1 And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. 2 And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness! 3 And wherefore doth the LORD bring us unto this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones shall be a prey: were it not better for us to return into Egypt? 4 And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt. 5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel. 6 And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that spied out the land, rent their clothes: 7 and they spake unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceeding good land. 8 If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it unto us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. 9 Only rebel not against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is removed from over them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not. 10 But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the glory of the LORD appeared in the tent of meeting unto all the children of Israel. 11 And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this people despise me? and how long will they not believe in me, for all the signs which I have wrought among them? 12 I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a nation greater and mightier than they. 13 And Moses said unto the LORD, Then the Egyptians shall hear it; for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them; 14 and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: they have heard that thou LORD art in the midst of this people; for thou LORD art seen face to face, and thy cloud standeth over them, and thou goest before them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night. 15 Now if thou shalt kill this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, 16 Because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness. 17 And now, I pray thee, let the power of the Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, 18 The LORD is slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and that will by no means clear [the guilty]; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation. 19 Pardon, I pray thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and according as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now. 20 And the LORD said, I have pardoned according to thy word: 21 but in very deed, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD; 22 because all those men which have seen my glory, and my signs, which I wrought in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tempted me these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; 23 surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that despised me see it: 24 but my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it. 25 Now the Amalekite and the Canaanite dwell in the valley: tomorrow turn ye, and get you into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea. 26 And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, 27 How long [shall I bear ]with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me. 28 Say unto them, As I live, saith the LORD, surely as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: 29 your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me, 30 surely ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I lifted up my hand that I would make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. 31 But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have rejected. 32 But as for you, your carcases shall fall in this wilderness. 33 And your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be consumed in the wilderness. 34 After the number of the days in which ye spied out the land, even forty days, for every day a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my alienation. 35 I the LORD have spoken, surely this will I do unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die. 36 And the men, which Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up an evil report against the land, 37 even those men that did bring up an evil report of the land, died by the plague before the LORD. 38 But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, remained alive of those men that went to spy out the land. 39 And Moses told these words unto all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly. 40 And they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up to the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place which the LORD hath promised: for we have sinned. 41 And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the LORD, seeing it shall not prosper? 42 Go not up, for the LORD is not among you; that ye be not smitten down before your enemies. 43 For there the Amalekite and the Canaanite are before you, and ye shall fall by the sword: because ye are turned back from following the LORD, therefore the LORD will not be with you. 44 But they presumed to go up to the top of the mountain: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and Moses, departed not out of the camp. 45 Then the Amalekite came down, and the Canaanite which dwelt in that mountain, and smote them and beat them down, even unto Hormah.
Numbers · Revised Version with Apocrypha
Numbers 14 Revised Version with Apocrypha
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Caleb
The son of Jephunneh from the tribe of Judah and one of the twelve spies, who urged Israel to take the land, followed the LORD wholeheartedly, was promised the land he had walked…
Cited in the guide: Numbers 13:6; Numbers 13:30; Numbers 14:24
Jephunneh
The father of Caleb, the faithful spy of the tribe of Judah, called a Kenizzite in Numbers 32:12.
Cited in the guide: Numbers 13:6; Numbers 14:6; Numbers 32:12
Moses
Drawn from the Nile, he led Israel out of Egypt and received God's Law.
