John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.

John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.

Numbers 12:1



INTRODUCTION TO NUMBER 12



In this chapter we have an account of Aaron and Miriam speaking against Moses, and for what reason, whose amiable character is given,

Nu 12:1; and of the Lord's calling them to him, and rebuking them for it, giving an excellent testimony to Moses, and then departing in anger, Nu 12:4; and of Miriam's being smitten with leprosy, and Aaron's entreating Moses on his and her account, who prayed to the Lord to heal her, Nu 12:10; and of her being ordered to be shut out of the camp seven days, during which time the Israelites stayed at Hazeroth, and then removed to the wilderness of Paran, Nu 12:14.



Ver. 1. And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses,.... Miriam is first mentioned, because she was first in the transgression, and so was only punished; Aaron was drawn into the sin by her, and he acknowledged his fault, and was forgiven: it must be a great trial to Moses, not only to be spoken against by the people, as he often was, but by his near relations, and these gracious persons, and concerned with him in leading and guiding the people through the wilderness, Mic 6:4;



because of the Ethiopian woman, whom he had married, for he had married an Ethiopian woman; not a queen of Ethiopia, as the Targum of Jonathan; nor Tharbis, a daughter of a king of Ethiopia, whom Josephus {h} says he married, when he was sent upon an expedition against the Ethiopians, while he was in Pharaoh's court; nor the widow of an Ethiopian king whom he married after his death, when he fled from Pharaoh into Ethiopia, and was made a king there, as say some Jewish writers {i}: for there is no reason to believe he was married before he went to Midian; nor was this some Ethiopian woman he had married since, and but lately, Zipporah being dead or divorced, as some have fancied; but it was Zipporah herself, as Aben Ezra, Ben Melech, and so the Jerusalem Targum, which represents her not as truly an Ethiopian, but so called, because she was like to one; indeed she was really one; not a native of Ethiopia, the country of the Abyssines, but she was a Cushite, a native of Arabia Chusea, in which country Midian was, from whence she came; hence the tents, of Cushan, and the curtains of Midian, are spoken of together, Hab 3:7. Now it was not on account of Moses's marriage with her that they spoke against him, for that was an affair transacted in Midian some years ago, which at first sight may seem to be the case; nor because he now had divorced her, as Jarchi, which perhaps would have given them no uneasiness; and for the same reason, not because he abstained from conversation with her, that he might give up himself to the service of God in his house, and perform it in a more holy and faithful manner, which is the common sentiment of the Jewish writers: but rather, as it is thought by others, because of a suspicion they had entertained, that she had interested herself in the affair of the choice of the seventy elders, and had prevailed upon Moses to put in such and such persons into the list she had a mind to serve; at least this seems to be the case, for the displeasure was against Moses himself; they were angry with him, because he transacted that affair without them, and chose whom he pleased, without consulting them; and therefore, though they cared not to ascribe it entirely to him, and his neglect of them, they imputed it to his wife, as if she had over persuaded him, or her brother through her means, to take such a step as he did.



{h} Antiqu. l. 2. c. 10. sect. 2. {i} Dibre Hayamim, fol. 7. 2. Shalshalet Hakabala, fol. 5. 2. so some in Aben Ezra in loc.





Numbers 12:2



Ver. 2. And they said, hath the Lord, indeed spoken only by Moses?.... They own he had spoken by him; this was so notorious that it could not be denied:



hath he not spoken also by us? are we not prophets as well as he? the Lord spake to Aaron while he was in Egypt, and had made him a good spokesman in his name, and bore this testimony of him, that he could speak well, and Miriam is expressly called a prophetess, Ex 4:14

Ex 15:20; and this being the case, they stomached it that they should have no concern in the choice and appointment of the seventy elders:



and the Lord heard [it]; for perhaps this was said secretly between themselves; but God, that sees, and hears, and knows all things, took notice of what was spoken by them, and resented it; for it was ultimately against himself, who had ordered Moses to do what he did.





Numbers 12:3



Ver. 3. Now the man Moses [was] very meek,.... So that they might say anything against him, and he not be affronted, nor resent any injury; and this therefore is introduced as a reason why the Lord undertook the cause, and vindicated him, resenting the obloquies of Miriam and Aaron against him; because he knew he was so exceeding meek, that he himself would pass it by without taking notice of it, though he might hear it: hence the Targum of Jonathan



"and he cared not for their words;''



they gave him no concern or uneasiness, so meek, mild, and gentle was he: and this is to be considered; not as a self-commendation of Moses, but as a testimony of his character by God himself, by whom he was inspired in writing it; though it is possible this might be added by another hand, Joshua or Ezra, under the same direction and inspiration of the Spirit of God; who chose that such a character of Moses should stand here, in opposition to the calumnies cast upon him, and as giving a reason why not he himself, but the Lord, appeared in his vindication, he being so meek and lowly, as is said of his antitype, and by himself,

Mt 11:29;



above all the men which [were] upon the face of the earth; being seldom angry, and when he was, it was generally, if not always, when the honour of God was concerned, and not on account of his own person and character; though it must not be said of him that he was perfect in this respect, or free from passion, or from blame at any time on account of it, but, when compared with others, he was the meekest man that ever lived; whereby he became the fittest person to have to do with such a peevish, perverse, and rebellious people as the Israelites were, whom no other man could well have bore with.





Numbers 12:4



Ver. 4. And the Lord spake suddenly unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto Miriam,.... As one greatly provoked, and highly displeased, and which was shown at once; and in order to prevent the complaint getting among the people, and spreading, which might have been of bad consequence, as they were pretty much disposed to murmur and mutiny; as also to show that it was not through any solicitation of Moses that the Lord took this matter in hand, time not being allowed to him to make any application to him; for, as soon as ever Miriam and Aaron had uttered their speech against him, the Lord spake to them:



come out ye three unto the tabernacle of the congregation; everyone out of his tent, as Aben Ezra; though it is not improbable that they were all together in the tent of Moses, whither Aaron and Miriam were come to contend with him; the words seem to be spoken quick, and in haste, as being angry:



and they three came out: of the place where they were, to the tabernacle of the congregation, that so the people might not hear what was said unto them, and what was the occasion of it.





