Numbers 14:34 (WEB)

Passage

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

Nearby Context

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

Numbers 14:33 Your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your prostitution, until your dead bodies are consumed in the wilderness.

Numbers 14:34 After the number of the days in which you spied out the land, even forty days, for every day a year, you will bear your iniquities, even forty years, and you will know my alienation.’

Numbers 14:35 I, Yahweh, have spoken. I will surely do this to all this evil congregation, who are gathered together against me. In this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.”

Numbers 14:36 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 "Your children shall be wanderers in the..." into verse 35's "I Yahweh have spoken I will surely...", 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.