Numbers 14:26-38

New King James Version

Death Sentence on the Rebels

²⁶ And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, ^27 (A)“How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who complain against Me? ^(B)I have heard the complaints which the children of Israel make against Me. ²⁸ Say to them, ^(C)‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you: ²⁹ The carcasses of you who have complained against Me shall fall in this wilderness, ^(D)all of you who were numbered, according to your entire number, from twenty years old and above. ^30 (E)Except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the land which I ^[a]swore I would make you dwell in. ^31 (F)But your little ones, whom you said would be victims, I will bring in, and they shall ^[b]know the land which ^(G)you have despised. ³² But as for you, ^(H)your^[c] carcasses shall fall in this wilderness. ³³ And your sons shall ^(I)be ^[d]shepherds in the wilderness ^(J)forty years, and ^(K)bear the brunt of your infidelity, until your carcasses are consumed in the wilderness. ^34 (L)According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, ^(M)forty days, for each day you shall bear your ^[e]guilt one year, namely forty years, ^(N)and you shall know My ^[f]rejection. ^35 (O)I the Lord have spoken this. I will surely do so to all ^(P)this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.’ ”

³⁶ Now 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, ³⁷ those very men who brought the evil report about the land, ^(Q)died by the plague before the Lord. ^38 (R)But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive, of the men who went to spy out the land.