³ For we who have believed are entering that rest, just as God^[a] has said,

though his works were finished since the foundation of the world.

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,

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)

⁹ So then, a Sabbath rest still remains for the people of God,

⁵ And again in this place it says, “They shall not enter my rest.”

¹⁰ The Lord’s anger was kindled on that day, and he swore, saying,^{(A) 11} ‘Surely none of the people who came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and up, shall see the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, because they have not unreservedly followed me^(B)— ¹² none except Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua son of Nun, for they have unreservedly followed the Lord.’^{(C) 13} And the Lord’s anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness for forty years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the Lord had disappeared.^(D)

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.”^(A)

²⁰ Then the Lord said, “I do forgive, just as you have asked;^{(A) 21} nevertheless, as I live and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord,^{(B) 22} none of the people who have seen my glory and the signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness and yet have tested me these ten times and have not obeyed my voice ²³ shall see the land that I swore to give to their ancestors; none of those who despised me shall see it.