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Telling of milk and honey flowing there,But of strong giants that aroused their fear.And in their unbelief they spread dismayAmong that people, ever so perverse,Who, guiltily ignoring their great God,Forgetting His past acts, His promises,Cried, wept, and groaned, in impotent despair,And would have found a man to lead them backUnto the land of bondage; spite of those—Caleb and Joshua—who praised the land,And bade them trustfully remember HimWho had for them wrought such deliverance,And Who again would save. They would not hear,And so afresh God's anger was induced;And yet again did Moses intercede,And the Lord pardoned them.
But for this cause,And for their necessary discipline,They must be turned from Canaan, and leftTo wander in the desert forty years;Their promised gift must be so long delayed;And none should enter but the two true spiesWho had believed and wholly followed God,Who faithfully had dealt with Israel,And sought to win them to their own strong faith:That evil generation soon must die.
So in a pathless, solitary way,Homeless, without a city, on and onFor forty years in sad monotonyDid Israel wander in the wilderness;Hungering, thirsting, fainting and distressed:But ever heard when unto God they cried.
Yet one dire incident of grave import,One awful visitation of the Lord,Disturbed the general tedium of those years.There rose presumptuous, envious murmuringAt the exclusiveness of God's decree
