Numbers 14:20-38

The LORD Pardons and Rebukes

20 So the LORD said, "¹I have pardoned them according to your word;

21 but indeed, ²as I live, ³all the earth will be filled with the glory of the LORD.

22 "Surely ⁴all the men who have seen My glory and My signs which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet ⁵have put Me to the test these ten times and have not listened to My voice,

23 ⁶shall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who spurned Me see it.

24 "But My servant Caleb, ⁷because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, ⁸I will bring into the land which he entered, and his descendants shall take possession of it.

25 "⁹Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites live in the valleys; turn tomorrow and set out to the wilderness by the way of the Red * Sea."

26 The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying,

27 "How long * shall I bear with this evil congregation who are ¹⁰grumbling against Me? I have heard the complaints of the sons of Israel, which they are making against Me.

28 "Say to them, '¹¹As I live,' says the LORD, 'just as ¹²you have spoken in My hearing, so I will surely do to you;

29 ¹³your corpses will fall in this wilderness, even all ¹⁴your numbered men, according to your complete number from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against Me.

30 'Surely you shall not come into the land in which I swore * to settle you, ¹⁵except * Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.

31 '¹⁶Your children, however, whom you said would become a prey -I will bring them in, and they will know the land which you have rejected.

32 '¹⁷But as for you, your corpses will fall in this wilderness.

33 'Your sons shall be shepherds for ¹⁸forty years in the wilderness, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness, until your corpses lie in the wilderness.

34 'According to the ¹⁹number of days which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day you shall bear your guilt a year, even forty years, and you will know My opposition.

35 '²⁰I, the LORD, have spoken, surely * this I will do to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be destroyed, and there they will die.' "

36 ²¹As for the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land and who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing out a bad report concerning the land,

37 even ²²those men who brought out the very bad report of the land died by a ²³plague before the LORD.

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

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Numbers 14:20-38 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO NUMBERS 14

This chapter treats or the murmurings of the children of Israel upon the evil report of the spies, which greatly distressed Moses and Aaron, Nu 14:1-5; and of the endeavours of Joshua and Caleb to quiet the minds of the people with a good account of the land, and of the easy conquest of it, but to no purpose, Nu 14:6-10; and of the Lord's threatening to destroy the people with the pestilence, Nu 14:11,12; and of the intercession of Moses for them, which so far succeeded as to prevent their immediate destruction, Nu 14:13-20; nevertheless they are assured again and again, in the strongest terms, that none of them but Joshua and Caleb should enter into the land, but their carcasses should fall in the wilderness, even all the murmurers of twenty years old and upwards, Nu 14:21-35; and the ten men that brought the evil report of the good land died of a plague immediately, but the other two lived, Nu 14:36-38; and the body of the people that attempted to go up the mountain and enter the land were smitten and discomfited by their enemies, after they had with concern heard what the Lord threatened them with, Nu 14:39-45.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 23

1. Micah 7:18-20
2. Numbers 14:28; Deuteronomy 32:40; Isaiah 49:18
3. Isaiah 6:3; Habakkuk 2:14
4. 1 Corinthians 10:5
5. Exodus 5:21; Exodus 14:11; Exodus 15:24; Exodus 16:2; Exodus 17:2, 3; Exodus 32:1; Numbers 11:1, 4; Numbers 12:1; Numbers 14:2
6. Numbers 26:65; Numbers 32:11; Hebrews 3:18
7. Numbers 14:6-9
8. Numbers 26:65; Numbers 32:12; Deuteronomy 1:36; Joshua 14:6-15
9. Numbers 13:29
10. Numbers 11:1
11. Numbers 14:21
12. Numbers 14:2; Deuteronomy 2:14, 15; Hebrews 3:17
13. Hebrews 3:17
14. Numbers 1:45, 46
15. Numbers 14:24
16. Numbers 14:3
17. Numbers 26:64, 65; Numbers 32:13; 1 Corinthians 10:5
18. Deuteronomy 2:7; Deuteronomy 8:2, 4; Deuteronomy 29:5
19. Numbers 13:25
20. Numbers 23:19
21. Num 13:4-16, 32
22. 1 Corinthians 10:10; Hebrews 3:17, 18
23. Numbers 16:49

Footnotes 12

[a]. Lit "and all"
[b]. Lit "him I"
[c]. Lit "where"
[d]. Lit "seed"
[e]. Lit "Sea of Reeds"
[f]. Lit "complaining"
[g]. Lit "mustered"
[h]. Lit "raised My hand"
[i]. Lit "bear"
[j]. Lit "fornications"
[k]. Lit "are finished"
[l]. Or "iniquities"