Numbers 14:21

21 but as I [am] alive, the glory of Yahweh will fill all the earth.

Numbers 14:21 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 14:21

But [as truly as] I live
Which is the form of an oath, as the Targum; the Lord swears by his life, or by himself, because he could swear by no greater:

all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord;
this is not the thing sworn unto or confirmed, but that by which the oath is made and confirmed; and the sense is, that as sure as the earth "had been" filled with the glory of the Lord, as it may be rendered, as it had been with the fame of what he had done in Egypt, and at the Red sea; or as it "should be" filled with it in later times, especially in the kingdom of the Messiah in the latter day; see ( Isaiah 6:3 ) ( Habakkuk 1:14 ) ; so sure the men that had provoked him should not see the land of Canaan.

Numbers 14:21 In-Context

19 Please forgive the sin of this people according to the greatness of your loyal love, just as you {forgave} this people, from Egypt until now."

20 Yahweh said, "I have forgiven [them] according to your word;

21 but as I [am] alive, the glory of Yahweh will fill all the earth.

22 But because all the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the desert yet tested me these ten times and did not listen to my voice,

23 they will not see the land that I swore by oath to their ancestors, and all those who despised me will not see it.