Why has the Lord brought us into this land only to be killed by the sword, that our wives and our children should become plunder? Wouldn’t it be better for us to return to Egypt?”

They said to the whole community of the Israelites, “The land we passed through to investigate is an exceedingly good land.

If the Lord delights in us, then he will bring us into this land and give it to us – a land that is flowing with milk and honey.

However, the whole community threatened to stone them. But the glory of the Lord appeared to all the Israelites at the tent of meeting.

Moses said to the Lord, “When the Egyptians hear it – for you brought up this people by your power from among them –

‘Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land that he swore to them, he killed them in the wilderness.’

“How long must I bear with this evil congregation that murmurs against me? I have heard the complaints of the Israelites that they murmured against me.

and your children will wander in the wilderness forty years and suffer for your unfaithfulness, until your dead bodies lie finished in the wilderness.

But Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among the men who went to investigate the land, lived.

“Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘When you enter the land to which I am bringing you

“‘If you sin unintentionally and do not observe all these commandments that the Lord has spoken to Moses –

all that the Lord has commanded you by the authority of Moses, from the day that the Lord commanded Moses and continuing through your future generations –

“‘But the person who acts defiantly, whether native-born or a resident foreigner, insults the Lord. That person must be cut off from among his people.

Because he has despised the word of the Lord and has broken his commandment, that person must be completely cut off. His iniquity will be on him.’”

Then the Lord said to Moses, “The man must surely be put to death; the whole community must stone him with stones outside the camp.”

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord your God.”

When Korah assembled the whole community against them at the entrance of the tent of meeting, then the glory of the Lord appeared to the whole community.

Then Moses said, “This is how you will know that the Lord has sent me to do all these works, for I have not done them of my own will.

So Eleazar the priest took the bronze censers presented by those who had been burned up, and they were hammered out as a covering for the altar.

But on the next day the whole community of Israelites murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying, “You have killed the Lord’s people!”