26 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron , saying , 27 "How long e shall I bear with this evil congregation who are grumbling against Me? I have heard the complaints of the sons of Israel , which they are making against Me. 28 "Say to them, ' As I live ,' says the Lord , 'just as you have spoken in My hearing , so I will surely do to you; 29 your corpses will fall in this wilderness , even all your numbered men, according to your complete number from twenty years old and upward , who have grumbled against Me. 30 'Surely you shall not come into the land in which I swore e to settle you, except e Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun . 31 ' Your children , however, whom you said would become a prey -I will bring them in, and they will know the land which you have rejected . 32 ' But as for you, your corpses will fall in this wilderness . 33 'Your sons shall be shepherds for forty years in the wilderness , and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness , until your corpses lie in the wilderness . 34 'According to the number of days which you spied out the land , forty days , for every day you shall bear your guilt a year , even forty years , and you will know My opposition . 35 ' I, the Lord , have spoken , surely e this I will do to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be destroyed , and there they will die .' "
36 As for the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land and who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing out a bad report concerning the land , 37 even those men who brought out the very bad report of the land died by a plague before the Lord . 38 But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive out of those men who went to spy out the land .
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Numbers 14:26-38
Commentary on Numbers 14:20-35
(Read Numbers 14:20-35)
The Lord granted the prayer of Moses so far as not at once to destroy the congregation. But disbelief of the promise forbids the benefit. Those who despise the pleasant land shall be shut out of it. The promise of God should be fulfilled to their children. They wished to die in the wilderness; God made their sin their ruin, took them at their word, and their carcases fell in the wilderness. They were made to groan under the burden of their own sin, which was too heavy for them to bear. Ye shall know my breach of promise, both the causes of it, that it is procured by your sin, for God never leaves any till they first leave him; and the consequences of it, that will produce your ruin. But your little ones, now under twenty years old, which ye, in your unbelief, said should be a prey, them will I bring in. God will let them know that he can put a difference between the guilty and the innocent, and cut them off without touching their children. Thus God would not utterly take away his loving kindness.
Commentary on Numbers 14:36-39
(Read Numbers 14:36-39)
Here is the sudden death of the ten evil spies. They sinned in bringing a slander upon the land of promise. Those greatly provoke God, who misrepresent religion, raise dislike in men's minds toward it, or give opportunity to those to do so, who seek occasion. Justly are murmurers made mourners. If they had mourned for the sin, when they were faithfully reproved, the sentence had been prevented; but as they mourned for the judgment only, it did them no service. There is in hell such mourning as this; but tears will not quench the flames, nor cool the tongue.