Worthy.Bible » Parallel » Numbers » Chapter 14 » Verse 26-39

Numbers 14:26-39 King James Version (KJV)

26 And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,

27 How 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, As truly as I live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you:

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 sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.

31 But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised.

32 But as for you, your carcasses, they shall fall in this wilderness.

33 And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and 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 forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.

35 I the LORD have said, 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.

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 slander upon the land,

37 Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the LORD.

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.

39 And Moses told these sayings unto all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly.


Numbers 14:26-39 King James Version with Strong's Concordance (STRONG)

26 And the LORD H3068 spake H1696 unto Moses H4872 and unto Aaron, H175 saying, H559

27 How long shall I bear with this evil H7451 congregation, H5712 which murmur H3885 against me? I have heard H8085 the murmurings H8519 of the children H1121 of Israel, H3478 which they murmur H3885 against me.

28 Say H559 unto them, As truly as H3808 I live, H2416 saith H5002 the LORD, H3068 as ye have spoken H1696 in mine ears, H241 so will I do H6213 to you:

29 Your carcases H6297 shall fall H5307 in this wilderness; H4057 and all that were numbered H6485 of you, according to your whole number, H4557 from twenty H6242 years H8141 old H1121 and upward, H4605 which have murmured H3885 against me,

30 Doubtless ye shall not H518 come H935 into the land, H776 concerning which I sware H3027 H5375 to make you dwell H7931 therein, save Caleb H3612 the son H1121 of Jephunneh, H3312 and Joshua H3091 the son H1121 of Nun. H5126

31 But your little ones, H2945 which ye said H559 should be a prey, H957 them will I bring in, H935 and they shall know H3045 the land H776 which ye have despised. H3988

32 But as for you, your carcases, H6297 they shall fall H5307 in this wilderness. H4057

33 And your children H1121 shall wander H7462 in the wilderness H4057 forty H705 years, H8141 and bear H5375 your whoredoms, H2184 until your carcases H6297 be wasted H8552 in the wilderness. H4057

34 After the number H4557 of the days H3117 in which ye searched H8446 the land, H776 even forty H705 days, H3117 each day H3117 for a year, H8141 H3117 H8141 shall ye bear H5375 your iniquities, H5771 even forty H705 years, H8141 and ye shall know H3045 my breach of promise. H8569

35 I the LORD H3068 have said, H1696 I will surely H518 H3808 do H6213 it H2063 unto all this evil H7451 congregation, H5712 that are gathered together H3259 against me: in this wilderness H4057 they shall be consumed, H8552 and there they shall die. H4191

36 And the men, H582 which Moses H4872 sent H7971 to search H8446 the land, H776 who returned, H7725 and made all the congregation H5712 to murmur H3885 H3885 against him, by bringing up H3318 a slander H1681 upon the land, H776

37 Even those H582 men H582 that did bring up H3318 the evil H7451 report H1681 upon the land, H776 died H4191 by the plague H4046 before H6440 the LORD. H3068

38 But Joshua H3091 the son H1121 of Nun, H5126 and Caleb H3612 the son H1121 of Jephunneh, H3312 which were of the men H1992 H582 that went H1980 to search H8446 the land, H776 lived H2421 still.

39 And Moses H4872 told H1696 these sayings H1697 unto all the children H1121 of Israel: H3478 and the people H5971 mourned H56 greatly. H3966


Numbers 14:26-39 American Standard (ASV)

26 And Jehovah spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,

27 How long `shall I bear' with this evil congregation, that murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me.

28 Say unto them, As I live, saith Jehovah, surely as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you:

29 your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, that have murmured against me,

30 surely ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware that I would make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.

31 But your little ones, that ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have rejected.

32 But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness.

33 And your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your whoredoms, until your dead bodies be consumed in the wilderness.

34 After the number of the days in which ye spied out the land, even forty days, for every day a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my alienation.

35 I, Jehovah, have spoken, surely this will I do unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.

36 And the men, whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up an evil report against the land,

37 even those men that did bring up an evil report of the land, died by the plague before Jehovah.

38 But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, remained alive of those men that went to spy out the land.

39 And Moses told these words unto all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly.


Numbers 14:26-39 Young's Literal Translation (YLT)

26 And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, and unto Aaron, saying,

27 `Until when hath this evil company that which they are murmuring against Me? the murmurings of the sons of Israel, which they are murmuring against Me, I have heard;

28 say unto them, I live -- an affirmation of Jehovah -- if, as ye have spoken in Mine ears -- so I do not to you;

29 in this wilderness do your carcases fall, even all your numbered ones, to all your number, from a son of twenty years and upward, who have murmured against Me;

30 ye -- ye come not in unto the land which I have lifted up My hand to cause you to tabernacle in it, except Caleb son of Jephunneh, and Joshua son of Nun.

31 `As to your infants -- of whom ye have said, A spoil they are become -- I have even brought them in, and they have known the land which ye have kicked against;

32 as to you -- your carcases do fall in this wilderness,

33 and your sons are evil in the wilderness forty years, and have borne your whoredoms till your carcases are consumed in the wilderness;

34 by the number of the days `in' which ye spied the land, forty days, -- a day for a year, a day for a year -- ye do bear your iniquities, forty years, and ye have known my breaking off;

35 I `am' Jehovah, I have spoken; if I do not this to all this evil company who are meeting against me; -- in this wilderness they are consumed, and there they die.'

36 And the men whom Moses hath sent to spy the land, and they turn back and cause all the company to murmur against him, by bringing out an evil account concerning the land,

37 even the men bringing out an evil account of the land die by the plague before Jehovah;

38 and Joshua son of Nun, and Caleb son of Jephunneh, have lived of those men who go to spy out the land.

39 And Moses speaketh these words unto all the sons of Israel, and the people mourn exceedingly,


Numbers 14:26-39 Darby English Bible (DARBY)

26 And Jehovah spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,

27 How long [shall I bear] with this evil assembly, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me.

28 Say unto them, As surely as I live, saith Jehovah, if I do not do unto you as ye have spoken in mine ears!

29 In this wilderness shall your carcases fall; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number from twenty years old and upwards, who have murmured against me,

30 shall in no wise come into the land, concerning which I have lifted up my hand to make you dwell in it; save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.

31 But your little ones, of whom ye said they should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land that ye have despised.

32 And as to you, your carcases shall fall in this wilderness.

33 And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.

34 After the number of the days in which ye have searched out the land, forty days, each day for a year shall ye bear your iniquities forty years, and ye shall know mine estrangement [from you].

35 I Jehovah have spoken; I will surely do it unto all this evil assembly which have gathered together against me! in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.

36 And the men whom Moses had sent to search out the land, who returned, and made the whole assembly to murmur against him, by bringing up an evil report upon the land,

37 even those men who had brought up an evil report upon the land, died by a plague before Jehovah.

38 But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, lived still of the men that had gone to search out the land.

39 And Moses told all these sayings to all the children of Israel; then the people mourned greatly.


Numbers 14:26-39 World English Bible (WEB)

26 Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,

27 How long [shall I bear] with this evil congregation, that murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me.

28 Tell them, As I live, says Yahweh, surely as you have spoken in my ears, so will I do to you:

29 your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and all who were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me,

30 surely you shall not come into the land, concerning which I swore that I would make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.

31 But your little ones, that you said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which you have rejected.

32 But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness.

33 Your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your prostitution, until your dead bodies be consumed in the wilderness.

34 After the number of the days in which you spied out the land, even forty days, for every day a year, shall you bear your iniquities, even forty years, and you shall know my alienation.

35 I, Yahweh, have spoken, surely this will I do to all this evil congregation, who are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.

36 The men, whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up an evil report against the land,

37 even those men who did bring up an evil report of the land, died by the plague before Yahweh.