Numbers 12:5



Ver. 5. The Lord came down in the pillar of the cloud,.... Which was over the most holy place of the tabernacle, and which was a symbol of the presence of the Lord; and who is said to come down, because that was above the tabernacle; whereas he came, as is next expressed,



and stood [in] the door of the tabernacle; where he set up his tribunal, and called them to his bar, courts of judicature being usually held in the gate; not suffering them to go into the tabernacle as they were wont to do, being delinquents:



and called Aaron and Miriam; to come nearer to him, and hear what he had to say to them; Moses keeping at a greater distance, it not being so proper that he should be within hearing of those commendations which were about to be given of him;



and they both came forth; Aaron and Miriam, and stood before the Lord.





Numbers 12:6



Ver. 6. And he said, hear now my words,.... The Targum of Jonathan reads, "I beseech you"; and Jarchi says, this particle always so signifies; but it is not so agreeable to the language of the divine Being:



if there be a prophet among you; not as making a doubt of it, but rather allowing that there was, and that there were others besides Moses, as even they themselves, Aaron and Miriam, and the seventy elders, and perhaps others; or at least there had been, and would be again, as there were in later times:



[I] the Lord will make myself known to him; that is, declare my mind and will concerning things present, or things to come:



in a vision; when awake, either by day or by night, representing objects to the bodily sight; as the almond tree rod, and the boiling pot, to Jeremiah, Jer 1:11; the visions of the chariots,

Eze 23:24, and dry bones, Eze 37:1, to Ezekiel, and such as were shown to Amos, Am 7:1: or to the mind by night, as if really discerned by the senses; as the visions of the man riding on a red horse, Zec 1:8, and of the four horns, Zec 1:18, and four carpenters, Zec 1:20, with several others shown to Zechariah:



[and] will speak unto him in a dream; as he had done to Jacob,

Ge 31:11, and as he did afterwards to Daniel, Da 7:1, and many others.





Numbers 12:7



Ver. 7. My servant Moses [is] not so,.... Or such a prophet; he is not so used; it was not in such a manner the Lord spake to him; not in visions and dreams, as he had to Abraham and Jacob, and did to others in later times:



who [is] faithful in all mine house; in the house of Israel, or among that people which were the Lord's family, where Moses was a servant and steward, and did all things according to the will of the Lord, the master of the family; he faithfully delivered to them all the laws, statutes, and ordinances, which he appointed to be observed by them: unless this is to be understood of the tabernacle, which was the house of God, in which he dwelt, and which was made, and all things in it, exactly according to the pattern given by the Lord to Moses: see Heb 3:2.





Numbers 12:8



Ver. 8. With him will I speak mouth to mouth,.... And face to face, as he had done, Ex 33:11; in a free, friendly, and familiar manner, as one friend speaks to another, without injecting any fear or dread, and consternation of mind, which was sometimes the case of the prophets; or without a middle person, a mediator, as Aben Ezra, not by means of an angel, as in some cases, but the Lord himself spake to him:



even apparently, and not in dark speeches; the word "apparently", or "vision", being opposed to "dark speeches", shows that this is not to be understood of the appearance or vision of an object presented to the sight, or to the mind, which is denied of Moses, though usual with other prophets; but of the vision, or plain sense and meaning of words, which are so plainly expressed, that the sense is easily seen and understood; it was not under figures and allegories, and parables and dark representations of things, that the law of the decalogue, and other laws, statutes, and ordinances, and the proclamation the Lord made of himself, as the Lord gracious, merciful, &c. were delivered unto Moses, but in plain words and clear expressions; not in such enigmatical, parabolical, and allegorical terms as many of the visions and prophecies of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Amos, and Zechariah, were exhibited to them; See Gill on "Nu 12:6":



and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold: as he had at the burning bush, and at Mount Sinai, with the elders of Israel, and when the Lord proclaimed his name before him; at which several times it is highly probable he beheld the Lord, even the Lord Christ, in an human form, as a presage of his future incarnation, and as he might also after this: the Targum of Jonathan is,



"the similitude which is after my Shechinah (or divine Majesty) he saw;''



that is, his back parts, as Jarchi, and other Jewish writers, interpret it; but Bishop Patrick thinks the word not should be repeated from the preceding clause, and that the sense is, that he did not behold him in similitudes, nor did the Lord speak to him by them, as to other prophets, see Ho 12:10;



wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? or against my servant, against Moses; against any servant of mine, but especially against Moses, so faithful in my house, so much approved of and honoured by me, and so superior to all other prophets.





Numbers 12:9



Ver. 9. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them,.... Which might be visible by some outward token, as by lightning from the cloud, or, however, what follows was sufficient to show it:



and he departed; from the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, where he had stood in the pillar of cloud for some time; but as soon as he had given his testimony of Moses, and expressed his displeasure at Aaron and Miriam, he went away directly from them; not staying to hear what they had to say for themselves, which was a plain indication of his anger against them.





Numbers 12:10



Ver. 10. And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle,.... Not from off the door of the tabernacle, as Aben Ezra, for that is implied in the last clause of Nu 12:9, but from off that part of the tabernacle, the most holy place, where it had used to abide; but now it went up higher in the air, or removed at some distance from thence, which was a further indication of the sore displeasure of God; that as he would not stay with Aaron and Miriam at the door of the tabernacle, so neither would he suffer the cloud to continue over it, as it was wont to do, so long as they were there:



and, behold, Miriam [became] leprous, [white] as snow; was smote immediately with a leprosy by the Lord, as the hand of Moses was in a miraculous way, Ex 4:6; and as Gehazi was, who was smitten of God in like manner, 2Ki 5:27; in an ordinary and gradual leprosy, when it was all white, the man was clean, Le 13:13; but in an extraordinary one, and which was immediately from God, and at once, in this case it was a sign it was incurable. Miriam only, and not Aaron, was smitten with a leprosy; though Chaskuni says, that some of their Rabbins were of opinion, that Aaron was; but this does not appear, nor is it likely that he should be thus defiled and dishonoured, being the priest of the Lord, and since he was not so deep in the transgression as Miriam, and was drawn into it by her, and also repented of it:



and Aaron looked upon Miriam, and, behold, [she was] leprous; he not only cast his eye upon her, as it were accidentally, and saw what was her case; but, as the priest of the Lord, looked upon her, as it was the business of his office to do, and perceived she was leprous, and was obliged to pronounce her so; and perhaps she was the first, after the law of the leprosy, that he was called to look upon, and pronounced her unclean, which must be a great mortification to him.





