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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 God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness! ​
3
And wherefore hath the LORD brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt?
4
And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt. ​

Joshua and Caleb Urge Faith 5–10

5
Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel. ​
6
And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes:
7
And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. ​
8
If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.
9
Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not. ​
10
But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel. ​

God Threatens Destruction 11–19

11
And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them? ​
12
I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they. ​
13
And Moses said unto the LORD, Then the Egyptians shall hear it, (for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them;) ​
14
And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: for they have heard that thou LORD art among this people, that thou LORD art seen face to face, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou goest before them, by day time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night.
15
Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying,
16
Because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness.
17
And now, I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying,
18
The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. ​
19
Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.

The Sentence of Forty Years 20–35

20
And the LORD said, I have pardoned according to thy word: ​
21
But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.
22
Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; ​
23
Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:
24
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. ​
25
(Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley.) To morrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea.
26
And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,
27
How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me.
28
Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: ​
29
Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me, ​
30
Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.
31
But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised.
32
But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness.
33
And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness. ​
34
After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise. ​
35
I the LORD have said, I will surely do it 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

36
And the men, which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land, ​
37
Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the LORD.
38
But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of the men that went to search the land, lived still. ​
39
And Moses told these sayings unto all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly.

Presumptuous Attack and Defeat 40–45

40
And they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up into the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place which the LORD hath promised: for we have sinned. ​
41
And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the LORD? but it shall not prosper. ​
42
Go not up, for the LORD is not among you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies.
43
For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and ye shall fall by the sword: because ye are turned away from the LORD, therefore the LORD will not be with you.
44
But they presumed to go up unto the hill top: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and Moses, departed not out of the camp. ​
45
Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, even unto Hormah. ​

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · 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 — 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).