Thematic Bible




Thematic Bible



And the Lord sent a plague on the people because they had made the calf -- the one Aaron made.

When the people complained, it displeased the Lord. When the Lord heard it, his anger burned, and so the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some of the outer parts of the camp.

And early in the morning they went up to the crest of the hill country, saying, "Here we are, and we will go up to the place that the Lord commanded, for we have sinned." But Moses said, "Why are you now transgressing the commandment of the Lord? It will not succeed! Do not go up, for the Lord is not among you, and you will be defeated before your enemies. read more.
For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you will fall by the sword. Because you have turned away from the Lord, the Lord will not be with you." But they dared to go up to the crest of the hill, although neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed from the camp. So the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country swooped down and attacked them as far as Hormah.

So the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people, and they bit the people; many people of Israel died.


The Lord's anger again raged against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, "Go count Israel and Judah."

So the Lord sent a plague through Israel from the morning until the completion of the appointed time. Seventy thousand men died from Dan to Beer Sheba.

The Lord attacked the residents of Ashdod severely, bringing devastation on them. He struck the people of both Ashdod and the surrounding area with sores.

As Samuel was offering burnt offerings, the Philistines approached to do battle with Israel. But on that day the Lord thundered loudly against the Philistines. He caused them to panic, and they were defeated by Israel.


And early in the morning they went up to the crest of the hill country, saying, "Here we are, and we will go up to the place that the Lord commanded, for we have sinned." But Moses said, "Why are you now transgressing the commandment of the Lord? It will not succeed!

But they dared to go up to the crest of the hill, although neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed from the camp. So the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country swooped down and attacked them as far as Hormah.


And early in the morning they went up to the crest of the hill country, saying, "Here we are, and we will go up to the place that the Lord commanded, for we have sinned." But Moses said, "Why are you now transgressing the commandment of the Lord? It will not succeed! Do not go up, for the Lord is not among you, and you will be defeated before your enemies. read more.
For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you will fall by the sword. Because you have turned away from the Lord, the Lord will not be with you." But they dared to go up to the crest of the hill, although neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed from the camp. So the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country swooped down and attacked them as far as Hormah.

Then you responded to me and admitted, "We have sinned against the Lord. We will now go up and fight as the Lord our God has told us to do." So you each put on your battle gear and prepared to go up to the hill country. But the Lord told me: "Tell them this: 'Do not go up and fight, because I will not be with you and you will be defeated by your enemies.'" I spoke to you, but you did not listen. Instead you rebelled against the Lord and recklessly went up to the hill country. read more.
The Amorite inhabitants of that area confronted you and chased you like a swarm of bees, striking you down from Seir as far as Hormah.


