Numbers 14:1

1 Therefore all the company cried, and wept in that night,

Numbers 14:1 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 14:1

And all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried
This is not to be understood of every individual in the congregation of Israel, but of the princes, heads, and elders of the people that were with Moses and Aaron when the report of the spies was made; though indeed the report might quickly spread throughout the body of the people, and occasion a general outcry, which was very loud and clamorous, and attended with all the signs of distress imaginable, in shrieks and tears and lamentations:

and the people wept that night:
perhaps throughout the night; could get no sleep nor rest all the night, but spent it in weeping and crying, at the thought of their condition and circumstances, and the disappointments they had met with, as they conceived, of entering into and possessing the land.

Numbers 14:1 In-Context

1 Therefore all the company cried, and wept in that night,
2 and all the sons of Israel grouched against Moses and Aaron, and said, We would that we had been dead in Egypt, either that we were dead in this wilderness; we would that we perished, (and all the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and said, We wish that we had died in Egypt, or that we had already died here in this wilderness; yea, we wish that we were dead,)
3 and that the Lord lead us not into this land, lest we fall by sword, and our wives and our free children be led, or taken, prisoners; whether it is not better to us to turn again into Egypt? (is it not better for us to return to Egypt?)
4 And they said one to another, Ordain we a duke, or a leader, to us, and turn we again into Egypt. (And they said to one another, Let us choose a new leader, and let us return to Egypt.)
5 And when this was heard, Moses and Aaron fell down low to the earth (Moses and Aaron fell down on the ground), before all the multitude of the sons of Israel.
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.