The Lord replied, “I have forgiven them,^(N) as you asked. ²¹ Nevertheless, as surely as I live^(O) and as surely as the glory of the Lord^(P) fills the whole earth,^{(Q) 22} not one of those who saw my glory and the signs^(R) I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times^(S)— ²³ not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath^(T) to their ancestors. No one who has treated me with contempt^(U) will ever see it.^{(V) 24} But because my servant Caleb^(W) has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly,^(X) I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.^{(Y) 25} Since the Amalekites^(Z) and the Canaanites^(AA) are living in the valleys, turn^(AB) back tomorrow and set out toward the desert along the route to the Red Sea.^[a](AC)”

²⁶ The Lord said to Moses and Aaron: ²⁷ “How long will this wicked community grumble against me? I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites.^{(AD) 28} So tell them, ‘As surely as I live,^(AE) declares the Lord, I will do to you^(AF) the very thing I heard you say: ²⁹ In this wilderness your bodies will fall^(AG)—every one of you twenty years old or more^(AH) who was counted in the census^(AI) and who has grumbled against me. ³⁰ Not one of you will enter the land^(AJ) I swore with uplifted hand^(AK) to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh^(AL) and Joshua son of Nun.^{(AM) 31} As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected.^{(AN) 32} But as for you, your bodies will fall^(AO) in this wilderness. ³³ Your children will be shepherds here for forty years,^(AP) suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness. ³⁴ For forty years^(AQ)—one year for each of the forty days you explored the land^(AR)—you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you.’ ³⁵ I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will surely do these things^(AS) to this whole wicked community, which has banded together against me. They will meet their end in this wilderness; here they will die.^(AT)”

³⁶ So the men Moses had sent^(AU) to explore the land, who returned and made the whole community grumble^(AV) against him by spreading a bad report^(AW) about it— ³⁷ these men who were responsible for spreading the bad report^(AX) about the land were struck down and died of a plague^(AY) before the Lord. ³⁸ Of the men who went to explore the land,^(AZ) only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh survived.^(BA)

³⁹ When Moses reported this^(BB) to all the Israelites, they mourned^(BC) bitterly.