"But if you ignore the Lord your God and are not careful to keep all his commandments and statutes I am giving you today, then all these curses will come upon you in full force: You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the field. Your basket and your mixing bowl will be cursed. read more.
Your children will be cursed, as well as the produce of your soil, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks. You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out. "The Lord will send on you a curse, confusing you and opposing you in everything you undertake until you are destroyed and quickly perish because of the evil of your deeds, in that you have forsaken me. The Lord will plague you with deadly diseases until he has completely removed you from the land you are about to possess. He will afflict you with weakness, fever, inflammation, infection, sword, blight, and mildew; these will attack you until you perish. The sky above your heads will be bronze and the earth beneath you iron. The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust; it will come down on you from the sky until you are destroyed. "The Lord will allow you to be struck down before your enemies; you will attack them from one direction but flee from them in seven directions and will become an object of terror to all the kingdoms of the earth. Your carcasses will be food for every bird of the sky and wild animal of the earth, and there will be no one to chase them off. The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, eczema, and scabies, all of which cannot be healed. The Lord will also subject you to madness, blindness, and confusion of mind. You will feel your way along at noon like the blind person does in darkness and you will not succeed in anything you do; you will be constantly oppressed and continually robbed, with no one to save you. You will be engaged to a woman and another man will rape her. You will build a house but not live in it. You will plant a vineyard but not even begin to use it. Your ox will be slaughtered before your very eyes but you will not eat of it. Your donkey will be stolen from you as you watch and will not be returned to you. Your flock of sheep will be given to your enemies and there will be no one to save you. Your sons and daughters will be given to another people while you look on in vain all day, and you will be powerless to do anything about it. As for the produce of your land and all your labor, a people you do not know will consume it, and you will be nothing but oppressed and crushed for the rest of your lives. You will go insane from seeing all this. The Lord will afflict you in your knees and on your legs with painful, incurable boils -- from the soles of your feet to the top of your head. The Lord will force you and your king whom you will appoint over you to go away to a people whom you and your ancestors have not known, and you will serve other gods of wood and stone there. You will become an occasion of horror, a proverb, and an object of ridicule to all the peoples to whom the Lord will drive you. "You will take much seed to the field but gather little harvest, because locusts will consume it. You will plant vineyards and cultivate them, but you will not drink wine or gather in grapes, because worms will eat them. You will have olive trees throughout your territory but you will not anoint yourself with olive oil, because the olives will drop off the trees while still unripe. You will bear sons and daughters but not keep them, because they will be taken into captivity. Whirring locusts will take over every tree and all the produce of your soil. The foreigners who reside among you will become higher and higher over you and you will become lower and lower. They will lend to you but you will not lend to them; they will become the head and you will become the tail! All these curses will fall on you, pursuing and overtaking you until you are destroyed, because you would not obey the Lord your God by keeping his commandments and statutes that he has given you. These curses will be a perpetual sign and wonder with reference to you and your descendants. "Because you have not served the Lord your God joyfully and wholeheartedly with the abundance of everything you have, instead in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and poverty you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you. They will place an iron yoke on your neck until they have destroyed you. The Lord will raise up a distant nation against you, one from the other side of the earth as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand, a nation of stern appearance that will have no regard for the elderly or pity for the young. They will devour the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your soil until you are destroyed. They will not leave you with any grain, new wine, olive oil, calves of your herds, or lambs of your flocks until they have destroyed you. They will besiege all of your villages until all of your high and fortified walls collapse -- those in which you put your confidence throughout the land. They will besiege all your villages throughout the land the Lord your God has given you. You will then eat your own offspring, the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you, because of the severity of the siege by which your enemies will constrict you. The man among you who is by nature tender and sensitive will turn against his brother, his beloved wife, and his remaining children. He will withhold from all of them his children's flesh that he is eating (since there is nothing else left), because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict you in your villages. Likewise, the most tender and delicate of your women, who would never think of putting even the sole of her foot on the ground because of her daintiness, will turn against her beloved husband, her sons and daughters, and will secretly eat her afterbirth and her newborn children (since she has nothing else), because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict you in your villages. "If you refuse to obey all the words of this law, the things written in this scroll, and refuse to fear this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God, then the Lord will increase your punishments and those of your descendants -- great and long-lasting afflictions and severe, enduring illnesses. He will infect you with all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they will persistently afflict you. Moreover, the Lord will bring upon you every kind of sickness and plague not mentioned in this scroll of commandments, until you have perished. There will be very few of you left, though at one time you were as numerous as the stars in the sky, because you will have disobeyed the Lord your God. This is what will happen: Just as the Lord delighted to do good for you and make you numerous, he will take delight in destroying and decimating you. You will be uprooted from the land you are about to possess. The Lord will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known, gods of wood and stone. Among those nations you will have no rest nor will there be a place of peaceful rest for the soles of your feet, for there the Lord will give you an anxious heart, failing eyesight, and a spirit of despair. Your life will hang in doubt before you; you will be terrified by night and day and will have no certainty of surviving from one day to the next. In the morning you will say, 'If only it were evening!' And in the evening you will say, 'I wish it were morning!' because of the things you will fear and the things you will see. Then the Lord will make you return to Egypt by ship, over a route I said to you that you would never see again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you."

