The Fourth Book of Moses, called Numbers
Numbers 14
Chapter XIV · Vol. I, pp. 436–438
1 The people murmur at the news. 6 Joshua and Caleb labour to pacify them. 11 God threateneth them. 13 Moses intercedeth with God, and obtaineth pardon. 26 The murmurers are deprived of entering into the land. 36 The men who raised the evil report concerning the land die by a plague. 40 The people that would invade the land against the will of God are smitten.
2 And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses, and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, b Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or, would God we had died in this wilderness!1
b ch. 11.5,15; 20.3. Ex. 16.3. 1 Ki. 19.4. Jonah 4.3,8. Job 3.11; 7.15. ver. 28,29.
1 In nothing does passion appear more dangerous than when it prays, when it calls God either to witness to its excesses and falsehoods, or fulfil its imprecations upon itself or others. Surely, if for every idle word that men speak, they shall give account in the day of judgment, Mat. 12.36, much more for every rash, yea wicked prayer, which sacrifice is described by Solomon as an abomination to the Lord, Pr. 15.8.—C.
3 Andc wherefore hath the LORD brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt?
c Ex. 14.11,12; 16.3; 17.3; 1.13,14,22; 2.23. ch. 11.5,6; 20.4,5; 21.5.
4 And they said one to another, d Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.2
A.M. 2514. B.C. 1490.
d Ne. 9.16,17. De. 28.68; 17.16.
2 It appears from Ne. 9.17, that they actually appointed a captain to lead them back to slavery!—C.
5 Then Moses and Aaron e fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.
e Ge. 17.3,17. ch. 16.4, 22. 1 Ki. 18.39. Mat. 36.39. Re. 4.10; 5.8; 7.11. Ps. 109.4.
6 And f Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, g rent their clothes:
f ch. 13.6,7, 16, 30. ver. 30.
g Ge. 37.29; 44.13. 2 Sa. 3.31. Jos. 7.6. Ju. 11.35. Mat. 26.65.
7 And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an h exceeding good land.
8 If i the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.
i 2 Sa. 15.25. Ps. 37.5. Ro. 8.31.
9 Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are breadk for us: their defence is departed from them, and the l LORD is with us: fear them not.
k ch. 24.8. De. 32.42. Ps. 14.4; 74.14. De. 7.16.
l Ro. 8.31,37. Is. 41.10. Ps. 27.1-3; 18.29-43; 118.10-12; 144.1,2. De. 20.3,4.
10 But all the congregation bade m stone them with stones.3 And the n glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel.
m Ex. 17.4. 1 Sa. 30.6. Mat. 23.37. Ac. 7.57,58.
3 The whole congregation, captains and judges inclusive, seem, with the exception of Caleb and Joshua, to have joined in this cruel sentence. But 'man's extremity is God's opportunity,' and the sudden and unexpected appearance of his glory, the Shekinah, arrests the sentence.—C.
n Ex. 16.7; 24.16,17; 40.34. ch. 12.5; 16.19,42; 20.6. Le. 9.23.
11 And the LORD said unto Moses, o How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have showed among them?
12 I will p smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation, and mightier than they.
13 And Moses said unto the LORD, q Then the Egyptians shall hear it; (for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them;)
q Ex. 32.12. De. 32.27. Jos. 7.8,9.
14 And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: for they r have heard that thou, LORD, art among this people; that thou, LORD, art seen face to face, and that thy cloud standeth over them; and that thou goest before them, by day-time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night.
15 Now, if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will s speak, saying,
16 Because the LORD was not able4 to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness.
4 The sin of the heathen, either in Pharaoh, Ex. 5.2, or the surrounding idolaters, never lay in denying the godhead of Jehovah, but in preferring another God and another mode of worship. In fact the heathen nations seldom or never differed about the being, but about the attributes and offices of their several deities. And, as the attribute of power is always the most observable, Moses therefore 'reasons' with God, Is. 1.18, showing, that if judgment prevail over mercy, the heathen will attribute it not to want of will, but of power, and so be confirmed in the worship of their worthless idols, to whose superior influence they would attribute Israel's destruction.—C.
17 And now, I beseech thee, let the power of my LORD be t great, according as thou hast spoken, saying,
A.M. 2514. B.C. 1490.
t ver. 19. Ps. 25.11. Ex. 34.9,10.
18 The LORD is u long-suffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.
19 Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people, x according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt even until now.5
x Ps. 51.1,2; 145.8. Jonah 4.2. Ro. 5.20,21. Ep. 2.7. Eze. 20.8,9.
