Verse 34
34. Forty days… forty years Thus the sin of the spies and the unbelief of the nation would be vividly set before them as the cause of their exclusion from Canaan. At every question, “How long?” the mind would revert to the forty days’ search by the spies, to their majority report, and to the slough of despond into which the people fell at Kadesh.
Shall ye bear your iniquities In the next verse we find an explanation of bearing iniquities. “In this wilderness shall they be consumed, and there shall they die.” “The weight of guilt is so great that they stagger under it in crooked ways for many years, till they sink exhausted with the weary load. The transition is very easy from the idea of bearing sin to that of bearing punishment.” Bibliotheca Sacra. As Prof. Park expresses it, “Sin presses the sinner down in punishment and into punishment.”
My breach of promise Here is but one Hebrew word, t’nooah, used elsewhere only in Job 33:10, and rendered occasions. It literally signifies removal or alienation, the withdrawal of one’s self from a person, and so metaphorically expresses enmity. Hence the strong rendering of the Septuagint, τον θυμον της οργης μου , the vehemence of my anger, and of the Vulgate, ultionem meam, my vengeance. Luther’s translation, though more correct, is not so concise and vigorous What it shall be when I withdraw my hand. The breach of promise is induced by the wilful and persistent disobedience of Israel in refusing to carry out Jehovah’s purpose of love. His immutability requires him to treat unbelievers as rebels. The justice of their punishment is vindicated by their own contumacy.
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