Numbers 14:37

37 even those men who brought up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the LORD.

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 said: I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.'"

36 And the men, whom Moses sent to search the land, who returned and made all the congregation to murmur against him by bringing up a slander upon the land,

37 even those men who brought up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the LORD.

38 But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were of the men who went to search the land, lived still.

39 And Moses told these sayings unto all the children of Israel, and the people mourned greatly.