² All the Israelites grumbled^(A) against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, “If only we had died in Egypt!^(B) Or in this wilderness!^(C)

¹⁴ Thirty-eight years^(A) passed from the time we left Kadesh Barnea^(B) until we crossed the Zered Valley. By then, that entire generation^(C) of fighting men had perished from the camp, as the Lord had sworn to them.^{(D) 15} The Lord’s hand was against them until he had completely eliminated^(E) them from the camp.

¹⁷ And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness?^(A)