1And all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried; and the people wept during that night. 2And all the sons of Israel murmured against Moses, and against Aaron. And all the congregation said to them, Oh that we had died in the land of Egypt, or in this wilderness, oh that we had died! 3And why is Jehovah bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our infants have become a prey. Is it not good for us to return to Egypt? 4And they said each to his brother, Let us give a leader and return to Egypt. 5And Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the sons of Israel. 6And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, of those who spied out the land, tore their garments. 7And they spoke to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying, The land into which we passed, to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. 8If Jehovah has delighted in us, then He will bring us into this land and will give it to us, a land which is flowing with milk and honey. 9Only, do not rebel against Jehovah. And you, do not fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their defense has turned away from them; and Jehovah is with us; do not be afraid of them. 10And all the congregation said to stone them with stones. And the glory of Jehovah appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation, to all the sons of Israel. 11And Jehovah said to Moses, Until when will this people despise Me? And until when will they continue not to believe in Me for all the signs I have done in its midst? 12I shall strike it with pestilence and dispossess it. And I will make you a nation greater and mightier than it. 13And Moses said to Jehovah, And the Egyptians will hear. For You have brought up this people out of their midst with Your power. 14And they will say to the one living in this land, They have heard that You, Jehovah, are in the midst of this people, who is seen eye to eye. You are Jehovah, and Your cloud stands over them; in a pillar of cloud You go before them by day, and in a pillar of fire by night. 15And will You cause this people to die as one man? Then the nations who have heard Your fame will speak, saying, 16Because Jehovah is not able to bring this people into the land which He swore to them, therefore He has slain them in the wilderness. 17And now, I beseech You, let the power of my Lord be great, as You have spoken, saying, 18Jehovah is slow to anger, and of great mercy, bearing away iniquity and transgression; and by no means will clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the sons, on the third and on the fourth generation. 19I pray, forgive the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of Your mercy, and as You have gone with this people from Egypt, even until now. 20And Jehovah said, I have forgiven according to your word; 21but as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of Jehovah; 22for all the men who are seeing My glory, and My miracles which I have done in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tried Me these ten times, and have not listened to My voice, 23they shall not see the land which I have sworn to their fathers. Yea, not one of those scorning Me shall see it. 24And My servant Caleb, because there is another spirit in him, and he is fully following Me, I shall bring him into the land into which he has gone, and his seed shall possess it. 25And the Amalekite and the Canaanite were living in the valley. Tomorrow turn and pull up stakes for yourselves; going into the wilderness, the way of the Sea of Reeds. 26And Jehovah spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 27Until when shall I bear with this evil company who are murmuring against Me? I have heard the murmurings of the sons of Israel which they are murmuring against Me. 28Say to them, As I live, says Jehovah, as surely as you have spoken in My ears, so I will do to you. 29Your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, even all your numbered sons, as to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, in that you have murmured against Me. 30You shall certainly not come into the land which I lifted up My hand to cause you to live in it, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. 31As for your infants, of whom you have said, They shall be a prey, I shall bring them in, and they shall know the land which you have rejected. 32As for you, your carcases shall fall in this wilderness. 33And your sons shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your fornications until your carcases are wasted in the wilderness; 34by the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a day for a year, a day for a year; you shall bear your iniquities forty years; you shall know My alienation from you. 35I am Jehovah; I have spoken. I shall do this to all this evil company who are gathered together against Me. They shall be brought to an end in this wilderness, and there they shall die. 36And the men whom Moses had sent to spy out the land, and who, when they returned, made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up an evil report against the land, 37even those men bringing up an evil report of the land died by the plague before Jehovah. 38But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, remained alive of those men that went to spy out the land. 39And Moses told these words to all the sons of Israel; and the people mourned deeply. 40And they rose up early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, Behold, we are here, and we will go up to the place which Jehovah has said, for we have sinned. 41And Moses said, Why do you now transgress the mouth of Jehovah, since it will not prosper? 42Do not go up, for Jehovah is not in your midst, and you will be defeated by your enemies. 43For the Amalekite and the Canaanite are there before you; and you shall fall by the sword because you have turned back from following Jehovah; and Jehovah is not with you. 44And they presumed to go up to the top of the mountain, but the ark of the covenant of Jehovah and Moses did not leave the middle of the camp. 45And the Amalekite and the Canaanite living in that mountain came down and struck them, and beat them down, to Hormah.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 THE PEOPLE MURMUR AT THE SPIES' REPORT. (Num. 14:1-45)
all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried--Not literally all, for there were some exceptions.
