Charles Spurgeon Commentary Hebrews 3:17

"And with whom was he displeased forty years? was it not with them that sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?" — Hebrews 3:17 (ASV)

But with whom was he grieved forty years? Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?

See how the apostle speaks of them; he does not say that their bodies were buried, but that their carcases fell, in the wilderness.

Unbelief degrades us into beasts whose carcases fall beneath the poleaxe of judgment. Oh, that we might all be rid of unbelief, that degrading, desecrating, defiling, destroying thing!

But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? (Hebrews 3:17)

How He speaks of them, and calls them "carcases"! He never speaks of His children so; and you remember that in the Old Testament the unredeemed man is comparable to the ass. Thou shall not redeem him; thou shalt break his neck; but the redeemed man is comparable to the sheep. Valuable property is in him, and God esteems him. Whose carcases fell in the wilderness.