23. The plan was good in my opinion, and so I took from among you twelve men, one from each tribe.
24. And they set out and went up into the hill country, and they went up to the wadi of Eschol, and they spied out the land.
25. They took in their hands some of the fruit of the land, and they brought it down to us, and they brought to us back a report, and they said, ‘The land that Yahweh our God is giving to us is good.’
26. But you were not willing to go up, and you rebelled against the command of Yahweh your God.
27. And you grumbled in your tents, and you said, ‘Because of the hatred of Yahweh toward us he has brought us out from the land of Egypt to give us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us.
28. Where can we go up? Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, “The people are greater and taller than we are, and there are great fortified cities reaching up to heaven, and we saw the sons of the Anakites living there.” ’
29. “And so I said to you, ‘Do not be terrified, and do not fear them.
30. Yahweh your God, who is going before you, will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes,
31. and just as he did in the wilderness when you saw that Yahweh your God carried you, just as someone carries his son, all along the way that you traveled until you reached this place.’
32. But through all of this you did not trust in Yahweh your God,
33. who goes before you on your way, seeking a place for your encampment, in fire at night and in a cloud by day, to show you the way that you should go.
34. “Then Yahweh heard the sound of your words, and he was angry, and he swore, saying,
35. ‘No one of these men of this evil generation will see the good land that I swore to give to your ancestors,
36. except Caleb, the son of Jephunneh; he himself shall see it, and to him I will give the land upon which he has trodden and to his sons because he followed Yahweh unreservedly.’
37. Even with me Yahweh was angry because of you, saying, ‘Not even you shall enter there.
38. Joshua, the son of Nun, your assistant, will go there; encourage him because he will cause Israel to inherit it.
39. And your little children, who you thought shall become plunder, and your sons, who do not today know good or bad, shall themselves go there, and I will give it to them, and they shall take possession of it.
40. But you turn and set out in the direction of the wilderness by way of the Red Sea.’
41. “You replied and said to me, ‘We have sinned against Yahweh, and now we will go up and fight according to all that Yahweh our God commanded us’; and so each man fastened on his battle gear, and you regarded it as easy to go up into the hill country.
42. So Yahweh said to me, ‘Say to them, “You shall not go up, and you shall not fight because I am not in your midst; you will be defeated before your enemies.” ’