Numbers 14:39

39 Then Moses told these words to all the children of Israel, and the people mourned greatly.

Numbers 14:39 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 14:39

And Moses told these sayings unto all the children of Israel,
&c.] That all that had murmured, who were of twenty years old and upwards, should die in the wilderness, and never see nor enter into the land of Canaan, on the borders of which they now were: and the people mourned greatly;
because of their unhappy case, that they should be cut off by death in the wilderness, and be deprived of the enjoyment of the good land; their sorrow seems to have been not a godly sorrow, or true repentance for sin committed, but a worldly sorrow that works death; it was not on account of the evil of sin, the pardon of which they did not seem to seek after, but on account of the evil that was likely to come to them by it.

Numbers 14:39 In-Context

37 those very men who brought the evil report about the land, died by the plague before the Lord.
38 But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive, of the men who went to spy out the land.
39 Then Moses told these words to all the children of Israel, and the people mourned greatly.
40 And they rose early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, "Here we are, and we will go up to the place which the Lord has promised, for we have sinned!"
41 And Moses said, "Now why do you transgress the command of the Lord? For this will not succeed.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.