The LORD said to Moses, “Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites.” So Moses sent them out.
So they went up and explored the land. They cut off a branch bearing a single cluster of grapes. Two of them carried it on a pole between them. At the end of forty days they returned from exploring the land. They reported to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land.
They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large.”
Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”
But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are. All the people we saw there are of great size. We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”
That night all the people of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, “If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this desert! Why 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?” And they said to each other, “We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”
Then the glory of the LORD appeared at the Tent of Meeting to all the Israelites. The 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 miraculous signs I have performed among them?
“Not one of the men who saw my glory and the miraculous signs I performed in Egypt and in the desert but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times—not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their forefathers. NO ONE WHO HAS TREATED ME WITH CONTEMPT WILL EVER SEE IT. But 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.”
“Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb and Joshua. Your bodies will fall in this desert. Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the desert.”
New International Version ©1984, Abrdgd, EMPHASES Added
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