<t /><n id="1" /><p class="bodytext">On the twentieth day of the second month, in the second year, the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle of the testimony.<n id="2" />

Then Moses summoned<n id="1" /> Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, but they said, &#8220;We will not come up.<n id="2" />

He then asked, &#8220;Which invasion route are we going to take?&#8221;<n id="1" /> Jehoram<n id="2" /> answered, &#8220;By the road through the Desert of Edom.&#8221;

They say, &#8220;Let&#8217;s attack Judah, terrorize it, and conquer it.<n id="1" /> Then we&#8217;ll set up the son of Tabeel as its king.&#8221;<n id="2" />

<p class="bodytext">Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses, saying, &#8220;Let us go up<n id="1" /> and occupy it,<n id="2" /> for we are well able to conquer it.&#8221;<n id="3" />

Then the Israelites said to him, &#8220;We will go along the highway, and if we<n id="1" /> or our cattle drink any of your water, we will pay for it. We will only pass through on our feet, without doing anything else.&#8221;p>

If they say to us, &#8216;Stay put until we approach you,&#8217; we will stay<n id="1" /> right there and not go up to them.

Joab replied, &#8220;As surely as God lives, if you had not said this, it would have been morning before the people would have abandoned pursuit<n id="1" /> of their brothers!&#8221;

<p class="poetry">The nobles of the nations assemble,p> <p class="poetry">along with the people of the God of Abraham,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">for God has authority over the rulers<n id="2" /> of the earth.p> <p class="poetry">He is highly exalted!<n id="3" />p>

Moreover,<n id="1" /> you have not brought us into a land that flows with milk and honey, nor given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Do you think you can blind<n id="2" /> these men? We will not come up.&#8221;p>

So all of you approached me and said, &#8220;Let&#8217;s send some men ahead of us to scout out the land and bring us back word as to how we should attack it and what the cities are like there.&#8221;

<t /><p class="bodytext">Then you responded to me and admitted, &#8220;We have sinned against the <sc>Lordsc>. We will now go up and fight as the <sc>Lordsc> our God has told us to do.&#8221; So you each put on your battle gear and prepared to go up to the hill country.

<p class="bodytext">Then the glory of the God of Israel went up from the cherub where it had rested to the threshold of the temple.<n id="1" /> He called to the man dressed in linen who had the writing kit at his side.