Ephrem the Syrian : "To whom did he swear that they should never enter his rest?" To those who did not want to obey Moses, Aaron, Joshua and Caleb … "So we see that they were unable to enter" the land promised to them, not because of their evil actions, even though they were wicked, but "because of unbelief" in the Word of God. — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS Jerome : They died, for they could not enter the promised land. They merely looked over toward the land of promise, but they could not enter it. The Jews beheld the promised land but could not enter it. They died in the desert.… We, their children, under the leadership of Jesus, have come to the Jordan and entered the promised land. — HOMILIES ON THE Psalms 10 (Psalms 76) John Chrysostom : But here he means not unbelief only, but also murmurings: "whose carcasses," he says, "fell in the wilderness." "They proved Me," He says, "and saw My works forty years." Seest thou that it is not right to call God to account, but whether He defend our cause or not, to trust Him? For against those of old he now brings this charge, that "they tempted God." For he that will have proof either of His power, or of His providence, or of His tender care, does not yet believe, either that He is powerful or kind to man. This he hints also in writing to these Hebrews who probably already wished, in their trials, to obtain experience and positive evidence of His power and His providential care for them. Thou seest that in all cases the provocation and the angering arises from unbelief. — Homily on Hebrews 6 Oecumenius : "To whom was he angry?" This is according to the question for clarity and to avoid contradiction; for things posed as questions are based on what is agreed upon. Against whom, he says, did he bear resentment? He also adds the punishment. For, he says, their limbs fell in the desert, those large and thigh-like parts; and by parts, he showed the whole bodies. — The Pseudo-Oecumenian Catena on Hebrews Theodoret of Cyrus : God urged them to leave for the promised land, but some spoke in opposition, citing fear and the multitude of the enemy. Hence God consumed them all individually in the desert and brought in their children in place of them. — INTERPRETATION OF Hebrews 3