Because of the Israelites' refusal to trust God and take possession of the land, God sentenced them to forty years in the desert. "In this desert your bodies will fall-every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me. Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected. Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the desert. For forty years-one for each of the forty days you explored the land-you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you" (Num. 14:29-34). Israel took the Promised Land forty years later with the same number of people that rebelled earlier.