38 But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, remained alive of those men who went to spy out the land.

39 Moses told these words to all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly.


Numbers 14:26-39 Bible in Basic English (BBE)

26 Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron,

27 How long am I to put up with this evil people and their outcries against me? The words which they say against me have come to my ears.

28 Say to them, By my life, says the Lord, as certainly as your words have come to my ears, so certainly will I do this to you:

29 Your dead bodies will be stretched out in this waste land; and of all your number, all those of twenty years old and over who have been crying out against me,

30 Not one will come into the land which I gave my word you would have for your resting-place, but only Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, the son of Nun.

31 And your little ones, whom you said would come into strange hands, I will take in, and they will see the land which you would not have.

32 But as for you, your dead bodies will be stretched in this waste land.

33 And your children will be wanderers in the waste land for forty years, undergoing punishment for your false ways, till your bodies become dust in the waste land.

34 And as you went through the land viewing it for forty days, so for forty years, a year for every day, you will undergo punishment for your wrongdoing, and you will see that I am against you.

35 I the Lord have said it, and this I will certainly do to all this evil people who have come together against me: in this waste land destruction will come on them, and death will be their fate.

36 And the men whom Moses sent to see the land, and who, by the bad account they gave of the land, were the cause of the outcry the people made against Moses,

37 Those same men who said evil of the land, came to their death by disease before the Lord.

38 But Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, of those who went to see the land, were not touched by disease.

39 And when Moses put these words before the children of Israel, the people were full of grief.

Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Numbers 14

Commentary on Numbers 14 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary


Verses 1-4

Uproar among the People. - Numbers 14:1-4. This appalling description of Canaan had so depressing an influence upon the whole congregation (cf. Deuteronomy 1:28 : they “made their heart melt,” i.e., threw them into utter despair), that they raised a loud cry, and wept in the night in consequence. The whole nation murmured against Moses and Aaron their two leaders, saying “ Would that we had died in Egypt or in this wilderness! Why will Jehovah bring us into this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should become a prey (be made slaves by the enemy; cf. Deuteronomy 1:27-28) ? Let us rather return into Egypt! We will appoint a captain, they said one to another, and go back to Egypt.


Verses 5-10

At this murmuring, which was growing into open rebellion, Moses and Aaron fell upon their faces before the whole of the assembled congregation, namely, to pour out their distress before the Lord, and move Him to interpose; that is to say, after they had made an unsuccessful attempt, as we may supply from Deuteronomy 1:29-31, to cheer up the people, by pointing them to the help they had thus far received from God. “In such distress, nothing remained but to pour out their desires before God; offering their prayer in public, however, and in the sight of all the people, in the hope of turning their minds” ( Calvin ). Joshua and Caleb, who had gone with the others to explore the land, also rent their clothes, as a sign of their deep distress at the rebellious attitude of the people (see at Leviticus 10:6), and tried to convince them of the goodness and glory of the land they had travelled through, and to incite them to trust in the Lord. “ If Jehovah take pleasure in us, ”; they said, “ He will bring us into this land. Only rebel not ye against Jehovah, neither fear ye that people of the land; for they are our food; ” i.e., we can and shall swallow them up, or easily destroy them (cf. Numbers 22:4; Numbers 24:8; Deuteronomy 7:16; Psalms 14:4). “ Their shadow is departed from them, and Jehovah is with us: fear them not! ” “ Their shadow ” is the shelter and protection of God (cf. Ps 91; Psalms 121:5). The shadow, which defends from the burning heat of the sun, was a very natural figure in the sultry East, to describe defence from injury, a refuge from danger and destruction (Isaiah 30:2). The protection of God had departed from the Canaanites, because God had determined to destroy them when the measure of their iniquity was full (Genesis 15:16; cf. Exodus 34:24; Leviticus 18:25; Leviticus 20:23). But the excited people resolved to stone them, when Jehovah interposed with His judgment, and His glory appeared in the tabernacle to all the Israelites; that is to say, the majesty of God flashed out before the eyes of the people in a light which suddenly burst forth from the tabernacle (see at Exodus 16:10).


