Numbers 14:23

14:23 they will by no means ¹  see the land that I swore to their fathers, nor will any of them who despised me see it.

Numbers 14:28-30

14:28 Say to them, ‘As I live, ²  says ³  the Lord, I will surely do to you just what you have spoken in my hearing. ⁴  14:29 Your dead bodies ⁵  will fall in this wilderness – all those of you who were numbered, according to your full number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me. 14:30 You will by no means enter into the land where ⁶  I swore ⁷  to settle ⁸  you. The only exceptions are Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.

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¹ tn The word אִם (’im) indicates a negative oath formula: “if” means “they will not.” It is elliptical. In a human oath one would be saying: “The Lord do to me if they see…,” meaning “they will by no means see.” Here God is swearing that they will not see the land.

² sn Here again is the oath that God swore in his wrath, an oath he swore by himself, that they would not enter the land. “As the Lord lives,” or “by the life of the Lord,” are ways to render it.

³ tn The word נְאֻם (nÿ’um) is an “oracle.” It is followed by the subjective genitive: “the oracle of the Lord” is equal to saying “the Lord says.”

⁴ tn Heb “in my ears.”

sn They had expressed the longing to have died in the wilderness, and not in war. God will now give them that. They would not say to God “your will be done,” so he says to them, “your will be done” (to borrow from C. S. Lewis).

⁵ tn Or “your corpses” (also in vv. 32, 33).

⁶ tn The relative pronoun “which” is joined with the resumptive pronoun “in it” to form a smoother reading “where.”

⁷ tn The Hebrew text uses the anthropomorphic expression “I raised my hand” in taking an oath.

⁸ tn Heb “to cause you to dwell; to cause you to settle.”