5 Or, hitherto.
22 Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles which I did in Egypt, and in the wilderness, have a tempted me now these b ten times,6 and have not hearkened to my voice;
a Ex. 17.2. Ps. 95.9. Mal. 3.15.
6 Ten plagues gave evidence of the evil of sin, and extorted submission, but without conversion. Ten commandments gave light for the discerning of sin, Ro. 3.19, and by demonstrating the extent of holiness, brought in the world guilty; and ten murmurings and rebellions tempt the mercy, grace, and long-suffering of God till the oath passes 'in wrath' that such a people shall not enter into his rest, Ps. 95.11. For the exact number of ten temptations, see Ex. 14.11; 15.23; 16.2; 16.20; and again 16.27,28; 17.1,3; 32.8. Nu. 11.1; 11.4; 14.1.—C.
23 Surelyc they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:
c Heb. If they see the land, De. 1.35. Ps. 95.11; 106.26. He. 3.17. Eze. 20.15. ver. 28-35.
24 But my servant Caleb,7 because he d had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.
7 This does not exclude Joshua, as mentioned again, ver. 30.—C.
d Jos. 14.6,8,9,14. De. 1.36. 1 Sa. 10.6. ch. 32.11,12.
25 (Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley.)8 To-morrow e turn you, and get you into the wilderness, by the way of the Red sea.9
8 'Encamped in the valley,' therefore, to-morrow, turn, &c.—C.
e ver. 4. Ps. 106.14; 81.12,13. De. 1.40.
9 The English version makes this verse very obscure. It may be rendered thus:—'Now the Amalekites and Canaanites lie in the valley; to-morrow turn and go toward the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.' It appears that while the spies were searching the land, and the people deliberating after their return, the warlike inhabitants assembled in force in the great valley north of the camp to intercept their passage. The Lord therefore ordered the people to turn back and march southward through the valley of Arabah, which leads to the Red Sea.—P.
26 And the LORD spake unto Moses, and unto Aaron, saying,
27 Howf long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me.
28 Say unto them, g As truly as I live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you:
g ver. 2,21. ch. 26.64,65; 32.11. De. 1.35. 1 Co. 10.10. He. 3.17. Ps. 95.11; 90.8,9; 78.33. Eze. 20.15. Pr. 1.31; 14.14. Je. 2.17,19; 4.18; 5.25; 6.18,19.
29 Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me,
30 Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware1 to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.2
A.M. 2514. B.C. 1490.
1 Heb. lifted up my hand.
2 From Jos. 14.1; 22.13, we learn that Eleazar and others now present did afterwards enter into Canaan. Is not this a contradiction? No, for in ver. 29 God particularizes the excluded as the 'numbered' from twenty years and upwards. Now, from Nu. 1.3 it appears these were the men of the twelve civil and military tribes, to the exclusion of Levi, the ecclesiastical, Nu. 1.47, and who were subsequently 'numbered' from a month old and upwards, Nu. 3.15.—C.
31 But your h little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall knowi the land which ye have despised.
h De. 1.39. ch. xxvi. Jos. iii.-xx. Ps. 78.54, 55; 105.44; 135.12; 136.21,22. Ne. 9.23-25.
i Possess, ver. 23. Ps. 106.24-27.
33 And your children shall wander in the wilderness l forty years, and m bear your whoredoms, until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness.
34 After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even n forty days, (each day for a year,) shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years; and ye shall know o my breach of promise.3
n Ps. 95.10. Eze. 4.6. Re. 11.3. Da. 9.24.
o Interruption, Zec. 11.10. De. 31.16,17.
3 The phrase translated 'breach of promise' occurs but this once, so that there is no resource in comparison. The meaning must therefore be sought in the word itself, and the analogy of other divine truths. To say, with some, that the promise being conditional and the Israelites having failed in their part, God means to tell them he is not bound to his part of the engagement, is really to explain nothing. For even admitting the phrase 'conditional promise,' still it is merely an abbreviated name for both a promise and a threatening implied or declared, the one to the believing and obedient, the other to the unbelieving and rebellious; and as the fulfilment of the promise would be no disannulling of the threatening, so the infliction of the threatening would be no 'breach' of the promise. The literal translation will best explain and convey the meaning of the passage: 'Ye shall know my rising up against you,' my displeasure, my indignation, which sense of the words is confirmed by the following verse.—C.
35 I the LORD have said, p I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.
p 1 Co. 10.11. He. 3.19.
36 And the men which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a q slander upon the land,
q ch. 13.32.
37 Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, r died by the plague before the LORD.
r 1 Co. 10.10. He. 3.17. Jude 5. ver. 10, 12; ch. 26.65. Pr. 13.17,21.