The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron: "How long must I bear with this evil congregation that murmurs against me? I have heard the complaints of the Israelites that they murmured against me. Say to them, 'As I live, says the Lord, I will surely do to you just what you have spoken in my hearing. read more.
Your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness -- all those of you who were numbered, according to your full number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me. You will by no means enter into the land where I swore to settle you. The only exceptions are Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. But I will bring in your little ones, whom you said would become victims of war, and they will enjoy the land that you have despised. But as for you, your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness, and your children will wander in the wilderness forty years and suffer for your unfaithfulness, until your dead bodies lie finished in the wilderness. According to the number of the days you have investigated this land, forty days -- one day for a year -- you will suffer for your iniquities, forty years, and you will know what it means to thwart me. I, the Lord, have said, "I will surely do so to all this evil congregation that has gathered together against me. In this wilderness they will be finished, and there they will die!"'" The men whom Moses sent to investigate the land, who returned and made the whole community murmur against him by producing an evil report about the land, those men who produced the evil report about the land, died by the plague before the Lord. But Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among the men who went to investigate the land, lived. When Moses told these things to all the Israelites, the people mourned greatly. And early in the morning they went up to the crest of the hill country, saying, "Here we are, and we will go up to the place that the Lord commanded, for we have sinned." But Moses said, "Why are you now transgressing the commandment of the Lord? It will not succeed! Do not go up, for the Lord is not among you, and you will be defeated before your enemies. For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you will fall by the sword. Because you have turned away from the Lord, the Lord will not be with you." But they dared to go up to the crest of the hill, although neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed from the camp. So the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country swooped down and attacked them as far as Hormah.

But the Lord told me: "Tell them this: 'Do not go up and fight, because I will not be with you and you will be defeated by your enemies.'"

At that time my anger will erupt against them and I will abandon them and hide my face from them until they are devoured. Many disasters and distresses will overcome them so that they will say at that time, 'Have not these disasters overcome us because our God is not among us?' But I will certainly hide myself at that time because of all the wickedness they will have done by turning to other gods.


And early in the morning they went up to the crest of the hill country, saying, "Here we are, and we will go up to the place that the Lord commanded, for we have sinned." But Moses said, "Why are you now transgressing the commandment of the Lord? It will not succeed! Do not go up, for the Lord is not among you, and you will be defeated before your enemies. read more.
For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you will fall by the sword. Because you have turned away from the Lord, the Lord will not be with you." But they dared to go up to the crest of the hill, although neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed from the camp. So the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country swooped down and attacked them as far as Hormah.

Then you responded to me and admitted, "We have sinned against the Lord. We will now go up and fight as the Lord our God has told us to do." So you each put on your battle gear and prepared to go up to the hill country. But the Lord told me: "Tell them this: 'Do not go up and fight, because I will not be with you and you will be defeated by your enemies.'" I spoke to you, but you did not listen. Instead you rebelled against the Lord and recklessly went up to the hill country. read more.
The Amorite inhabitants of that area confronted you and chased you like a swarm of bees, striking you down from Seir as far as Hormah. Then you came back and wept before the Lord, but he paid no attention to you whatsoever.


And early in the morning they went up to the crest of the hill country, saying, "Here we are, and we will go up to the place that the Lord commanded, for we have sinned." But Moses said, "Why are you now transgressing the commandment of the Lord? It will not succeed! Do not go up, for the Lord is not among you, and you will be defeated before your enemies. read more.
For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you will fall by the sword. Because you have turned away from the Lord, the Lord will not be with you." But they dared to go up to the crest of the hill, although neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed from the camp. So the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country swooped down and attacked them as far as Hormah.


