Numbers 14

AND all the congregation Except Caleb and Ioshua and some few others. A Synecdochical expression, the whole for the greatest part. lifted up their voice, and cryed, and the people wept that night.

And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses, and against Aaron As the instruments and occasions of their present calamity., and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt, or would God that we had died in this wilderness It was not long before they had their desire and did die in the wilderness..

And wherefore has the LORD From the instruments they rise higher and strike at God the chief cause and author of their journey: by which we see the prodigious growth and progress of sin when it is not resisted. brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives, and our children should be a prey To the Canaanites whose land we were made to believe we should possess.? were it not better for us to return into Egypt?

And they said one to another, Let us make a captain Instead of Moses, one who will be more faithful to our interest than he., and let us return into Egypt This was but a purpose or a desire, and yet it is imputed to them as if they had done it, Nehem. 9. 16, 17. they appointed a captain, &c. even as Abrahams purpose to offer up Isaac is reckoned for the deed, Heb. 11. 17.. g Stupendious madness! whence should they have protection against the many hazards, and provision against all the wants of the wilderness? could they expect eit... er Gods cloud to cover and guide them, or Manna from heaven to feed them? who should conduct them over the Red Sea? or, if they went another way, who should defend them against those nations by whose borders they were to pass? what entertainment could they expect from the Egyptians, whom they had deserted and brought to so much ruine?

Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces As humble and earnest suppliants, either, to the people, to intreat them to desist from their wicked and pernicious enterprize: or rather, to God, by comparing this with Numb. 16. 4. and 20. 6. the only re... uge to which Moses resorted in all such straits, and who alone was able to still and govern this tumultuous and stiff-necked people. before all the assembly That they might be awakened to apprehend their sin and danger, when they saw Mos... s at his prayers, whom God never used to deny and never failed to defend even with the destruction of his enemies. of the congregation of the children of Israel.

And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes To testifie their hearty grief for t... e peoples blasphemy against God and sedition against Moses, and that dreadful judgment which they easily foresaw this must bring upon the and people of God..

And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land.

If the LORD delight in us If by our rebellion and ingratitude we do not provoke God to loath and forsake us., then he will bring us into this land, and give it us, a land which floweth with milk and honey.

Only rebel ye not against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land, for they are bread for us We shall destroy them as easily as we do our bread or common food. Compare Numbers 24. 8. Psal. 14. 4.: their defence (i. e.) Their counsel, conduct, and courage, and especially, God, who was pleased to afford them his protection till their iniquities were full, Gen. 15. 16. is utterly departed from them and has given them up as a prey to us. is departed from them, and the LORD is with us By his special grace and almighty power to save us from them and from all our enemies.: fear them not.

But all the congregation bade stone them with stones: and the glory of the LORD appeared Now in extremity of danger to rescue his faithful servants, and to stop the rage of the people. in the tabernacle (i. e.) Upon or above the tabernacle, where the cloud usually resided, in which the glory of God did appear upon occasion, and now in a more illustrious manner, as the state of things required of the congregation, before all the children of Israel.

And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have showed among them?

I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them This was not an absolute determination, as the event showed, but only a commination, like that of Ninevehs destruction within 40 days, with a condition implyed, except there be speedy repentance, or powerful intercession., and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.

And Moses said unto LORD, Then (i. e.) In case thou dost utterly destroy them. the Egyptians shall hear it (for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them Whereby thou didst get great honour to thy self, which now thou wilt certainly lose..)

And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land For there was much entercouse between these two nations.: for they have heard that thou, LORD, art among this people, that thou, LORD, art seen face to face, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou goest before them, by day time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillan of fire by night.

Now if thou shalt kill all this people, as one man (i. e.) Altogether or to a man, and suddenly as it were by one blow as if all had but one neck., then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying,

Because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them His power was quite spent in bringing them out of Egypt, and could not finish the work he had begun and had sworn to do., therefore he has slain them in the wilderness.

