Numbers 14:37

37 the men who spread the evil report of the land died by the plague {before Yahweh}.

Numbers 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.

---

FOOTNOTES:

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

Numbers 14:37 In-Context

35 I, Yahweh, have spoken; I will surely do this to all this evil community who has banded together against me. In this desert they will come to an end, and there they will die."

36 As for the men whom Moses sent to explore the land, who returned and made the community grumble against him by spreading a report over the land,

37 the men who spread the evil report of the land died by the plague {before Yahweh}.

38 But Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh lived from [among] the men who went to explore the land.

39 And Moses spoke words to all the {Israelites}, and the people mourned greatly.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "in the presence of Yahweh"