14:2 And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against
Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we
had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this
wilderness! 14:3 And wherefore hath the LORD brought us unto this
land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be
a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt? 14:4 And they
said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into
Egypt.
14:5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly
of the congregation of the children of Israel.
14:6 And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which
were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes: 14:7 And they
spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The
land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land.
14:8 If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land,
and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.
14:9 Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of
the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from
them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not.
14:10 But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the
glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation
before all the children of Israel.
14:11 And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke
me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs
which I have shewed among them? 14:12 I will smite them with the
pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater
nation and mightier than they.
14:13 And Moses said unto the LORD, Then the Egyptians shall hear it,
(for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them;)
14:14 And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: for they
have heard that thou LORD art among this people, that thou LORD art
seen face to face, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that
thou goest before them, by day time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a
pillar of fire by night.
14:15 Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the
nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, 14:16
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.
14:17 And now, I beseech thee, let the power of my LORD be great,
according as thou hast spoken, saying, 14:18 The LORD is
longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and
transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the
iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth
generation.
14:19 Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according
unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this
people, from Egypt even until now.