38 But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of the men that went to search the land, lived still.
40 And they t rose up early in the morning, and gat them up into the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place which the LORD hath promised: for we have sinned.
41 And Moses said, u Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the LORD? but it shall not prosper.
u De. 1.42. Ho. 9.12. Job 40.2; 9.4. Pr. 1.31, 32. Is. 59.1,2. Je. 2.17,19; 4.18; 5.25; 6.19. ver. 42, 43.
42 Go not up, for the LORD is not among you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies.
43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and ye shall fall by the sword: because ye are turned away from the LORD, therefore the LORD will not be with you.
44 But they x presumed to go up unto the hill-top: nevertheless y the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and Moses, departed not out of the camp.
x De. 1.41,43. ch. 15.30.
y ch. 9.15; 10.33.
45 Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites4 which dwelt in that hill, and smote them, z and discomfited them, even unto a Hormah.5
A.M. 2514. B.C. 1490.
4 In ver. 25 the Amalekites were encamped in the valley; in ver. 43 they had taken military occupation of the hill, and now come down, not from their ordinary dwelling, but their encampment.—C.
z De. 1.44. 1 Co. 10.11. Is. 63.10. ch. 21.3. Pr. 13.21. Ps. 140.11.
a ch. 21.3. Ju. 1.17. 1 Sa. 30.30.
5 Now commenced the thirty-eight years wandering. Of their journeys during this long period, and of the 'great and terrible wilderness' into which they were driven, not a single record has been preserved. The name Tih, 'wandering,' which the desert south of Palestine still bears, seems to be the only local memorial of it. Sacred history remains silent until, after the lapse of the thirty-eight years, another generation, under the same aged leaders, however, appear once more around the sacred fountain of Kadesh.—P.
Notes
[Ver. 5. Falling on the face was a customary act, either of worship to God, or obedience to man, Ge. 17. 3; Re. 11. 16; Ge. 50. 18. The act of Moses and Aaron is expressive of profound respect for.their brethren; which, in such a case, nothing but divine love could have produced—and of earnest entreaty to avert their foolish and wicked resolution of returning to slavery.—Note, Those who would benefit men must bear with their caprice and ingratitude; and entreat, when they should reprove or command. C.]
Ver. 39. [Mourning is good or evil, according to its fountain and object. Springing from a due sense of sin, and apprehension of mercy, it is 'godly sorrow working repentance to salvation;' but springing from a mere sense of disappointment or loss, it is 'of the world, and worketh death,' 2 Co. 7. 10. C.]
Ver. 40. [The strange resolution to evade or frustrate a threatening by pleading a promise, is not peculiar to rebellious Israel—there are thousands that continue in sin, because they hope for mercy.—For we have sinned—that is, in appointing a captain to return to slavery, Ne. 9. 17. C.]
Reflections.—The headstrong and unmortified passions of sinners hurry them furiously on to their own ruin: and such as are discontented with God's providence, and resolve to mend themselves, always make the matter worse and worse. Unbelieving murmurers are prone to charge God himself with the most base and malicious designs, and to wish for misery, under a pretence of care to avoid it. What an infinite advantage is God's presence and favour! But if he leave us, we become an easy prey to every invader. How noble is it when the abused servants of Christ in meekness instruct them that oppose themselves: if God, peradventure, will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth! though often they draw upon themselves barbarous treatment from such as they labour to save. But God tenderly remarks the dangers of his faithful servants, and interferes for their relief in the critical moment. What a blessing to a nation are those who can effectually plead their cause at a throne of grace; wrestle for mercy and forgiveness; and fill their mouth with arguments from God's own honour, power, declared mercy and patience, and their own former experience thereof! God is ready graciously to hear and answer such intercessions, even when he will not forbear showing his indignation at the sins which have provoked him. He keeps an exact account of men's conduct, that he may reward or punish it in due time. Terribly offensive to him is the contempt and discrediting of his promises, and most effectual for provoking him to abandon the guilty to irretrievable and everlasting ruin! But ringleaders in guilt, and presumptuous adventurers, in opposition to God's express command, often fall under distinguished marks of his wrath, and are made pledges of the final destruction of those whom they have seduced to or encouraged to sin. Take heed, therefore, O my soul, lest I be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin; lest there be in me an evil heart of unbelief, departing from the living God: and fear, lest a promise being left me of entering into his rest, I should seem to come short of it through unbelief! but let me be a man of another spirit than the world, and let me singly cleave to and fully follow after the Lord. If for so doing men revile and persecute me, God will amply reward me with an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away.