When the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim, then he fought against Israel and took some of them captive.

But the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness. They did not walk in My statutes and they rejected My ordinances, by which, if a man observes them, he will live; and My sabbaths they greatly profaned. Then I resolved to pour out My wrath on them in the wilderness, to annihilate them.

Believed

Because they did not believe in God
And did not trust in His salvation.

But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’”

But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him.

General references

Yet they still continued to sin against Him,
To rebel against the Most High in the desert.

Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness.