Numbers 14:11-21

11 The LORD said to Moshe, How long will this people despise me? and how long will they not believe in me, for all the signs which I have worked among them?

12 I will strike them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.

13 Moshe said to the LORD, Then the Mitzrim will hear it; for you brought up this people in your might from among them;

14 and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you LORD are in the midst of this people; for you LORD are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them, and you go before them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night.

15 Now if you shall kill this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of you will speak, saying,

16 Because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land which he swore to them, therefore he has slain them in the wilderness.

17 Now please let the power of the Lord be great, according as you have spoken, saying,

18 The LORD is slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and disobedience; and that will by no means clear [the guilty], visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation.

19 Pardon, Please, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your lovingkindness, and according as you have forgiven this people, from Mitzrayim even until now.

20 The LORD said, I have pardoned according to your word:

21 but in very deed, as I live, and as all the eretz shall be filled with the glory of the LORD;

Numbers 14:11-21 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO NUMBERS 14

This chapter treats or the murmurings of the children of Israel upon the evil report of the spies, which greatly distressed Moses and Aaron, Nu 14:1-5; and of the endeavours of Joshua and Caleb to quiet the minds of the people with a good account of the land, and of the easy conquest of it, but to no purpose, Nu 14:6-10; and of the Lord's threatening to destroy the people with the pestilence, Nu 14:11,12; and of the intercession of Moses for them, which so far succeeded as to prevent their immediate destruction, Nu 14:13-20; nevertheless they are assured again and again, in the strongest terms, that none of them but Joshua and Caleb should enter into the land, but their carcasses should fall in the wilderness, even all the murmurers of twenty years old and upwards, Nu 14:21-35; and the ten men that brought the evil report of the good land died of a plague immediately, but the other two lived, Nu 14:36-38; and the body of the people that attempted to go up the mountain and enter the land were smitten and discomfited by their enemies, after they had with concern heard what the Lord threatened them with, Nu 14:39-45.