The Wilderness Years

But yet all the men that have seen my majesty, and the signs that I have done in Egypt, and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now ten times, and have not obeyed my voice,

Shall not see the land for which I swore to their fathers, neither shall any one of them that hath detracted me behold it.

My servant Caleb, who being full of another spirit hath followed me, I will bring into this land which he hath gone round: and his seed shall possess it.

For the Amalecite and the Chanaanite dwell in the valleys. To morrow remove the camp, and return into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.

And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying:

How long doth this wicked multitude murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel.

Say therefore to them: As I live, saith the Lord: According as you have spoken in my hearing, so will I do to you.

In the wilderness shall your carcasses lie. All you that were numbered from twenty years old and upward, and have murmured against me,

Shall not enter into the land, over which I lifted up my hand to make you dwell therein, except Caleb the son of Jephone, and Josue the son of Nun.

But your children, of whom you said, that they should be a prey to the enemies, will I bring in: that they may see the land which you have despised.

Your carcasses shall lie in the wilderness.

Your children shall wander in the desert forty years, and shall bear your fornication, until the carcasses of their fathers be consumed in the desert,

According to the number of the forty days, wherein you viewed the land: a year shall be counted for a day. And forty years you shall receive your iniquities, and shall know my revenge:

For as I have spoken, so will I do to all this wicked multitude, that hath risen up together against me: in this wilderness shall it faint away and die.

Therefore all the men, whom Moses had sent to view the land, and who at their return had made the whole multitude to murmur against him, speaking ill of the land that it was naught,

Died and were struck in the sight of the Lord.

But Josue the son of Nun, and Caleb had gone to view the land.

And Moses spoke all these words to all the children of Israel, and the people mourned exceedingly.

And behold rising up very early in the morning, they went up to the top of the mountain, and said: We are ready to go up to the place, of which the Lord hath spoken: for we have sinned.

And Moses said to them: Why transgress you the word of the Lord, which shall not succeed prosperously with you?

Go not up, for the Lord is not with you: lest you fall before your enemies.

The Amalecite and the Chanaanite are before you, and by their sword you shall fall, because you would not consent to the Lord, neither will the Lord be with you.

But they being blinded went up to the top of the mountain. But the ark of the testament of the Lord and Moses departed not from the camp.

And the Amalecite came down, and the Chanaanite that dwelt in the mountain: and smiting and slaying them pursued them as far as Horma.

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: