18. ‘The Lord. . . patient, forever loving. . . . He forgives wrongdoing and disobedience. . . . He never lets the guilty go unpunished, punishing children. . . for their parents’ sins to the third and fourth generation. . . .’
19. By your great love, please forgive these people’s sins, as you have been forgiving them from the time they left Egypt until now.”
20. The Lord said, “I forgive them, as you have asked.
21. But as I live and as the glory of the Lord fills the whole earth, I solemnly swear that
22. none of the people who saw my glory and the miraculous signs I did in Egypt and in the desert will see the land which I promised their ancestors. They have tested me now ten times and refused to obey me.
23. None of those who treat me with contempt will see it!
24. But because my servant Caleb has a different attitude and has wholeheartedly followed me, I’ll bring him to the land he already explored. His descendants will possess it.
25. (The Amalekites and Canaanites are living in the valleys.) Tomorrow you must turn around, go back into the desert, and follow the road that goes to the Red Sea.”
26. Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron,
27. “How long must I put up with this wicked community that keeps complaining about me? I’ve heard the complaints the Israelites are making about me.
28. So tell them, ‘As I live, declares the Lord, I solemnly swear I will do everything to you that you said I would do.
29. Your bodies will drop dead in this desert. All of you who are at least 20 years old, who were registered and listed, and who complained about me will die.
30. I raised my hand and swore an oath to give you this land to live in. But none of you will enter it except Caleb (son of Jephunneh) and Joshua (son of Nun).
31. You said your children would be taken as prisoners of war. Instead, I will bring them into the land you rejected, and they will enjoy it.
32. However, your bodies will drop dead in this desert.
33. Your children will be shepherds in the desert for 40 years. They will suffer for your unfaithfulness until the last of your bodies lies dead in the desert.
34. For 40 days you explored the land. So for 40 years—one year for each day—you will suffer for your sins and know what it means for me to be against you.’
35. I, the Lord, have spoken. I swear I will do these things to all the people in this whole wicked community who have joined forces against me. They will meet their end in this desert. Here they will die!”
36. So the men Moses sent to explore the land died in front of the Lord from a plague.
37. They died because they had returned and made the whole community complain about Moses by spreading lies about the land.