Numbers 14:39

39 And Moses told these words to all the people of Israel, and the people mourned greatly.

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 the men who brought up an evil report of the land, died by plague before the LORD.
38 But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephun'neh remained alive, of those men who went to spy out the land.
39 And Moses told these words to all the people of Israel, and the people mourned greatly.
40 And they rose early in the morning, and went up to the heights of the hill country, saying, "See, we are here, we will go up to the place which the LORD has promised; for we have sinned."
41 But Moses said, "Why now are you transgressing the command of the LORD, for that will not succeed?
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the 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.