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The rabbis teach that the oral law was given at Mount Sinai and that the first teachers of the oral law were the 70 leaders of the community who are described as "the helpers of Moses" and later, "the judges".
If the oral law is so special and contains such great wisdom, then why did all 70 of these men die wandering around in the desert?
Shouldn't it have been obvious to these "Torah Sages" that Moses was the spokesman for God ?
The elders are not mentioned, either because they were already above 60 (and not subject to the punishment) or they were quiet because they could not testify that the spies were not telling the truth because they had not seen the land. Also, anyone who might have objected was swamped by the masses who were in a panic.
Note that even though there may have been individuals who might have refused to accept the report of the spies, the people as a whole panicked to the point where they overrode any individuals who might have objected. Only Yehoshua and Calev risked their lives to speak up and were rewarded by explicitly being told that they would survive past the 40 years of wandering. The punishment was given to the entire generation between the ages of 20 and 60. This implies that the people who were already above 60 lived out their natural lifespan (which was probably less than 40 additional years). No-one who died at the natural end of their life span in the desert would have been mentioned.
I also explain this at Why were the Jews punished for 40 years if the spies were the ones who were there for 40 days? and point out
The punishment was that all those who should have been in the army and insisted on not listening to the spies (ages 20 to 60) were allowed to live out their "service life" and were punished by dying at age 60.
