¹⁴ And the length of time we had traveled from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed the Wadi Zered was thirty-eight years, until the entire generation of warriors had perished from the camp, as the Lord had sworn concerning them.^(A)

⁶⁴ Among these there was not one of those enrolled by Moses and Aaron the priest, who had enrolled the Israelites in the wilderness of Sinai.^{(A) 65} For the Lord had said of them, “They shall die in the wilderness.” Not one of them was left, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.^(B)

²⁸ Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘I will do to you the very things I heard you say:^{(A) 29} your dead bodies shall fall in this very wilderness, and of all your number included in the census from twenty years old and up who have complained against me,^{(B) 30} not one of you shall come into the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.^{(C) 31} But your little ones, who you said would become plunder, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have despised.^{(D) 32} But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness.^{(E) 33} And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness.^{(F) 34} According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day a year, you shall bear your iniquity, forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.’^{(G) 35} I the Lord have spoken; surely I will do thus to all this wicked congregation gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die.”^(H)

¹⁵ Moreover, I swore to them in the wilderness that I would not bring them into the land that I had given them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the most glorious of all lands,^(A)

The Penalty for Israel’s Rebellion

³⁴ “When the Lord heard your words, he was wrathful and swore,^{(A) 35} ‘Not one of these—not one of this evil generation—shall see the good land that I swore to give to your ancestors,

¹² Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. ¹³ But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. ¹⁴ For we have become partners of Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end. ¹⁵ As it is said,

¹⁶ Now who were they who heard and rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt under the leadership of Moses?^{(B) 17} And with whom was he angry forty years? Was it not those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?^{(C) 18} And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, if not to those who were disobedient?^{(D) 19} So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.^(E)

Israel’s Refusal to Enter the Land

¹⁹ “Then, just as the Lord our God had ordered us, we set out from Horeb and went through all that great and terrible wilderness that you saw, on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, until we reached Kadesh-barnea.^(A)