When Moses told these things to all the Israelites, the people mourned greatly. And early in the morning they went up to the crest of the hill country, saying, "Here we are, and we will go up to the place that the Lord commanded, for we have sinned." But Moses said, "Why are you now transgressing the commandment of the Lord? It will not succeed! read more.
Do not go up, for the Lord is not among you, and you will be defeated before your enemies. For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you will fall by the sword. Because you have turned away from the Lord, the Lord will not be with you." But they dared to go up to the crest of the hill, although neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed from the camp. So the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country swooped down and attacked them as far as Hormah.


The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron: "How long must I bear with this evil congregation that murmurs against me? I have heard the complaints of the Israelites that they murmured against me. Say to them, 'As I live, says the Lord, I will surely do to you just what you have spoken in my hearing. read more.
Your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness -- all those of you who were numbered, according to your full number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me. You will by no means enter into the land where I swore to settle you. The only exceptions are Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. But I will bring in your little ones, whom you said would become victims of war, and they will enjoy the land that you have despised. But as for you, your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness, and your children will wander in the wilderness forty years and suffer for your unfaithfulness, until your dead bodies lie finished in the wilderness. According to the number of the days you have investigated this land, forty days -- one day for a year -- you will suffer for your iniquities, forty years, and you will know what it means to thwart me. I, the Lord, have said, "I will surely do so to all this evil congregation that has gathered together against me. In this wilderness they will be finished, and there they will die!"'" The men whom Moses sent to investigate the land, who returned and made the whole community murmur against him by producing an evil report about the land, those men who produced the evil report about the land, died by the plague before the Lord. But Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among the men who went to investigate the land, lived. When Moses told these things to all the Israelites, the people mourned greatly. And early in the morning they went up to the crest of the hill country, saying, "Here we are, and we will go up to the place that the Lord commanded, for we have sinned." But Moses said, "Why are you now transgressing the commandment of the Lord? It will not succeed! Do not go up, for the Lord is not among you, and you will be defeated before your enemies. For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you will fall by the sword. Because you have turned away from the Lord, the Lord will not be with you." But they dared to go up to the crest of the hill, although neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed from the camp. So the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country swooped down and attacked them as far as Hormah.

But the Lord told me: "Tell them this: 'Do not go up and fight, because I will not be with you and you will be defeated by your enemies.'" I spoke to you, but you did not listen. Instead you rebelled against the Lord and recklessly went up to the hill country.


Now look, you are standing in your fathers' place, a brood of sinners, to increase still further the fierce wrath of the Lord against the Israelites.

Then Moses and Aaron gathered the community together in front of the rock, and he said to them, "Listen, you rebels, must we bring water out of this rock for you?"

But how can I alone bear up under the burden of your hardship and strife?

Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, "In the evening you will know that the Lord has brought you out of the land of Egypt, and in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your murmurings against the Lord. As for us, what are we, that you should murmur against us?"

When he approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses became extremely angry. He threw the tablets from his hands and broke them to pieces at the bottom of the mountain. He took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire, ground it to powder, poured it out on the water, and made the Israelites drink it. Moses said to Aaron, "What did this people do to you, that you have brought on them so great a sin?" read more.
Aaron said, "Do not let your anger burn hot, my lord; you know these people, that they tend to evil. They said to me, 'Make us gods that will go before us, for as for this fellow Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.' So I said to them, 'Whoever has gold, break it off.' So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and this calf came out." Moses saw that the people were running wild, for Aaron had let them get completely out of control, causing derision from their enemies. So Moses stood at the entrance of the camp and said, "Whoever is for the Lord, come to me." All the Levites gathered around him, and he said to them, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, 'Each man fasten his sword on his side, and go back and forth from entrance to entrance throughout the camp, and each one kill his brother, his friend, and his neighbor.'" The Levites did what Moses ordered, and that day about three thousand men of the people died. Moses said, "You have been consecrated today for the Lord, for each of you was against his son or against his brother, so he has given a blessing to you today." The next day Moses said to the people, "You have committed a very serious sin, but now I will go up to the Lord -- perhaps I can make atonement on behalf of your sin."

