Numbers 14:37

37 Those men were to blame for spreading the bad report. So the LORD struck them down. They died of a plague.

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.

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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. You can be sure that I will do those things to this whole evil community. They have joined together against me. They will meet their end in this desert. They will die here."

36 So the LORD struck down the men Moses had sent to check out the land. They had returned and had spread a bad report about the land. And that had made the whole community speak out against Moses.

37 Those men were to blame for spreading the bad report. So the LORD struck them down. They died of a plague.

38 Only two of the men who went to check out the land remained alive. One of them was Joshua, the son of Nun. The other was Caleb, the son of Jephunneh.

39 Moses reported to all of the people of Israel what the LORD had said. And they became very sad.