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14 ‎[1] **The entire congregation **who were present at the time then **raised and sounded their voice; and the people wept that night. **
‎[2] **All the children of Israel complained against Moses and against Aaron; and the entire congregation said to them: If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or in this wilderness; if only we had died **in peace and tranquility.
‎[3] **Why does the Lord bring us to this land, **Canaan, **to fall by the sword? **Rather than living a full life and dying of natural causes, we will instead perish before our time in battle, and **our wives and our children will be **taken **for loot. **Faced with such a prospect, **isn’t it better for us to return to Egypt? **
‎[4] As a result of the crying and commotion, the people’s bitterness and resentment progressively increased. Finally,
**they said one to another: **It is not wise to continue in the direction of Canaan, so instead **let us appoint a leader **9 **and return to Egypt. **
‎[5] Upon hearing this,
**Moses and Aaron fell upon their faces before the entire assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel. **
‎[6] **Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Yefuneh, **who were **from those **men **who **had **scouted the land, rent their garments. **
‎[7] **They said to the entire congregation of the children of Israel, saying: The land through which we passed to scout it, the land is exceedingly good. **
‎[8] As for your concerns,
**if the Lord is favorably disposed to us, He will bring us to this land and will give it to us, a land flowing with milk and honey. **The land is excellent, and our success depends only on God’s will.
‎[9] **However, do not rebel against the Lord **by refusing to enter the land. **And you, **who have received a direct promise from God, **do not fear the people of the land, **even if others might justifiably do so, 10 **as they are **like **our bread; **our triumph over them will be as simple as eating bread. **Their protection has withdrawn from them, **and they have nowhere to shelter and take refuge, **and **by contrast **the Lord is with us; **therefore, **do not fear them. **
‎[10] **The entire congregation said to stone them, **referring to Joshua and Caleb and perhaps also to Moses and Aaron, 11 **with stones, and the glory of the Lord appeared in the Tent of Meeting to all the children of Israel. **
‎[11] It appears that Moses went to the Tent of Meeting, and then
**the Lord said to Moses: Until when will this people scorn **and profane **Me, and until when will they not believe in Me, with, **and despite, **all the signs **and miracles **that I have performed in their midst? **
‎[12] Because of their obstinacy,
**I will smite them, with the pestilence, and I will destroy them, and will make you, **Moses, **into a nation greater and mightier than they. **God thereby indicated His intention to destroy the people, and to wait for a new nation to evolve from Moses’ descendants. Although this nation would in some way be the continuation of the children of Israel, in a more direct sense it would be a new nation called the children of Moses.
‎[13] **Moses said to the Lord: Egypt will hear **what has happened, **that You took up this people **of Israel **with Your might from its midst. **
‎[14] **And **if You destroy them, **they will **then **say to, **meaning about, **the inhabitants of this land **of Canaan, to which the children of Israel were supposed to go; until now **they, **the Egyptians, had **heard that You, the Lord, are **to be found **in the midst of this people; that with their very eyes You, the Lord, were seen **by that people, **and Your cloud stands over them; and in a pillar of cloud You go before them by day, and in a pillar of fire by night. **
‎[15] But
**if You **now suddenly **kill this people as one man **in a plague, the Egyptians and **the nations that have heard of Your renown will **wonder why You have done that. They will conclude that You must have lacked the power to fulfill your promise to them, and **say **that You therefore killed them. They will thereby desecrate Your name, **saying: **
‎[16] Although
**the Lord **did manage to take them out of Egypt, at this time He **lacks ability to bring this people into the land with regard to which He took an oath to them. **He is obviously unable to defeat the nations of Canaan, **and **for that reason **He slaughtered them in the wilderness. **
‎[17] **Now, **therefore, **please, let the might of my Lord be great. **Let Your power be revealed to Israel in a more exalted and loftier way, **as You spoke **and promised me, by teaching Me Your attributes of mercy after the sin of the Golden Calf, 12 **saying: **
‎[18] **The Lord is **patient and **slow to anger and abounding in kindness, bearing iniquity and transgression. But **at the same time, though, **He will not **completely **exonerate **the iniquity. Although God awaits the sinner’s repentance and the sin is then forgiven, it is not entirely cleansed. 13 Rather, He will continue **reckoning the iniquity of the fathers **and enacting restitution for it **upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation. **God is exceedingly merciful, and consequently does not punish one’s descendants eternally for their forefathers’ sins. But He also does not bring the complete punishment upon the sinner at one time, as this would lead to the sinner’s total destruction. Instead, He extends the punishment over several generations and places some of the burden upon the sinner’s descendants, but only until the fourth generation. Furthermore, if the children refrain from committing additional sins, and thereby refrain from evoking the memory of their ancestor’s iniquity, the sin is erased completely and they are not punished at all. 14 These attributes of God are similar to the ones God Himself mentioned in Exodus 34, after the sin of the Golden Calf. However, there are some differences between them; see the chart below. 15
‎[19] **Please pardon the iniquity of this people in accordance with the greatness of Your kindness, and **reduce their severe punishment to a lighter penalty, 16 **as You have **patiently **borne **and forgiven the sin of **this people, from Egypt until now. **
‎[20] **The Lord said: I have pardoned in accordance with your word, **as you requested, since your reasoning is valid. Moses’ prayer succeeded insofar as God annulled the original decree to destroy the entire people at once and replace them with a new nation descended from Moses.
