Numbers 14:34 (KJV)

Passage

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.

Nearby Context

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

Numbers 14:33 And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.

Numbers 14:34 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.

Numbers 14:35 I the LORD have said, I will surely do it 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, which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land,

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "iniquities", "after", "number", "days", "searched", "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 wander in the..." into verse 35's "I the LORD have said I 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.