Numbers 14:27-37

27 How long groucheth this worst multitude against me? I have heard the grouching plaints of the sons of Israel. (How long grumbleth this worst multitude against me? I have heard all the grumbling and the complaints of the Israelites.)

28 Therefore say thou to them, (As) I live, saith the Lord; as ye spake while I heard, so I shall do to you;

29 your carrions, or dead bodies, shall lie in this wilderness. All ye that be numbered, from twenty years and above, and have grouched against me, (all your corpses shall lie here in this wilderness. All ye who be listed, or registered, from twenty years of age and older, and have grumbled against me,)

30 shall not enter into the land, upon which I have raised (up) mine hand, that I should make you to dwell there (where I would have you live), except Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, the son of Nun.

31 Forsooth I shall lead in your little children, of which ye said that they should be preys, either ravens, to (thine) enemies, that they see the land which displeased you. (But I shall lead in your little children, they of whom ye said would become your enemies? spoils, so that they can have the land which hath so displeased you.)

32 Forsooth your carrions shall lie in the wilderness; (But your corpses shall lie here in this wilderness;)

33 your sons shall be walkers-about in the desert by forty years, and they shall bear your fornication, till the carrions of their fathers be wasted in (the) desert, (your sons shall be wanderers in this wilderness for forty years, and they shall bear your punishment, until their fathers? corpses be wasted in this wilderness,)

34 by the number of forty days, in which ye beheld the land; a year shall be reckoned for a day, and by forty years ye shall receive (the penalty for) your wickedness, or be punished for your grouching, and ye shall know my vengeance. (yea, for the forty days in which ye looked the land over, a year shall be reckoned for a day, and so for forty years ye shall receive the penalty for your wickedness, and shall be punished for your grumbling, and then ye shall know my vengeance.)

35 For as I spake, so I shall do to all this worst multitude, that rose (up) together against me; it shall fail (they shall fail), and shall die in this wilderness.

36 Therefore all the men which Moses had sent to see the land, and which turned again, and made all the multitude to grouch against him, and depraved the land, (And so all the men whom Moses had sent to look over the land, and returned, and then had made all the multitude to grumble against him, and to despise the land,)

37 that it was evil, were dead, and smitten in the sight of the Lord . (by saying that it was evil, were then struck by the Lord with a pestilence, or a plague, and died.)

Numbers 14:27-37 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.