Numbers 12:11



Ver. 11. And Aaron said unto Moses, alas, my lord!.... The word for "alas" is generally interpreted by the Jewish writers as a note of beseeching and entreating, as it is here by the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan,



"I beseech thee, my lord,''



or "upon me, my lord" {k}, be all the blame; such was his tenderness to his sister, and the compassion he had on her; and such reverence and respect did he show to Moses his brother, though younger than he, because of his superior dignity as a prophet, and chief magistrate, and prime minister, and servant of the Lord, calling him "my lord":



I beseech thee, lay not the sin upon us; the punishment of it, bear not hard upon us, or suffer us to be punished in a rigorous manner, without interceding to the Lord for us, for the abatement of removal of it; such a powerful and prevailing interest he knew he had with God, that by his prayers their punishment would be mitigated, or not laid, or, if laid, removed:



wherein we have done foolishly, and wherein we have sinned; he owns they had sinned, but suggests, and so he would have it understood, that it was not through malice, and purposely and presumptuously, but through and ignorance, inadvertency and weakness, and hoped it would be forgiven.



{k} yb "in me", Montanus





Numbers 12:12



Ver. 12. Let her not be as one dead,.... As she was in a ceremonial sense, being to be shut up and excluded from the society of people, and as defiling by touching as a dead carcase; and, in a natural sense, her flesh, by the disease upon her, was become as dead flesh, putrid and rotten, and unless miraculously cured it would issue in her death:



of whom the flesh is half consumed, when he cometh out of his mother's womb; like an abortive, or one stillborn, that has been dead some time in its mother's womb; and therefore when brought forth its flesh is almost wasted away, or at least half consumed: and in such a plight and condition was Miriam already, or quickly would be, through the force of her disease.





Numbers 12:13



Ver. 13. And Moses cried unto the Lord,.... With a loud voice, and with great earnestness and importunity, being heartily affected with the miserable condition Miriam was in:



saying, heal her now, O God, I beseech thee; in the original text it is, "O God now, heal her now"; for the same particle is used at the close as at the beginning of the petition; and the repetition of it shows his earnestness and importunity that she might be healed directly, immediately, without any delay; and Moses uses the word "El", which signifies the strong and mighty God, as expressive of his faith in the power of God, that he was able to heal her; and at the same time suggests that none but he could do it; and so Aben Ezra interprets it,



"thou that hast power in thine hand, now heal her;''



this prayer is a proof of his being of a meek, humble, and forgiving spirit.





Numbers 12:14



Ver. 14. And the Lord said unto Moses,.... By a voice out of the cloud, though at a distance; unless it was by a secret impulse upon his spirit, darting such words into his mind as if he heard an audible voice:



if her father had but spit in her face; or, "in spitting spitted" {l}; spit much, and continued spitting till he had covered her face with spittle; which, as it would have been a token of anger and displeasure in him, an earthly father, who is meant, and of shame and disgrace to her; so there is some likeness in spittle to leprosy, both being white, and in such a case to the abundance of it, her thee being covered with leprosy; and which came as it were from the mouth of the Lord, by his order and appointment, immediately, as spittle from a man, and like that, in a way of detestation and contempt, and to make abhorred and despised:



should she not be ashamed seven days? hide herself, and never appear in the family, and especially in her father's presence, because of the shame she was put unto, for the space of seven days; how much more ashamed then should she be, now her heavenly Father did spit in her face, and covered it with a white leprosy and for as long a time at least, or indeed longer? fourteen days, say the Targum of Jonathan, and Jarchi, but no more than seven are required, when more might have justly been, for her separation and shutting up from company and conversation:



let her be shut out from the camp seven days; for so long the leper was to be shut up at the trial of his leprosy, and so long he was to be out of his tent at the cleansing of him, Le 13:5;



and after that let her be received [again]; into the camp and into society with her relations and friends.



{l} qry qry "spuendo spuisset", Pagninus, Montanus, Fagius, Drusius.





Numbers 12:15



Ver. 15. And Miriam was shut out of the camp seven days,.... And so in later times lepers dwelt alone, and in a separate house, as long as the leprosy was upon them, see 2Ch 26:21; Miriam no doubt was healed at once, but, as a punishment for her sin, she was obliged to keep out of the camp of Israel for such a space of time:



and the people journeyed not till Miriam was brought in [again]; partly out of respect unto her, she being a prophetess, and one that went before them, and led them with Moses and Aaron, Mic 6:4; and partly for want of the cloud to direct them, which had departed at a distance from them.





Numbers 12:16



Ver. 16. And afterwards the people removed from Hazeroth,.... After seven days, where they had been so long at least; the cloud being returned to the tabernacle, and having been taken up, which was the signal for motion, the camps of Israel, in their order, removed and marched forward:



and pitched in the wilderness of Paran; at a place in it called Rithmah, Nu 33:18; which, according to Bunting {m}, was eight miles from Hazeroth, near to which was another place called Kadesh, or else this was another name of Rithmah, see Nu 13:3; and now the Israelites were very near the land of promise, and from hence they sent spies to make their observations on it, and bring a report of it; and had it not been for their ill conduct in that affair, in all probability would have been quickly in it, but on that account were kept out thirty eight years longer: it was on the twenty eighth or twenty ninth of the month Sivan the Israelites came to this place, according to the Jewish writers {n}, which month answers part of our May and part of June.



{m} Travels, &c. p. 82. {n} Seder Olam Rabba, c. 8. p. 24. & Meyer. Annotat. in ib. p. 338.

