Deuteronomy 2:14

14 “Thirty-eight years passed from the time we first left Kadesh-barnea until we finally crossed the Zered Brook! By then, all the men old enough to fight in battle had died in the wilderness, as the LORD had vowed would happen.

Deuteronomy 2:14 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 2:14

And the space in which we came from Kadeshbarnea
The space of time; or, "the days" ^F2; the number of them:

until we were come over the brook Zered, was thirty and eight years;
that is, from the time that the spies were sent and searched the land, and brought a report of it; for they were sent from Kadeshbarnea, ( Numbers 32:8 ) unto the passage of the Israelites over Zered, were thirty eight years; so long they had been travelling in the wilderness, after they were come to the borders of the land:

until all the generation of the men of war were wasted out from among
the host;
all that were twenty years old and upwards, and fit to go out to war upon occasion, when the people were first numbered after they came out of Egypt; all that generation was now consumed within the above space of time, excepting two, Caleb and Joshua;

as the Lord sware unto them;
( Numbers 14:21 Numbers 14:23 Numbers 14:30 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F2 (Mymyhw) "et dies", Montanus; "dies autem", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

Deuteronomy 2:14 In-Context

12 In earlier times the Horites had lived in Seir, but they were driven out and displaced by the descendants of Esau, just as Israel drove out the people of Canaan when the LORD gave Israel their land.)

13 Moses continued, “Then the LORD said to us, ‘Get moving. Cross the Zered Brook.’ So we crossed the brook.

14 “Thirty-eight years passed from the time we first left Kadesh-barnea until we finally crossed the Zered Brook! By then, all the men old enough to fight in battle had died in the wilderness, as the LORD had vowed would happen.

15 The LORD struck them down until they had all been eliminated from the community.

16 “When all the men of fighting age had died,