John Gill Commentary Numbers 14:37

"even those men that did bring up an evil report of the land, died by the plague before Jehovah." — Numbers 14:37 (ASV)

Even those men that brought up the evil report upon the
land
They, and they only at this time: died by the plague before the Lord; either by the pestilence immediately sent upon them by the Lord, or by a flash of lightning from him, or in some other way; however, by the immediate hand of God, and in his presence, being in the tabernacle of the congregation, (Numbers 14:10); though the Jews differently relate the manner of their death; some say worms came out of their navels, and up to their jaws, and ate them and their tongues; and others that they came out of their tongues, and entered their navels, which they take to be a just retaliation for sinning with their tongues.

And the time of their death they differ about; some say, as the Targum of Jonathan, that it was upon the seventh, and others that it was on the seventeenth of Elul or August they died ^F4.

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FOOTNOTES:

• F4: Schulchan Aruch, par. 1. c. 580. sect. 2. Shalshalet Hakabala, fol. 7. 2.