 

John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.

Numbers 13:1



INTRODUCTION TO NUMBERS 13



In this chapter an order is given by the Lord, to send twelve men into the land of Canaan, to search and spy it, and which was accordingly executed, Nu 13:1; and the names of the twelve persons are given,

Nu 13:4; the instructions they received from Moses, what part of the land they should enter into first, and what observations they should make on it, Nu 13:17; which they attended to, and on their return brought some of the fruit of the land with them, Nu 13:21; and gave an account of it, that it was a very fruitful land, but the inhabitants mighty, and their cities walled, Nu 13:27; which threw the people into confusion, but that they were stilled by Caleb, one of the spies, who encouraged them, Nu 13:30; but all the rest, excepting Joshua, brought an ill report of it, as not to be subdued and conquered by them, Nu 13:31.



Ver. 1. And the Lord Spake unto Moses,.... When in the wilderness of Paran, either at Rithmah or Kadesh; this was on the twenty ninth day of the month Sivan, on which day, the Jews say {o}, the spies were sent to search the land, which was a scheme of the Israelites' own devising, and which they first proposed to Moses, who approved of it as prudential and political, at least he gave his assent unto it to please the people, and carried the affair to the Lord, and consulted him about it; who, rather permitting than approving, gave the following order; for the motion carried in it a good deal of unbelief, calling in question whether the land was so good as had been represented unto them, fearing it was not accessible, and that it would be difficult to get into it, and were desirous of knowing the best way of getting into it before they proceeded any further; all which were unnecessary, if they would have fully trusted in the Lord, in his word, promise, power, providence, and guidance; who had told them it was a land flowing with milk and honey; that he would show them the way to it, by going before them in a pillar of cloud and fire; that he would assuredly bring them into it, having espied it for them, and promised it unto them; so that there was no need on any account for them to send spies before them; however, to gratify them in this point, he assented to it:



saying; as follows.



{o} Ib. ut supra, (Seder Olam Rabba, c. 8. p. 24. & Meyer. Annotat. in ib. p. 338.) Pesikta, Chaskuni.





Numbers 13:2



Ver. 2. Send thou men,.... Which is rather a permission than a command; so Jarchi interprets it,



"send men according to thy mind, I do not command thee, but if thou pleasest send;''



this he observed was agreeable to Moses, and to the Israelites, and therefore granted it, or allowed them to take their own way, and which issued badly, as it always does, when men are left to their own counsel:



that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel; called the land of Canaan, though it consisted of seven nations, from the principal of them; this God had given in promise to the children of Israel, and had now brought them to the borders of it; nay, had given them orders to go up and possess it; but they were for searching it first, to know what sort of a land it was, and which was the best way of entering into it, which is here permitted them, see De 1:21;



of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man; excepting the tribe of Levi; the reason of which was because they were to have no inheritance in the land, De 10:9; but then, to make up the number twelve, the two sons of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh, are reckoned as two tribes:



everyone a ruler among them; a prince in his tribe; so were men of honour and credit, of power and authority, of prudence and probity, and who might be trusted with such an affair, and their report believed: they were not indeed princes of the highest rank, not the same that assisted in taking the numbers of the people, who were captains over their several tribes, as in Nu 1:4, &c. but were inferior princes and rulers, perhaps rulers of thousands.





Numbers 13:3



Ver. 3. And Moses, by the commandment of the Lord,.... By his power, permission, and leave, as Jarchi, that there might be no delay through his means:



sent them from the wilderness of Paran; from Rithmah or Kadeshbarnea, which seem to be one and the same place in that wilderness: this, as before observed, was on the twenty ninth day of Sivan:

See Gill on "Nu 13:1";



all those [were] heads of the children of Israel; were not mean and vulgar men, but persons of rule, who bore some office of magistracy ant government among the people in their respective tribes.





Numbers 13:4



Ver. 4. And these [were] their names, of the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur. From Nu 13:4, there is nothing but the names of the said persons, whose sons they were, and of what tribe; and the several tribes are mentioned, not according to the order of the birth of the patriarchs, nor according to the dignity of their mothers that bore them, but, very likely, according to the order in which they were sent, two by two, to search the land; for had they gone all twelve in a body, they would have been liable to suspicion: the signification of their names is of no importance to know, and will give us no light into their characters or the reason of their choice, nor are their parents elsewhere taken notice of, nor any of them but Joshua and Caleb, of whom we shall hear more hereafter.





Numbers 13:5



Ver. 5. Of the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori.

See Gill on "Nu 13:4".





Numbers 13:6



Ver. 6. Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh.

See Gill on "Nu 13:4".





Numbers 13:7



Ver. 7. Of the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph.

See Gill on "Nu 13:4".





Numbers 13:8



Ver. 8. Of the tribe of Ephraim, Oshea the son of Nun.

See Gill on "Nu 13:4".





Numbers 13:9



Ver. 9. Of the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu.

See Gill on "Nu 13:4".





Numbers 13:10



Ver. 10. Of the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi.

See Gill on "Nu 13:4".





Numbers 13:11



Ver. 11. Of the tribe of Joseph, [namely], of the tribe of Manasseh,

Gaddi the son of Susi. See Gill on "Nu 13:4".





Numbers 13:12



Ver. 12. Of the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli.

See Gill on "Nu 13:4".





Numbers 13:13



Ver. 13. Of the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael.

See Gill on "Nu 13:4".





Numbers 13:14



Ver. 14. Of the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi.

See Gill on "Nu 13:4".





Numbers 13:15



Ver. 15. Of the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi.

See Gill on "Nu 13:4".





