Numbers 14:37

37 The men who gave a very bad report died; the Lord killed them with a terrible sickness.

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, the Lord, have spoken, and I will certainly do these things to all these evil people who have come together against me. So they will all die here in this desert."

36 The men Moses had sent to explore the land had returned and spread complaints among all the people. They had given a bad report about the land.

37 The men who gave a very bad report died; the Lord killed them with a terrible sickness.

38 Only two of the men who explored the land did not die -- Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh.

39 When Moses told these things to all the Israelites, they were very sad.