But Moses said, "Why are you now transgressing the commandment of the Lord? It will not succeed!

You were not willing to go up, however, but instead rebelled against the Lord your God. You complained among yourselves privately and said, "Because the Lord hates us he brought us from Egypt to deliver us over to the Amorites so they could destroy us! What is going to happen to us? Our brothers have drained away our courage by describing people who are more numerous and taller than we are, and great cities whose defenses appear to be as high as heaven itself! Moreover, they said they saw Anakites there." read more.
So I responded to you, "Do not be terrified of them! The Lord your God is about to go ahead of you; he will fight for you, just as you saw him do in Egypt and in the desert, where you saw him carrying you along like a man carries his son. This he did everywhere you went until you came to this very place." However, through all this you did not have confidence in the Lord your God, the one who was constantly going before you to find places for you to set up camp. He appeared by fire at night and cloud by day, to show you the way you ought to go. When the Lord heard you, he became angry and made this vow: "Not a single person of this evil generation will see the good land that I promised to give to your ancestors! The exception is Caleb son of Jephunneh; he will see it and I will give him and his descendants the territory on which he has walked, because he has wholeheartedly followed me." As for me, the Lord was also angry with me on your account. He said, "You also will not be able to go there. However, Joshua son of Nun, your assistant, will go. Encourage him, because he will enable Israel to inherit the land. Also, your infants, who you thought would die on the way, and your children, who as yet do not know good from bad, will go there; I will give them the land and they will possess it. But as for you, turn back and head for the desert by the way to the Red Sea." Then you responded to me and admitted, "We have sinned against the Lord. We will now go up and fight as the Lord our God has told us to do." So you each put on your battle gear and prepared to go up to the hill country. But the Lord told me: "Tell them this: 'Do not go up and fight, because I will not be with you and you will be defeated by your enemies.'" I spoke to you, but you did not listen. Instead you rebelled against the Lord and recklessly went up to the hill country.

When I looked, you had indeed sinned against the Lord your God and had cast for yourselves a metal calf; you had quickly turned aside from the way he had commanded you! I grabbed the two tablets, threw them down, and shattered them before your very eyes. Then I again fell down before the Lord for forty days and nights; I ate and drank nothing because of all the sin you had committed, doing such evil before the Lord as to enrage him. read more.
For I was terrified at the Lord's intense anger that threatened to destroy you. But he listened to me this time as well. The Lord was also angry enough at Aaron to kill him, but at that time I prayed for him too. As for your sinful thing that you had made, the calf, I took it, melted it down, ground it up until it was as fine as dust, and tossed the dust into the stream that flows down the mountain. Moreover, you continued to provoke the Lord at Taberah, Massah, and Kibroth-Hattaavah. And when he sent you from Kadesh-Barnea and told you, "Go up and possess the land I have given you," you rebelled against the Lord your God and would neither believe nor obey him. You have been rebelling against him from the very first day I knew you!

Moses proclaimed to all Israel as follows: "You have seen all that the Lord did in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, all his servants, and his land. Your eyes have seen the great judgments, those signs and mighty wonders. But to this very day the Lord has not given you an understanding mind, perceptive eyes, or discerning ears!

for I know about your rebellion and stubbornness. Indeed, even while I have been living among you to this very day, you have rebelled against the Lord; you will be even more rebellious after my death! Gather to me all your tribal elders and officials so I can speak to them directly about these things and call the heavens and the earth to witness against them. For I know that after I die you will totally corrupt yourselves and turn away from the path I have commanded you to walk. Disaster will confront you in the days to come because you will act wickedly before the Lord, inciting him to anger because of your actions."