Verses 11-19

Intercession of Moses. - Numbers 14:11, Numbers 14:12. Jehovah resented the conduct of the people as base contempt of His deity, and as utter mistrust of Him, notwithstanding all the signs which He had wrought in the midst of the nation; and declared that He would smite the rebellious people with pestilence, and destroy them, and make of Moses a greater and still mightier people. This was just what He had done before, when the rebellion took place at Sinai (Exodus 32:10). But Moses, as a servant who was faithful over the whole house of God, and therefore sought not his own honour, but the honour of his God alone, stood in the breach on this occasion also (Psalms 106:23), with a similar intercessory prayer to that which he had presented at Horeb, except that on this occasion he pleaded the honour of God among the heathen, and the glorious revelation of the divine nature with which he had been favoured at Sinai, as a motive for sparing the rebellious nation (Numbers 14:13-19; cf. Exodus 32:11-13, and Exodus 34:6-7). The first he expressed in these words (Numbers 14:13.): “ Not only have the Egyptians heard that Thou hast brought out this people from among them with Thy might; they have also told it to the inhabitants of this land. They (the Egyptians and the other nations) have heard that Thou, Jehovah, art in the midst of this people; that Thou, Jehovah, appearest eye to eye, and Thy cloud stands over them, and Thou goest before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Now, if Thou shouldst slay this people as one man, the nations which have heard the tidings of Thee would say, Because Jehovah was not able to bring this people into the land which He sware to them, He has slain them in the desert .” In that case God would be regarded by the heathen as powerless, and His honour would be impaired (cf. Deuteronomy 32:27; Joshua 7:9). It was for the sake of His own honour that God, at a later time, did not allow the Israelites to perish in exile (cf. Isaiah 48:9, Isaiah 48:11; Isaiah 52:5; Ezekiel 36:22-23). - ואמרוּ ... ושׁמעוּ (Numbers 14:13, Numbers 14:14), et audierunt et dixerunt; ו - ו = et - et , both - and. The inhabitants of this land (Numbers 14:13) were not merely the Arabians, but, according to Exodus 15:14., the tribes dwelling in and round Arabia, the Philistines, Edomites, Moabites, and Canaanites, to whom the tidings had been brought of the miracles of God in Egypt and at the Dead Sea. שׁמעוּ , in Numbers 14:14, can neither stand for שׁמעוּ כּי ( dixerunt ) se audivisse , nor for שׁמעוּ אשׁר , qui audierunt . They are neither of them grammatically admissible, as the relative pronoun cannot be readily omitted in prose; and neither of them would give a really suitable meaning. It is rather a rhetorical resumption of the שׁמעוּ in Numbers 14:13, and the subject of the verb is not only “ the Egyptians, ” but also “ the inhabitants of this land ” who held communication with the Egyptians, or “ the nations ” who had heard the report of Jehovah (Numbers 14:15), i.e., all that God had hitherto done for and among the Israelites in Egypt, and on the journey through the desert. “ Eye to eye: ” i.e., Thou hast appeared to them in the closest proximity. On the pillar of cloud and fire, see at Exodus 13:21-22. “ As one man, ” equivalent to “with a stroke” (Judges 6:16). - In Numbers 14:17, Numbers 14:18, Moses adduces a second argument, viz., the word in which God Himself had revealed His inmost being to him at Sinai (Exodus 34:6-7). The words, “ Let the power be great, ” equivalent to “show Thyself great in power,” are not to be connected with what precedes, but with what follows; viz., “ show Thyself mighty by verifying Thy word, 'Jehovah, long-suffering and great in mercy,' etc.; forgive, I beseech Thee, this people according to the greatness of Thy mercy, and as Thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt even until now. ” נשׁא (Numbers 14:19) = עון נשׁא (Numbers 14:18).


