Bamidbar 14:37

37 Even those anashim that did bring up the evil report of HaAretz, died by the maggefah before Hashem.

Bamidbar 14:37 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 14:37

Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the
land
They, and they only at this time: died by the plague before the Lord;
either by the pestilence immediately sent upon them by the Lord, or by a flash of lightning from him, or in some other way; however, by the immediate hand of God, and in his presence, being in the tabernacle of the congregation, ( Numbers 14:10 ) ; though the Jews differently relate the manner of their death; some say worms came out of their navels, and up to their jaws, and ate them and their tongues; and others that they came out of their tongues, and entered their navels, which they take to be a just retaliation for sinning with their tongues: and the time of their death they differ about; some say, as the Targum of Jonathan, that it was upon the seventh, and others that it was on the seventeenth of Elul or August they died ^F4.

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FOOTNOTES:

F4 Schulchan Aruch, par. 1. c. 580. sect. 2. Shalshalet Hakabala, fol. 7. 2.

Bamidbar 14:37 In-Context

35 I, Hashem, have spoken, I will surely do it unto this Kol HaEdah, that are gathered together against Me: in this midbar they shall come to an end, and there they shall die.

36 And the anashim, which Moshe sent to spy out the land, who returned, and made Kol HaEdah to murmur against him, the ones spreading a dibbah (bad report, slander) about HaAretz,

37 Even those anashim that did bring up the evil report of HaAretz, died by the maggefah before Hashem.

38 But Yehoshua ben Nun, and Kalev ben Yephunneh survived of the anashim that went to explore HaAretz.

39 And Moshe told these sayings unto Kol Bnei Yisroel: and HaAm mourned greatly.