Numbers 14:15

15 But if you kill all these people at the same time, then the nations who have heard these reports about you will say,

Numbers 14:15 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 14:15

Now [if] thou shall kill [all] this people, as one man
Suddenly, and at once, as might be done by a pestilence; and as 185,000 were smitten at once, and as thought by the same disease, by the Angel of the Lord in the camp of the Assyrians, in later times, ( 2 Kings 19:35 ) ;

then the nations which have heard the fame of thee;
the Egyptians, Canaanites, and others, as Aben Ezra observes; who had heard the report of the wonderful things done by him for Israel, and of the great favours he had bestowed upon them, and so of his power, and goodness, and other perfections displayed therein, which made him appear to be preferable to all the gods of the Gentiles:

will speak, saying;
as follows.

Numbers 14:15 In-Context

13 But Moses said to the LORD, "What if the Egyptians hear about it? (You used your power to take these people away from them.)

14 What if the Egyptians tell the people who live in this land? LORD, they have already heard that you are with these people, that they have seen you with their own eyes, that your column of smoke stays over them, and that you go ahead of them in a column of smoke by day and in a column of fire by night.

15 But if you kill all these people at the same time, then the nations who have heard these reports about you will say,

16 'The LORD wasn't able to bring these people into the land he promised them, so he slaughtered them in the desert.'

17 "Lord, let your power be as great as when you said,