“Joshua and Caleb Give a Good Report of Canaan—Moses Mediates between Israel and the Lord—the Adults of Israel Will Not Enter the Promised Land—the Lord Slays the False Spies by a Plague”
Numbers 14:6–10, 22–24, 26–38
6 And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes: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.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.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.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. . . .22 [The Lord said:] Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;23 Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:24 But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it. . . .26 And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,27 How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me.28 Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you:29 Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me,30 Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.31 But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised.32 But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness.33 And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.34 After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.35 I the Lord have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.36 And the men, which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land,37 Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the Lord.38 But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of the men that went to search the land, lived still.
President Spencer W. Kimball said:
“Joshua and Caleb were men of great faith, and they joined in urging that the Israelites go immediately, to the promised land, saying:
“‘If the Lord delights in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.
“‘Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; for . . . the Lord is with us: fear them not’ (Numbers 14:8–9).
“But the faint-hearted Israelites, remembering the security of their Egyptian slavery and lacking faith in God, rejected Caleb and Joshua and sought even to stone them to death.
“Because of their lack of faith, the children of Israel were required to spend the next forty years wandering about and eating the dust of the desert, when they might have feasted on milk and honey.
“The Lord decreed that before Israel could enter the land of Canaan, all of the faithless generation who had been freed from bondage must pass away—all go into eternity—all except Joshua and Caleb. For their faith, they were promised that they and their children would live to inhabit the promised land.”
(“Give Me This Mountain,” Ensign, Nov. 1979, 79.)
