^14:33and your children will wander⁵⁵ in the wilderness forty years and suffer for your unfaithfulness,⁵⁶ until your dead bodies lie finished⁵⁷ in the wilderness. ^14:34According to the number of the days you have investigated this land, forty days—one day for a year—you will suffer for⁵⁸ your iniquities, forty years, and you will know what it means to thwart me.⁵⁹

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Footnotes

55 The word is “shepherds.” It means that the people would be wilderness nomads, grazing their flock on available land.
56 Heb “you shall bear your whoredoms.” The imagery of prostitution is used throughout the Bible to reflect spiritual unfaithfulness, leaving the covenant relationship and following after false gods. Here it is used generally for their rebellion in the wilderness, but not for following other gods.
57 The infinitive is from תָּמַם (tamam), which means “to be complete.” The word is often used to express completeness in a good sense—whole, blameless, or the like. Here and in v. 35 it seems to mean “until your deaths have been completed.” See also Gen 47:15; Deut 2:15.
58 Heb “you shall bear.”
59 The phrase refers to the consequences of open hostility to God, or perhaps abandonment of God. The noun תְּנוּאָה (ténu’ah) occurs in Job 33:10 (perhaps). The related verb occurs in Num 30:6 (30:5 ) and 32:7 with the sense of “disallow, discourage.” The sense of the expression adopted in this translation comes from the meticulous study of R. Loewe, “Divine Frustration Exegetically Frustrated,” Words and Meanings, 137–58.

In other versions

ESVEnglish Standard Version

And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.’

NIVNew International Version (2011)

Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness. For forty years—one year for each of the forty days you explored the land—you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you.’

CSBChristian Standard Bible

Your children will be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years and bear the penalty for your acts of unfaithfulness until all your corpses lie scattered in the wilderness. You will bear the consequences of your iniquities forty years based on the number of the forty days that you scouted the land, a year for each day. You will know my displeasure.

NLTNew Living Translation

And your children will be like shepherds, wandering in the wilderness for forty years. In this way, they will pay for your faithlessness, until the last of you lies dead in the wilderness.

“ ‘Because your men explored the land for forty days, you must wander in the wilderness for forty years—a year for each day, suffering the consequences of your sins. Then you will discover what it is like to have me for an enemy.’

LEBThe Lexham English Bible

And your children will be shepherds in the desert forty years, and you will bear your unfaithfulness until all your corpses have fallen in the desert. According to the number of the days that you explored the land, forty days, a day for each year, you will bear your sins forty years, and you will know my opposition.’

KJV 1900King James Version

And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.

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