1And all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. 2And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, Oh that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or that only we had died in this wilderness! 3Why is Jehovah bringing us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become prey? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt? 4So they said to one another, Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt. 5Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel. 6But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, among those who spied out the land, tore their clothes; 7and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying: The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. 8If Jehovah has delighted in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us; a land flowing with milk and honey. 9Only do not rebel against Jehovah, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their shade has departed from them, and Jehovah is with us. Do not fear them. 10And all the congregation intended to stone them with stones. And the glory of Jehovah appeared in the tent of meeting before all the children of Israel. 11And Jehovah said to Moses: How long will these people reject Me? And how long will they not believe Me, with all the signs which I have done among them? 12I will strike them with pestilence and dispossess them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they. 13And Moses said to Jehovah: Then the Egyptians will hear it (for by Your might You brought these people up from among them), 14and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that You, Jehovah, are among these people; that You, Jehovah, are seen face to face and Your cloud stands above them, and You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. 15Now if You kill these people as one man, then the nations which have heard of Your fame will speak, saying, 16Because Jehovah was not able to bring this people to the land which He swore to give them, therefore He killed them in the wilderness. 17And now, I beseech You, let the power of my Lord be great, just as You have spoken, saying, 18Jehovah is longsuffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but not acquitting to leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons to the third and fourth generation. 19Pardon the iniquity of this people, I pray, according to the greatness of Your mercy, just as You have borne this people, from Egypt even until now. 20And Jehovah said: I have pardoned, according to your word; 21but truly, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of Jehovah; 22because all these men seeing My glory and the signs which I have done in Egypt and in the wilderness, and tested Me now these ten times, and have not heeded My voice, 23they shall not see the land of which I have sworn to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it. 24But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his seed shall possess it. 25(Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley.) Tomorrow turn and set out into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea. 26And Jehovah spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 27How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who complain against Me? I have heard the murmurings which the children of Israel grumble against Me. 28Say to them, As I live, says Jehovah, just as you have spoken in My ears, so I will do to you: 29The carcasses of you who have grumbled against Me shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who were numbered, according to your entire number, from twenty years old and above. 30Except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the land which I raised My hand and swore to make you dwell there. 31But your little ones, whom you said would be prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land which you have rejected. 32But as for you, your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness. 33And your sons shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years, and bear your harlotry, until your carcasses are consumed in the wilderness. 34According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for each day you shall bear your iniquities one year; forty years; and you shall know My opposition. 35I Jehovah have spoken: I will surely do so to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die. 36Now the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing an evil report of the land, 37those very men who brought the evil report about the land, died by the plague before Jehovah. 38But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive, of the men who went to spy out the land. 39And Moses told these words to all the children of Israel, and the people mourned greatly. 40And they arose early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, Here we are, and we will go up to the place which Jehovah has promised; for we have sinned. 41And Moses said, Why do you transgress the mouth of Jehovah? For it will not prosper. 42Do not go up, that you not be smitten before your enemies, for Jehovah is not among you. 43For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you shall fall by the sword, because you have turned away from Jehovah; Jehovah is not with you. 44But they heedlessly went up to the top of the mountain; nevertheless, neither the ark of the covenant of Jehovah nor Moses departed from the camp. 45And the Amalekites and the Canaanites who dwelt in that mountain came down and struck them, and beat them to pieces, 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.