Numbers 14:22

Hebrew Bible

21 But truly, as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord. 22 For all the people have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have tempted me now these ten times, and have not obeyed me— 23 they will by no means see the land that I promised on oath to their fathers, nor will any of them who despised me see it 24 Only my servant Caleb, because he had a different spirit and has followed me fully—I will bring him into the land where he had gone, and his descendants will possess it.

Joshua 5:6

Hebrew Bible

5 Now all the men who left were circumcised, but all the sons born on the journey through the wilderness after they left Egypt were uncircumcised. 6 Indeed, for 40 years the Israelites traveled through the wilderness until all the men old enough to fight when they left Egypt, the ones who had disobeyed the Lord, died off. For the Lord had sworn a solemn oath to them that he would not let them see the land he had sworn by oath to their ancestors to give them, a land rich in milk and honey. 7 He replaced them with their sons, whom Joshua circumcised. They were uncircumcised; their fathers had not circumcised them along the way.

 Notes and References

"... As one reads it, one comes across allusions to details that came earlier in the story. For example, in the J story of the spies whom Moses sends to scout the promised land, the people are frightened by the spies’ report of the giants and the fortified Canaanite cities. They say, “Let’s go back to Egypt!” (Num 14:4). In the face of their rebellion and lack of trust, YHWH (which is the way that the name of God is written in this work) swears that they will not live to arrive in the land ... Two books later, one of the passages in Joshua alludes to that episode of the spies in Numbers, and it refers explicitly to the words of the J version of that story. It refers back to the nation ... Indeed, there are whole chains of such allusions binding this work together ..."

Friedman, Richard Elliott The Hidden Book in the Bible (pp. 27-28) Harper San Francisco, 1998

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