And the space in which we came from Kadeshbarnea,.... The space of time; or, "the days" b; the number of them:
until we were come over the brook Zered, was thirty and eight years; that is, from the time that the spies were sent and searched the land, and brought a report of it; for they were sent from Kadeshbarnea, Numbers 32:8 unto the passage of the Israelites over Zered, were thirty eight years; so long they had been travelling in the wilderness, after they were come to the borders of the land:
until all the generation of the men of war were wasted out from among the host; all that were twenty years old and upwards, and fit to go out to war upon occasion, when the people were first numbered after they came out of Egypt; all that generation was now consumed within the above space of time, excepting two, Caleb and Joshua;
as the Lord sware unto them; Numbers 14:21.
b והימים "et dies", Montanus; "dies autem", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.