16. ‘The Lord was not able to bring this people into the land he swore to give them; that is why he slaughtered them in the wilderness.’
17. Now then, may my Lord’s forbearance be great, even as you have said,
18. ‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in kindness, forgiving iniquity and rebellion; yet certainly not declaring the guilty guiltless, but punishing children to the third and fourth generation for their parents’ iniquity.’
19. Pardon, then, the iniquity of this people in keeping with your great kindness, even as you have forgiven them from Egypt until now.”
20. The Lord answered: I pardon them as you have asked.
21. Yet, by my life and the Lord’s glory that fills the whole earth,
22. of all the people who have seen my glory and the signs I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and who nevertheless have put me to the test ten times already and have not obeyed me,
23. not one shall see the land which I promised on oath to their ancestors. None of those who have spurned me shall see it.
24. But as for my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and follows me unreservedly, I will bring him into the land which he entered, and his descendants shall possess it.
25. But now, since the Amalekites and Canaanites are living in the valleys, turn away tomorrow and set out into the wilderness by way of the Red Sea road.
26. The Lord also said to Moses and Aaron:
27. How long will this wicked community grumble against me? I have heard the grumblings of the Israelites against me.
28. Tell them: “By my life”—oracle of the Lord—“I will do to you just what I have heard you say.
29. Here in the wilderness your dead bodies shall fall. Of all your men of twenty years or more, enrolled in your registration, who grumbled against me,
30. not one of you shall enter the land where I solemnly swore to settle you, except Caleb, son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, son of Nun.
31. Your little ones, however, who you said would be taken as spoil, I will bring in, and they shall know the land you rejected.
32. But as for you, your bodies shall fall here in the wilderness,