The Skeptics Annotated Bible (143 page)

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.

(14.20-35) So Moses talked God out of killing everyone. Instead, he’ll just make sure that no one over 20 years old survives the trip to Israel. Their “carcases shall fall in the wilderness.”

20
And the LORD said, I have pardoned according to thy word:

(14.20)
“And the LORD said, I have pardoned according to thy word.”

21 But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.

22 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.

25 (Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley.) To morrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea.

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
,

(14.29)
“Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness … 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.

(14.32)
“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.

(14.35)
“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.”

(14.36-37) And that would have been the end of the story, except that God was still pissed off about those ten scouts, even though they were just doing their jobs. (“To spy out the land of Canaan … And see the land, what it is, and the people that dwelleth therein, whether they be strong or weak, few or many.” Num 13.17-18) So he killed them all in a plague.
God’s 18th Killing

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,

(14.36)
“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.

(14.37)
“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.

39 And Moses told these sayings unto all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly.

40 And they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up into the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place which the LORD hath promised: for we have sinned.

41 And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the LORD? but it shall not prosper.

42 Go not up, for the LORD is not among you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies.

(14.43-45) To further punish the Israelites for whining and plotting against Moses, God will send the Amelekites and Canaanites to smite them.

43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and
ye shall fall by the sword: because ye are turned away from the LORD
, therefore the LORD will not be with you.

(14.43) “
Ye shall fall by the sword: because ye are turned away from the LORD,”

44 But they presumed to go up unto the hill top: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and Moses, departed not out of the camp.

45
Then the Amalekites
came down,
and the Canaanites
which dwelt in that hill, and
smote them
, and discomfited them, even unto Hormah.

(14.45)
“Then the Amalekites … and the Canaanites … smote them.”

15
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land of your habitations, which I give unto you,

(15.3-24) God gives more instructions for the ritualistic killing of animals. The smell of burning flesh is “a sweet savour unto the Lord.”