Numbers 14:39

39 When Moses told all of this to the People of Israel, they mourned long and hard.

Numbers 14:39 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 14:39

And Moses told these sayings unto all the children of Israel,
&c.] That all that had murmured, who were of twenty years old and upwards, should die in the wilderness, and never see nor enter into the land of Canaan, on the borders of which they now were: and the people mourned greatly;
because of their unhappy case, that they should be cut off by death in the wilderness, and be deprived of the enjoyment of the good land; their sorrow seems to have been not a godly sorrow, or true repentance for sin committed, but a worldly sorrow that works death; it was not on account of the evil of sin, the pardon of which they did not seem to seek after, but on account of the evil that was likely to come to them by it.

Numbers 14:39 In-Context

37 all these men died. Having spread false rumors of the land, they died in a plague, confronted by God.

38 Only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh were left alive of the men who went to scout out the land.

39 When Moses told all of this to the People of Israel, they mourned long and hard.

40 But early the next morning they started out for the high hill country, saying, "We're here; we're ready - let's go up and attack the land that God promised us. We sinned, but now we're ready."

41 But Moses said, "Why are you crossing God's command yet again? This won't work.