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And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose dead bodies fell in the wilderness?
Hebrews 3:17 · New American Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB With whom was he displeased forty years? Wasn’t it with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?
  • KJV But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?
  • BSB And with whom was God angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?
  • NKJV Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness?
  • NLT And who made God angry for forty years? Wasn’t it the people who sinned, whose corpses lay in the wilderness?

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

God was displeased for forty years with those who sinned and whose bodies fell in the wilderness. Persistent sin led to death short of the promise.

Overview

The author answers that God's displeasure rested on the sinning generation, who perished in the desert without reaching the land. Their fallen bodies are a stark monument to the consequences of unbelief. The history is recounted not for its own sake but as a pointed warning to the present community.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 8

  • Num 14:29Your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and all who were counted of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me,
  • Num 14:32–33But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness.
  • Num 14:22because all those men who have seen my glory, and my signs, which I worked in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tempted me these ten times, and have not listened to my voice;
  • Num 26:64–65But among these there was not a man of them who were counted by Moses and Aaron the priest, who counted the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai.
  • Deut 2:15–16Moreover Yahweh’s hand was against them, to destroy them from the middle of the camp, until they were consumed.
  • Jude 1:5Now I desire to remind you, though you already know this, that the Lord, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who didn’t believe.
  • 1 Cor 10:1–13Now I would not have you ignorant, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;
  • Jer 9:22Speak, “Yahweh says, “‘The dead bodies of men will fall as dung on the open field, and as the handful after the harvester; and no one will gather them.’”

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (5)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Hebrews videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Hebrews 3:17YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on HebrewsMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

Hebrews is sustained worship of Christ: better than angels, Moses, and the priests; the great High Priest after Melchizedek who by one sacrifice perfects forever those he saves.

How Hebrews 3:17 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 Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.