Numberschapter 14

A.Let us choose a captain and go backvv. 1-10

1 Then the whole congregation lifted up their voices and cried out, and that night the people wept. 2 All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this wilderness! 3 Why is the LORD bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and children will become plunder. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” 4 So they said to one another, “Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt.” 5 Then Moses and Aaron fell facedown before the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel. 6 Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes 7 and said to the whole congregation of Israel, “The land we passed through and explored is an exceedingly good land. 8 If the LORD delights in us, He will bring us into this land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and He will give it to us. 9 Only do not rebel against the LORD, and do not be afraid of the people of the land, for they will be like bread for us. Their protection has been removed, and the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them!” 10 But the whole congregation threatened to stone Joshua and Caleb. Then the glory of the LORD appeared to all the Israelites at the Tent of Meeting.

B.Moses pleads on the strength of God's namevv. 11-19

11 And the LORD said to Moses, “How long will this people treat Me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in Me, despite all the signs I have performed among them? 12 I will strike them with a plague and destroy them—and I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they are.” 13 But Moses said to the LORD, “The Egyptians will hear of it, for by Your strength You brought this people from among them. 14 And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have already heard that You, O LORD, are in the midst of this people, that You, O LORD, have been seen face to face, that Your cloud stands 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 kill this people as one man, the nations who have heard of Your fame will say, 16 ‘Because the LORD was unable to bring this people into the land He swore to give them, He has slaughtered them in the wilderness.’ 17 So now I pray, may the power of my Lord be magnified, just as You have declared: 18 ‘The LORD is slow to anger and abounding in loving devotion, forgiving iniquity and transgression. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; He will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon their children to the third and fourth generation.’ 19 Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people, in keeping with the greatness of Your loving devotion, just as You have forgiven them ever since they left Egypt.”

C.Pardoned, yet none of them shall see itvv. 20-25

20 “I have pardoned them as you requested,” the LORD replied. 21 “Yet as surely as I live and as surely as the whole earth is filled with the glory of the LORD, 22 not one of the men who have seen My glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness—yet have tested Me and disobeyed Me these ten times— 23 not one will ever see the land that I swore to give their fathers. None of those who have treated Me with contempt will see it. 24 But because My servant Caleb has a different spirit and has followed Me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he has entered, and his descendants will inherit it. 25 Now since the Amalekites and Canaanites are living in the valleys, turn back tomorrow and head for the wilderness along the route to the Red Sea.”

D.A year for a day: forty years of wanderingvv. 26-38

26 Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, 27 “How long will this wicked congregation grumble against Me? I have heard the complaints that the Israelites are making against Me. 28 So tell them: As surely as I live, declares the LORD, I will do to you exactly as I heard you say. 29 Your bodies will fall in this wilderness—all who were numbered in the census, everyone twenty years of age or older—because you have grumbled against Me. 30 Surely none of you will enter the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. 31 But I will bring your children, whom you said would become plunder, into the land you have rejected—and they will enjoy it. 32 As for you, however, your bodies will fall in this wilderness. 33 Your children will be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness. 34 In keeping with the forty days you spied out the land, you shall bear your guilt forty years—a year for each day—and you will experience My alienation. 35 I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will surely do these things to this entire wicked congregation, which has conspired against Me. They will meet their end in the wilderness, and there they will die.” 36 So the men Moses had sent to spy out the land, who had returned and made the whole congregation grumble against him by bringing out a bad report about the land— 37 those men who had brought out the bad report about the land—were struck down by a plague before the LORD. 38 Of those men who had gone to spy out the land, only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh remained alive.

E.They went up anyway, and were beaten backvv. 39-45

39 And when Moses relayed these words to all the Israelites, the people mourned bitterly. 40 Early the next morning they got up and went up toward the ridge of the hill country. “We have indeed sinned,” they said, “but we will go to the place the LORD has promised.” 41 But Moses said, “Why are you transgressing the commandment of the LORD? This will not succeed! 42 Do not go up, lest you be struck down by your enemies, because the LORD is not among you. 43 For there the Amalekites and Canaanites will face you, and you will fall by the sword. Because you have turned away from the LORD, He will not be with you.” 44 But they dared to go up to the ridge of the hill country, though neither Moses nor the ark of the covenant of the LORD moved from the camp. 45 Then the Amalekites and Canaanites who lived in that part of the hill country came down, attacked them, and routed them all the way to Hormah.

Commentary on this chapter: read the Exposition

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Chapter summary

Unbelief and the forty-year sentence.