Numbers 13:16



Ver. 16. These [are] the names of the men which Moses sent to spy out the land,.... Which is observed after the catalogue is given of them,

Nu 13:4; and this is repeated that their names may be taken notice of, which stand on record to the disgrace of the greater number of them, and to the honour of two only, Joshua and Caleb; and on the former the following remark is made;



and Moses called Oshea the son of Nun, Jehoshua; whether it was at this time that Moses gave him this name is not certain; if it was, then he is called so before by anticipation, for he is several times called so before this, and even the first time we hear of him, Ex 17:9; wherefore Chaskuni reads it, Moses had called; but Jarchi thinks it was now given him, and that Moses prayed for him Keyvwy hy, "Jah" or "Jehovah" save thee from the counsel of the spies: the name is the same with Jesus, as appears from Heb 4:8; and a type he was of Christ the Saviour, whose name is so called, because he saves his people from their sins, Mt 1:21; and brings them to heaven, as Joshua was the instrument of saving the Israelites and bringing them into the land of Canaan.





Numbers 13:17



Ver. 17. And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan,.... He sent them from Kadeshbarnea, as Caleb affirms, Jos 14:7;



and said unto them, go ye up this [way] southward; pointing as it were with his finger which way they should go, even up such a hill southward; and which, as Aben Ezra observes, was not the south of the camp, but the south of the land of Canaan; and who further observes, that it is well known that Egypt, from whence the Israelites now came, was to the south of the land of Israel, of which this is a demonstration; the latitude of Egypt is less than thirty degrees, and the latitude of Jerusalem is thirty three, and the wilderness of Paran was in the south of the land of Egypt: it should be rendered by "the south", as in Nu 13:22; or from the "south" {p}, since the Israelites must go northward, as a learned man {q} observes, to enter into the land of Canaan: now this south part of Canaan afterwards belonged to the tribe of Judah, and lying southward, and mountainous, was dry and barren, Jos 15:1; and was, as Jarchi says, the dregs of the land of Israel; and here, as he observes, the same method was taken as merchants do, who, when they show their goods, show the worst first, and then the best:



and go up into the mountain; which was inhabited by the Amorites, De 1:44; and was afterwards called the mountainous or hill country of Judea, Lu 1:39.



{p} bgnb "per meridianam plagam", V. L. "hac meridiana plaga", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. {q} Bishop Clayton's Chronology of the Hebrew Bible, p. 392.





Numbers 13:18



Ver. 18. And see the land what it [is], and the people that dwelleth therein,.... The situation and condition of the country, and the nature, temper, disposition, and constitution of the inhabitants, by which it might be judged whether it was a desirable thing to possess it, and whether it was practicable to subdue and take it;



whether they [be] strong or weak, few or many; whether able-bodied men fit for war, and of spirit, strength, and courage, or feeble and pusillanimous, weak and timorous; and whether their number was small or great, by which they would be capable of judging whether they were in a state and condition to defend themselves or not, and whether a conquest of them was easy or not; the last of the two things in the preceding clause is first particularly explained and enlarged upon, as is usual in the Hebrew language.





Numbers 13:19



Ver. 19. And what the land [is] that they dwell in, whether it [be] good or bad,.... Whether the air is good, the climate temperate, and the earth well watered, and has good convenience of springs, fountains, and rivers, and so wholesome or healthful; or otherwise, which is the first thing they were directed to observe, though here put in the second place:



and what cities [they be] they dwell in, whether in tents or strong holds; whether in tents, as the Israelites now lived, and as the Kedarenes, as Aben Ezra notes, and other Arabians, who encamped in tents, or who dwelt in villages, and unwalled towns, unfortified cities, according to the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan; or whether in fortified cities, towns, and garrisons; by which it would appear whether it would be easy to come at them, and fall upon them, or difficult to subdue and conquer them; for if their cities were fortified, it would not be so easy to take them, and would require time. Jarchi thinks, that by this it might be known whether they were men of strength and courage, or whether weak and fearful persons; seeing if they dwelt in villages they were strong men, and depended on their own strength, but if they dwelt in fortified cities, they were weak.





Numbers 13:20



Ver. 20. And what the land [is], whether it be fat or lean,.... That is, what the soil of it is, whether it be rich and fertile, or whether it be poor and barren, which would be seen by the fruits it produced, this being now the fruitful season of the year; and so the Targum of Jonathan,



"and what is the praise of the land, whether its fruits are fat or lean;''



plump and full, rich and juicy, or otherwise, as their grapes, olives, &c. whether it was a land flowing with milk and honey, Ex 33:3, abounding with all good things, and those of the best sort, or not:



whether there be wood thereon or not; timber for building, and other manual operations, or wood for fuel, which are great conveniences in a country; though the Targum of Jonathan interprets it of fruit-bearing trees, which bear fruits fit for eating, or not, as apples, pears, figs, pomegranates, &c.



and be ye of good courage; and not be afraid of being taken up for spies, suggesting, that the power and providence of God would protect and preserve them, in which they should put their trust, and be of good heart:



and bring of the fruit of the land; as a sample and specimen of what it brought forth, which would serve to encourage and animate the people in general, to go up and possess it:



now the time [was] the time of the first ripe grapes; when they and the other summer fruits were coming to their perfection; and which was a proper season to see them in, and bring a sample of them; though Chaskuni suggests, that it was a more dangerous time to bring off fruit, because the keepers of the vineyards were then there; and hence they needed strengthening, and are bid to be of good courage; the Targum of Jonathan is,



"the day on which they went was the twenty ninth of the month Sivan, the time of the first ripe grapes;''



and as this month answers to part of our May and part of June, and it being at the latter end of that month, it must be about the middle of June; by which we may observe the forwardness of grapes in the land of Canaan, the time of vintage now drawing nigh.





