Numbers 14:29

29 your dead bodies shall fall in this very wilderness; and of all your number, included in the census, from twenty years old and upward, who have complained against me,

Numbers 14:29 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 14:29

Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness
They had wished they had died in it, ( Numbers 14:2 ) , and the Lord here declares they should, which is signified by the falling of their carcasses in it, or their bodies, which when dead fall to the ground, having no strength to support themselves:

and all that were numbered of you:
but a few months before this time, when their number was 603,550, ( Numbers 1:46 ) ;

according to your number from twenty years old and upward;
which is observed, as Jarchi thinks, to except the Levites, for they were not numbered with the other tribes; and when they were numbered by themselves, their number was taken from a month old and upwards; wherefore it need not be wondered at, if we find that there were of them who did not fall in the wilderness, but entered into the land of Canaan, as it is certain Eleazar the priest, the son of Aaron, did, ( Numbers 34:17 ) ( Joshua 14:1 ) ;

which have murmured against me;
which shows, that not the spies only, who caused the people to murmur, but the people themselves who murmured, and had been numbered, from twenty years old and upward, are the evil congregation the Lord thus threatened with death.

Numbers 14:29 In-Context

27 How long shall this wicked congregation complain against me? I have heard the complaints of the Israelites, which they complain against me.
28 Say to them, "As I live," says the Lord, "I will do to you the very things I heard you say:
29 your dead bodies shall fall in this very wilderness; and of all your number, included in the census, from twenty years old and upward, who have complained against me,
30 not one of you shall come into the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.
31 But your little ones, who you said would become booty, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have despised.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.