3. And wherefore doth the LORD bring us unto this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones shall be a prey: were it not better for us to return into Egypt?
4. And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.
5. Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.
6. And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that spied out the land, rent their clothes:
7. and they spake unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceeding good land.
8. If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it unto us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.
9. Only rebel not against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is removed from over them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not.
10. But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the glory of the LORD appeared in the tent of meeting unto all the children of Israel.
11. And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this people despise me? and how long will they not believe in me, for all the signs which I have wrought among them?
12. I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a nation greater and mightier than they.
13. And Moses said unto the LORD, Then the Egyptians shall hear it; for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them;
14. and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: they have heard that thou LORD art in the midst of this people; for thou LORD art seen face to face, and thy cloud standeth over them, and thou goest before them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night.
15. Now if thou shalt kill this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying,
16. Because 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.
17. And now, I pray thee, let the power of the Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying,
18. The LORD is slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation.
19. Pardon, I pray thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and according as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.
20. And the LORD said, I have pardoned according to thy word:
21. but in very deed, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD;