Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you:
Parallel translations
- WEB Tell them, ‘As I live, says Yahweh, surely as you have spoken in my ears, so will I do to you.
- BSB So tell them: As surely as I live, declares the LORD, I will do to you exactly as I heard you say.
- ESV Say to them, ‘As I live, declares the LORD, what you have said in my hearing I will do to you:
- NKJV Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you:
- NASB Say to them, ‘As I live,’ declares the Lord, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you;
- NLT Now tell them this: ‘As surely as I live, declares the Lord, I will do to you the very things I heard you say.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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 swore to do to the people exactly what they had spoken in His hearing. Their faithless words became their own sentence.
Overview
The LORD took an oath to grant the very thing the people had wished: death in the wilderness. Their careless, faithless speech was turned into judgment upon them. This sobering reversal warns that words spoken in unbelief are not without weight before God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Num 14:21But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.
- Heb 3:17But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?
- Num 14:23Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:
- Num 26:64–65But among these there was not a man of them whom Moses and Aaron the priest numbered, when they numbered the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai.
- Num 14:2And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness!
- Ps 90:8–9Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.
- Num 32:11Surely none of the men that came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob; because they have not wholly followed me:
- Deut 1:35Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I sware to give unto your fathers,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
In the wilderness Christ is the water from the rock, the bronze serpent lifted up that the dying might look and live (John 3:14), and the star and scepter that Balaam saw rising out of Jacob.
How Numbers 14:28 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.