Numbers 14:13

13 And Moses said unto the LORD, Then the Egyptians shall hear it, for thou didst bring this people out of the midst of them with thy might;

Numbers 14:13 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 14:13

And Moses said unto the Lord
In an abrupt manner, as the following words show, his mind being greatly disturbed and distressed by the above threatening,

then the Egyptians shall hear [it];
that the Lord had smitten the Israelites with the pestilence; the Targum of Jonathan interprets it of the children of the Egyptians who were suffocated in the sea:

for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them;
they were once sojourners among them, and slaves unto them, and they were delivered from them by the mighty hand of the Lord upon the Egyptians, destroying their firstborn; and therefore when they shall hear that the Israelites were all destroyed at once by a pestilence in the wilderness, it will be a pleasure to them, as follows.

Numbers 14:13 In-Context

11 And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? How long will it be before they believe me, with all the signs which I have done among them?

12 I will smite them with the pestilence and disinherit them and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.

13 And Moses said unto the LORD, Then the Egyptians shall hear it, for thou didst bring this people out of the midst of them with thy might;

14 and the inhabitants of this land will say, for they have already heard that thou, oh LORD, wast among this people, that thou, O LORD, art seen face to face, and that thy cloud was over them, and that thou didst go before them by day time in a pillar of a cloud and in a pillar of fire by night;

15 and that thou hast caused all this people to die as one man; and the Gentiles who have heard of thy fame will speak, saying,