Your children will be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness.
33. And your children shall wander in the wilderness. Lat., “shall be shepherds.” Margin A.V., “or feed.” He here pronounces that their children shall be in some measure partakers of their punishment, inasmuch as they shall wander in the desert until the time prescribed: for by the word shepherds, He means sojourners, “Il entend qu’ils seront errans comme estrangers, ayant tousiours un pied leve, et...
We have here God's answer to the prayer of Moses, which sings both of mercy and judgment. It is given privately to Moses (Num 14:20-25), and then directed to be made public to the people, Num 14:26-35. The frequent repetitions of the same things in it speak these resolves to be unalterable. Let us see the particulars. I.
Commenting on Numbers 14:20-35
After the number of days in which ye searched the land, even forty days,.... For so long they were searching it, Num 13:25, each day for a year; reckoning each day for a year, forty days for forty years, as in Eze 4:6, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years: which number is given, being a round one, otherwise it was but thirty eight...