אֵת

So they went up and spied out the land from the Wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob, toward Lebo-hamath.

…and they went back to Moses, Aaron, and the whole congregation of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. They brought back a report for the whole congregation and showed them the fruit of the land.

Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “We must go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly conquer it!”

So they gave the Israelites a bad report about the land that they had spied out: “The land we explored devours its inhabitants, and all the people we saw there are great in stature.

We even saw the Nephilim there—the descendants of Anak that come from the Nephilim! We seemed like grasshoppers in our own sight, and we must have seemed the same to them!”

Then the whole congregation lifted up their voices and cried out, and that night the people wept.

Why is the LORD bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and children will become plunder. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?”

Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes

…and said to the whole congregation of Israel, “The land we passed through and explored is an exceedingly good land.

If the LORD delights in us, He will bring us into this land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and He will give it to us.

Only do not rebel against the LORD, and do not be afraid of the people of the land, for they will be like bread for us. Their protection has been removed, and the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them!”

But the whole congregation threatened to stone Joshua and Caleb. Then the glory of the LORD appeared to all the Israelites at the Tent of Meeting.

I will strike them with a plague and destroy them—and I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they are.”

But Moses said to the LORD, “The Egyptians will hear of it, for by Your strength You brought this people from among them.

If You kill this people as one man, the nations who have heard of Your fame will say,

‘Because the LORD was unable to bring this people into the land He swore to give them, He has slaughtered them in the wilderness.’

“Yet as surely as I live and as surely as the whole earth is filled with the glory of the LORD,

…not one of the men who have seen My glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness—yet have tested Me and disobeyed Me these ten times—

…not one will ever see the land that I swore to give their fathers. None of those who have treated Me with contempt will see it.

“How long will this wicked congregation grumble against Me? I have heard the complaints that the Israelites are making against Me.

Surely none of you will enter the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.

But I will bring your children, whom you said would become plunder, into the land you have rejected—and they will enjoy it.

Your children will be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness.

In keeping with the forty days you spied out the land, you shall bear your guilt forty years—a year for each day—and you will experience My alienation.

So the men Moses had sent to spy out the land, who had returned and made the whole congregation grumble against him by bringing out a bad report about the land—

Of those men who had gone to spy out the land, only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh remained alive.

And when Moses relayed these words to all the Israelites, the people mourned bitterly.

But Moses said, “Why are you transgressing the commandment of the LORD? This will not succeed!

Everyone who is native-born shall prepare these things in this way when he presents a food offering as a pleasing aroma to the LORD.

“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you enter the land to which I am bringing you

From the first of your dough, you are to lift up a cake as a contribution; offer it just like an offering from the threshing floor.

Now if you stray unintentionally and do not obey all these commandments that the LORD has spoken to Moses—

…all that the LORD has commanded you through Moses from the day the LORD gave them and continuing through the generations to come—

The priest is to make atonement for the whole congregation of Israel, so that they may be forgiven; for the sin was unintentional and they have brought to the LORD a food offering and a sin offering, presented before the LORD for their unintentional sin.

But the person who sins defiantly, whether a native or foreigner, blasphemes the LORD. That person shall be cut off from among his people.

He shall certainly be cut off, because he has despised the word of the LORD and broken His commandment; his guilt remains on him.”

Those who found the man gathering wood brought him to Moses, Aaron, and the whole congregation,