circa 1446–1406 BC
The Wilderness Years
Forty years of wandering in the desert test Israel's faith and prepare a new generation to enter the promised land.
Best known
Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons;
Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.
God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?
And the LORD, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.
And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
- Numbers 13:30–33c. 1490 BC
30And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.
31But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.
32And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.
33And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.
- Numbers 14:1–21c. 1490 BC
1And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.
2And 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!
3And wherefore hath the LORD brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt?
4And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.
5Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.
6And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes:
7And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land.
8If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.
9Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not.
10But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel.
11And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them?
12I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.
13And Moses said unto the LORD, Then the Egyptians shall hear it, (for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them;)
14And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: for they have heard that thou LORD art among this people, that thou LORD art seen face to face, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou goest before them, by day time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night.
15Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying,
16Because 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.
17And now, I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying,
18The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.
19Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.
20And the LORD said, I have pardoned according to thy word:
21But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.