Numbers 32:8-18
English Standard Version
Chapter 32
8Your fathers did this, when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to see the land. 9For when they went up to the Valley of Eshcol and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the people of Israel from going into the land that the Lord had given them. 10And the Lord 's anger was kindled on that day, and he swore, saying, 11‘Surely none of the men who came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, because they have not wholly followed me, 12none except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua the son of Nun, for they have wholly followed the Lord.’ 13And the Lord 's anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the Lord was gone. 14And behold, you have risen in your fathers ' place, a brood of sinful men, to increase still more the fierce anger of the Lord against Israel! 15For if you turn away from following him, he will again abandon them in the wilderness, and you will destroy all this people."
16Then they came near to him and said, "We will build sheepfolds here for our livestock, and cities for our little ones,
17but we will take up arms, ready to go before the people of Israel, until we have brought them to their place. And our little ones shall live in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land.
18We will not return to our homes until each of the people of Israel has gained his inheritance.
