34. For as many days as you explored the land, that is, forty days, just as many years you’ll bear your guilt, that is, forty years. This is how you will understand my frustration."
35. I the Lord have spoken. I will do this to the entire wicked community who gathered against me. They will die in this desert. There they’ll meet their end.
36. The men whom Moses sent out to explore the land had returned and caused the entire community to complain against him by starting a rumor about the land.
37. These men died by a plague in the Lord’s presence on account of their false rumor.
38. But Joshua, Nun’s son, and Caleb, Jephunneh’s son, survived from those men who went to explore the land.
39. Moses spoke these words to all the Israelites, and the people mourned bitterly.
40. They rose early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain range, saying, "Let’s go up to the place the Lord told us to, for we have sinned."
41. But Moses said, "Why do you disobey the Lord’s command? It won’t succeed.
42. Don’t go up, for the Lord isn’t with you. Don’t be struck down before your enemies.
43. The Amalekites and the Canaanites will be there in front of you and you will fall by the sword because you turned away from the Lord, and the Lord is no longer with you."
44. Yet they recklessly ascended toward the top of the mountains, even though Moses and the Lord’s chest containing the covenant didn’t depart from the camp.