But if she has not defiled herself and is pure, then she will be unharmed and will still be able to have children.

‘The Lord is slow to anger and filled with unfailing love, forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion. But he does not excuse the guilty. He lays the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations.’

“‘You said your children would be carried off as plunder. Well, I will bring them safely into the land, and they will enjoy what you have despised.

And your children will be like shepherds, wandering in the wilderness for forty years. In this way, they will pay for your faithlessness, until the last of you lies dead in the wilderness.

So all the people stood back from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Then Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the entrances of their tents, together with their wives and children and little ones.

Then the Israelite army captured the Midianite women and children and seized their cattle and flocks and all their wealth as plunder.

But they approached Moses and said, “We simply want to build pens for our livestock and fortified towns for our wives and children.

Our children, wives, flocks, and cattle will stay here in the towns of Gilead.