Numbers 14:15

15 But if you destroy this people {all at once}, the nations that will have heard your message will say,

Numbers 14:15 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 14:15

Now [if] thou shall kill [all] this people, as one man
Suddenly, and at once, as might be done by a pestilence; and as 185,000 were smitten at once, and as thought by the same disease, by the Angel of the Lord in the camp of the Assyrians, in later times, ( 2 Kings 19:35 ) ;

then the nations which have heard the fame of thee;
the Egyptians, Canaanites, and others, as Aben Ezra observes; who had heard the report of the wonderful things done by him for Israel, and of the great favours he had bestowed upon them, and so of his power, and goodness, and other perfections displayed therein, which made him appear to be preferable to all the gods of the Gentiles:

will speak, saying;
as follows.

Numbers 14:15 In-Context

13 And Moses said to Yahweh, "Then the Egyptians will hear that you brought up this people from their midst in your power,

14 and they will {tell it} to the inhabitants of this land. They heard that you, Yahweh, [are] in the midst of this people, that you are seen eye to eye, and your cloud [is] standing over them, and in a column of cloud you go before them by day and in a column of fire [at] night.

15 But if you destroy this people {all at once}, the nations that will have heard your message will say,

16 'Yahweh was unable to bring this people in the land that he swore by an oath, and he slaughtered them in the desert.'

17 But now, please, let the power of my Lord be great, just has you spoke,

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "as one man"