Expositor's Bible Commentary 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)

The second question refers to those with whom God was angry for forty years (see comments on vv.10–11). In the earlier treatment of the incident (vv.7–8), the forty years referred to testing God and seeing his works. Here it refers to the continuing wrath of God. This wrath was not something transitory and easily avoided. It lasted throughout the “desert” period, as the Israelites wandered in the Sinai wilderness. The question is phrased in such a way as to leave no doubt whatever that God was angry with the sinners in question. Their punishment is mentioned in words reminiscent of Nu 14:29, 32. Those who sinned against God had been destroyed, just as he had prophesied through Moses.