But Jeshurun became fat and kicked, you got fat, thick, and stuffed! Then he deserted the God who made him, and treated the Rock who saved him with contempt. They made him jealous with other gods, they enraged him with abhorrent idols. They sacrificed to demons, not God, to gods they had not known; to new gods who had recently come along, gods your ancestors had not known about. read more.
You have forgotten the Rock who fathered you, and put out of mind the God who gave you birth.


The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron: "How long must I bear with this evil congregation that murmurs against me? I have heard the complaints of the Israelites that they murmured against me. Say to them, 'As I live, says the Lord, I will surely do to you just what you have spoken in my hearing. read more.
Your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness -- all those of you who were numbered, according to your full number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me. You will by no means enter into the land where I swore to settle you. The only exceptions are Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. But I will bring in your little ones, whom you said would become victims of war, and they will enjoy the land that you have despised. But as for you, your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness, and your children will wander in the wilderness forty years and suffer for your unfaithfulness, until your dead bodies lie finished in the wilderness. According to the number of the days you have investigated this land, forty days -- one day for a year -- you will suffer for your iniquities, forty years, and you will know what it means to thwart me. I, the Lord, have said, "I will surely do so to all this evil congregation that has gathered together against me. In this wilderness they will be finished, and there they will die!"'" The men whom Moses sent to investigate the land, who returned and made the whole community murmur against him by producing an evil report about the land, those men who produced the evil report about the land, died by the plague before the Lord. But Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among the men who went to investigate the land, lived. When Moses told these things to all the Israelites, the people mourned greatly. And early in the morning they went up to the crest of the hill country, saying, "Here we are, and we will go up to the place that the Lord commanded, for we have sinned." But Moses said, "Why are you now transgressing the commandment of the Lord? It will not succeed! Do not go up, for the Lord is not among you, and you will be defeated before your enemies. For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you will fall by the sword. Because you have turned away from the Lord, the Lord will not be with you." But they dared to go up to the crest of the hill, although neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed from the camp. So the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country swooped down and attacked them as far as Hormah.


And early in the morning they went up to the crest of the hill country, saying, "Here we are, and we will go up to the place that the Lord commanded, for we have sinned." But Moses said, "Why are you now transgressing the commandment of the Lord? It will not succeed!

But they dared to go up to the crest of the hill, although neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed from the camp. So the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country swooped down and attacked them as far as Hormah.


The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron: "How long must I bear with this evil congregation that murmurs against me? I have heard the complaints of the Israelites that they murmured against me. Say to them, 'As I live, says the Lord, I will surely do to you just what you have spoken in my hearing. read more.
Your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness -- all those of you who were numbered, according to your full number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me. You will by no means enter into the land where I swore to settle you. The only exceptions are Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. But I will bring in your little ones, whom you said would become victims of war, and they will enjoy the land that you have despised. But as for you, your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness, and your children will wander in the wilderness forty years and suffer for your unfaithfulness, until your dead bodies lie finished in the wilderness. According to the number of the days you have investigated this land, forty days -- one day for a year -- you will suffer for your iniquities, forty years, and you will know what it means to thwart me. I, the Lord, have said, "I will surely do so to all this evil congregation that has gathered together against me. In this wilderness they will be finished, and there they will die!"'" The men whom Moses sent to investigate the land, who returned and made the whole community murmur against him by producing an evil report about the land, those men who produced the evil report about the land, died by the plague before the Lord. But Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among the men who went to investigate the land, lived. When Moses told these things to all the Israelites, the people mourned greatly. And early in the morning they went up to the crest of the hill country, saying, "Here we are, and we will go up to the place that the Lord commanded, for we have sinned." But Moses said, "Why are you now transgressing the commandment of the Lord? It will not succeed! Do not go up, for the Lord is not among you, and you will be defeated before your enemies. For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you will fall by the sword. Because you have turned away from the Lord, the Lord will not be with you." But they dared to go up to the crest of the hill, although neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed from the camp. So the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country swooped down and attacked them as far as Hormah.