Numbers 13:21



Ver. 21. So they went up and searched the land,.... Went up the mountains as they were directed, and passed through the whole land; diligently inquired into everything material belonging to it, according to their instructions, and made their observations on it, and on the inhabitants, and their habitations:



from the wilderness of Zin unto Rehob, as men come to Hamath; this wilderness, from whence they went, seems to be the same with the wilderness of Paran, called Zin; perhaps from the multitude of thorns in it; but different from the wilderness of Sin, Ex 16:1, which was nearer Egypt; but this was on the south quarter of the land of Canaan, along by the coast of Edom, Nu 34:3; Rehob, they are said to come to first from thence, was in the tribe of Asher in later times,

Jos 19:28; and lay to the north or northwest of the land of Canaan. Jerom says {r}, that in his times there was a village called Rooba, four miles from Scythopolis. Hamath was the northern boundary of the land of Israel, and was in the tribe of Naphtali, when it came into the hands of the Israelites, and lay to the northeast, as the former place to the northwest, Nu 34:7; so that their direction, as they went, was south and north, and west and east: their journey is described by Jarchi thus; they went on the borders of it, length and breadth, in the form of the capital of the letter g, "gamma"; they went on the south border from the east corner to the west corner, as Moses commanded them: "get you up this [way] southward", Nu 13:17; the way of the southeast border unto the sea, which is the western border; and from thence they returned, and went on all the western border by the sea shore, until they came to Hamath, which is by Mount Hor, at the northwest corner; but Hamath was on the northeast; nor did they go thither, it was too far off for them, but they went as far as Rehob, which was "as men go to Hamath", as it should be rendered, that is, it lay in the way to Hamath.



{r} De loc. Heb. fol. 94. A.





Numbers 13:22



Ver. 22. And they ascended by the south,.... When they returned, after they had searched the land, then they came into the south country again, which was in their way to Kadesh, where the camp of Israel remained; they are said to ascend, because of the hill country they again came to; for their coming to Hebron, and carrying a cluster of grapes from that place, not far from thence, was upon their return:



and came unto Hebron; which was in the hill country of Judea, in the tribe of Judah afterwards, which before was called Kirjatharba; in the original text it is, "he came" {s}, Caleb, and he only, according to Jarchi and the Rabbins in Abendana; and certain it is that he was there, and he had this place on which his feet trod given him for an inheritance, Jos 14:9; and it is very probable that the spies did not go together, but perhaps singly, and at most but two together, which seems to be the case here by what follows:



where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, [were]; where Anak, and these his three sons, dwelt, who were giants; and perhaps from thence Hebron before this was called Kirjatharbah, "the city of the four"; or from Arba, the father of Anak:



now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt; or Tanais, as the Targum of Jonathan, whence one of the nomes of Egypt was called the Tanitic nome: it was the metropolis of that country, and may be observed, to abate the pride and vanity of that kingdom, which boasted of its antiquity. Josephus says {t}, that the inhabitants of Hebron not only reckoned it more ancient than any of the cities of the land, but than Memphis in Egypt, accounting it (then in his time) 2300 years old; but who it was built by is not certain; Jarchi thinks it is possible that Ham built Hebron for Canaan his younger son, before he built Zoan for Mizraim his eldest son; which does not seem likely.



{s} abyw "et venit", Montanus, Tigurine version, Drusius, so Onkelos; "et venit Caleb", Junius & Tremellius. {t} De Bello Jud. l. 5. c. 9. sect. 7.





Numbers 13:23



Ver. 23. And they came unto the brook of Eshcol,.... Or "valley of Eshcol" {u}, which is here so called by anticipation from the following circumstance; and perhaps had not this name given it, until the children of Israel were possessed of the land, and then they called it so, in memory of what was done here at this time; it was not far from Hebron, as may be concluded from thence; and so Jerom, relating the travels of Paula in those parts, says {w}, she came from Betzur to Eshcol, where having seen the little cells of Sarah, the cradle of Isaac, and the traces of the oak of Abraham, under which he saw the day of Christ, and was glad, rising up from thence, she went up to Hebron; which shows this Eshcol to be near Hebron, and to lie low, and was a valley; see De 1:24;



and cut down from thence a branch, with one cluster of grapes; in this valley was a vineyard, or at least a vine tree, on which they observed one cluster, which perhaps was of an uncommon size, as it seems by what follows, and they cut down the branch, and that with it:



and they bare it between two upon a staff; it was so big; and which was not done only for the ease of carrying it, but that it might not have any of its grapes squeezed, bruised, and broken off, but that they might carry it entire and whole for the Israelites to behold: these two men were probably Caleb and Joshua; though Jarchi says they carried nothing, which is more than he could say with certainty. Some historians report very surprising things of the size of vines, and the largeness of their clusters, which, when observed, this account will not at all seem incredible. Strabo says {x}, it is reported, that in Hyrcania, a vine produced a firkin of wine, and, the trunk of a vine was so large, that it was as much as two men could grasp with both arms, and bore clusters of two cubits long {y}; the same he says {z} of the size of vines in Mauritania, and of their clusters being a cubit long; and of others in Carmania being two cubits long, as before {a}: it is reported of the Indian fig tree, that it sometimes has an hundred figs more or less on a branch, and all in a cluster like grapes; and some of the clusters are sometimes so large as to be carried by two men on a staff {b}, as here; and some have thought, that it is the fruit here meant; but this is expressly called a cluster of grapes. About half a mile from Eshcol, as Adrichomius {c} says, was the brook or valley of Sorek, which was famous for vines; and it is affirmed by many writers and travellers, that to this day there are vines in that place, which produce clusters of twenty five pounds weight and more; and that in Lebanon, and other parts of Syria, the kernels of grapes are as big as a man's thumb {d}. Leo Africanus speaks {e} of grapes in some parts of Africa somewhat red, which, from their size, are called hens' eggs: and the Talmudists {f} are extravagant, and beyond all belief, in the account they give of the vines in the land of Canaan, and of the clusters of them, and the quantity of wine they had from them; and of this cluster they suppose {g}, that the "two" spoken of are not to be understood of men, but of bars or staves; and that this cluster was carried by eight, four at the four ends of the two staves, and that there were, besides, two staves or bars that went across, at the ends of which were four more men, who carried the cluster hanging in the middle; a figure of which Wagenseil {h} has given us: but Philo the Jew {i} has given a better account of it, and more agreeable to the Scripture, as that it was put upon a staff, and hung at the middle of it, the ends of which were laid on the shoulders of two young men, who carried it; though he adds, that such was the weight of it, that these were relieved by others in succession:



and [they brought] of the pomegranates, and of the figs; that is, others of them did; which seems to favour the notion that they were in a body, and that there were more than two together at this place; but even these two might be able to bring some of this sort of fruit along with them, as well as bear the cluster of grapes; besides, the text does not oblige us to understand it of the same persons in the same place.



