²⁶ The Lord said to Moses and Aaron: ²⁷ “How long will this wicked community grumble against me? I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites.^{(A) 28} So tell them, ‘As surely as I live,^(B) declares the Lord, I will do to you^(C) the very thing I heard you say: ²⁹ In this wilderness your bodies will fall^(D)—every one of you twenty years old or more^(E) who was counted in the census^(F) and who has grumbled against me. ³⁰ Not one of you will enter the land^(G) I swore with uplifted hand^(H) to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh^(I) and Joshua son of Nun.^{(J) 31} As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected.^{(K) 32} But as for you, your bodies will fall^(L) in this wilderness. ³³ Your children will be shepherds here for forty years,^(M) suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness. ³⁴ For forty years^(N)—one year for each of the forty days you explored the land^(O)—you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you.’ ³⁵ I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will surely do these things^(P) to this whole wicked community, which has banded together against me. They will meet their end in this wilderness; here they will die.^(Q)”

³⁶ So the men Moses had sent^(R) to explore the land, who returned and made the whole community grumble^(S) against him by spreading a bad report^(T) about it— ³⁷ these men who were responsible for spreading the bad report^(U) about the land were struck down and died of a plague^(V) before the Lord. ³⁸ Of the men who went to explore the land,^(W) only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh survived.^(X)

³⁹ When Moses reported this^(Y) to all the Israelites, they mourned^(Z) bitterly.

⁶³ These are the ones counted^(A) by Moses and Eleazar the priest when they counted the Israelites on the plains of Moab^(B) by the Jordan across from Jericho.^{(C) 64} Not one of them was among those counted^(D) by Moses and Aaron^(E) the priest when they counted the Israelites in the Desert of Sinai. ⁶⁵ For the Lord had told those Israelites they would surely die in the wilderness,^(F) and not one of them was left except Caleb^(G) son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.^(H)

¹⁴ Thirty-eight years^(A) passed from the time we left Kadesh Barnea^(B) until we crossed the Zered Valley. By then, that entire generation^(C) of fighting men had perished from the camp, as the Lord had sworn to them.^{(D) 15} The Lord’s hand was against them until he had completely eliminated^(E) them from the camp.

¹⁶ Now when the last of these fighting men among the people had died, ¹⁷ the Lord said to me,