Numbers 14:20

20 The Lord responded, "I have pardoned [them] as you requested.

Numbers 14:20 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 14:20

And the Lord said, I have pardoned, according to thy word.
] So as not to kill them utterly as one man: which is an instance of his being plenteous in mercy, and ready to forgive; and of the virtue and efficacy of the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man, and of the great regard the Lord has to the prayers of a good man for others. The Jerusalem Targum is,

``and the Word of the Lord said, lo, I have remitted and forgiven according to thy word;''

which must be understood of Christ, the essential Word, and shows, according to the sense of the Targumist, that he has a power to forgive sin, and must be a divine Person, for none can forgive sin but God; see ( Mark 2:7 Mark 2:10 ) .

Numbers 14:20 In-Context

18 The Lord is slow to anger and rich in faithful love, forgiving wrongdoing and rebellion. But He will not leave [the guilty] unpunished, bringing the consequences of the fathers' wrongdoing on the children to the third and fourth generation.

19 Please pardon the wrongdoing of this people in keeping with the greatness of Your faithful love, just as You have forgiven them from Egypt until now."

20 The Lord responded, "I have pardoned [them] as you requested.

21 Yet as surely as I live and as the whole earth is filled with the Lord's glory,

22 none of the men who have seen My glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tested Me these 10 times and did not obey Me,