²⁹ In this wilderness your bodies will fall^(A)—every one of you twenty years old or more^(B) who was counted in the census^(C) and who has grumbled against me. ³⁰ Not one of you will enter the land^(D) I swore with uplifted hand^(E) to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh^(F) and Joshua son of Nun.^{(G) 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.^{(H) 32} But as for you, your bodies will fall^(I) in this wilderness. ³³ Your children will be shepherds here for forty years,^(J) suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness. ³⁴ For forty years^(K)—one year for each of the forty days you explored the land^(L)—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^(M) to this whole wicked community, which has banded together against me. They will meet their end in this wilderness; here they will die.^(N)”

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 And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness?^(A)