24. They left and went up to the mountains. They came to the Valley of Eshcol and explored it.
25. They took some of the fruit from that land. And they brought it down to us. They said, “It is a good land that the Lord our God is giving us.”
26. But you refused to go. You would not obey the command of the Lord your God.
27. You grumbled in your tents. You said, “The Lord hates us. He brought us out of Egypt just to give us to the Amorites. They will destroy us.
28. Where can we go now? The spies we sent have made us afraid. They said, ‘The people there are bigger and taller than we are. The cities are big. They have walls up to the sky. And we saw the Anakites there!’”
29. Then I said to you, “Don’t be frightened. Don’t be afraid of those people.
30. The Lord your God will go ahead of you. He will fight for you as he did in Egypt. You saw him do it.
31. And in the desert you saw how the Lord your God carried you. He was like a man carrying his son. And he has brought you safely all the way to this place.”
32. But you still did not trust the Lord your God.
33. As you moved, he went before you. He found places for you to camp. He went before you in a fire at night and in a cloud during the day. He showed you which way to go.
34. When the Lord heard what you said, he was angry. He made a promise. He said,
35. “I promised a good land to your ancestors. But none of you evil people will see it.
36. Only Caleb son of Jephunneh will see it. I will give him and his descendants the land he walked on. I will do this because he followed me completely.”
37. Because of you, the Lord was also angry with me. He said to me, “You won’t enter the land either.
38. But your assistant, Joshua son of Nun, will go there. Encourage Joshua, because he will lead Israel to take the land for their own.”
39. The Lord said to us, “You said your babies would be captured. But they will go into the land. They are too young to know right from wrong. So I will give the land to them. And they will take it for their own.
40. But you must turn around. Follow the desert road toward the Gulf of Aqaba.”
41. Then you said to me, “We have sinned against the Lord. But now we will go up and fight, as the Lord our God commanded us.” Then all of you put on weapons. You thought it would be easy to go into the mountains.