Bamidbar (Numbers) — 14

Yashar'AL Refuses to Enter Canaan

1 So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. 

2 And all the children of Yashar'AL complained against Musha and Aarun, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Mitzraym! Or if only we had died in this wilderness! 

3 Why has 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Mitzraym?” 

4 So they said to one another, “Let us select a leader and return to Mitzraym.”

5 Then Musha and Aarun fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Yashar'AL.

6 But Yahusha Ba'Nun and Caleb the son of Yaphunnah, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes; 

7 and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Yashar'AL, saying: “The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. 

8 If 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, ‘a land which flows with milk and honey.’ 

9 Only do not rebel against 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH is with us. Do not fear them.”

10 And all the congregation said to stone them with stones. Now the Kabad of  𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH appeared in the tabernacle of meeting before all the children of Yashar'AL.

Musha Intercedes for the People

11 Then 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH Dabar to Musha: “How long will these people reject Me? And how long will they not believe Me, with all the signs which I have performed among them? 

12 I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”

13 And Musha said to 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH: “Then the Mitzraym will hear it, for by Your might You brought these people up from among them,

14 and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that You,  𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH, are among these people; that You, 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH, are seen face to face and Your cloud stands above them, and You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. 

15 Now if You kill these people as one man, then the nations which have heard of Your fame will speak, saying, 

16 ‘Because 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH was not able to bring this people to the land which He swore to give them, therefore He killed them in the wilderness.’ 

17 And now, I pray, let the power of my  𐤀𐤋𐤅𐤄_ALUAH be great, just as You have spoken, saying, 

18 For 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH is longsuffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.’ 

19 Pardon the iniquity of this people, I pray, according to the greatness of Your mercy, just as You have forgiven this people, from Mitzraym even until now.”

20 Then 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH Dabar: “I have pardoned, according to your word; 

21 but truly, as I live, all the Arath shall be filled with the Kabad of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH,

22 because all these men who have seen My Kabad and the signs which I did in Mitzraym and in the wilderness, and have put Me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded My voice, 

23 they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it. 

24 But My servant Calab, because he has a different ruach in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring him into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it. 

25 Now the Amalakites and the Canaanites dwell in the valley; tomorrow turn and move out into the wilderness by the Way of the Red Sea.”

Death Sentence on the Rebels

26 And 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH spoke to Musha and Aarun, saying, 

27 “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who complain against Me? I have heard the complaints which the children of Yashar'AL make against Me. 

28 Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says  𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you: 

29 The carcasses of you who have complained against Me shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who were numbered, according to your entire number, from twenty years old and above. 

30 Except for Calab the son of Yaphunnah and Yahusha the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the land which I swore I would make you dwell in. 

31 But your little ones, whom you said would be victims, I will bring in, and they shall know the land which you have despised. 

32 But as for you, your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness. 

33 And your sons shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years, and bear the brunt of your infidelity, until your carcasses are consumed in the wilderness. 

34 According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for each day you shall bear your guilt one year, namely forty years, and you shall know My rejection. 

35 I 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH have spoken this. I will surely do so to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.’ ”

36 Now the men whom Musha sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation complain against  𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH by bringing a bad report of the land,

 37 those very men who brought the evil report about the land, died by the plague before  𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH. 

38 But Yahusha the son of Nun and Calab the son of Yaphunnah remained alive, of the men who went to spy out the land.

A Futile Invasion Attempt

39 Then Musha told these words to all the children of Yashar'AL, and the people mourned greatly. 

40 And they rose early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, “Here we are, and we will go up to the place which 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH has promised, for we have sinned!”

41 And Musha said, “Now why do you transgress the command of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH? For this will not succeed. 

42 Do not go up lest you be defeated by your enemies, for 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH is not among you

43 For the Amalakites and the Canaanites  are there before you, and you shall fall by the sword; because you have turned away from 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH, for 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH will not be with you.”

44 But they presumed to go up to the mountaintop. Nevertheless, neither the ark of the covenant of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH nor Musha departed from the camp. 

45 Then the Amalakites and the Canaanites who dwelt in that mountain came down and attacked them, and drove them back as far as Hurmah.