1. So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night.
2. And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness!
3. Why has the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?”
4. So they said to one another, “Let us select a leader and return to Egypt.”
5. Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.
6. But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes;
7. and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying: “The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land.