23 Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:
23 not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their ancestors. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it.
23 shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it.
23 not one of them will set eyes on the land I so solemnly promised to their ancestors. No one who has treated me with such repeated contempt will see it.
23 they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it.
23 They 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.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Numbers 14:23
Commentary on Numbers 14:20-35
(Read Numbers 14:20-35)
The Lord granted the prayer of Moses so far as not at once to destroy the congregation. But disbelief of the promise forbids the benefit. Those who despise the pleasant land shall be shut out of it. The promise of God should be fulfilled to their children. They wished to die in the wilderness; God made their sin their ruin, took them at their word, and their carcases fell in the wilderness. They were made to groan under the burden of their own sin, which was too heavy for them to bear. Ye shall know my breach of promise, both the causes of it, that it is procured by your sin, for God never leaves any till they first leave him; and the consequences of it, that will produce your ruin. But your little ones, now under twenty years old, which ye, in your unbelief, said should be a prey, them will I bring in. God will let them know that he can put a difference between the guilty and the innocent, and cut them off without touching their children. Thus God would not utterly take away his loving kindness.