Verses 20-23

In answer to this importunate prayer, the Lord promised forgiveness, namely, the preservation of the nation, but not the remission of the well-merited punishment. At the rebellion at Sinai, He had postponed the punishment “till the day of His visitation” (Exodus 32:34). And that day had now arrived, as the people had carried their continued rebellion against the Lord to the furthest extreme, even to an open declaration of their intention to depose Moses, and return to Egypt under another leader, and thus had filled up the measure of their sins. “ Nevertheless, ” added the Lord (Numbers 14:21, Numbers 14:22), “ as truly as I live, and the glory of Jehovah will fill the whole earth, all the men who have seen My glory and My miracles...shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers .” The clause, “all the earth,” etc., forms an apposition to “as I live.” Jehovah proves Himself to be living, by the fact that His glory fills the whole earth. But this was to take place, not, as Knobel , who mistakes the true connection of the different clauses, erroneously supposes, by the destruction of the whole of that generation, which would be talked of by all the world, but rather by the fact that, notwithstanding the sin and opposition of these men, He would still carry out His work of salvation to a glorious victory. The כּי in Numbers 14:22 introduces the substance of the oath, as in Isaiah 49:18; 1 Samuel 14:39; 1 Samuel 20:3; and according to the ordinary form of an oath, אם in Numbers 14:23 signifies “ not .” - “They have tempted Me now ten times.” Ten is used as the number of completeness and full measure; and this answered to the actual fact, if we follow the Rabbins, and add to the murmuring (1) at the Red Sea, Exodus 14:11-12; (2) at Marah, Exodus 15:23; (3) in the wilderness of Sin, Exodus 16:2; (4) at Rephidim, Exodus 17:1; (5) at Horeb, Ex 32; (6) at Tabeerah, Numbers 11:1; (7) at the graves of lust, Numbers 11:4.; and (8) here again at Kadesh, the twofold rebellion of certain individuals against the commandments of God at the giving of the manna (Exodus 16:20 and Exodus 16:27). The despisers of God should none of them see the promised land.


Verse 24

But because there was another spirit in Caleb, - i.e., not the unbelieving, despairing, yet proud and rebellious spirit of the great mass of the people, but the spirit of obedience and believing trust, so that “he followed Jehovah fully” (lit., “fulfilled to walk behind Jehovah”), followed Him with unwavering fidelity, - God would bring him into the land into which he had gone, and his seed should possess it. ( אחרי מלּא here, and at Numbers 32:11-12; Deuteronomy 1:36; Joshua 14:8-9; 1 Kings 11:6, is a constructio praegnans for אחרי ללכת מלּא ; cf. 2 Chronicles 34:31.) According to the context, the reference is not to Hebron particularly, but to Canaan generally, which God had sworn unto the fathers (Numbers 14:23, and Deuteronomy 1:36, comp. with Deuteronomy 1:35); although, when the land was divided, Caleb received Hebron for his possession, because, according to his own statement in Joshua 14:6., Moses had sworn that he would give it to him. But this is not mentioned here; just as Joshua also is not mentioned in this place, as he is at Numbers 14:30 and Numbers 14:38, but Caleb only, who opposed the exaggerated accounts of the other spies at the very first, and endeavoured to quiet the excitement of the people by declaring that they were well able to overcome the Canaanites (Numbers 13:30). This first revelation of God to Moses is restricted to the main fact; the particulars are given afterwards in the sentence of God, as intended for communication to the people (Numbers 14:26-38).


Verse 25

The divine reply to the intercession of Moses terminated with a command to the people to turn on the morrow, and go to the wilderness to the Red Sea, as the Amalekites and Canaanites dwelt in the valley. “ The Amalekites, ” etc.: this clause furnishes the reason for the command which follows. On the Amalekites, see at Genesis 36:12, and Exodus 17:8. The term Canaanites is a general epithet applied to all the inhabitants of Canaan, instead of the Amorites mentioned in Deuteronomy 1:44, who held the southern mountains of Canaan. “The valley” is no doubt the broad Wady Murreh (see at Numbers 13:21), including a portion of the Negeb, in which the Amalekites led a nomad life, whilst the Canaanites really dwelt upon the mountains (Numbers 14:45), close up to the Wady Murreh .