And now, I beseech thee, let the power of my LORD be great (i. e.) Appear to be great, discover its greatness. A real verb put for a declarative, or the thing for the manifestation of the thing. And this may be understood either 1. of Gods power in preserving the people and carrying them on into Canaan, which sense may seem to be favoured by the foregoing verse, where the Egyptians deny that God had power to do so. And according to that sense he addes the following words, not as an explication of this power, but an argument to move him to show forth his power f... r his people notwithstanding their, according... s, or rather (as the Hebrew word is oft rendred) he had spoken sa... ing, &c. and so he should maintain the honour and the truth of his own name or of those titles which he had ascribed to himself. Or 2. the power of his grace and mercy, or the greatness of his mercy, as he calls it, ver. 19. in pardoning of this and their other sins: for to this the following words manifestly restrain it, according as thou hast spoken, &c. where the pardon of their sins is the only instance of this power both described in God titles, ver. 18. and prayed for by Moses, ver. 19. pardon, I beseech thee, &c. and granted by God in answer to him, ver. 20. I have pardoned, &c. Nor is it strange that the pardon of sin, especially of such great sins, be spoken of as an act of power in God, because undoubtedly it is an act of omnipotent, and infinite goodness; whence desparing sinners sometimes cry out that, their sins are greater than God can pardon, as some translate Cains words, Gen. 4. 13. And since power is applied to Gods wrath in punishing sin, Rom. 9. 22. why may it not as well be attributed to Gods mercy in forgiving it? Especially if it be considered that even in men revenge is an act of impotency, and consequently it must needs be an act of power to conquer their passions and inclinations to revenge and to pardon those enemies whom they could destroy., according as thou hast spoken, saying,

The LORD is long-suffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation These words may seem to be very improperly mentioned, as being a powerful argument to move God to destroy this wicked people, and not to pardon then. It may be answered, that Moses useth these words together with the rest partly because he would not sever what God had put together, and partly to show that he did not desire a full and absolute pardon, but was willing that God should execute his vengeance upon the principal authours of this rebellion, and leave some character of his displeasure upon all the people, as God did, but only that God would not disinherit them, ver. 12. nor kill all the people as one man, ver. 15. nor destroy them both root and branch, because he had promised not to extend his wrath against them in punishing their sins beyond the third and fourth generation. But the truer answer seems to be, that these words are to be translated otherwise and in destroying he will not utterly destroy, though he visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation. Of which see the notes on Exod. 34. 7. where all this verse is explained..

Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people, according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt, even until now After many and great provocations: show thy self still to be the same sin-pardoning God..

And the LORD said, I have pardoned, according to thy word So far, as not utterly to destroy them, as I threatned ver. 12. and thou didst fear and beg the prevention of it, ver. 15..

But truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD (i. e.) With the report of the glorious and righteous acts of God in punishing this rebellious people in manner following. That this is the true sense, appears both from the particle of opposition, and the solemn introduction of them, But truly as I live, and from the following verses, because all these men, &c. which come in without any note of opposition, and have a manifest relation to and connexion with this verse..

Because all those men which have seen my glory (i. e.) My glorious appearances in the cloud, and in the Tabernacle., and my miracles which I did in Egypt, and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times (i. e.) Many times. A certain number for an uncertain, as Gen. 31. 7. Levit. 26. 8. Iob 19. 3. Though some reckon ten times precisely wherein they did eminently provoke God., and have not hearkened to my voice.

Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me, see it:

But my servant Caleb Ioshua is not here named, because he was not now among the people, but a constant attendant upon Moses, nor was he to be reckoned as one of them, any more than Moses and Aaron were, because he was to be their chief commander., because he had another spirit with him (i. e.) Was a man of another temper, and carriage, faithful and couragious, not acted by that evil spirit of cowardize, unbelief, unthankfulness, disobedience; which ruled in his brethren, but by the spirit of God., and has followed me fully (i. e.) Universally and constantly, in and through difficulties and dangers, which made his partners halt., him will I bring into the land, whereinto he went In general Canaan, and particularly Hebron and the adjacent parts, Ios. 14. 9., and his seed shall possess it Or, shall expell it, i. e. its inhabitants, the land being oft put for the people of it. Compare Ios. 8. 7. and 14. 12..

(Now the Amalekites, and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley Beyond the mountain at the foot whereof they now were, ver. 40. And this clause is added, either 1. as an aggravation of Israels misery and punishment, that being now ready to enter and take possession of the land they are forced to go back into the wilderness: or, 2. as an argument to oblige them more willingly to obey the following command of returning into the wilderness, because their enemies were very near them, and severed from them only by that Idum... an mountain, and, if they did not speedily depart, their enemies would hear of them and fall upon them, and so the evil which before they causelesly feared would come upon them, they, their wives and their children would become a prey to the Amalekites and Canaanites; because God had forsaken them and would not assist nor defend them. The verse may be rendred thus, And or But, for the present, the Amalekite, and the Canaanite dwell in the valley: therefore (which particle is here understood, as it is in other places) to morrow turn ye, &c. Though some knit these words to the former, and read the place thus, Caleb—and his seed shall possess it, to wit, the land near Hebron, and also, the land of the Amalekites and of the Canaanites that dwell in the valley. Quest. But how are the Canaanites. said to dwell in the valley, here, when they dwelt in the hill, ver. 45. and by the sea-coasts, Numb. 21. 1? Ans. 1. Part of them dwelt in one place, and part in other places. 2. The word, Canaanite, may here be understood more generally of all the inhabitants of Canaan.) to morrow turn ye, and get ye into the wilderness, by the way of the Red-sea (i. e.) That leadeth to the Red-sea, and to Egypt, the place whither you desired to return, ver. 3, 4.

