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Old Testament Reading - 40 years in the Wilderness.

³²So the majority report of the spies was negative: “The land is full of warriors, the people are powerfully built, ³³and we saw some of the Anakim there, descendants of the ancient race of giants. We felt like grasshoppers before them, they were so tall!”

14 ¹Then all the people began weeping aloud, and they carried on all night. 2 Their voices rose in a great chorus of complaint against Moses and Aaron.

“We wish we had died in Egypt,” they wailed, “or even here in the wilderness,³ rather than be taken into this country ahead of us. Jehovah will kill us there, and our wives and little ones will become slaves. Let’s get out of here and return to Egypt!” ⁴The idea swept the camp. “Let’s elect a leader to take us back to Egypt!” they shouted.

⁵Then Moses and Aaron fell face downward on the ground before the people of Israel. ⁶Two of the spies, Joshua (the son of Nun), and Caleb (the son of Jephunneh), ripped their clothing⁷ and said to all the people, “It is a wonderful country ahead, ⁸and the Lord loves us. He will bring us safely into the land and give it to us. It is very fertile, a land ‘flowing with milk and honey’! ⁹Oh, do not rebel against the Lord, and do not fear the people of the land. For they are but bread for us to eat! The Lord is with us and he has removed his protection from them! Don’t be afraid of them!”

^10-11But the only response of the people was to talk of stoning them. Then the glory of the Lord appeared, and the Lord said to Moses, “How long will these people despise me? Will they never believe me, even after all the miracles I have done among them?

²⁹You will all die here in this wilderness! Not a single one of you twenty years old and older, who has complained against me, ³⁰shall enter the Promised Land. Only Caleb (son of Jephunneh) and Joshua (son of Nun) are permitted to enter it.