Numbers 14:34 (ASV)

Passage

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.

Nearby Context

Numbers 14:32 But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness.

Numbers 14:33 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.

Numbers 14:34 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.

Numbers 14:35 I, Jehovah, have spoken, surely this will I do unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.

Numbers 14:36 And the men, whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up an evil report against the land,

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "iniquities", "after", "number", "days", "spied", "land", "even", and "forty". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "iniquities" and "after", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 33's "And your children shall be wanderers in..." into verse 35's "I Jehovah have spoken surely this will...", so "iniquities" and "after" belong inside that flow. In Numbers context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "iniquities" and "after" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.