Numbers 14:39

39 And Moses spake all these words to all the sons of Israel, and the people mourned greatly. (And Moses spoke all these words to all the Israelites, and the people greatly mourned.)

Numbers 14:39 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 14:39

And Moses told these sayings unto all the children of Israel,
&c.] That all that had murmured, who were of twenty years old and upwards, should die in the wilderness, and never see nor enter into the land of Canaan, on the borders of which they now were: and the people mourned greatly;
because of their unhappy case, that they should be cut off by death in the wilderness, and be deprived of the enjoyment of the good land; their sorrow seems to have been not a godly sorrow, or true repentance for sin committed, but a worldly sorrow that works death; it was not on account of the evil of sin, the pardon of which they did not seem to seek after, but on account of the evil that was likely to come to them by it.

Numbers 14:39 In-Context

37 that it was evil, were dead, and smitten in the sight of the Lord . (by saying that it was evil, were then struck by the Lord with a pestilence, or a plague, and died.)
38 Soothly (only) Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, lived, of all the men, that went to see the land (who went to see the land).
39 And Moses spake all these words to all the sons of Israel, and the people mourned greatly. (And Moses spoke all these words to all the Israelites, and the people greatly mourned.)
40 And, lo! they rose in the morrowtide first, and they went up into the top of the hill, and said, We be ready to go up to the place, of which the Lord spake, for we have sinned. (And lo! they rose up early the next morning, and left to go up into the heights of the hill country, saying, See, now we be ready to go up to the place, of which the Lord hath spoken, and we confess, that we have sinned.)
41 To whom Moses said, Why over-pass ye the word of the Lord, that shall not befall to you into prosperity? (To whom Moses said, Why pass ye over the word of the Lord? this shall not befall to you into any prosperity, or any success, but only evil.)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.