31 As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected.
31 But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised.
31 But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have rejected.
31 "Your children, the very ones that you said would be taken for plunder, I'll bring in to enjoy the land you rejected
31 But your little ones, whom you said would be victims, I will bring in, and they shall know the land which you have despised.
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.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Numbers 14:31
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.