Numbers 14:33
in Numbers 14Your children will be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your whoredoms, until your dead bodies be consumed in the wilderness.
KJV
And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.
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This verse in Numbers 14
Commentary
6 notes on this verseAnd your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years,.... Or "feed" (b), as shepherds, who go from place to place, and seek fresh pasture for their sheep; it being the custom of a shepherd, as Aben Ezra observes, not to stand or rest in a place; and so like sheep grazing in a wilderness, where they have short commons, and wander about in search, of better.
This site's exposition
your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years
on Numbers 14:33-34
The length of the sentence is measured out of the length of the errand, forty days searching answered by forty years bearing, and verse 34 states the rule as each day for a year. Ezekiel 4:6 states the same rule a second time and later prophetic reckonings are built on it. The closing phrase of verse 34, ye shall know my breach of promise, is a hard rendering, since the Hebrew word behind breach of promise is read by others as opposition or alienation, and the American Standard Version gives my alienation.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Their fathers had such a value for Canaan that they desired to have their dead bodies carried thither to be buried, in token of their dependence upon God's promise that they should have that land for a possession: but these, having despised that good land and disbelieved the promise of it, shall not have the honour to be buried in it, but shall have their graves in the wilderness.
It should seem that upon occasion of this sentence Moses penned the ninetieth Psalm , which is very apposite to the present state of Israel, and wherein they are taught to pray that since this sentence could not be reversed it might be sanctified, and they might learn to apply their hearts unto wisdom. The mercy that was mixed with this severe sentence.
The frequent repetitions of the same things in it speak these resolves to be unalterable. Let us see the particulars. The extremity of the sentence is receded from (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Your whoredoms - Their several rebellions had been so many acts of faithless departure from the Lord who had taken them unto Himself. And as the children of the unchaste have generally to bear in their earthly careers much of the disgrace and the misery which forms the natural penalty of their parents’ transgression; so here the children of the Israelites, although suffered to hope for an eventual entry into Canaan, were yet to endure, through many long years’ wandering, the appropriate punishment of their fathers’ willfulness.
The words behind it
13 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וּ֠בְנֵיכֶם | uveneikhem | and children your | H1121 → | 4930 times |
| יִהְי֨וּ | yihyu | they will be | H1961 → | 3559 times |
| רֹעִ֤ים | roim | shepherds | H7462 → | |
| בַּמִּדְבָּר֙ | bamidbar | in the wilderness | H4057 → | 270 times |
| אַרְבָּעִ֣ים | ʾarbaim | forty | H705 → | 136 times |
| שָׁנָ֔ה | shanah | year[s] | H8141 → | 877 times |
| וְנָשְׂא֖וּ | venaseu | and they will bear | H5375 → | 656 times |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| זְנוּתֵיכֶ֑ם | zenuteikhem | prostitution your | H2184 → | |
| עַד־ | ʾad- | until | H5704 → | 1261 times |
| תֹּ֥ם | tom | are finished | H8552 → | 63 times |
| פִּגְרֵיכֶ֖ם | pigreikhem | corpses your | H6297 → | 22 times |
| בַּמִּדְבָּֽר׃ | bamidbar | in the wilderness | H4057 → | 270 times |
וּ֠בְנֵיכֶםand children your
uveneikhemH1121 →4930 times
יִהְי֨וּthey will be
yihyuH1961 →3559 times
רֹעִ֤יםshepherds
roimH7462 →
בַּמִּדְבָּר֙in the wilderness
bamidbarH4057 →270 times
אַרְבָּעִ֣יםforty
ʾarbaimH705 →136 times
שָׁנָ֔הyear[s]
shanahH8141 →877 times
וְנָשְׂא֖וּand they will bear
venaseuH5375 →656 times
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
זְנוּתֵיכֶ֑םprostitution your
zenuteikhemH2184 →
עַד־until
ʾad-H5704 →1261 times
תֹּ֥םare finished
tomH8552 →63 times
פִּגְרֵיכֶ֖םcorpses your
pigreikhemH6297 →22 times
בַּמִּדְבָּֽר׃in the wilderness
bamidbarH4057 →270 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Deuteronomy 2:14The time we spent traveling from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed over the Brook of Zered was thirty-eight years, until that entire generation of fighting men had perished from the camp, as the LORD had…
it leads to
- Numbers 26:64–65
Among all these, however, there was not one who had been numbered by Moses and Aaron the priest when they counted the Israelites in the Wilderness of Sinai.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Numbers 14:28–35
So tell them: As surely as I live, declares the LORD, I will do to you exactly as I heard you say.
- Numbers 26:64–65
Through
Psalms 107:40He pours out contempt on the nobles and makes them wander in a trackless wasteland.
it leads to
Through
Numbers 32:13The anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until the whole generation who had done evil in His sight was gone.
it leads to
- 1 Corinthians 10:5
Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the wilderness.
- Hebrews 3:16–19
For who were the ones who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt?
- Numbers 14:33–35
Your children will be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness.
- 1 Corinthians 10:5
Through
Ezekiel 23:35Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because you have forgotten Me and have cast Me behind your back, you must bear the consequences of your indecency and prostitution.’”
it leads to
- 1 Kings 14:9
You have done more evil than all who came before you. You have proceeded to make for yourself other gods and molten images to provoke Me, and you have flung Me behind your back.
- 1 Kings 14:9
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Numbers
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.