Numbers 14:17-27

17 "Lord, let your power be as great as when you said,

18 'The LORD...patient, forever loving....He forgives wrongdoing and disobedience....He never lets the guilty go unpunished, punishing children...for their parents' sins to the third and fourth generation....'

19 By your great love, please forgive these people's sins, as you have been forgiving them from the time they left Egypt until now."

20 The LORD said, "I forgive them, as you have asked.

21 But as I live and as the glory of the LORD fills the whole earth, I solemnly swear that

22 none of the people who saw my glory and the miraculous signs I did in Egypt and in the desert will see the land which I promised their ancestors. They have tested me now ten times and refused to obey me.

23 None of those who treat me with contempt will see it!

24 But because my servant Caleb has a different attitude and has wholeheartedly followed me, I'll bring him to the land he already explored. His descendants will possess it.

25 (The Amalekites and Canaanites are living in the valleys.) Tomorrow you must turn around, go back into the desert, and follow the road that goes to the Red Sea."

26 Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron,

27 "How long must I put up with this wicked community that keeps complaining about me? I've heard the complaints the Israelites are making about me.

Numbers 14:17-27 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.