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Unbelief and the forty-year sentence. The congregation weeps all night; they murmur to go back to Egypt; they propose a captain and return. Joshua and Caleb rend their clothes; the congregation is ready to stone them. The glory of the LORD appears. ‘How long will this people provoke me?’ Moses intercedes, pleading the Name and the nations' report. Pardon. But: none of those who have seen my glory and tempted me these ten times shall see the land. Your children. And Caleb and Joshua. Shall go in. Forty days searching becomes forty years wandering. The ten spies die by plague. The presumptuous push forward the next day and are smitten by Amalekites and Canaanites.

Drawn from Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory, Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary, John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and John Calvin, Commentaries.

Context

Law · Moses — Numbers overview

A. 1–10 Let us choose a captain and go back
B. 11–19 Moses pleads on the strength of God's name
C. 20–25 Pardoned, yet none of them shall see it
D. 26–38 A year for a day: forty years of wandering
E. 39–45 They went up anyway, and were beaten back

Top cross-references8 chapters ▾

Deuteronomy 19 verses
- Deuteronomy 1:25They took some of the fruit of the land in their hands, carried it down to us, and brought us word: “It is a good land that the LORD our God is giving us.”
- Deuteronomy 1:36except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and I will give him and his descendants the land on which he has set foot, because he followed the LORD wholeheartedly.”
- Deuteronomy 1:39And the little ones you said would become captives—your children who on that day did not know good from evil—will enter the land that I will give them, and they will possess it.
- Deuteronomy 1:40But you are to turn back and head for the wilderness along the route to the Red Sea.”
- Deuteronomy 1:41“We have sinned against the LORD,” you replied. “We will go up and fight, as the LORD our God has commanded us.” Then each of you put on his weapons of war, thinking it easy to go up into the hill country.
- Deuteronomy 1:42But the LORD said to me, “Tell them not to go up and fight, for I am not with you to keep you from defeat by your enemies.”
- Read Deuteronomy 1: 3 more there →
Numbers 148 verses
- Numbers 14:2All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this wilderness!
- Numbers 14:6Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes
- Numbers 14:21“Yet as surely as I live and as surely as the whole earth is filled with the glory of the LORD,
- Numbers 14:25Now since the Amalekites and Canaanites are living in the valleys, turn back tomorrow and head for the wilderness along the route to the Red Sea.”
- Numbers 14:29Your bodies will fall in this wilderness—all who were numbered in the census, everyone twenty years of age or older—because you have grumbled against Me.
- Numbers 14:30Surely none of you will enter the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.
- Read Numbers 14: 2 more there →
Numbers 135 verses
- Numbers 13:25After forty days the men returned from spying out the land,
- Numbers 13:27And they gave this account to Moses: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and indeed, it is flowing with milk and honey. Here is some of its fruit!
- Numbers 13:29The Amalekites live in the land of the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live by the sea and along the Jordan.”
- Numbers 13:30Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “We must go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly conquer it!”
- Numbers 13:31But the men who had gone up with him replied, “We cannot go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are!”
- Read Numbers 13 →
Numbers 165 verses
- Numbers 16:4When Moses heard this, he fell facedown.
- Numbers 16:22But Moses and Aaron fell facedown and said, “O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, when one man sins, will You be angry with the whole congregation?”
- Numbers 16:41The next day the whole congregation of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron, saying, “You have killed the LORD’s people!”
- Numbers 16:45“Get away from this congregation so that I may consume them in an instant.” And Moses and Aaron fell facedown.
- Numbers 16:49But those who died from the plague numbered 14,700, in addition to those who had died on account of Korah.
- Read Numbers 16 →

4 more chapters this one speaks with

Psalms 784 verses
- Psalms 78:22because they did not believe God or rely on His salvation.
- Psalms 78:32In spite of all this, they kept on sinning; despite His wonderful works, they did not believe.
- Psalms 78:38And yet He was compassionate; He forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them. He often restrained His anger and did not unleash His full wrath.
- Psalms 78:40How often they disobeyed Him in the wilderness and grieved Him in the desert!
- Read Psalms 78 →
Psalms 1063 verses
- Psalms 106:23So He said He would destroy them— had not Moses His chosen one stood before Him in the breach to divert His wrath from destroying them.
- Psalms 106:24They despised the pleasant land; they did not believe His promise.
- Psalms 106:45And He remembered His covenant with them, and relented by the abundance of His loving devotion.
- Read Psalms 106 →
Hebrews 32 verses
- Hebrews 3:17And with whom was God angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?
- Hebrews 3:19So we see that it was because of their unbelief that they were unable to enter.
- Read Hebrews 3 →
Numbers 262 verses
- Numbers 26:64Among all these, however, there was not one who had been numbered by Moses and Aaron the priest when they counted the Israelites in the Wilderness of Sinai.
- Numbers 26:65For the LORD had told them that they would surely die in the wilderness. Not one was left except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.
- Read Numbers 26 →

Cross-references from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge and OpenBible.info.