20Then the Lord said, “I will pardon them as you have requested. 21But as surely as I live, and as surely as the earth is filled with the Lord’s glory, 22not one of these people will ever enter that land. They have all seen my glorious presence and the miraculous signs I performed both in Egypt and in the wilderness, but again and again they have tested me by refusing to listen to my voice. 23They will never even see the land I swore to give their ancestors. None of those who have treated me with contempt will ever see it. 24But my servant Caleb has a different attitude than the others have. He has remained loyal to me, so I will bring him into the land he explored. His descendants will possess their full share of that land. 25Now turn around, and don’t go on toward the land where the Amalekites and Canaanites live. Tomorrow you must set out for the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea.*”

The Lord Punishes the Israelites

26Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 27“How long must I put up with this wicked community and its complaints about me? Yes, I have heard the complaints the Israelites are making against me. 28Now tell them this: ‘As surely as I live, declares the Lord, I will do to you the very things I heard you say. 29You will all drop dead in this wilderness! Because you complained against me, every one of you who is twenty years old or older and was included in the registration will die. 30You will not enter and occupy the land I swore to give you. The only exceptions will be Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.

31“‘You said your children would be carried off as plunder. Well, I will bring them safely into the land, and they will enjoy what you have despised. 32But as for you, you will drop dead in this wilderness. 33And your children will be like shepherds, wandering in the wilderness for forty years. In this way, they will pay for your faithlessness, until the last of you lies dead in the wilderness.

34“‘Because your men explored the land for forty days, you must wander in the wilderness for forty years—a year for each day, suffering the consequences of your sins. Then you will discover what it is like to have me for an enemy.’ 35I, the Lord, have spoken! I will certainly do these things to every member of the community who has conspired against me. They will be destroyed here in this wilderness, and here they will die!”

36The ten men Moses had sent to explore the land—the ones who incited rebellion against the Lord with their bad report—37were struck dead with a plague before the Lord.