Numbers 14:33 (LSB)

Passage

And your sons shall be shepherds for forty years in the wilderness, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness, until your corpses come to an end in the wilderness.

Nearby Context

Numbers 14:31 Your little ones, however, who you said would become plunder—I will bring them in, so that they will know the land which you have rejected.

Numbers 14:32 But as for you, your corpses will fall in this wilderness.

Numbers 14:33 And your sons shall be shepherds for forty years in the wilderness, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness, until your corpses come to an end in the wilderness.

Numbers 14:34 According to the number of days which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day you shall bear your guilt a year, even forty years, and you will know My opposition.

Numbers 14:35 I, Yahweh, have spoken, surely this I will do to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall come to an end, and there they will die.’”

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "faith", "sons", "shall", "shepherds", "forty", "years", "wilderness", and "suffer". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "faith" and "sons", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 32's "But as for you your corpses will..." into verse 34's "According to the number of days which...", so "faith" and "sons" 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 "faith" and "sons" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.