And the LORD spake unto Moses, and unto Aaron, saying,

How long shall I bear with Or, pardon, as ver. 19, 20. or spare: which words are necessarily and easily understood. It is a short and imperfect speech, which is frequent in case of anger, as Exod. 32. 32. Psal. 6. 3. and 90. 13. this evil congregation which murmure against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmure against me

Say unto them, As truly as I live, says the LORD, as ye have spoken When you wickedly wished you might have died in the wilderness, ver. 2. in mine ears, so will I do to you I will bring your imprecations upon your heads.:

Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness, and all that were numbred of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward which have murmured against me.

Doubtless ye shall not come into the land concerning which I sware to make you (i. e.) Your Nation, for God did not swear to do so to these particular persons. dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.

But your little ones which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised.

But as for you, your carcases they shall fall in this wilderness.

And your children shall wander Like sheep feeding in the deserts: or, shall be shepherds, i. e. shall live like the shepherds of Arabia, in tents and removing from place to place, having no certain dwelling. in the wilderness fourty years (i. e.) So long as to make up the time of your dwelling in the wilderness forty years, as appears from Numb. 33. 8. D... t. 1. 3. and 2. 14. Compare Amos 5. 25. It is manifest, that one whole year and part of another were past before this sin or judgment., and bear your whoredoms (i. e.) The punishment of your whoredomes, to wit, of your Apostacy from and perfidiousness against your Lord, who was your husband and had married you to himself. See Ier. 3. 14. Whence Idolatry is called whoredom. untill your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.

After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even fourty days (each day for a year So there should have been 40 years to come, but God was pleased mercifully to accept of the time past as a part of that time.) shall ye bear your iniquities, even fourty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise That as you have first broken the covenant between you and me by breaking the terms or conditions of it, so I will make it void on my part, by denying you the blessings promised in that covenant and to be given to you in case of your obedience. So you shall see that the breach of promise wherewith you charged me, ver. 3. lies at your door and was forced from me by your perfidiousness. Or, my breach, either passively, i. e. your breaking off from me, as such pronouns are oft used, as Gen. 50. 4. Isa. 53. 11. and 56. 7. or actively, i. e. my breaking of or departing from you, and stopping the current of my blessings towards you: you shall feel by experience, how sad your condition is when I withdraw my grace and favour from you..

I the LORD have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me; in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.

And the men whom Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmure against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land:

Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague Either by the pestilence, threatned ver. 12. or by some other sudden and extraordinary judgment. before the LORD (i. e.) Sent from the cloud in which God dwelt and from whence he spake to Moses, and wherein his glory at this time appeared before all the people, ver. 10. who therefore were all, and these spies among the rest, before the Lord..

But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of the men that went to search the land, lived still.

And Moses told these sayings unto all the children of Israel, and the people mourned greatly.

And they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up (i. e.) Designed or attempted or prepared themselves to go up: for that they were not yet actually gone up plainly appears from ver. 42. 44. and from Deut. 1. 41. Things designed or indeavoured in Scripture-phrase are oft said to be done. See on Gen. 37. 21, 22. Exod. 8. 18. into the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place which the LORD has promised: for we have sinned.

And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the LORD Either that command, Go not up, &c. which, though in this place mentioned after, yet may seem to have gone before their transgression, by comparing this place with Deut. 1. 42, 43. or that command above ver. 25. turn ye and get ye into the wilderness, &c. which was a course directly contrary to that which they took.? but it shall not prosper.

Go not up, for the LORD is not among you, that ye be not smitten before your enemies.

For the Amalekite, and the Canaanite are there before you, and ye shall fall by the sword: because ye are turned away from the LORD, therefore the LORD will not be with you.

But they presumed Guilty both of rashness and rebellion, thus running from one extreme to another. to go up unto the hill top: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and Moses departed not out of the camp.

Then the Amalekite came down, and the Canaanite Largely so called, but strictly the Amorite, as appears from Deut. 1. 44. which dwelt So they were a part and branch of those that dwelt in the valley ver. 25. Or, sat, i. e. placed themselves, lay in ambush, expecting your coming. in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, even unto Hormah A place so called afterwards, Numb. 21. 3. from the great slaughter or destruction of the Israelites at this time..