²⁸ Tell them: As surely as I live,” this is the Lord’s declaration, “I will do to you exactly as I heard you say. ²⁹ Your corpses will fall in this wilderness—all of you who were registered in the census, the entire number of you 20 years old or more^(A)—because you have complained about Me. ³⁰ I swear that none of you will enter the land I promised^[a] to settle you in, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. ³¹ I will bring your children whom you said would become plunder^(B) into the land you rejected, and they will enjoy it.^{(C) 32} But as for you, your corpses will fall in this wilderness. ³³ Your children will be shepherds in the wilderness for 40 years and bear the penalty for your acts of unfaithfulness until all your corpses lie scattered in the wilderness. ³⁴ You will bear the consequences of your sins 40 years based on the number of the 40 days that you scouted the land, a year for each day.^[b](D) You will know My displeasure.^{[c] 35} I, Yahweh, have spoken. I swear that I will do this to the entire evil community that has conspired against Me.^(E) They will come to an end in the wilderness, and there they will die.”^(F)

¹⁵ However, I swore^[a] to them^(A) in the wilderness that I would not bring them into the land I had given them—the most beautiful of all lands, flowing with milk and honey—