Numbers 32:15

15 For if you turn away from him, he will leave them in the desert again, and thus you will cause the destruction of all these people!"

Numbers 32:15 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 32:15

For if ye turn away from after him
From following him in the way of his commandments, from attending his word, worship, and ordinances, and from walking after him, who went before them in a pillar of cloud and fire, as it is suggested they would, should they stop short here and not go over Jordan into the land of Canaan:

he will yet again leave them in the wilderness;
as he did at the time of the affair of the spies, when they were ordered to turn and get into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea, and where they had been ever since unto this time, ( Numbers 14:25 ) ,

and ye shall destroy all this people;
be the cause of their destruction, if the Lord should in such a manner resent this step of theirs, as to order them back into the wilderness again, though they were now as they were before, on the border of the land of Canaan.

Numbers 32:15 In-Context

13 Thus ADONAI's anger blazed against Isra'el, so that he made them wander here and there in the desert forty years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of ADONAI had died out.

14 Now you, another brood of sinners, have arisen in your fathers' place to increase still more the fierce anger of ADONAI toward Isra'el!

15 For if you turn away from him, he will leave them in the desert again, and thus you will cause the destruction of all these people!"

16 But they came up to him and said, "Here we will build enclosures for our livestock and cities for our little ones,

17 but we ourselves will be armed and ready for action to march at the head of the people of Isra'el, until we have brought them to their place. Our little ones will stay in the fortified cities here because of the people now living in the land.