Numbers 14:13

13 Moses said to the Lord, "Then the Egyptians will hear about it. You used your power to bring these people up from among them.

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 The LORD spoke to Moses. He said, "How long will these people make fun of me? How long will they refuse to believe in me? They refuse even though I have done many miraculous signs among them.

12 So I will strike them down with a plague. I will destroy them. But I will make you into a greater and stronger nation than they are."

13 Moses said to the Lord, "Then the Egyptians will hear about it. You used your power to bring these people up from among them.

14 "And the Egyptians will tell the people who live in Canaan about it. Lord, they have already heard a lot about you. They've heard that you are with these people. They've heard that you have been seen face to face. They've been told that your cloud stays over them. They've heard that you go in front of them in a pillar of cloud by day. They've been told that you go in front of them in a pillar of fire at night.

15 "Suppose you put these people to death all at one time. Then the nations who have heard those things about you will talk. They'll say,