23. I thought that was a good idea, so I chose twelve of your men, one for each tribe.
24. They left and went up to the mountains, and when they came to the Valley of Eshcol they explored it.
25. They took some of the fruit from that land and brought it down to us, saying, “It is a good land that the Lord our God is giving us.”
26. But you refused to go. You would not obey the command of the Lord your God,
27. but grumbled in your tents, saying, “The Lord hates us. He brought us out of Egypt just to give us to the Amorites, who will destroy us.
28. Where can we go now? The spies we sent have made us afraid, because they said, ‘The people there are stronger and taller than we are. The cities are big, with walls up to the sky. And we saw the Anakites there!’ ”
29. Then I said to you, “Don’t be frightened; don’t be afraid of those people.
30. The Lord your God will go ahead of you and fight for you as he did in Egypt; you saw him do it.
31. And in the desert you saw how the Lord your God carried you, like one carries a child. And he has brought you safely all the way to this place.”
32. But you still did not trust the Lord your God, even though
33. he had always gone before you to find places for you to camp. In a fire at night and in a cloud during the day, he showed you which way to go.
34. When the Lord heard what you said, he was angry and made an oath, saying,
35. “I promised a good land to your ancestors, but none of you evil people will see it.
36. Only Caleb son of Jephunneh will see it. I will give him and his descendants the land he walked on, because he followed the Lord completely.”
37. Because of you, the Lord was also angry with me and said, “You won’t enter the land either,
38. but your assistant, Joshua son of Nun, will enter it. Encourage him, because he will lead Israel to take the land for their own.