Numbers 14:1-20

The People Rebel

1 That night all the members of the community raised their voices and wept aloud.

2 All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, “If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this wilderness!

3 Why is the LORD bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?”

4 And they said to each other, “We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”

5 Then Moses and Aaron fell facedown in front of the whole Israelite assembly gathered there.

6 Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes

7 and said to the entire Israelite assembly, “The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good.

8 If the LORD is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us.

9 Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them.”

10 But the whole assembly talked about stoning them. Then the glory of the LORD appeared at the tent of meeting to all the Israelites.

11 The LORD said to Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs I have performed among them?

12 I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them, but I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than they.”

13 Moses said to the LORD, “Then the Egyptians will hear about it! By your power you brought these people up from among them.

14 And they will tell the inhabitants of this land about it. They have already heard that you, LORD, are with these people and that you, LORD, have been seen face to face, that your cloud stays over them, and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

15 If you put all these people to death, leaving none alive, the nations who have heard this report about you will say,

16 ‘The LORD was not able to bring these people into the land he promised them on oath, so he slaughtered them in the wilderness.’

17 “Now may the Lord’s strength be displayed, just as you have declared:

18 ‘The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.’

19 In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now.”

20 The LORD replied, “I have forgiven them, as you asked.

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Numbers 14:1-20 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO NUMBERS 14

This chapter treats or the murmurings of the children of Israel upon the evil report of the spies, which greatly distressed Moses and Aaron, Nu 14:1-5; and of the endeavours of Joshua and Caleb to quiet the minds of the people with a good account of the land, and of the easy conquest of it, but to no purpose, Nu 14:6-10; and of the Lord's threatening to destroy the people with the pestilence, Nu 14:11,12; and of the intercession of Moses for them, which so far succeeded as to prevent their immediate destruction, Nu 14:13-20; nevertheless they are assured again and again, in the strongest terms, that none of them but Joshua and Caleb should enter into the land, but their carcasses should fall in the wilderness, even all the murmurers of twenty years old and upwards, Nu 14:21-35; and the ten men that brought the evil report of the good land died of a plague immediately, but the other two lived, Nu 14:36-38; and the body of the people that attempted to go up the mountain and enter the land were smitten and discomfited by their enemies, after they had with concern heard what the Lord threatened them with, Nu 14:39-45.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 45

1. S Genesis 27:38; Exodus 33:4; Numbers 25:6; Deuteronomy 1:45; Judges 20:23,26; 2 Samuel 3:32; Job 31:29
2. S Exodus 15:24; Hebrews 3:16
3. S Exodus 16:3
4. S Numbers 11:1; Numbers 16:13; Numbers 20:4; Numbers 21:5
5. S Exodus 5:21
6. ver 31
7. S Genesis 34:29; Deuteronomy 1:39; Psalms 109:11; Isaiah 33:4; Ezekiel 7:21; Ezekiel 25:7; Ezekiel 26:5
8. Acts 7:39
9. Nehemiah 9:17
10. S Leviticus 9:24; Nu 16:4,22,45; Numbers 20:6; Joshua 5:14; 2 Samuel 14:4; 1 Chronicles 21:16; Ezekiel 1:28
11. S Leviticus 19:2
12. Numbers 11:28
13. S Genesis 37:29,34; Judges 11:35; 2 Samuel 13:31; 2 Kings 19:1; Ezra 9:3; Esther 4:1; S Mark 14:63
14. Numbers 13:27; Deuteronomy 1:25
15. Deuteronomy 7:8; Deuteronomy 10:15; Psalms 18:19; Psalms 22:8; Psalms 37:23; Psalms 41:11; Psalms 56:9; Psalms 147:11; Proverbs 11:20; Isaiah 62:4; Malachi 2:17
16. Numbers 13:27
17. Deuteronomy 1:21
18. Deuteronomy 1:26; Deuteronomy 9:7,23,24
19. Genesis 26:24; 2 Chronicles 32:7; Psalms 118:6; Jeremiah 41:18; Jeremiah 42:11
20. Deuteronomy 1:21; Deuteronomy 7:18; Deuteronomy 20:1
21. Haggai 2:4
22. S Genesis 21:22; Deuteronomy 1:30; 2 Chronicles 13:12; Jeremiah 15:20; Jeremiah 46:28; Haggai 1:13
23. ver 24
24. S Exodus 17:4
25. S Exodus 24:16; Leviticus 9:23
26. Exodus 23:21; Numbers 15:31; Numbers 16:30; 1 Samuel 2:17; Ezekiel 31:14; Malachi 1:13
27. Deuteronomy 1:32; Psalms 78:22; Psalms 106:24; John 3:15
28. S Exodus 3:20; S Exodus 4:17; S Exodus 10:1
29. S Exodus 5:3; S Exodus 30:12
30. S Exodus 32:10
31. Deuteronomy 9:14; Deuteronomy 29:20; Deuteronomy 32:26; Psalms 109:13
32. Exodus 32:11-14; Psalms 106:23
33. Exodus 15:14
34. Numbers 5:3; Numbers 16:3; Joshua 2:9
35. Deuteronomy 5:4; Deuteronomy 34:10
36. S Exodus 33:16
37. S Exodus 13:21
38. Numbers 11:12
39. Exodus 32:12; Joshua 7:7
40. S Exodus 20:6; Exodus 34:6; Psalms 145:8; John 4:2; James 5:11
41. Exodus 20:5
42. S Exodus 34:9; 1 Kings 8:34; Psalms 85:2; Psalms 103:3
43. Psalms 106:45
44. Psalms 78:38
45. Exodus 34:6; Psalms 99:8; Psalms 106:23; Micah 7:18-20