Numbers 32:15

15 For if you turn away from after him, he will yet again leave them in the wilderness; and you will destroy all this 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 The LORD's anger was kindled against Yisra'el, and he made them wander back and forth in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation, who had done evil in the sight of the LORD, was consumed.

14 Behold, you are risen up in your fathers' place, an increase of sinful men, to augment yet the fierce anger of the LORD toward Yisra'el.

15 For if you turn away from after him, he will yet again leave them in the wilderness; and you will destroy all this people.

16 They came near to him, and said, We will build sheepfolds here for our cattle, and cities for our little ones:

17 but we ourselves will be ready armed to go before the children of Yisra'el, until we have brought them to their place: and our little ones shall dwell in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land.