Numbers 14

Numbers 14:1 Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept through that night.

Numbers 14:2 And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “We wish that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or we wish that we had died in this open country!

Numbers 14:3 Why is Yahveh bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?”

Numbers 14:4 And they said to one another, “Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”

Numbers 14:5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces in the sight of all the collected assembly of the congregation of the people of Israel.

Numbers 14:6 And Joshua, the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes

Numbers 14:7 and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, “The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceptionally good land.

Numbers 14:8 If Yahveh delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey.

Numbers 14:9 Only do not rebel against Yahveh. And do not fear the people of the land because they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and Yahveh is with us; do not fear them.”

Numbers 14:10 Then all the congregation said to stone them with stones. But the impressive appearance[1] of Yahveh appeared at the conference tent to all the people of Israel.

Numbers 14:11 And Yahveh said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, despite all the signs that I have done among them?

Numbers 14:12 I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation more influential and mightier than they.”

Numbers 14:13 But Moses said to Yahveh, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it because you resurrected this people by your might from among them,

Numbers 14:14 and they will tell the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you, O Yahveh, are in the midst of this people. Because you, O Yahveh, are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them and you go before them, in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night.

Numbers 14:15 Now if you exterminate this people as one man, then the nations who have heard your fame will say,

Numbers 14:16 ‘It is because Yahveh was not able to bring this people into the land that he swore to give to them that he has exterminated them in the open country.’

Numbers 14:17 And now, please let the power of Yahveh be great as you have promised, and this is what you said,

Numbers 14:18 ‘Yahveh is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving violation and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the violation of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.’

Numbers 14:19 Please pardon the violation of this people, according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just as you have forgiven these people, from Egypt until now.”

Numbers 14:20 Then Yahveh said, “I have pardoned, according to your word.

Numbers 14:21 But truly, as I live, and as all the land will be filled with the impressive appearance of Yahveh,

Numbers 14:22 none of the men who have seen my impressive appearance and my signs that I did in Egypt and the open country, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice,

Numbers 14:23 will see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me will see it.

Numbers 14:24 But my servant Caleb, because he has a different breath and has followed me thoroughly, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants will possess it.

Numbers 14:25 Now, since the Amalekites and the Canaanites stay in the valleys, turn tomorrow and advance for the open country by the way to the Red Sea.”

Numbers 14:26 And Yahveh spoke to Moses and Aaron, and this is what he said,

Numbers 14:27 “How long will this wicked congregation complain about me? I have heard the complaints of the people of Israel, which they complain about me.

Numbers 14:28 Say to them, ‘As I live, declares Yahveh, what you have said in my hearing I will do to you:

Numbers 14:29 your corpses[2] will fall in this open country, and of all your number, listed in the census from twenty years old and upward, who have complained about me,

Numbers 14:30 no one will come into the land where I swore that I would make your stay, except Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, the son of Nun.

Numbers 14:31 But your little ones, who you said would become prey, I will bring in, and they will experience the land that you have rejected.

Numbers 14:32 But as for you, your corpses will fall in this open country.

Numbers 14:33 And your children will be shepherds in the open country forty years and will suffer for your faithlessness until the last of your corpses is finished[3] in the desert.

Numbers 14:34 According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a year for each day, you will bear your violation forty years, and you will know my displeasure.’

Numbers 14:35 I, Yahveh, have spoken. Surely this I will do to all this wicked congregation who are collected against me: in this open country, they will finish, and there they will die.”

Numbers 14:36 And the men whom Moses sent to scout out the lad, who returned and made all the congregation complain about him by bringing up a bad report about the land–

Numbers 14:37 the men who brought up an evil report of the land — died by plague in the sight of Yahveh.

Numbers 14:38 Of those men who went to scout out the land, only Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, remained alive.

Numbers 14:39 When Moses told these words to all the people of Israel, the people mourned greatly.

Numbers 14:40 And they rose early in the morning and went up to the heights of the hill country, and this is what they said, “Here we are. We will go up to the place that Yahveh has promised because we have sinned.”

Numbers 14:41 But Moses said, “Why now will you be transgressing the command of Yahveh when that will not succeed?

Numbers 14:42 Do not go up, because Yahveh is not among you, or else you will be struck down in the sight of your enemies.

Numbers 14:43 Because there the Amalekites and the Canaanites are facing you, and you will fall by the sword. Because you have turned your back from following Yahveh, Yahveh will not be with you.”

Numbers 14:44 But they presumed to go up to the heights of the hill country, although neither the ark of the covenant of Yahveh nor Moses left from the camp.

Numbers 14:45 Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and defeated them and crushed[4] them, even as far as Hormah.

[1] כָּבוֹד = impressive appearance, reward. Numbers 14:10, 21, 22; 16:19, 42; 20:6; 24:11.

[2] פֶּגֶר = corpse. Numbers 14:29, 32, 33.

[3] תָּמַם = finish. Numbers 14:33, 35; 17:13; 32:13.

[4] כָּתַת= crush by beating,

Numbers 14 quotes:

“God’s discipline is never arbitrary. Every parent knows that the key to effective discipline is matching the discipline with the crime. If a child can see no correlation between what she has done and the consequences, the behavior may be stopped but little learning will occur.”

Boyce Richard Nelson. Leviticus and Numbers. 1st ed. Westminster John Knox Press 2008. p. 164.

“Every Christian evangelist stands between a merciful God and an obdurate people. However eloquent and well-informed, the contemporary evangelist is as powerless as Caleb and Joshua on the day they pleaded with that heedless multitude. We can only do what they ie. present a portrait of a unique God who has done so much for rebels, and pray that he will melt their hard and stubborn hearts”

Brown Raymond. The Message of Numbers : Journey to the Promised Land. InterVarsity Press 2002. p. 123.

“Moses reported the mind of God to the people and told them that that generation would never go into the land. They had not wanted to go forward because they were afraid to, but they did not want to go back because they hated to. There is a marvelous truth here that should be noted: if the time comes to go forward with the Lord and the believer does not go forward because he doubts, he must go backward. He cannot stand still.”

Gutzke, Manford George. Plain Talk on Leviticus and Numbers. Zondervan Pub. House., 1981. p. 96.

“Moses’ serious warning is brushed aside, even when the warning is followed by a concrete step: neither the ark nor the priests accompanying the ark will go with Israel, as they normally would when Israel went into battle ( 10: 35f. ; cf. also 1 Sam. 4:3). Israel believes that it can get along without the visible sign of the Lord’s presence and that it can ignore Moses’ warning, “the Lord is not with you.” They go “in their presump¬ tion” (v. 44; lit. “they were swollen, puffed up”?). The result is a crush¬ ing defeat — the enemy meets them before they have even reached the top of the hills. They “attacked them” and “beat them” (a play on words in Hebrew: wayyakum and wayyaketum).”

Noordtzij, A. Numbers. Zondervan Pub. House, 1983. p. 132.

“The people are to be given one last chance to repent, as Caleb and Joshua forthrightly plead with them to trust in the Lord. Yet the prostration of Moses and Aaron intimates that this appeal will not be heeded and that the people will fall in the wilderness (cf. 29ff.).”

Wenham, Gordon J.. Numbers: An Introduction and Commentary (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries Book 4) (p. 136). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.