Numbers 14:26–38

Death Sentence on the Rebels

²⁶And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, ²⁷ⁱ“How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who complain against Me? ^jI have heard the complaints which the children of Israel make against Me. ²⁸Say to them, ^k‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you: ²⁹The carcasses of you who have complained against Me shall fall in this wilderness, ^lall of you who were numbered, according to your entire number, from twenty years old and above. ^30mExcept for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the land which I ⁷swore I would make you dwell in. ³¹ⁿBut your little ones, whom you said would be victims, I will bring in, and they shall ⁸know the land which ^oyou have despised. ³²But as for you, ^pyour ⁹carcasses shall fall in this wilderness. ³³And your sons shall ^qbe ¹shepherds in the wilderness ^rforty years, and ^sbear the brunt of your infidelity, until your carcasses are consumed in the wilderness. ^34tAccording to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, ^uforty days, for each day you shall bear your ²guilt one year, namely forty years, ^vand you shall know My ³rejection. ^35wI the Lord have spoken this. I will surely do so to all ^xthis evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.’ ”

³⁶Now the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation complain against him by bringing a bad report of the land, ³⁷those very men who brought the evil report about the land, ^ydied by the plague before the Lord. ^38zBut Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive, of the men who went to spy out the land.