‎[21] **However, as I live, **I swear by My life, **the entire earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. **This was an additional expression of an oath: 17
‎[22] **For all the people who have seen My glory, and My signs, which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, **meaning the entire people of Israel, **and **they **have tested Me these ten times, and have not heeded My voice, **
‎[23] I swear that
**they shall not see the land with regard to which I took an oath to their fathers. And **certainly **all those who scorned Me, **whether they were among those who incited others to rebel, or were themselves incited by others; whether they were seized by terror as a result of the negative report they heard from the scouts, or they objected to Moses’ leadership for personal reasons; they all **shall not see it. **
‎[24] **But **in contrast to them, **My servant Caleb, because another spirit was with him, **and although he had been one of the scouts, he remained fully faithful to My wishes and commands **and he followed Me wholeheartedly, will I **therefore **bring him **at a future time **to the land into which he **already **came. **This time he will enter the land as a conqueror, **and his descendants shall take possession of it. **
‎[25] If you insist on trying to enter the land despite My decree, you will not succeed, as
**the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valley, **and they will prevent you from entering. Therefore, **tomorrow, turn **back **and travel you to the wilderness, **and travel back **by way of the Red Sea. **
‎[26] **The Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying: **
‎[27] **Until when **shall I have tolerance **for this evil congregation that bring complaints against Me? **In this context, the term “congregation” refers mainly to the scouts themselves. 18 **I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel that they, **the scouts, **brought against Me. **
‎[28] Therefore,
**say to them: **I swear **as I live – the utterance of the Lord – surely as you **yourselves **spoke in My ears, **when you said that you will die without succeeding to conquer the land, **so I shall do to you. **
‎[29] **Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness, and **this fate will befall **all those of you who were counted in any of your censuses **taken for any reason, 19 meaning all those **from twenty years old and above, who brought complaints against Me. **Your predictions will come true: You will all die. However, this will not happen as a result of war, but rather after years of wandering in the wilderness.
‎[30] **You shall not come into the land, with regard to which I raised My hand **and took an oath **that I would settle you in it. **None of those who are adults today shall reach the Promised Land, **except for **two single individuals who will be exempt from this decree: **Caleb son of Yefuneh and Joshua son of Nun. **
‎[31] Instead, I will fulfill My promise to
**your children, about whom you said they would be **taken by the Canaanites **for loot. I will bring them **into the land, **and they shall know the land that you have despised. **
‎[32] **But your carcasses, you, shall fall in this wilderness, **which you will not escape.
‎[33] While this is happening,
**your children shall be wandering **about **in the wilderness, **drifting from place to place 20 for **forty years. And **they **shall bear **the consequences of **your harlotry until the demise of your carcasses **falling **in the wilderness, **and all of you have passed away.
‎[34] **In accordance with the number of the days that you scouted the land, forty days, each day for a year, you shall bear your iniquities, **adding up to a total of **forty years. And **as a result of this punishment, **you shall know **the extent of **My estrangement **from you, or how far you have strayed from following Me. 21 Alternatively, this means: You shall know the price of refusing to follow My commands. 22
‎[35] **I am the Lord; I have spoken; surely, I will do this to this entire evil congregation that congregated against Me; in this wilderness they shall expire, and there they shall die. **Only the next generation will conquer the land.
‎[36] **The men whom Moses sent to scout the land and returned and brought the entire congregation to complain against him **continued **to promulgate a slanderous report of the land. **
‎[37] **The men, promulgators of the evil slanderous report of the land, died in the plague before the Lord. **The scouts themselves were the first to die, and they died a difficult, unnatural death. The definite article in the term "the plague" indicates something well-known and terrible. 23
‎[38] **But Joshua son of Nun, and Caleb son of Yefuneh, lived from among those men who went to scout the land. **This was a clear indication that the scouts did not die as a result of some infectious disease they had contracted during their journey, but rather as a direct punishment that afflicted only those who were guilty of circulating slander about the land.
‎[39] **Moses spoke these words to all the children of Israel. **He informed all the adults that as they had rejected the land, and there will be no returning to Egypt, it has been decreed that they will remain in the wilderness until their deaths. **And **upon hearing this, **the people mourned greatly, **since they believed in God and in Moses.
‎[40] Because the children of Israel felt this remorse,
**they awoke early in the morning, and ascended to the top of the mountain, saying: Here we are, and we will ascend to the place that the Lord said, **the land of Canaan. We wish to repair our earlier error, **because we sinned **by refusing to go to the land.
‎[41] But
**Moses said **to them: **Why are you violating the directive of the Lord? **God has already issued His decree and therefore **it, **this initiative of yours, **shall not succeed. **
‎[42] **Do not ascend **to try to fight for the land, **as the Lord is not in your midst. **There is no chance that you will emerge victorious. Consequently, it would be wise to refrain from trying, so **that you will not be struck down before your enemies. **
‎[43] **For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you **on the path leading to the land, **and **if you attempt to enter, **you shall fall by the sword; since you have withdrawn from following the Lord, and **therefore **the Lord will not be with you. **
‎[44] Nevertheless,
**they ventured to go up to the top of the moun- tain **range that stood before them on the way to Canaan; yet **the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, and Moses, did not move from the midst of the camp. **
‎[45] **The Amalekites and the Canaanites, who lived on that mountain, came down and smote them and crushed them, **chasing them **until **a place that later became known as **Horma, **because those people met their destruction [ *ĥorbanam *] there. 24 They were routed in battle and retreated in humiliation.
Version: The Steinsaltz Tanakh - English
Source: https://korenpub.com/collections/the-steinsaltz-tanakh/products/steinsaltz-tanakh
License: Copyright: Steinsaltz Center