Numbers 14:33
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Your children will be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
Uproar among the People. - Num 14:1-4. This appalling description of Canaan had so depressing an influence upon the whole congregation (cf. Deu 1:28 : they "made their heart melt," i.e., threw them into utter despair), that they raised a loud cry, and wept in the night in consequence. The whole nation murmured against Moses and Aaron their two leaders, saying "Would that we had died in Egypt or in this wilderness! Why will Jehovah bring us into this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should become a prey (be made slaves by the enemy; cf. Deu 1:27-28)? Let us rather return into Egypt! We will appoint a captain, they said one to another, and go back to Egypt."
Open source ↗This chapter gives us an account of that fatal quarrel between God and Israel upon which, for their murmuring and unbelief, he swore in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest. Here is, I. The mutiny and rebellion of Israel against God, upon the report of the evil spies (Num 14:1-4). II. The fruitless endeavour of Moses and Aaron, Caleb and Joshua, to still the tumult (Num 14:5-10). III. Their utter ruin justly threatened by an offended God (Num 14:11, Num 14:12). IV. The humble intercession of Moses for them (Num 14:13-19). V. A mitigation of the sentence in answer to the prayer of Moses; they shall not all be cut off, but the decree goes forth ratified with an oath, published to the people, again and again repeated, that this whole congregation should perish in the wilderness, and none of them enter Canaan but Caleb and Joshua only (v. 20-35). VI. The present death of the evil spies (Num 14:36-39). VII. The rebuke given to those who attempted to go forward notwithstanding (Num 14:40-45). And this is written for our admonition, that we "fall not after the same example of unbelief."
Open source ↗Original language
The Hebrew and Greek words behind this passage, with Strong's numbers — from openscriptures (CC BY-SA).
Cross-references
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Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because you have forgotten Me and have cast Me behind your back, you must bear the consequences of your indecency and prostitution.’”
The anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until the whole generation who had done evil in His sight was gone.
The time we spent traveling from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed over the Brook of Zered was thirty-eight years, until that entire generation of fighting men had perished from the camp, as the LORD had sworn to them.
He pours out contempt on the nobles and makes them wander in a trackless wasteland.
In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses proclaimed to the Israelites all that the LORD had commanded him concerning them.
Do not rejoice, O Israel, with exultation like the nations, for you have played the harlot against your God; you have made love for hire on every threshing floor.
Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no path to a city in which to dwell.
At the LORD’s command, Aaron the priest climbed Mount Hor and died there on the first day of the fifth month, in the fortieth year after the Israelites had come out of the land of Egypt.
The husband will be free from guilt, but the woman shall bear her iniquity.”
Now behold, as the LORD promised, He has kept me alive these forty-five years since He spoke this word to Moses, while Israel wandered in the wilderness. So here I am today, eighty-five years old,