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Numbers 14:34

in Numbers 14

In keeping with the forty days you spied out the land, you shall bear your guilt forty years—a year for each day—and you will experience My alienation.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

After the number of the days in which ye spied out the land, even forty days, for every day a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my alienation.

KJV

After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.

This verse in Numbers 14

Commentary

9 notes on this verse

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

After the number of the days - The spies were forty days in searching the land, and the people who rebelled on their evil report are condemned to wander forty years in the wilderness! Now let them make them a captain and go back to Egypt if they can. God had so hedged them about with his power and providence that they could neither go back to Egypt nor get forward to the promised land! God has provided innumerable spiritual blessings for mankind, but in the pursuit of earthly good they lose them, and often lose the others also!

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 Church Fathers1 voice

A commentator

Caesarius of Arles

SERMON 108.2 · Written before 542.

proposed

For my part I am afraid to examine the secrets of this mystery, for I see comprehended in it the calculation of sins and punishment. If each sinner is assigned punishment for the sin of one day and according to the number of days he …

The Puritans and the Awakening4 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

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.

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

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.

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

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

After the number of days in which ye searched the land, even forty days,....
2 more voices on this verse

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

ye shall know my breach of promise--that is, in consequence of your violation of the covenant betwixt you and Me, by breaking the terms of it, it shall be null and void on My part, as I shall withhold the blessings I promised in that covenant to confer on you on condition of your obedience.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase

My breach of promise - In the original, a word, found elsewhere only in Job 30:10, and meaning “my withdrawals” “my turning away.” See the margin.

The words behind it

20 Hebrew words

Every 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.

  • בְּמִסְפַּ֨רby [the] number of

    bemisparH4557134 times

  • הַיָּמִ֜יםthe days

    haiyamimH31172304 times

  • אֲשֶׁר־which

    ʾasher-H8345497 times

  • תַּרְתֶּ֣םyou spied out

    tartemH844624 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H85310935 times

  • הָאָרֶץ֮the land

    haaretzH7762504 times

  • אַרְבָּעִ֣יםforty

    ʾarbaimH705136 times

  • יוֹם֒day[s]

    yomH31172304 times

  • י֣וֹםa day

    yomH31172304 times

  • לַשָּׁנָ֞הfor the year

    lashanahH8141877 times

  • י֣וֹםa day

    yomH31172304 times

  • לַשָּׁנָ֗הfor the year

    lashanahH8141877 times

  • תִּשְׂאוּ֙you will bear

    tisuH5375656 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H85310935 times

  • עֲוֹנֹ֣תֵיכֶ֔םiniquities your

    ʾavonoteikhemH5771233 times

  • אַרְבָּעִ֖יםforty

    ʾarbaimH705136 times

  • שָׁנָ֑הyear[s]

    shanahH8141877 times

  • וִֽידַעְתֶּ֖םand you will know

    vida'temH3045945 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H85310935 times

  • תְּנוּאָתִֽי׃opposition my

    tenuatiH8569

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each 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

    Daniel 9:24

    Seventy weeks are decreed for your people and your holy city to stop their transgression, to put an end to sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up…

    it leads to

    • Hebrews 9:11–14

      But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that have come, He went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made by hands and is not a part…

    • Romans 5:10

      For if, when we were enemies of God, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life!

    • Jeremiah 23:5–6

      Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and He will reign wisely as King and will administer justice and righteousness in the land.

    • Leviticus 25:8

      And you shall count off seven Sabbaths of years—seven times seven years—so that the seven Sabbaths of years amount to forty-nine years.

    • Isaiah 51:6

      Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth below; for the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and its people will die like…

  • Through

    Psalms 95:10

    For forty years I was angry with that generation, and I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known My ways.”

    it leads to

    • Hebrews 3:17

      And with whom was God angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?

    • Hebrews 3:9–10

      where your fathers tested and tried Me, and for forty years saw My works.

  • Through

    Ezekiel 4:6

    When you have completed these days, lie down again, but on your right side, and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah. I have assigned to you 40 days, a day for each…

    it leads to

    • Daniel 12:11–12

      And from the time the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination of desolation set up, there will be 1,290 days.

Where this verse is studied

About Numbers

The Bronze Serpent, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
The Bronze Serpent, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Caesarius of Arles, SERMON 108.2; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; 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.