Cited in the guide: Exodus 2–Deuteronomy 34
Cross references (44)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Deuteronomy 1:45; Numbers 11:1–4
- 2 Exodus 15:24; Numbers 16:41; Exodus 17:3; 1 Corinthians 10:10; Numbers 14:27–29
- 3 Numbers 14:31–32; Jeremiah 9:3; Psalm 78:40
- 4 Acts 7:39; Nehemiah 9:16–17; Luke 17:32; Deuteronomy 17:16; Deuteronomy 28:68
- 5 Numbers 16:4; Numbers 16:22; Numbers 16:45; Ezekiel 9:8; Leviticus 9:24
- 6 Numbers 14:30; Numbers 13:30; Numbers 13:6; Numbers 14:38; Numbers 13:8
- 7 Numbers 13:27; Deuteronomy 1:25; Deuteronomy 6:10–11; Deuteronomy 8:7–9
- 8 2 Samuel 22:20; Isaiah 62:4; Numbers 13:27; Deuteronomy 10:15; Psalm 147:10–11
- 9 Deuteronomy 7:18; Deuteronomy 31:6; Romans 8:31; Deuteronomy 31:8; Psalm 74:14
- 10 Exodus 17:4; 1 Samuel 30:6; Leviticus 9:23; Exodus 16:10; Matthew 23:37
- 11 Psalm 78:32; Psalm 106:24; Psalm 78:22; Psalm 78:41–42; Deuteronomy 9:22–23
- 12 Exodus 32:10; Numbers 16:46–49; Numbers 25:9; 2 Samuel 24:1; 2 Samuel 24:12–15
- 13 Psalm 106:23; Exodus 32:11–14; Ezekiel 20:9; Deuteronomy 32:27; Deuteronomy 9:26–28
- 14 Exodus 15:14; Exodus 13:21–22; Nehemiah 9:12; Deuteronomy 5:4; Exodus 33:11
- 15 Judges 6:16
- 16 Deuteronomy 9:28; Joshua 7:9; Joshua 7:7; Deuteronomy 32:26–27
- 17 Matthew 9:8; Matthew 9:6; Micah 3:8
- 18 Exodus 34:6–7; Psalm 145:8; Exodus 20:5; Jonah 4:2; Nahum 1:2–3
- 19 Exodus 34:9; Psalm 106:45; Psalm 78:38; Exodus 32:32; Jonah 4:2
- 20 Micah 7:18–20; Psalm 106:23; James 5:16
- 21 Habakkuk 2:14; Psalm 72:19; Isaiah 6:3; Isaiah 49:18; Deuteronomy 32:40
- 22 Hebrews 3:17–18; Genesis 31:7; Job 19:3; Exodus 32:1; Deuteronomy 1:31–35
- 23 Numbers 32:11; Numbers 26:64; Ezekiel 20:15; Deuteronomy 1:35–45; Hebrews 3:17–18
- 24 Joshua 14:6–14; Numbers 14:6–9; Numbers 32:11–12; Deuteronomy 1:36; Acts 11:23
- 25 Deuteronomy 1:40; Numbers 13:29; Numbers 14:4; Psalm 81:11–13; Proverbs 1:31
- 27 Exodus 16:12; 1 Corinthians 10:10; Exodus 16:28; Mark 9:19; Numbers 14:11
- 28 Numbers 14:21; Hebrews 3:17; Numbers 14:2; Deuteronomy 1:35; Numbers 14:23
- 29 Numbers 1:45; Numbers 26:64; Hebrews 3:17; 1 Corinthians 10:5; Numbers 14:32–33
- 30 Deuteronomy 1:36–38; Numbers 14:38; Numbers 26:65; Genesis 14:22; Numbers 32:12
- 31 Deuteronomy 1:39; Psalm 106:24; Numbers 26:64; Numbers 26:6; Numbers 14:3
- 32 1 Corinthians 10:5; Numbers 14:29; Hebrews 3:17
- 33 Numbers 32:13; Ezekiel 23:35; Psalm 107:40; Deuteronomy 2:14; Numbers 33:38
- 34 Ezekiel 4:6; Numbers 13:25; Jeremiah 18:9–10; Daniel 9:24; 2 Chronicles 36:21
- 35 Numbers 23:19; 1 Corinthians 10:5; Numbers 26:65; Hebrews 3:19; 1 Corinthians 10:11
- 36 Numbers 13:31–33; Numbers 13:4–16
- 37 1 Corinthians 10:10; Numbers 16:49; Numbers 14:12; Hebrews 3:17; Jeremiah 29:32
- 38 Joshua 14:6–10; Numbers 26:65
- 39 Exodus 33:4; Hebrews 12:17; Proverbs 19:3; Matthew 8:12; Isaiah 26:16
- 40 Deuteronomy 1:41; Matthew 7:21–23; Ecclesiastes 9:3; Luke 13:25; Matthew 26:11–12
- 41 2 Chronicles 24:20; Numbers 14:25; Job 4:9; Jeremiah 2:37; Jeremiah 32:5
- 42 Deuteronomy 1:42; Joshua 7:12; Joshua 7:8; Psalm 44:1–11
- 43 2 Chronicles 15:2; Numbers 13:29; Numbers 14:25; Judges 16:20; Hosea 9:12
- 44 Deuteronomy 1:43; 1 Samuel 4:3–11; Numbers 10:33; Numbers 31:6; Numbers 15:30
- 45 Numbers 21:3; Judges 1:17; Deuteronomy 1:44; Numbers 14:43; Joshua 7:5
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
Those, doubtless, who do believe God, and who have continued in His love; as did Caleb [the son] of Jephunneh and Joshua [the son] of Nun, and innocent children, who have had no sense of evil.