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Numbers 14

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Israel Rebels and Despairs 1–4

1
And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. ​
2
And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would that we had died in this wilderness! ​
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And wherefore doth Jehovah bring us unto this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will be a prey: were it not better for us to return into Egypt?
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And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt. ​

Joshua and Caleb Urge Faith 5–10

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Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel. ​
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And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were of them that spied out the land, rent their clothes:
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and they spake unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceeding good land. ​
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If Jehovah delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it unto us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.
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Only rebel not against Jehovah, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is removed from over them, and Jehovah is with us: fear them not. ​
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But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the glory of Jehovah appeared in the tent of meeting unto all the children of Israel. ​

God Threatens Destruction 11–19

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And Jehovah said unto Moses, How long will this people despise me? and how long will they not believe in me, for all the signs which I have wrought among them? ​
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I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a nation greater and mightier than they. ​
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And Moses said unto Jehovah, Then the Egyptians will hear it; for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them; ​
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and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that thou Jehovah art in the midst of this people; for thou Jehovah art seen face to face, and thy cloud standeth over them, and thou goest before them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night.
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Now if thou shalt kill this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying,
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Because Jehovah was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness.
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And now, I pray thee, let the power of the Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying,
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Jehovah is slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation. ​
19
Pardon, I pray thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy lovingkindness, and according as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.

The Sentence of Forty Years 20–35

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And Jehovah said, I have pardoned according to thy word: ​
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but in very deed, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of Jehovah;
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because all those men that have seen my glory, and my signs, which I wrought in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tempted me these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; ​
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surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that despised me see it:
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but my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it. ​
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Now the Amalekite and the Canaanite dwell in the valley: to-morrow turn ye, and get you into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.
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And Jehovah spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,
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How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, that murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me.
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Say unto them, As I live, saith Jehovah, surely as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: ​
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your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, that have murmured against me, ​
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surely ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware that I would make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.
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But your little ones, that ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have rejected.
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But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness.
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And your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your whoredoms, until your dead bodies be consumed in the wilderness. ​
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After the number of the days in which ye spied out the land, even forty days, for every day a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my alienation. ​
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I, Jehovah, have spoken, surely this will I do unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.

The Death of the Ten Spies 36–39

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And the men, whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up an evil report against the land, ​
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even those men that did bring up an evil report of the land, died by the plague before Jehovah.
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But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, remained alive of those men that went to spy out the land. ​
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And Moses told these words unto all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly.

Presumptuous Attack and Defeat 40–45

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And they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up to the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we are here, and will go up unto the place which Jehovah hath promised: for we have sinned. ​
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And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of Jehovah, seeing it shall not prosper? ​
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Go not up, for Jehovah is not among you; that ye be not smitten down before your enemies.
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For there the Amalekite and the Canaanite are before you, and ye shall fall by the sword: because ye are turned back from following Jehovah, therefore Jehovah will not be with you.
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But they presumed to go up to the top of the mountain: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, and Moses, departed not out of the camp. ​
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Then the Amalekite came down, and the Canaanite who dwelt in that mountain, and smote them and beat them down, even unto Hormah. ​

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

Study Notes for Numbers 14

Verse 1

lifted up their voice, and cried — Literally they gave their voice (nathan, to give, with nasa, to lift), and the whole 'congregation' (edah) joins in. The weeping follows the ten spies' report (13:31–33) and recalls the earlier weeping at Num 11:4, when Israel 'wept again'.

Verse 2

Would God that we had died — 'Would God' is lu, a particle of wish: would that. The people 'murmured' (lun), and the LORD answers in v.27 with the same verb and in v.28 with the sentence: 'as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you'.

Verse 4

Let us make a captain — 'Captain' is rosh, head; 'make' is nathan, to give or appoint. A new head to lead 'into Egypt' sets Moses aside and undoes the exodus. Stephen says the fathers 'in their hearts turned back again into Egypt' (Acts 7:39); the king may not cause it (Deut 17:16).

Verse 5

fell on their faces — Panim is the face; Moses and Aaron fall down 'before all the assembly' (qahal). They take the same posture when judgment threatens in Num 16:22 and 16:45. Moses recalls his words to the people in Deut 1:29: 'Dread not, neither be afraid of them.'

Verse 7

an exceeding good land — 'Exceeding' is the Hebrew word meod doubled, an emphatic very. Joshua and Caleb, 'of them that searched the land' (v.6), restate the verdict the spies first brought: 'It is a good land which the LORD our God doth give us' (Deut 1:25).

Verse 9

they are bread for us — Lechem, bread or food: the peoples will be consumed. 'Defence' is tsel, shade or shadow, which 'is departed' (sur) from them, 'and the LORD is with us'. 'Rebel' is marad, the charge Caleb and Joshua lay against Israel itself.

