That night, the whole camp was filled with weeping. The people lifted their voices and cried out in despair. Their words turned into bitter grumbling against Moses and Aaron:
"If only we had died in Egypt! Or even here in this wilderness! Why has the LORD brought us this far, only for us to be slain by the sword? Our wives and our children will be carried off as plunder. Would it not be better to turn back to Egypt?"
And in their frenzy, they said to one another, "Let us choose a new leader, and return to Egypt."
At these words, Moses and Aaron fell facedown before the entire assembly. But Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who had spied out the land, tore their clothes in anguish. They cried out to the crowd:
"The land we explored is exceedingly good! If the LORD delights in us, He will surely bring us into this land—a land flowing with milk and honey. Do not rebel against the LORD, and do not fear the people of the land, for we will consume them like bread. Their protection has left them, but the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid!"
But the people would not listen. Murmurs of stoning Joshua and Caleb rippled through the assembly. At that very moment, the glory of the LORD appeared at the Tent of Meeting before all Israel.
Then the LORD said to Moses, "How long will these people treat Me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe, despite all the signs I have performed among them? I will strike them down with plague and destroy them. But from you, Moses, I will raise up a nation greater and stronger."
Moses pleaded, "But Lord, if You do this, the Egyptians will hear of it. They know it was by Your power that You brought this people from their midst. They will tell the inhabitants of this land—that You, O LORD, dwell among us, that You go before us in the cloud by day and the fire by night. If You now put this people to death at once, the nations will say: 'The LORD was not able to bring them into the land He promised, so He slaughtered them in the desert.'
Now, let Your strength be shown as You declared: 'The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love, forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet He does not leave the guilty unpunished.' In Your great mercy, forgive these people as You have done from Egypt until now."
And the LORD answered, "I have forgiven them, as you have asked. But as surely as I live, and as surely as My glory fills the earth, not one of the men who saw My miracles in Egypt and the wilderness, yet still disobeyed and tested Me ten times, will see the land I promised. Not one who despised Me will enter it.
But My servant Caleb, who has a different spirit and follows Me wholeheartedly, I will bring into the land, and his descendants shall inherit it. Now, since the Amalekites and Canaanites dwell in the valleys, turn back tomorrow toward the wilderness by way of the Red Sea."
Then the LORD spoke again to Moses and Aaron: "How long will this wicked community grumble against Me? Tell them: 'As surely as I live, declares the LORD, I will do to you exactly as I heard you say. In this wilderness your bodies will fall—every one of you twenty years old and upward who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against Me. Not one will enter the land I swore to give you, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.
But the children you said would be taken as plunder—I will bring them in to enjoy the land you rejected. You, however, will fall in this wilderness. For forty years your children will wander here, bearing the weight of your unfaithfulness—one year for every day you spied out the land. You will learn what it means to have Me against you. I, the LORD, have spoken. Here in this wilderness, you will all meet your end.'"
The men who had spread the bad report about the land were struck down and died by a plague before the LORD. Of the spies, only Joshua and Caleb survived.
When Moses told the people what the LORD had said, they mourned bitterly. Early the next morning, they tried to go up toward the hill country. "We have sinned," they said. "We will go up to the land the LORD promised."
But Moses warned, "Why are you transgressing the LORD's command? This will not succeed. Do not go up, for the LORD is not with you. You will be struck down by your enemies, for you have turned away from Him."
Yet in their pride, they went up toward the high country. But neither Moses nor the Ark of the Covenant moved from the camp. Then the Amalekites and Canaanites who lived in the hills came down, attacked them fiercely, and chased them all the way to Hormah.