Bible Strands
Numbers 14:23
not one will ever see the land that I swore to give their fathers. None of those who have treated Me with contempt will see it.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God speaks to the rebellious Israelite assembly in the wilderness after they have tested Him ten times despite witnessing His Egyptian miracles. He declares that the adult generation which saw His signs will not enter the territory He promised their ancestors.
The words — The Hebrew אִם־ (ʾim-) operates as a negative emphatic particle meaning "indeed not," framing the absolute nature of the exclusion. The verb יִרְאוּ (yirʾû) translates literally as "they will see," specifying permanent denial of visual access to the land.
The thread — This binding oath resurfaces in Numbers 32:11 and Numbers 26:64, which reiterate that no man aged twenty or older from the exodus generation will inherit the territory. Ezekiel 20:15 later cites this wilderness declaration as a established precedent for divine judgment.
Why it lands — The text states that repeated contempt for witnessed divine acts results in irreversible exclusion from promised inheritance. It requires readers to acknowledge that divine promises carry fixed boundaries that rebellion permanently voids.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:
Cross-references
- Numbers 32:11 ‘Because they did not follow Me wholeheartedly, not one of the men twenty years of age or older who came out of Egypt will see the land that I swore to give Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—
- Numbers 26:64 Among all these, however, there was not one who had been numbered by Moses and Aaron the priest when they counted the Israelites in the Wilderness of Sinai.
- Ezekiel 20:15 Moreover, with an uplifted hand I swore to them in the wilderness that I would not bring them into the land that I had given them—a land flowing with milk and honey, the glory of all lands—
- Deuteronomy 1:35 “Not one of the men of this evil generation shall see the good land I swore to give your fathers,
- Hebrews 3:17 And with whom was God angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?
- Nehemiah 9:23 You multiplied their descendants like the stars of heaven and brought them to the land You had told their fathers to enter and possess.
- Psalms 95:11 So I swore on oath in My anger, “They shall never enter My rest.”
- Psalms 106:26 So He raised His hand and swore to cast them down in the wilderness,
- Hebrews 4:3 Now we who have believed enter that rest. As for the others, it is just as God has said: “So I swore on oath in My anger, ‘They shall never enter My rest.’” And yet His works have been finished since the foundation of the world.