^1:39Also, your infants, who you thought would die on the way,⁷⁶ and your children, who as yet do not know good from bad,⁷⁷ will go there; I will give them the land and they will possess it.

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Footnotes

76 Heb “would be a prey.”
77 Do not know good from bad. This is a figure of speech called a merism (suggesting a whole by referring to its extreme opposites). Other examples are the tree of “the knowledge of good and evil” (Gen 2:9), the boy who knows enough “to reject the wrong and choose the right” (Isa 7:16; 8:4), and those who “cannot tell their right hand from their left” (Jonah 4:11). A young child is characterized by lack of knowledge.

In other versions

ESVEnglish Standard Version

And as for your little ones, who you said would become a prey, and your children, who today have no knowledge of good or evil, they shall go in there. And to them I will give it, and they shall possess it.

NIVNew International Version (2011)

And the little ones that you said would be taken captive, your children who do not yet know good from bad—they will enter the land. I will give it to them and they will take possession of it.

CSBChristian Standard Bible

Your children, who you said would be plunder, your sons who don’t yet know good from evil, will enter there. I will give them the land, and they will take possession of it.

NLTNew Living Translation

I will give the land to your little ones—your innocent children. You were afraid they would be captured, but they will be the ones who occupy it.

LEBThe Lexham English Bible

And your little children, who you thought shall become plunder, and your sons, who do not today know good or bad, shall themselves go there, and I will give it to them, and they shall take possession of it.

KJV 1900King James Version

Moreover your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, and your children, which in that day had no knowledge between good and evil, they shall go in thither, and unto them will I give it, and they shall possess it.

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