Ezekiel 20:23

20:23 I also swore ¹  to them in the wilderness that I would scatter them among the nations and disperse them throughout the lands. ² 

Numbers 14:23-30

14:23 they will by no means ³  see the land that I swore to their fathers, nor will any of them who despised me see it. 14:24 Only my servant Caleb, because he had a different spirit and has followed me fully – I will bring him into the land where he had gone, and his descendants ⁴  will possess it. 14:25 (Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites were living in the valleys.) ⁵  Tomorrow, turn and journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.”

14:26 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron: 14:27 “How long must I bear ⁶  with this evil congregation ⁷  that murmurs against me? I have heard the complaints of the Israelites that they murmured against me. 14:28 Say to them, ‘As I live, ⁸  says ⁹  the Lord, I will surely do to you just what you have spoken in my hearing. ¹⁰  14:29 Your dead bodies ¹¹  will fall in this wilderness – all those of you who were numbered, according to your full number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me. 14:30 You will by no means enter into the land where ¹²  I swore ¹³  to settle ¹⁴  you. The only exceptions are Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.

Numbers 26:64-65

26:64 But there was not a man among these who had been ¹⁵  among those numbered by Moses and Aaron the priest when they numbered the Israelites in the wilderness of Sinai. 26:65 For the Lord had said of them, “They will surely die in the wilderness.” And there was not left a single man of them, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.

Deuteronomy 1:34-35

Judgment at Kadesh Barnea

1:34 When the Lord heard you, he became angry and made this vow: ¹⁶  1:35 “Not a single person ¹⁷  of this evil generation will see the good land that I promised to give to your ancestors!

Psalms 95:11

95:11 So I made a vow in my anger,

‘They will never enter into the resting place I had set aside for them.’” ¹⁸ 

Psalms 106:26

106:26 So he made a solemn vow ¹⁹ 

that he would make them die ²⁰  in the desert,

Hebrews 3:11

3:11 “As I swore in my anger, ‘They will never enter my rest!’” ²¹ 

Hebrews 3:18

3:18 And to whom did he swear they would never enter into his rest, except those who were disobedient?

Hebrews 4:3

4:3 For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, “As I swore in my anger, ‘They will never enter my rest!’” ²²  And yet God’s works ²³  were accomplished from the foundation of the world.

[20:23]  ¹ tn Heb “I lifted up my hand.”

[20:23]  ² sn Though the Pentateuch does not seem to know of this episode, Ps 106:26-27 may speak of God’s oath to exile the people before they had entered Canaan.

[14:23]  ³ tn The word אִם (’im) indicates a negative oath formula: “if” means “they will not.” It is elliptical. In a human oath one would be saying: “The Lord do to me if they see…,” meaning “they will by no means see.” Here God is swearing that they will not see the land.

[14:24]  ⁴ tn Heb “seed.”

[14:25]  ⁵ sn The judgment on Israel is that they turn back to the desert and not attack the tribes in the land. So a parenthetical clause is inserted to state who was living there. They would surely block the entrance to the land from the south – unless God removed them. And he is not going to do that for Israel.

[14:27]  ⁶ tn The figure is aposiopesis, or sudden silence. The main verb is deleted from the line, “how long…this evil community.” The intensity of the emotion is the reason for the ellipsis.

[14:27]  ⁷ sn It is worth mentioning in passing that this is one of the Rabbinic proof texts for having at least ten men to form a congregation and have prayer. If God called ten men (the bad spies) a “congregation,” then a congregation must have ten men. But here the word “community/congregation” refers in this context to the people of Israel as a whole, not just to the ten spies.

[14:28]  ⁸ sn Here again is the oath that God swore in his wrath, an oath he swore by himself, that they would not enter the land. “As the Lord lives,” or “by the life of the Lord,” are ways to render it.

[14:28]  ⁹ tn The word נְאֻם (nÿ’um) is an “oracle.” It is followed by the subjective genitive: “the oracle of the Lord” is equal to saying “the Lord says.”

[14:28]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “in my ears.”

[14:29]  ¹¹ tn Or “your corpses” (also in vv. 32, 33).

[14:30]  ¹² tn The relative pronoun “which” is joined with the resumptive pronoun “in it” to form a smoother reading “where.”

[14:30]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew text uses the anthropomorphic expression “I raised my hand” in taking an oath.

[14:30]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “to cause you to dwell; to cause you to settle.”

[26:64]  ¹⁵ tn “who had been” is added to clarify the text.

[1:34]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and swore,” i.e., made an oath or vow.

[1:35]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Not a man among these men.”

[95:11]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “my resting place.” The promised land of Canaan is here viewed metaphorically as a place of rest for God’s people, who are compared to sheep (see v. 7).

[106:26]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and he lifted his hand to [or “concerning”] them.” The idiom “to lift a hand” here refers to swearing an oath. One would sometimes solemnly lift one’s hand when making such a vow (see Ezek 20:5-6, 15).

[106:26]  ²⁰ tn Heb “to cause them to fall.”

[3:11]  ²¹ tn Grk “if they shall enter my rest,” a Hebrew idiom expressing an oath that something will certainly not happen.

[4:3]  ²² sn A quotation from Ps 95:11.

[4:3]  ²³ tn Grk “although the works,” continuing the previous reference to God. The referent (God) is specified in the translation for clarity.