2 Would God that we had died in Egypt--Such insolence to their generous leaders, and such base ingratitude to God, show the deep degradation of the Israelites, and the absolute necessity of the decree that debarred that generation from entering the promised land [
Num 14:29-
Num 14:35]. They were punished by their wishes being granted to die in that wilderness [
Heb 3:17;
Jude 1:5]. A leader to reconduct them to Egypt is spoken of (
Neh 9:17) as actually nominated. The sinfulness and insane folly of their conduct are almost incredible. Their conduct, however, is paralleled by too many among us, who shrink from the smallest difficulties and rather remain slaves to sin than resolutely try to surmount the obstacles that lie in their way to the Canaan above.
5 Moses and Aaron fell on their faces--as humble and earnest suppliants--either to the people, entreating them to desist from so perverse a design; or rather, to God, as the usual and only refuge from the violence of that tumultuous and stiff-necked rabble--a hopeful means of softening and impressing their hearts.
6 Joshua . . . and Caleb, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes--The two honest spies testified their grief and horror, in the strongest manner, at the mutiny against Moses and the blasphemy against God; while at the same time they endeavored, by a truthful statement, to persuade the people of the ease with which they might obtain possession of so desirable a country, provided they did not, by their rebellion and ingratitude, provoke God to abandon them.
8 a land flowing with milk and honey--a general expression, descriptive of a rich and fertile country. The two articles specified were among the principal products of the Holy Land.
9 their defence is departed--Hebrew, "their shadow." The Sultan of Turkey and the Shah of Persia are called "the shadow of God," "the refuge of the world." So that the meaning of the clause, "their defence is departed from them," is, that the favor of God was now lost to those whose iniquities were full (
Gen 15:16), and transferred to the Israelites.
10 the glory of the Lord appeared--It was seasonably manifested on this great emergency to rescue His ambassadors from their perilous situation.
12 the Lord said, . . . I will smite them with the pestilence--not a final decree, but a threatening, suspended, as appeared from the issue, on the intercession of Moses and the repentance of Israel.
17 let the power of my Lord be great--be magnified.
21 all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord--This promise, in its full acceptation, remains to be verified by the eventual and universal prevalence of Christianity in the world. But the terms were used restrictively in respect to the occasion, to the report which would spread over all the land of the "terrible things in righteousness" [
Ps 65:5] which God would do in the infliction of the doom described, to which that rebellious race was now consigned.
22 ten times--very frequently.
24 my servant Caleb--Joshua was also excepted, but he is not named because he was no longer in the ranks of the people, being a constant attendant on Moses.
because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully--Under the influence of God's Spirit, Caleb was a man of bold, generous, heroic courage, above worldly anxieties and fears.
25 (Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley)--that is, on the other side of the Idumean mountain, at whose base they were then encamped. Those nomad tribes had at that time occupied it with a determination to oppose the further progress of the Hebrew people. Hence God gave the command that they seek a safe and timely retreat into the desert, to escape the pursuit of those resolute enemies, to whom, with their wives and children, they would fall a helpless prey because they had forfeited the presence and protection of God. This verse forms an important part of the narrative and should be freed from the parenthetical form which our English translators have given it.
30 save Caleb . . . and Joshua--These are specially mentioned, as honorable exceptions to the rest of the scouts, and also as the future leaders of the people. But it appears that some of the old generation did not join in the mutinous murmuring, including in that number the whole order of the priests (
Josh 14:1).
34 ye shall know my breach of promise--that is, in consequence of your violation of the covenant betwixt you and Me, by breaking the terms of it, it shall be null and void on My part, as I shall withhold the blessings I promised in that covenant to confer on you on condition of your obedience.
36 those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the Lord--Ten of the spies struck dead on the spot--either by the pestilence or some other judgment. This great and appalling mortality clearly betokened the hand of the Lord.
40 they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up into the top of the mountain--Notwithstanding the tidings that Moses communicated and which diffused a general feeling of melancholy and grief throughout the camp, the impression was of very brief continuance. They rushed from one extreme of rashness and perversity to another, and the obstinacy of their rebellious spirit was evinced by their active preparations to ascend the hill, notwithstanding the divine warning they had received not to undertake that enterprise.
for we have sinned--that is, realizing our sin, we now repent of it, and are eager to do as Caleb and Joshua exhorted us--or, as some render it, though we have sinned, we trust God will yet give us the land of promise. The entreaties of their prudent and pious leader, who represented to them that their enemies, scaling the other side of the valley, would post themselves on the top of the hill before them, were disregarded. How strangely perverse the conduct of the Israelites, who, shortly before, were afraid that, though their Almighty King was with them, they could not get possession of the land; and yet now they act still more foolishly in supposing that, though God were not with them, they could expel the inhabitants by their unaided efforts. The consequences were such as might have been anticipated. The Amalekites and Canaanites, who had been lying in ambuscade expecting their movement, rushed down upon them from the heights and became the instruments of punishing their guilty rebellion.
45 even unto Hormah--The name was afterwards given to that place in memory of the immense slaughter of the Israelites on this occasion.