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Numbers 14

KJV · Chapter 14/36

1And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.

2And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness!

3And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt?

4And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.

5Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.

6And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes:

7And 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.

8If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.

9Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us: fear them not.

10But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel.

11And 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 shewed among them?

12I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.

13And Moses said unto the Lord, Then the Egyptians shall hear it, (for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them;)

14And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: 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 pillar of fire by night.

15Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying,

16Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness.

17And now, I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying,

18The Lord is longsuffering, 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.

19Pardon, 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.

20And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word:

21But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.

22Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;

23Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:

24But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.

25(Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley.) To morrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea.

26And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,

27How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me.

28Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you:

29Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me,

30Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.

31But 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.

32But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness.

33And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.

34After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.

35I 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.

36And the men, which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land,

37Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the Lord.

38But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of the men that went to search the land, lived still.

39And Moses told these sayings unto all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly.

40And they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up into the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place which the Lord hath promised: for we have sinned.

41And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the Lord? but it shall not prosper.

42Go not up, for the Lord is not among you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies.

43For the Amalekites and the Canaanites 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.

44But they presumed to go up unto the hill top: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and Moses, departed not out of the camp.

45Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, even unto Hormah.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Terrified by the spies' report, the people rebel and want to return to Egypt, even considering stoning Moses. God threatens to destroy the nation, but forgives after Moses' intercession — yet decrees that generation will wander in the wilderness for 40 years until they die, except for Caleb and Joshua.

Explanation

This is one of the most dramatic turning points in the Pentateuch: the people's unbelief in response to the spies' report results in the journey's greatest consequence — 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, one year for each day the spies spent investigating the land. Moses' intercession is a powerful model of intercessory prayer: he appeals not to the people's worthiness (which they had none), but to God's character and reputation among the nations, and to His own merciful nature revealed earlier (Exodus 34:6-7). Even though God forgives the rebellion in the sense of not destroying the nation, He still maintains just consequences — forgiveness does not mean the absence of consequences. The people's later attempt to go up on their own, without God's presence, ending in defeat, reinforces that late, self-directed obedience does not replace obedience at the right time.

