Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, everyone at the door of his tent; and when the anger of the Lord was kindled greatly, Moses was also displeased.

Would they have enough if the flocks and herds were slaughtered for them? If all the fish of the sea were caught for them, would they have enough?”

Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for me? I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!”

So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran at the command of the Lord. All of them were leaders of the Israelites.

These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to investigate the land. And Moses gave Hoshea son of Nun the name Joshua.

We even saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak came from the Nephilim), and we seemed liked grasshoppers both to ourselves and to them.”

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.’”