Verses 26-38

Sentence upon the Murmuring Congregation. - After the Lord had thus declared to Moses in general terms His resolution to punish the incorrigible people, and not suffer them to come to Canaan, He proceeded to tell him what announcement he was to make to the people.

Numbers 14:27

This announcement commences in a tone of anger, with an aposiopesis , “ How long this evil congregation ” (sc., “shall I forgive it,” the simplest plan being to supply אשּׂא , as Rosenmüller suggests, from Numbers 14:18), “ that they murmur against Me?

Numbers 14:28-31

Jehovah swore that it should happen to the murmurers as they had spoken. Their corpses should fall in the desert, even all who had been numbered, from twenty years old and upwards: they should not see the land into which Jehovah had lifted up His hand (see at Exodus 6:8) to lead them, with the sole exception of Caleb and Joshua. But their children, who, as they said, would be a prey (Numbers 14:3), them Jehovah would bring, and they should learn to know the land which the others had despised.

Numbers 14:32-33

As for you, your carcases will fall in this wilderness. But your sons will be pasturing (i.e., will lead a restless shepherd life) in the desert forty years, and bear your whoredom (i.e., endure the consequences of your faithless apostasy; see Exodus 34:16), until your corpses are finished in the desert, ” i.e., till you have all passed away.

Numbers 14:34

After the number of the forty days that he have searched the land, shall ye bear your iniquity, (reckoning) a day for a year, and know My turning away from you, ” or תּנוּאה , abalienatio , from נוא (Numbers 32:7).

Numbers 14:35

As surely as Jehovah had spoken this, would He do it to that evil congregation, to those who had allied themselves against Him ( נועד , to bind themselves together, to conspire; Numbers 16:11; Numbers 27:3). There is no ground whatever for questioning the correctness of the statement, that the spies had travelled through Canaan for forty days, or regarding this as a so-called round number - that is to say, as unhistorical. And if this number is firmly established, there is also no ground for disputing the forty years' sojourn of the people in the wilderness, although the period during which the rebellious generation, consisting of those who were numbered at Sinai, died out, was actually thirty-eight years, reaching from the autumn of the second year after their departure from Egypt to the middle of the fortieth year of their wanderings, and terminating with the fresh numbering (ch. 26) that was undertaken after the death of Aaron, and took place on the first of the fifth month of the fortieth year ( Numbers 20:23., compared with Numbers 33:38). Instead of these thirty-eight years, the forty years of the sojourn in the desert are placed in connection with the forty days of the spies, because the people had frequently fallen away from God, and been punished in consequence, even during the year and a half before their rejection; and in this respect the year and a half could be combined with the thirty-eight years which followed into one continuous period, during which they bore their iniquity, to set distinctly before the minds of the disobedient people the contrast between that peaceful dwelling in the promised land which they had forfeited, and the restless wandering in the desert, which had been imposed upon them as a punishment, and to impress upon them the causal connection between sin and suffering. “Every year that passed, and was deducted from the forty years of punishment, was a new and solemn exhortation to repent, as it called to mind the occasion of their rejection” ( Kurtz ). When Knobel observes, on the other hand, that “it is utterly improbable that all who came out of Egypt (that is to say, all who were twenty years old and upward when they came out) should have fallen in the desert, with the exception of two, and that there should have been no men found among the Israelites when they entered Canaan who were more than sixty years of age,” the express statement, that on the second numbering there was not a man among those that were numbered who had been included in the numbering at Sinai, except Joshua and Caleb (Numbers 26:64.), is amply sufficient to overthrow this “improbability” as an unfounded fancy. Nor is this statement rendered at all questionable by the fact, that “Aaron's son Eleazar, who entered Canaan with Joshua” (Joshua 14:1, etc.), was most likely more than twenty years old at the time of his consecration at Sinai, as the Levites were not qualified for service till their thirtieth or twenty-fifth year. For, in the first place, the regulation concerning the Levites' age of service is not to be applied without reserve to the priests also, so that we could infer from this that the sons of Aaron must have been at least twenty-five or thirty years old when they were consecrated; and besides this, the priests do not enter into the question at all, for the tribe of Levi was excepted from the numbering in ch. 1, and therefore Aaron's sons were not included among the persons numbered, who were sentenced to die in the wilderness. Still less does it follow from Joshua 24:7 and Judges 2:7, where it is stated that, after the conquest of Canaan, there were many still alive who had been eye-witnesses of the wonders of God in Egypt, that they must have been more than twenty years old when they came out of Egypt; for youths from ten to nineteen years of age would certainly have been able to remember such miracles as these, even after the lapse of forty or fifty years.