Verse 10

bade stone them with stones — 'Bade' is amar, said: the congregation speaks of stoning Joshua and Caleb. Then 'the glory of the LORD' (kabod) appears 'in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel', as again at Num 16:19 and 20:6.

Verse 11

How long will this people provoke me? — Naats, to spurn or scorn, the verb of 'them that provoked me' in v.23. The charge is unbelief (aman) 'for all the signs' (oth); Heb 3:19 sums up: 'So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.'

Verse 12

make of thee a greater nation — The offer repeats Exod 32:10, 'I will make of thee a great nation'. 'Disinherit' is yarash, the verb for taking possession of a land, the same word as 'shall possess it' in v.24, here turned against Israel.

Verse 13

the Egyptians shall hear it — Moses pleads on the ground of God's name and his past act, 'thou broughtest up this people in thy might'. The same plea runs on in v.16: 'the LORD was not able'. Ps 106:23 says Moses 'stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath'.

Verse 18

longsuffering — The Hebrew is long of anger (arek, aph), that is, slow to anger. Moses quotes what the LORD proclaimed of himself at Exod 34:6–7; Ps 145:8 repeats 'slow to anger'. 'Clearing' is naqah, to hold innocent: forgiveness and judgment are both named.

Verse 20

I have pardoned — Salach, to forgive, the verb Moses used in v.19, 'Pardon'. The answer comes 'according to thy word' (davar). It spares the nation from being destroyed at once; the sentence on that generation follows in vv.21–23.

Verse 22

these ten times — 'Ten' is eser and 'times' paam. 'Tempted' is nasah, to test or prove; the 'miracles' are oth, signs, as in v.11. The text gives no list of the ten, and the number may be read as a full one. Their sin was not hearkening 'to my voice'.

Verse 24

another spirit — Ruach acheret, another spirit, is given as the reason. 'Followed me fully' is literally filled after me (male, achar). The LORD calls Caleb 'my servant' (ebed); the promise is kept at Hebron, 'because that he wholly followed the LORD God of Israel' (Josh 14:14).

Verse 28

as ye have spoken in mine ears — The sentence is cast in the people's own words: they said 'would God we had died in this wilderness' (v.2), and so it shall be. It is sworn with 'As truly as I live', the oath also of v.21; Heb 3:17 recalls 'whose carcases fell in the wilderness'.

Verse 29

from twenty years old and upward — The age of those 'numbered' (paqad) in the census of Num 1:45. The sentence falls on that whole count; Num 26:65 records that none remained 'save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun'. 'Carcases' is peger, a dead body.

Verse 33

bear your whoredoms — Zenuth, unfaithfulness, whoredom, the word for infidelity to God. 'Wander' is raah, to tend a flock, so the children are shepherded in the wilderness while the carcases are 'wasted' (tamam). Deut 2:14 counts 'thirty and eight years' from Kadeshbarnea to Zered.

Verse 34

each day for a year — It is one year for each of the 'forty days' of the search (Num 13:25). 'Breach of promise' is tenuah, alienation or enmity: they will learn what it is to have the LORD estranged from them. 'Bear your iniquities' uses nasa, to lift, also 'bear' in v.33.

Verse 36

bringing up a slander — 'Slander' is dibbah, defamation, the same word as 'evil report' in v.37. The men who 'made all the congregation to murmur' (lun) 'died by the plague before the LORD'. Paul recalls the murmurers who 'were destroyed of the destroyer' (1 Cor 10:10).

Verse 38

lived still — Chayah, to live, set against the ten who 'died by the plague' (v.37). The promise of v.30 holds. Caleb later says 'the LORD hath kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five years' (Josh 14:10); Num 26:65 names the two as the only survivors.

Verse 40

for we have sinned — The confession uses chata, to miss, to sin, yet it is joined to a purpose to go up to 'the place which the LORD hath promised'. They rise 'early in the morning' to act on their own word. Moses recalls it in Deut 1:41: 'We have sinned against the LORD, we will go up and fight'.

Verse 41

transgress the commandment of the LORD — 'Transgress' is abar, to pass over; 'commandment' is literally the mouth (peh) of the LORD. The word to be obeyed was v.25, 'turn you, and get you into the wilderness'. 'Prosper' is tsalach; Moses says the advance 'shall not prosper'.

Verse 44

they presumed — Aphal, to swell, be lifted up; hence to act presumptuously. 'The ark of the covenant of the LORD, and Moses, departed not out of the camp', so the advance went without the sign of the LORD's presence (v.42). Deut 1:43 says they 'went presumptuously up into the hill'.

Verse 45

even unto Hormah — Chormah means devoted, from the verb for devoting to destruction. The Amalekites and Canaanites of v.43 strike Israel there; when Israel later 'utterly destroyed' the Canaanites, 'he called the name of the place Hormah' (Num 21:3; cf. Judg 1:17).