30. I raised my hand and swore an oath to give you this land to live in. But none of you will enter it except Caleb (son of Jephunneh) and Joshua (son of Nun).
31. You said your children would be taken as prisoners of war. Instead, I will bring them into the land you rejected, and they will enjoy it.
32. However, your bodies will drop dead in this desert.
33. Your children will be shepherds in the desert for 40 years. They will suffer for your unfaithfulness until the last of your bodies lies dead in the desert.
34. For 40 days you explored the land. So for 40 years—one year for each day—you will suffer for your sins and know what it means for me to be against you.’
35. I, the Lord, have spoken. I swear I will do these things to all the people in this whole wicked community who have joined forces against me. They will meet their end in this desert. Here they will die!”
36. So the men Moses sent to explore the land died in front of the Lord from a plague.
37. They died because they had returned and made the whole community complain about Moses by spreading lies about the land.
38. Of all the men who went to explore the land, only Joshua (son of Nun) and Caleb (son of Jephunneh) survived.
39. When Moses told these things to all the Israelites, the people mourned bitterly, as if someone had died.