Numbers 14:36-38

But for the purpose of giving to the whole congregation a practical proof of the solemnity of the divine threatening of punishment, the spies who had induced the congregation to revolt, through their evil report concerning the inhabitants of Canaan, were smitten by a “stroke before Jehovah,” i.e., by a sudden death, which proceeded in a visible manner from Jehovah Himself, whilst Joshua and Caleb remained alive.


Verses 39-45

(cf. Deuteronomy 1:41-44). The announcement of the sentence plunged the people into deep mourning. But instead of bending penitentially under the judgment of God, they resolved to atone for their error, by preparing the next morning to go to the top of the mountain and press forward into Canaan. And they would not even suffer themselves to be dissuaded from their enterprise by the entreaties of Moses, who denounced it as a transgression of the word of God which could not succeed, and predicted their overthrow before their enemies, but went presumptuously ( לעלות יעפּלוּ ) up without the ark of the covenant and without Moses, who did not depart out of the midst of the camp, and were smitten by the Amalekites and Canaanites, who drove them back as far as Hormah. Whereas at first they had refused to enter upon the conflict with the Canaanites, through their unbelief in the might of the promise of God, now, through unbelief in the severity of the judgment of God, they resolved to engage in this conflict by their own power, and without the help of God, and to cancel the old sin of unbelieving despair through the new sin of presumptuous self-confidence, - an attempt which could never succeed, but was sure to plunge deeper and deeper into misery. Where “ the top (or height) of the mountain ” to which the Israelites advanced was, cannot be precisely determined, as we have no minute information concerning the nature of the ground in the neighbourhood of Kadesh. No doubt the allusion is to some plateau on the northern border of the valley mentioned in Numbers 14:25, viz., the Wady Murreh , which formed the southernmost spur of the mountains of the Amorites, from which the Canaanites and Amalekites came against them, and drove them back. In Deuteronomy 1:44, Moses mentions the Amorites instead of the Amalekites and Canaanites, using the name in a broader sense for all the Canaanites, and contenting himself with naming the leading foes with whom the Amalekites who wandered about in the Negeb had allied themselves, as Bedouins thirsting for booty. These tribes came down (Numbers 14:45) from the height of the mountain to the lower plateau or saddle, which the Israelites had ascended, and smote them and יכּתוּם (from כּתת , with the reduplication of the second radical anticipated in the first: see Ewald , §193, c.), “discomfited them, as far as Hormah,” or as Moses expressed it in Deuteronomy 1:44, They “chased you, as bees do” (which pursue with great ferocity any one who attacks or disturbs them), “and destroyed you in Seir, even unto Hormah.” There is not sufficient ground for altering “in Seir” into “from Seir,” as the lxx, Syriac , and Vulgate have done. But בּשׂעיר might signify “into Seir, as far as Hormah.” As the Edomites had extended their territory at that time across the Arabah towards the west, and taken possession of a portion of the mountainous country which bounded the desert of Paran towards the north (see at Numbers 34:3), the Israelites, when driven back by them, might easily be chased into the territory of the Edomites. Hormah (i.e., the ban-place) is used here proleptically (see at Numbers 21:3).