Page:JPS-1917-Universal.djvu/200

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13.30
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overcome it.' 31But the men that went up with him said: 'We are not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.' 32And they spread an evil report of the land which they had spied out unto the children of Israel, saying: 'The land, through which we have passed to spy it out, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. 33And there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come of the Nephilim; and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.'

14And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. 2And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron; and the whole congregation said unto them: 'Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would we had died in this wilderness! 3And wherefore doth the Lord bring us unto this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will be a prey; were it not better for us to return into Egypt?' 4And they said one to another: 'Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.' 5Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel. 6And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were of them that spied out the land, rent their clothes. 7And they spoke unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying: 'The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceeding good land. 8If the Lord delight in us, then He will bring us into this land, and give it unto us—a land which floweth with milk and honey. 9Only rebel not against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us; their defence is removed from over them, and the Lord is with us; fear them not.' 10But all the congregation bade stone them with stones, when the glory of the Lord appeared in the tent of meeting unto all the children of Israel.

11And the Lord said unto Moses: 'How long will this people despise Me? and how long will they not believe in Me, for all the signs which I have wrought among them? 12I will smite them with the pestilence, and destroy them, and will make of thee a nation greater and mightier than they.' 13And Moses said unto the Lord: 'When the Egyptians shall hear—for Thou broughtest up this people in Thy might from among them—14they will say to the inhabitants of this land, who have heard that Thou Lord art in the midst of this people; inasmuch as Thou Lord art seen face to face, and Thy cloud standeth over them, and Thou goest before them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night; 15now if Thou shalt kill this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of Thee will speak, saying: 16Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which He swore unto them, therefore He hath slain them in the wilderness. 17And now, I pray Thee, let the power of the Lord be great, according as Thou hast spoken, saying: 18The Lord is slow to anger, and plenteous in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation. 19Pardon, I pray Thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the

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