Numbers 14:35

WEB

I, the Lord, have spoken, surely this will I do to all this evil congregation, who are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die."

KJV

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.

Commentary

I the Lord have said,.... Determined, resolved on doing what I have declared, and again repeat it; the decree is absolute and peremptory, and will never be revoked: I will surely do it to all this evil congregati on, that are gathered together against me; against his ministers, Moses the chief magistrate, and Aaron the high priest; and this is interpreted gathering, conspiring, and rebelling against the Lord himself, on account of which they might be truly called an evil congregation, and therefore it was a determined point with him to destroy them: in this wilderness they shall be consumed; by wasting diseases: and there they shall die; as they wished they might, Num 14:22 ; with respect to which this was so often repeated, Exo 16:3 ; and which the Jews interpret not only of a corporeal death, but of an eternal one; for they say (c)"the generation of the wilderness (of those that died there) have no part in the world to come, nor shall stand in judgment, as it is said, "in this wilderness", &c. Num 14:35 .'' (c) Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 11. sect. 3.