Numbers 16:14
in Numbers 16Moreover, you have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey or given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Will you gouge out the eyes of these men? No, we will not come!”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Moreover thou hast not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, nor given us inheritance of fields and vineyards: wilt thou put out the eyes of these men? we will not come up.
KJV
Moreover thou hast not brought us into a land that floweth with milk and honey, or given us inheritance of fields and vineyards: wilt thou put out the eyes of these men? we will not come up.
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This verse in Numbers 16
Commentary
6 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Wilt thou put out the eyes of these men? - i. e. “blind them to the fact that you keep none of your promises;” “throw dust in their eyes.”
This site's exposition
Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram
on Numbers 16:12-14
Dathan and Abiram bring a separate complaint and the chapter keeps it separate. They refuse the summons in the same four words at the start of verse 12 and at the end of verse 14, and they give Egypt the title the Torah gives Canaan, a land that floweth with milk and honey, which Albert Barnes calls a perverse contempt for the promise. Their charge that Moses never brought them into the land is answered two chapters back, where Numbers 14 puts the reason on record. Barnes reads the clause about putting out the eyes of these men as blinding them to broken promises, and others take it as a threat of literal blinding.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Moreover, thou hast not brought us into a land that floweth with milk and honey,....
He had brought them to the borders of it, and was just ready, under God, to put them in possession of it; but they thrust it away from them, and shut the door against themselves; so that it was purely their own fault that they were not now in Canaan, and yet Moses must bear the blame.
A solemn appearance of the pretenders to the priesthood before God, according to order, and a public appearance of the glory of the Lord, which would have consumed the whole congregation if Moses and Aaron had not interceded,
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
They refused to obey the summons; and their refusal was grounded on the plausible pretext that their stay in the desert was prolonged for some secret and selfish purposes of the leader, who was conducting them like blind men wherever it suited him.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
THAT THOU [Moses] WOULDST MAKE THYSELF A PRINCE OVER US ‘GAM HISTAREIR’ — [the repetition of this phrase — literally ‘also to rule’ means]: ‘also many forms of lordship.’ Or.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 4 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
19 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אַ֡ף | ʾaf | also | H637 → | |
| לֹ֣א | lo' | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| אֶל־ | ʾel- | into | H413 → | 5510 times |
| אֶרֶץ֩ | ʾeretz | a land | H776 → | 2504 times |
| זָבַ֨ת | zavat | flowing of | H2100 → | 42 times |
| חָלָ֤ב | chalav | milk | H2461 → | 44 times |
| וּדְבַשׁ֙ | udevash | and honey | H1706 → | 54 times |
| הֲבִ֣יאֹתָ֔נוּ | haviotanu | you have brought us | H935 → | 2568 times |
| וַתִּ֨תֶּן־ | vatiten- | and you have given | H5414 → | 2011 times |
| לָ֔נוּ | lanu | to <the> us | ||
| נַחֲלַ֖ת | nachalat | an inheritance of | H5159 → | 222 times |
| שָׂדֶ֣ה | sadeh | field | H7704 → | 334 times |
| וָכָ֑רֶם | vakharem | and vineyard | H3754 → | 92 times |
| הַעֵינֵ֞י | haeinei | ¿ [the] eyes of | H5869 → | 887 times |
| הָאֲנָשִׁ֥ים | haanashim | the men | H582 → | 566 times |
| הָהֵ֛ם | hahem | <the> those | H1992 → | 553 times |
| תְּנַקֵּ֖ר | tenaker | will you put out | H5365 → | |
| לֹ֥א | lo' | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| נַעֲלֶֽה׃ | naaleh | we will come up | H5927 → | 890 times |
אַ֡ףalso
ʾafH637 →
לֹ֣אnot
lo'H3808 →5168 times
אֶל־into
ʾel-H413 →5510 times
אֶרֶץ֩a land
ʾeretzH776 →2504 times
זָבַ֨תflowing of
zavatH2100 →42 times
חָלָ֤בmilk
chalavH2461 →44 times
וּדְבַשׁ֙and honey
udevashH1706 →54 times
הֲבִ֣יאֹתָ֔נוּyou have brought us
haviotanuH935 →2568 times
וַתִּ֨תֶּן־and you have given
vatiten-H5414 →2011 times
לָ֔נוּto <the> us
lanu
נַחֲלַ֖תan inheritance of
nachalatH5159 →222 times
שָׂדֶ֣הfield
sadehH7704 →334 times
וָכָ֑רֶםand vineyard
vakharemH3754 →92 times
הַעֵינֵ֞י¿ [the] eyes of
haeineiH5869 →887 times
הָאֲנָשִׁ֥יםthe men
haanashimH582 →566 times
הָהֵ֛ם<the> those
hahemH1992 →553 times
תְּנַקֵּ֖רwill you put out
tenakerH5365 →
לֹ֥אnot
lo'H3808 →5168 times
נַעֲלֶֽה׃we will come up
naalehH5927 →890 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Judges 16:21Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, where he was bound with bronze shackles and forced to grind grain in the prison.
it leads to
- Proverbs 2:19
None who go to her return or negotiate the paths of life.
- Proverbs 14:14
The backslider in heart receives the fill of his own ways, but a good man is rewarded for his ways.
- Proverbs 2:19
Through
Leviticus 20:24But I have told you that you will inherit their land, since I will give it to you as an inheritance—a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the LORD your God, who…
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 14:2
for you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all the peoples on the face of the…
- Exodus 3:8
I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and…
- Deuteronomy 7:6
For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all peoples on the face of…
- Exodus 3:17
And I have promised to bring you up out of your affliction in Egypt, into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.’
- Exodus 6:8
And I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the LORD!’”
- Deuteronomy 14:2
Through
1 Samuel 11:2But Nahash the Ammonite replied, “I will make a treaty with you on one condition, that I may put out everyone’s right eye and bring reproach upon all Israel.”
it leads to
- 1 Samuel 17:26
David asked the men who were standing with him, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Just who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he…
- 1 Samuel 17:26
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies3
On this verse
On this chapter
About Numbers
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.