{u} lxn "vallem", Pagninus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Drusius. {w} Epitaph. Paulae, fol. 59. G. H. {x} Geograph. l. 2. p. 50. {y} Ibid. {z} lbid. l. 17. p. 568. {a} Ibid. l. 15. p. 500. {b} Salmuth. in Pancirol. rer. memorab. par. 2. p. 55. {c} Theatrum Terrae Sacr. p. 24. {d} Huet. Alnetan. Quaest. l. 2. c. 12. sect. 22. {e} Descript. Africae, l. 2. p. 204. {f} T. Bab. Cetubot, fol. 111. 2. {g} T. Bab. Sotah, fol. 34. 1. {h} Sotah, p. 707, 708. {i} De Vita Mosis, l. 1. p. 638.





Numbers 13:24



Ver. 24. The place was called the brook of Eshcol,.... That is, in later times:



because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from thence; the word "Eschol" signifying a "cluster"; and this cluster was typical of Christ, who may be compared to this, as he is to a cluster of camphire, So 1:14; there being in him a "cluster" of all perfections, of all the perfections of deity, the whole fulness of the Godhead dwelling bodily in him; and of all human perfections, he being in all things like unto his people, excepting sin; and there being also a cluster of all the graces and gifts of the Spirit without measure in him, as man; and of all the blessings of grace for his people, as Mediator; and of all the exceeding great and precious promises of the covenant of grace. The "staff", on which this was carried, may denote the ministration of the Gospel, which may seem mean and despicable in itself, but is the means of carrying the name of Christ, and the things of Christ, about in the world; see Ac 9:15; and the "two" men which bore it, may signify the prophets of the Old Testament, and the ministers of the New, who both agree and join together in setting forth the person, offices, and grace of Christ. Moreover, this cluster may be an emblem of the Spirit of God, and his grace, and of the rich experience the people of God have of it in this present lift, while travellers in the wilderness, as a taste and earnest of the future glory and happiness in the heavenly Canaan.





Numbers 13:25



Ver. 25. And they returned from searching the land after forty days. The Targum of Jonathan adds, on the eighth day of the month Ab, which answers to part of July and part of August; so that this must be towards the latter end of July: some Jewish writers {k} say it was the ninth of Ab; hence the tradition, that it was decreed on the ninth of Ab concerning their fathers, that they should not enter into the land {l}.



{k} Seder Olam Rabba, c. 8. p. 24. {l} Misn. Taanith, c. 4. sect. 7.





Numbers 13:26



Ver. 26. And they went, and came to Moses, and to Aaron,.... They proceeded on their journey from Eshcol, till they came to the camp of Israel; and as soon as they came there, went directly to Moses and to Aaron, before they went into their own tents, as Aben Ezra observes:



and to all the congregation of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran,

to Kadesh; that is, Kadeshbarnea, as appears from Jos 14:7; called for brevity's sake Kadesh; but is by some thought to be different from the Kadesh in Nu 20:1; to which the Israelites came not until thirty eight years after this time: this Kadesh was in the wilderness of Paran, and the same with Rithmah, or was near it, where the Israelites were now encamped, and had remained all the time the spies were gone: the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan call this place Rekem, as they do in Ge 16:14;



and brought back word unto them, and to all the congregation: to Moses and Aaron, and the principal heads of the body of the people assembled together: to these they related an account of their tour through the land of Canaan, what they had met with, and what observations they had made, agreeably to the instructions that had been given them when they set out:



and showed them the fruit of the land; which they had brought with them, the bunch of grapes, pomegranates, and figs.





Numbers 13:27



Ver. 27. And they told him,.... Moses, who was the chief ruler whom they addressed, and to whom they directed their speech:



and said, we came unto the land whither thou sentest us; the land of Canaan, which they were sent by Moses to spy; this was said by ten of them or by one of them as their mouth; for Caleb and Joshua did not join with them in the following account, as appears from Nu 13:30;



and surely it floweth with milk and honey; they own that the land answered to the description which the Lord had given of it when it was promised them by him, Ex 3:8;



and this [is] the fruit of it; pointing to the bunch of grapes, the pomegranates and figs; not that these were a proof of its flowing with milk and honey, at least in a literal sense, but of the goodness and fruitfulness of the land: though the luxury of Bacchus, the god of wine, is by the poet {m} described, not only by a fountain of wine, but by rivers of milk and flows of honey.



{m} "Vinique fontem", &c. Horat. Carmin. l. 2. Ode 19.





Numbers 13:28



Ver. 28. Nevertheless the people [be] strong that dwell in the land,.... Though so plentiful and fruitful and desirable to enjoy, yet this objection lay against all hopes and even attempts to possess it, as they thought; the strength of the people, its present inhabitants, both in body and mind, being persons of a large, and some of a prodigious stature, and to all appearance men of valour and courage;



and the cities [are] walled and very great; and so inaccessible, and able to hold out a long siege, and repel what force may be brought against them; so that to attack them would be to little purpose:



and moreover we saw the children of Anak there: whom they had heard of before, and so had the congregation of Israel, and many terrible and frightful stories were told of them, and these they now saw with their eyes, and very formidable they appeared to them; this seems to prove that others beside Caleb and Joshua were at Hebron, where the sons of Anak lived, Nu 13:22; and so they might, and yet not be together with them.





