Numbers 14:13-38

Moses Intercedes for the People

13 But ¹Moses said to the LORD, "Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for you brought up this people in your might from among them,

14 and they will tell the inhabitants of this land. ²They have heard that you, O LORD, are in the midst of this people. For you, O LORD, are seen face to face, and ³your 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 kill this people as one man, then the nations who have heard your fame will say,

16 'It is because the LORD ⁴ was not able to bring this people into the land that he swore to give to them that he has killed them in the wilderness.'

17 And now, please let the power of the Lord be great as you have promised, saying,

18 ⁵'The LORD is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, ⁶visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.'

19 Please ⁷pardon the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just ⁸as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt until now."

God Promises Judgment

20 Then the LORD said, "I have pardoned, ⁹according to your word.

21 But truly, as I live, and as all ¹⁰the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD,

22 ¹¹none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ¹²ten times and have not obeyed my voice,

23 ¹³shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it.

24 But my servant ¹⁴Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has ¹⁵followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it.

25 ¹⁶Now, since the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valleys, ¹⁷turn tomorrow and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea."

26 And the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,

27 "How long shall ¹⁸this wicked congregation grumble against me? ¹⁹I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against me.

28 Say to them, ²⁰'As I live, declares the LORD, ²¹what you have said in my hearing I will do to you:

29 ²²your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and ²³of all your number, listed in the census ²⁴from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me,

30 not one shall come into the land where I ²⁵swore that I would make you dwell, ²⁶except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.

31 ²⁷But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that ²⁸you have rejected.

32 But as for you, ²⁹your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness.

33 And your children ³⁰shall be shepherds in the wilderness ³¹forty years and shall ³²suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness.

34 ³³According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, ³⁴forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.'

35 ³⁵I, the LORD, have spoken. Surely this will I do to all ³⁶this wicked congregation who are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die."

36 ³⁷And the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing up a bad report about the land--

37 the men who brought up a bad report of the land--³⁸died by plague before the LORD.

38 Of those men who went to spy out the land, ³⁹only Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive.

Numbers 14:13-38 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.

Cross References

• 1. Exodus 32:12; [Deuteronomy 9:28; Deuteronomy 32:27; Psalms 106:23; Ezekiel 20:9, 14]
• 2. Joshua 5:14">Ex. 1Joshua 5:14; Joshua 2:9, 10; Joshua 5:1
• 3. See Exodus 13:21
• 4. Deuteronomy 9:28; [Joshua 7:9]
• 5. See Exodus 34:6, 7
• 6. See Exodus 20:5
• 7. Exodus 34:9
• 8. Psalms 78:38; Psalms 106:45
• 9. Psalms 106:23; [James 5:16]; See 1 John 5:14-16
• 10. Psalms 72:19; Habakkuk 2:14
• 11. Deuteronomy 1:35; Psalms 95:11; Psalms 106:26; Hebrews 3:17, 18
• 12. [Genesis 31:7; Job 19:3]
• 13. Numbers 32:11; Ezekiel 20:15; [Numbers 26:64]
• 14. ver. 6; Numbers 13:6
• 15. Numbers 32:12; Joshua 14:8, 9
• 16. ver. 43, 45; See Numbers 13:29
• 17. Deuteronomy 1:40
• 18. ver. 35
• 19. Exodus 16:7, 12
• 20. ver. 21, 23; Numbers 26:65
• 21. [ver. 2]
• 22. 1 Corinthians 10:5; Hebrews 3:17
• 23. Numbers 1:45; Numbers 26:64; Deuteronomy 1:35
• 24. Numbers 1:3; Exodus 30:14
• 25. See Genesis 14:22
• 26. ver. 6, 38; See Numbers 13:6
• 27. ver. 3; Deuteronomy 1:39
• 28. Psalms 106:24
• 29. [See ver. 29 above]
• 30. Numbers 32:13; [Psalms 107:40]
• 31. Psalms 95:10; [Deuteronomy 2:14]
• 32. Ezekiel 23:35
• 33. Numbers 13:25
• 34. [Ezekiel 4:6]
• 35. Numbers 23:19
• 36. ver. 27
• 37. Numbers 13:32
• 38. 1 Corinthians 10:10; Hebrews 3:17; Jude 5
• 39. Numbers 26:65; See Numbers 13:16