The sin of refusing to invade Canaan, “the pleasant land” (Jer 3:19; Eze 20:6; Dan 8:9), “the land of beauty,” was punished by the destruction of that generation (Num 14:28), and the threat of dispersion (Deu 4:25; Deu 28:32) afterwards made to their posterity, and fulfilled in the great calamities now bewailed, may have also been then added.
despised - (Num 14:31).
believed not his word - by which He promised He would give them the land; but rather the word of the faithless spies (compare Psa 78:22).