Numbers 14:27

27 "How long shall this wicked congregation murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the people of Israel, which they murmur against me.

Numbers 14:27 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 14:27

How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which
murmur against me?
&c.] Bear with their murmurings, spare them, and not cut them off? how long must sparing mercy be extended to them? the Lord speaks as one weary of forbearing, so frequent and aggravated were their murmurings. The Jews understand this not of the whole congregation of Israel, but of the ten spies, from whence they gather, that ten make a congregation; and they interpret the phrase, "which murmur against me", transitively, "which cause to murmur against me"; made the children of Israel murmur against him, so Jarchi; but rather all the people are meant, as appears from ( Numbers 14:28 ) , and from the following clause:

I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they
murmur against me;
for their murmurings were not only against Moses and Aaron, but against the Lord himself, ( Numbers 14:2 Numbers 14:3 ) .

Numbers 14:27 In-Context

25 Now, since the Amal'ekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valleys, turn tomorrow and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea."

26 And the LORD said to Moses and to Aaron,

27 "How long shall this wicked congregation murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the people of Israel, which they murmur against me.

28 Say to them, 'As I live,' says the LORD, 'what you have said in my hearing I will do to you:

29 your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and of all your number, numbered from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me,