When the LORD heard your words, He grew angry and swore an oath, saying,
Parallel translations
- WEB Yahweh heard the voice of your words, and was angry, and swore, saying,
- KJV And the LORD heard the voice of your words, and was wroth, and sware, saying,
- NKJV “And the Lord heard the sound of your words, and was angry, and took an oath, saying,
- NASB “Then the Lord heard the sound of your words, and He was angry and swore an oath, saying,
- NLT “When the Lord heard your complaining, he became very angry. So he solemnly swore,
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Hearing their complaints, God grew angry and swore an oath against that generation. Their unbelief brought divine judgment.
Overview
God's righteous anger responded to Israel's grumbling unbelief, and He confirmed His judgment with a solemn oath. This shows that persistent unbelief and rebellion are not trivial but provoke God's holy displeasure. Yet even in judgment God remains faithful to His larger covenant purpose. The seriousness of God's wrath against unbelief magnifies the grace of the gospel, in which Christ bears the judgment we deserve.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Num 14:22–30not one of the men who have seen My glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness—yet have tested Me and disobeyed Me these ten times—
- Heb 3:8–11do not harden your hearts, as you did in the rebellion, in the day of testing in the wilderness,
- Num 32:8–13This is what your fathers did when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to inspect the land.
- Ezek 20:15Moreover, with an uplifted hand I swore to them in the wilderness that I would not bring them into the land that I had given them—a land flowing with milk and honey, the glory of all lands—
- Deut 2:14–15The time we spent traveling from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed over the Brook of Zered was thirty-eight years, until that entire generation of fighting men had perished from the camp, as the LORD had sworn to them.
- Ps 95:11So I swore on oath in My anger, “They shall never enter My rest.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Moses promised a Prophet like himself to whom Israel must listen (18:15); Jesus is that Prophet, the one who keeps the covenant we broke and becomes the curse for us by hanging on a tree (Gal 3:13).
How Deuteronomy 1:34 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.