Numbers 14:29-39

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[a]-because you have complained about Me.
30 I swear that none of you will enter the land I promised[b] 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[c] into the land you rejected, and they will enjoy it.[d]
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.[e] [f] You will know My displeasure.[g]
35 I, the Lord, have spoken. I swear that I will do this to the entire evil community that has conspired against Me.[h] They will come to an end in the wilderness, and there they will die."[i]
36 So the men Moses sent to scout out the land, and who returned and incited the entire community to complain about him by spreading a bad report about the land-
37 those men who spread the report about the land were struck down by the Lord.
38 Only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh remained alive of those men who went to scout out the land.

Israel Routed

39 When Moses reported these words to all the Israelites, the people were overcome with grief.

Numbers 14:29-39 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 9

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