36 So it happened that the men Moses sent to scout out the land returned to circulate false rumors about the land causing the entire community to grumble against Moses - 37 all these men died. Having spread false rumors of the land, they died in a plague, confronted by God. 38 Only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh were left alive of the men who went to scout out the land.
39 When Moses told all of this to the People of Israel, they mourned long and hard.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Numbers 14:36-39
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.