Numbers 14:26-34

26 Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron:
27 "How long [must I endure] this evil community that keeps complaining about Me? I have heard the Israelites' complaints that they make against Me.[a]
28 Tell them: As surely as I live, declares the Lord, I will do to you exactly as I heard you say.
29 Your corpses will fall in this wilderness-all of you who were registered [in the census], the entire number of you 20 years old or more[b]-because you have complained about Me.
30 I swear that none of you will enter the land I promised[c] to settle you in, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.
31 I will bring your children whom you said would become plunder[d] into the land you rejected, and they will enjoy it.[e]
32 But as for you, your corpses will fall in this wilderness.
33 Your children will be shepherds in the wilderness for 40 years and bear the penalty for your acts of unfaithfulness until all your corpses lie [scattered] in the wilderness.
34 You will bear the consequences of your sins 40 years based on the number of the 40 days that you scouted the land, a year for each day.[f] [g] You will know My displeasure.[h]

Numbers 14:26-34 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO NUMBERS 14

This chapter treats or the murmurings of the children of Israel upon the evil report of the spies, which greatly distressed Moses and Aaron, Nu 14:1-5; and of the endeavours of Joshua and Caleb to quiet the minds of the people with a good account of the land, and of the easy conquest of it, but to no purpose, Nu 14:6-10; and of the Lord's threatening to destroy the people with the pestilence, Nu 14:11,12; and of the intercession of Moses for them, which so far succeeded as to prevent their immediate destruction, Nu 14:13-20; nevertheless they are assured again and again, in the strongest terms, that none of them but Joshua and Caleb should enter into the land, but their carcasses should fall in the wilderness, even all the murmurers of twenty years old and upwards, Nu 14:21-35; and the ten men that brought the evil report of the good land died of a plague immediately, but the other two lived, Nu 14:36-38; and the body of the people that attempted to go up the mountain and enter the land were smitten and discomfited by their enemies, after they had with concern heard what the Lord threatened them with, Nu 14:39-45.

Footnotes 8

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