Moses’ Response

6 Moses said to the Gadites and the Reubenites, “Must your brothers go to war while you remain here? 7 Why do you frustrate the intent of the Israelites to cross over into the land which the Lord has given them? 8 Your fathers did the same thing when I sent them from Kadesh Barnea to see the land. 9 When they went up to the Eshcol Valley and saw the land, they frustrated the intent of the Israelites so that they did not enter the land that the Lord had given them. 10 So the anger of the Lord was kindled that day, and he swore, 11 ‘Because they have not followed me wholeheartedly, not one of the men twenty years old and upward who came from Egypt will see the land that I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, 12 except Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, and Joshua son of Nun, for they followed the Lord wholeheartedly.’ 13 So the Lord’s anger was kindled against the Israelites, and he made them wander in the wilderness for forty years, until all that generation that had done wickedly before the Lord was finished. 14 Now look, you are standing in your fathers’ place, a brood of sinners, to increase still further the fierce wrath of the Lord against the Israelites. 15 For if you turn away from following him, he will once again abandon them in the wilderness, and you will be the reason for their destruction.”