Numbers 32:15

15 That if ye will not follow the Lord, in the wilderness he shall (again) forsake the people, and ye shall be [the] cause of the death of all (these) men. (For if ye will not follow the Lord, he shall again forsake the people in the wilderness, and ye shall be responsible for the death of all these people.)

Numbers 32:15 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 32:15

For if ye turn away from after him
From following him in the way of his commandments, from attending his word, worship, and ordinances, and from walking after him, who went before them in a pillar of cloud and fire, as it is suggested they would, should they stop short here and not go over Jordan into the land of Canaan:

he will yet again leave them in the wilderness;
as he did at the time of the affair of the spies, when they were ordered to turn and get into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea, and where they had been ever since unto this time, ( Numbers 14:25 ) ,

and ye shall destroy all this people;
be the cause of their destruction, if the Lord should in such a manner resent this step of theirs, as to order them back into the wilderness again, though they were now as they were before, on the border of the land of Canaan.

Numbers 32:15 In-Context

13 And the Lord was wroth against Israel, and led him about the desert by forty years (And so the Lord was angry with the Israelites, and led them about in the wilderness for forty years), till all the generation was wasted, that had done (this) evil in the sight of the Lord.
14 And Moses said, Lo! ye the increasings, and nourished children, of sinful men, have risen (up) for your fathers, that ye should increase the strong vengeance of the Lord against Israel. (And Moses said, Lo! now ye, the increasings, and nourished children, of sinful men, have taken your fathers? place, and ye would provoke the strong vengeance of the Lord against Israel once again.)
15 That if ye will not follow the Lord, in the wilderness he shall (again) forsake the people, and ye shall be [the] cause of the death of all (these) men. (For if ye will not follow the Lord, he shall again forsake the people in the wilderness, and ye shall be responsible for the death of all these people.)
16 And they went nigh, and said, We shall make sheepfolds, and stables of beasts, and we shall make strengthened cities to our little children. (And they came near, and said to him, We shall make sheepfolds, and stables for our beasts, and we shall make our cities safe and strong for our little children.)
17 Forsooth we ourselves shall be armed to defense, and shall be girded with arms to assailing, and shall go to battle before the sons of Israel, till we bring them into their places; (but) our little children, and whatever thing we may have, shall be in strengthened cities, for the treasons of the dwellers (hereabout). (And then we ourselves shall be armed for defense, and shall be girded for assault, and we shall go forth to battle at the front of the Israelites, until we have brought them into their land; but our little children, and whatever things we have, shall stay here safe in our cities, made strong against the treasons of the inhabitants hereabout.)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.