Numbers 14:11-19

Moses Pleads for the People

11 ¹The LORD said to Moses, "How long will this people spurn Me? And how long will ²they not believe in Me, despite all the signs which I have performed in their midst?

12 "I will smite them with ³pestilence and dispossess them, and I ⁴will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they."

13 ⁵But Moses said to the LORD, "Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for by Your strength You brought up this people from their midst,

14 and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that You, O LORD, are in the midst of this people, for ⁶You, O LORD, are seen eye to eye, while Your cloud stands over them; and You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night.

15 "Now if You slay this people as one man, ⁷then the nations who have heard of Your fame will say,

16 'Because the LORD ⁸could not bring this people into the land which He promised them by oath, therefore He slaughtered them in the wilderness.'

17 "But now, I pray, let the power of the Lord be great, just as You have declared *,

18 '⁹The LORD is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but ¹⁰He will by no means clear the guilty, ¹¹visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generations.'

19 "¹²Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of Your lovingkindness, just as You also have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now."

Numbers 14:11-19 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.

Cross References

• 1. Exodus 32:9-13
• 2. Psalms 106:24
• 3. Leviticus 26:25; Deuteronomy 28:21
• 4. Exodus 32:10
• 5. Exodus 32:11-14; Psalms 106:23
• 6. Exodus 13:21; Deuteronomy 5:4
• 7. Exodus 32:12
• 8. Joshua 7:7
• 9. Exodus 20:6; Exodus 34:6, 7; Deuteronomy 5:10; Deuteronomy 7:9; Psalms 103:8; Psalms 145:8; Jonah 4:2
• 10. Exodus 20:5; Deuteronomy 5:9; Deuteronomy 7:10
• 11. Exodus 34:7
• 12. Exodus 32:32; Exodus 34:9

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "the pestilence"
• [b]. Lit "speak, saying"
• [c]. Lit "spoken, saying"
• [d]. Lit "on"