Numbers 14:21

21 But as I live and as the Glory of God fills the whole Earth -

Numbers 14:21 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 14:21

But [as truly as] I live
Which is the form of an oath, as the Targum; the Lord swears by his life, or by himself, because he could swear by no greater:

all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord;
this is not the thing sworn unto or confirmed, but that by which the oath is made and confirmed; and the sense is, that as sure as the earth "had been" filled with the glory of the Lord, as it may be rendered, as it had been with the fame of what he had done in Egypt, and at the Red sea; or as it "should be" filled with it in later times, especially in the kingdom of the Messiah in the latter day; see ( Isaiah 6:3 ) ( Habakkuk 1:14 ) ; so sure the men that had provoked him should not see the land of Canaan.

Numbers 14:21 In-Context

19 "Please forgive the wrongdoing of this people out of the extravagance of your loyal love just as all along, from the time they left Egypt, you have been forgiving this people."

20 God said, "I forgive them, honoring your words.

21 But as I live and as the Glory of God fills the whole Earth -

22 not a single person of those who saw my Glory, saw the miracle signs I did in Egypt and the wilderness, and who have tested me over and over and over again, turning a deaf ear to me -

23 not one of them will set eyes on the land I so solemnly promised to their ancestors. No one who has treated me with such repeated contempt will see it.