1:34 When the Lord heard you, he became angry and made this vow: 1 1:35 “Not a single person 2 of this evil generation will see the good land that I promised to give to your ancestors! 1:36 The exception is Caleb son of Jephunneh; 3 he will see it and I will give him and his descendants the territory on which he has walked, because he has wholeheartedly followed me.” 4 1:37 As for me, the Lord was also angry with me on your account. He said, “You also will not be able to go there. 1:38 However, Joshua son of Nun, your assistant, 5 will go. Encourage him, because he will enable Israel to inherit the land. 6 1:39 Also, your infants, who you thought would die on the way, 7 and your children, who as yet do not know good from bad, 8 will go there; I will give them the land and they will possess it.
1 tn Heb “and swore,” i.e., made an oath or vow.
2 tn Heb “Not a man among these men.”
3 sn Caleb had, with Joshua, brought back to Israel a minority report from Canaan urging a conquest of the land, for he was confident of the
4 tn Heb “the
4 tn Heb “the one who stands before you”; NAB “your aide”; TEV “your helper.”
5 tn Heb “it”; the referent (the land) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
5 tn Heb “would be a prey.”
6 sn Do not know good from bad. This is a figure of speech called a merism (suggesting a whole by referring to its extreme opposites). Other examples are the tree of “the knowledge of good and evil” (Gen 2:9), the boy who knows enough “to reject the wrong and choose the right” (Isa 7:16; 8:4), and those who “cannot tell their right hand from their left” (Jonah 4:11). A young child is characterized by lack of knowledge.