3. Is the Lord leading us into Canaan, just to have us killed and our women and children captured? We'd be better off in Egypt.”
4. Then they said to one another, “Let's choose our own leader and go back.”
5. Moses and Aaron bowed down to pray in front of the crowd.
6. Joshua and Caleb tore their clothes in sorrow
7. and said:We saw the land ourselves, and it's very good.
8. If we obey the Lord, he will surely give us that land rich with milk and honey.
9. So don't rebel. We have no reason to be afraid of the people who live there. The Lord is on our side, and they won't stand a chance against us!
22-23. I swear that not one of these Israelites will enter the land I promised to give their ancestors. These people have seen my power in Egypt and in the desert, but they will never see Canaan. They have disobeyed and tested me too many times.
24. But my servant Caleb isn't like the others. So because he has faith in me, I will allow him to cross into Canaan, and his descendants will settle there.
25. Now listen, Moses! The Amalekites and the Canaanites live in the valleys of Canaan. And tomorrow morning, you'll need to turn round and head back into the desert towards the Red Sea.
26. The Lord told Moses and Aaron
27-28. to give this message to the people of Israel:You sinful people have complained against me too many times! Now I swear by my own life that I will give you exactly what you wanted.
29. You will die here in the desert, and your dead bodies will cover the ground. You have insulted me, and none of you men who are over twenty years old
30. will enter the land that I solemnly promised to give you as your own—only Caleb and Joshua will go in.
31. You were worried that your own children would be captured. But I, the Lord, will let them enter the land you have rejected.
32. You will die here in the desert!
33. Your children will wander around in this desert forty years, suffering because of your sins, until all of you are dead.
34. I will cruelly punish you every day for the next forty years—one year for each day that the land was explored.
35. You sinful people who ganged up against me will die here in the desert.
36. Ten of the men sent to explore the land had brought back bad news and had made the people complain against the Lord.
37. So he sent a deadly disease that killed those men,