⁵ But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies ^(A)were scattered in the wilderness.

¹⁷ Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, ^(A)whose corpses fell in the wilderness?

Old and New Apostates

⁵ But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that ^(A)the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.

^64 (A)But among these there was not a man of those who were numbered by Moses and Aaron the priest when they numbered the children of Israel in the ^(B)Wilderness of Sinai. ⁶⁵ For the Lord had said of them, “They ^(C)shall surely die in the wilderness.” So there was not left a man of them, ^(D)except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.

³⁷ those very men who brought the evil report about the land, ^(A)died by the plague before the Lord.

²⁸ Say to them, ^(A)‘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, ^(B)all of you who were numbered, according to your entire number, from twenty years old and above. ^30 (C)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 (D)But your little ones, whom you said would be victims, I will bring in, and they shall ^[b]know the land which ^(E)you have despised. ³² But as for you, ^(F)your^[c] carcasses shall fall in this wilderness. ³³ And your sons shall ^(G)be ^[d]shepherds in the wilderness ^(H)forty years, and ^(I)bear the brunt of your infidelity, until your carcasses are consumed in the wilderness. ^34 (J)According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, ^(K)forty days, for each day you shall bear your ^[e]guilt one year, namely forty years, ^(L)and you shall know My ^[f]rejection. ^35 (M)I the Lord have spoken this. I will surely do so to all ^(N)this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.’ ”

Moses Intercedes for the People

¹¹ Then the Lord said to Moses: “How long will these people ^(A)reject^[a] Me? And how long will they not ^(B)believe Me, with all the ^[b]signs which I have performed among them? ¹² I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will ^(C)make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”