Numbers 14:33-35

33 And your children 1shall be shepherds in the wilderness 2forty years and shall 3suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness.
34 4According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, 5forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.'
35 6I, the LORD, have spoken. Surely this will I do to all 7this wicked congregation who are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die."

Numbers 14:33-35 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.

Cross References 7

  • 1. Numbers 32:13; [Psalms 107:40]
  • 2. Psalms 95:10; [Deuteronomy 2:14]
  • 3. Ezekiel 23:35
  • 4. Numbers 13:25
  • 5. [Ezekiel 4:6]
  • 6. Numbers 23:19
  • 7. ver. 27
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.