Fun facts

  • The formula Moses quotes to God ('slow to anger, abounding in mercy, forgiving iniquity...', v. 18) is almost identical to God's self-revelation to Moses in Exodus 34:6-7, showing that Moses literally used God's own words to appeal for mercy.
  • This episode is cited in the New Testament (Hebrews 3:16-19) as a warning about the dangers of unbelief, using the wilderness generation as a direct historical example for early Christians.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Numbers 14:1The people’s reaction to the spies’ report is immediate: the whole congregation weeps aloud, all through the night.
  2. Numbers 14:2The whole people turn against Moses and Aaron, going so far as to say they would rather have died in Egypt or right there in the wilderness.
  3. Numbers 14:3They ask why God brought them there only to die by the sword, with their wives and children becoming plunder — and conclude it would be better to go back to Egypt.
  4. Numbers 14:4Frightened by the spies’ report, the people go so far as to propose choosing a new leader to go back to Egypt, rejecting both Moses and God’s promise. It is the peak of the chapter’s rebellion, and the consequence follows right after: this generation will not enter the promised land.
  5. Numbers 14:5Faced with the general revolt, Moses and Aaron fall face down before the whole congregation.
  6. Numbers 14:6Joshua and Caleb, the two spies who had disagreed with the negative report, tear their clothes as a sign of protest and mourning.
  7. Numbers 14:7The two try to convince the people otherwise, insisting that the land they had traveled through was, in fact, excellent.
  8. Numbers 14:8They reinforce the promise: if the Lord is pleased with the people, He will give them this land flowing with milk and honey, exactly as promised.
  9. Numbers 14:9Joshua and Caleb ask the people not to rebel against God nor fear the inhabitants of the land, comparing them to something easy to overcome, since their protection had weakened and the Lord was on Israel’s side.
  10. Numbers 14:10Instead of listening, the people threaten to stone the two of them, but at that very moment the glory of the Lord appears visibly at the tent of the congregation, interrupting everything.
  11. Numbers 14:11God asks Moses how long that people will despise Him and refuse to believe, despite all the signs already done among them.
  12. Numbers 14:12God threatens to strike the people with a plague and start over a new nation from Moses, greater and stronger than Israel.
  13. Numbers 14:13Moses intervenes, reminding God that the Egyptians will hear about what happened, since it was by His power that this people came out from among them.
  14. Numbers 14:14He argues that the inhabitants of the region have already heard about God’s visible presence among the people, guiding them by day in a cloud and by night in a pillar of fire.
  15. Numbers 14:15Moses warns that if God kills the whole people at once, the other nations who have heard of His fame will talk about it.
  16. Numbers 14:16They will say the Lord was not able to fulfill His promise to bring that people into the land He swore to give them, and so He killed them in the wilderness — an argument appealing to God’s reputation before the other nations.
  17. Numbers 14:17Moses then asks that the Lord’s power be shown great, exactly as He Himself had already declared before.
  18. Numbers 14:18Moses quotes back to God an already-known description of the divine character: patient, merciful, forgiving, yet not simply overlooking guilt. The line about the third and fourth generation reflects the ancient idea that the consequences of wrong choices could affect a family for generations, not that children were punished for their parents’ sins.
  19. Numbers 14:19Moses asks for forgiveness for the people’s sin, appealing to the greatness of God’s mercy, just as He had already forgiven repeatedly since they left Egypt.
  20. Numbers 14:20The Lord answers directly: He grants the forgiveness asked for, exactly according to Moses’s word.
  21. Numbers 14:21Even while forgiving the people, God solemnly declares that, as surely as He lives, His glory will fill the whole earth.
  22. Numbers 14:22But He reminds them that that generation had already seen His glory and His signs in Egypt and in the wilderness, and even so tested Him ten times, without obeying.
  23. Numbers 14:23Because of this, none of those who defied Him will see the land promised to their ancestors.
  24. Numbers 14:24In the midst of announcing that that whole generation would die in the wilderness, Caleb receives a clear exception: because he had “another spirit” and trusted God when the others spied out the land in fear, he and his descendants will enter the promised land. Together with Joshua, he is proof that the punishment was not blanket and indiscriminate — it depended on how each person had responded.
  25. Numbers 14:25Since the Amalekites and Canaanites occupied the valley, God commands the people to turn and head into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea, avoiding that direction for now.
  26. Numbers 14:26The Lord speaks once more to Moses and Aaron, beginning the final sentence against the rebellious generation.
  27. Numbers 14:27God asks how much longer He will put up with that evil congregation, since He has clearly heard all the people’s complaints against Him.
  28. Numbers 14:28The sentence comes in the form of an oath: as surely as the Lord lives, He will do exactly what the people asked for out loud.
  29. Numbers 14:29Everyone who was counted in the census, twenty years old and up, and who complained against God, will fall dead in that very wilderness.
  30. Numbers 14:30None of them will enter the promised land, except Caleb and Joshua, the only two who disagreed with the fearful report.
  31. Numbers 14:31As for the little children, whom the people feared would become plunder of war, they are the ones who will enter the land their parents despised.
  32. Numbers 14:32As for the adults of that generation, their bodies will fall and remain in that very wilderness.
  33. Numbers 14:33The children will spend forty years as wandering shepherds in the wilderness, bearing the weight of their parents’ unfaithfulness until the last of that adult generation dies there.
  34. Numbers 14:34Just as the spies spent forty days exploring the land, the people will spend forty years wandering in the wilderness, a year for each day — a kind of symmetry in the punishment. This was the consequence of believing the fearful report instead of trusting the promise.
  35. Numbers 14:35The Lord confirms that this sentence is final: that whole rebellious congregation will come to an end and die right there in the wilderness.
  36. Numbers 14:36The text returns to mention the spies who brought the negative report, the same ones who stirred up the whole congregation’s revolt against Moses.
  37. Numbers 14:37These spies who spread the bad report about the land die soon after, struck down by a plague before the Lord.
  38. Numbers 14:38Only Joshua and Caleb, the two who disagreed with the fearful report, remain alive among the original twelve spies.
  39. Numbers 14:39Moses relays this whole sentence to the people, and the reaction is deep mourning among the Israelites.
  40. Numbers 14:40The next day, early in the morning, the people decide to go up to the top of the mountain on their own, saying that now they really would go up to the promised land, acknowledging their own sin.
  41. Numbers 14:41Moses tries to stop them, asking why they are disobeying the Lord’s command again, warning that it would not go well.
  42. Numbers 14:42He warns them not to go up, because the Lord would not be with them this time, and so they would be defeated in front of their own enemies.
  43. Numbers 14:43Moses explains the reason: the Amalekites and Canaanites were right there ahead of them, ready to strike them down with the sword, since the people had turned away from the Lord.
  44. Numbers 14:44Even so, out of stubbornness, the people insist on going up to the top of the mountain alone, without the ark of the covenant or Moses, who remain in the camp.
  45. Numbers 14:45The result is the announced defeat: the Amalekites and Canaanites come down from the mountain and attack the people, pursuing them all the way to a place called Hormah.

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