Numbers 13:29



Ver. 29. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south,.... On the southern side of the land of Canaan: not in it, for they were not Canaanites, but neighbours to them, and lay nearest to the camp of Israel, and at the entrance into the land of Canaan; and as they were enemies of Israel, as appears from an attack upon them quickly after they came from the Red sea, in Rephidim, Ex 17:8; and friends to the Canaanites, they would no doubt oppose their passage into their land, as they did, Nu 14:43; this is one difficulty in the way of possessing the land hinted at, others follow:



and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains; and guard the passes there; so that should they escape the Amalekites, or get the better of them, they would not be able to pass the mountains, being so well inhabited and defended; the Hittites seem to dwell about Mount Lebanon, Jos 1:4; the Jebusites inhabited the mountains about Jerusalem, and that itself, which was called by them Jebus, and from which they were not dispossessed until the times of David, 1Ch 11:4; and the Amorites were possessed of the mountain which was on the borders of the land, next to the place where Israel now were, De 1:20;



and the Canaanites dwell by the sea; these dwelt both on the east and on the west of the land, Jos 11:3; so that the western Canaanites dwelt on the shore of the Mediterranean sea, which is often put for the west in Scripture; and the eastern Canaanites dwelt by the Dead sea, or by the sea of Tiberias, called sometimes the lake of Gennesaret, and seems the rather to be meant here by what follows:



and by the coast of Jordan; so that this river was not passable by them; for by all this they would suggest that all avenues and passes were stopped up, so that it was a vain thing to attempt entrance into the land, or to expect ever to possess it.





Numbers 13:30



Ver. 30. And Caleb stilled the people before Moses,.... In his presence, they standing before him; or "unto Moses" {n}, as they were coming to him with open mouth against him; for upon the above report of the spies they began to murmur and mutiny, and to speak against Moses for bringing them out of Egypt into a wilderness, feeding them with vain hopes of a country which they were never likely to enjoy; and in their wrath they might be making up to him, threatening to pull him to pieces, but were restrained by Caleb, who signified he had something to say to them, to which they attended, he being one of the spies, and for their principal tribe, the tribe of Judah, that went foremost; the Targum of Jonathan is,



"Caleb silenced the people, and they attended to Moses;''



or hearkened to him, to what he said, which though not here related, is in De 1:29; which yet they did not give credit to, though they heard what he had to say:



and said, let us go up at once and possess it; without any delay, there is nothing more to be done than to enter and take possession; this he said, trusting to the promise of God, who is faithful, and to his power who is able to perform:



for we are well able to overcome it; especially having God on their side, who had promised to bring them into it, and put them in the possession of it; and indeed, humanly speaking, they seemed quite sufficient for such an undertaking, being upwards of six hundred thousand men fit for war, Nu 1:46, marshalled under their proper standards, with captains over each tribe, and having such brave, wise, and courageous commanders and generals, Moses and Joshua, who had given signal instances of their prudence and bravery already. What is it such an army, under proper directions, might not undertake? One would think, in all human probability, they were able to conquer a much greater country than the land of Canaan.



{n} hvm la "ad Moseh", Montanus; "venientem ad Mosem", Junius & Tremellius, Drusius.





Numbers 13:31



Ver. 31. But the men that went up with him,.... With Caleb, all but Joshua: the other ten



said, we be not able to go up against the people; this they had not said before, though they plainly suggested it, and, to make the people believe this, had represented the inhabitants of the land of Canaan in the light they did; but now, in direct opposition to Caleb, fully expressed it, giving this reason for it:



for they [are] stronger than we; being both of a larger size and more numerous.





Numbers 13:32



Ver. 32. And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel,.... Before, they gave a good report of the land itself, as a very fruitful one, answering to their expectations and wishes; but now they change their language, and give a different account of it; which shows their want of integrity, and to what length an opposition carried them, to say things contrary to their real sentiments, and to what they themselves had said before:



saying, the land through which we have gone to search it, [is] a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; the meaning seems to be, that it was so barren and unfruitful that it did not produce food sufficient for the inhabitants of it, who were ready to starve, and many did starve through want, and so was the reverse of what they had before said; for which reason, Gussetius {o} thinks the sense is, that the land was the food and nourishment of its inhabitants, and that there was such plenty in it that it wanted not any foreign assistance in any respect whatever. Some think that it was continually embroiled in civil wars, in which they destroyed one another; but then this was no argument against, but for their going up against them, since through the divisions among themselves they might reasonably hope the better to succeed; or it ate them up with diseases, as the Targum of Jonathan adds, and so they would represent it, though a fruitful land, yet a very unhealthful one, in which the natives could not live, and much less strangers; and so Aben Ezra and Ben Gersom interpret it of the badness of the air of the country, as being very unwholesome and pernicious. Jarchi represents them as saying, that wherever they came they saw them burying their dead, as if there was a plague among them; and be it so that there was, which is not unlikely, since the Lord promised to send hornets before them, which some interpret of diseases sent, Ex 23:28; and which was in their favour, since hereby the number of their enemies would be lessened, and they would be weakened, and in a bad condition to oppose them:



and all the people that we saw in it [are] men of a great stature; or men of measures {p}, of a large measure, above the common measure of men; but it may be justly questioned whether they spoke truth; for though they might see some that exceeded in height men in common, yet it is not credible that all they saw were of such a size; since they were not only at Hebron and saw the giants there who were such, but they went through the land, as in the preceding clause, and all they met with cannot be supposed to be of such a measure.



{o} Ebr. Comment. p. 40. {p} twdm yvna "viri mensurarum", Montanus, Vatablus, Drusius.





Numbers 13:33



Ver. 33. And there we saw the giants,.... Not throughout the land, and yet it is so expressed, and in such connection with what goes before, that it might be so understood, and as they might choose it should; that as there were men everywhere of an uncommon size, and were generally so, there were some larger than they in all places, of a prodigious size, of a gigantic stature; and yet this was only in Hebron where they saw them;



the sons of Anak; whose names are given, Nu 13:22; and there were but three of them:



[which came] of the giants; they, were of the race of giants; for not only Anak their father, but Arba their grandfather was one; Jos 14:15;



and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers; little diminutive creatures in comparison of them; an hyperbolical exaggeration of the greatness of the giants, and of their own littleness:



and so we were in their sight; but this they could not be so certain of, and could only make conjectures by their neglect or supercilious treatment of them. Jarchi makes them to speak of them more diminutively still, as that they heard those giants saying one to another,



"there are ants in the vineyards like men.''

 

John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.

Numbers 14:1



INTRODUCTION TO NUMBERS 14



This chapter treats or the murmurings of the children of Israel upon the evil report of the spies, which greatly distressed Moses and Aaron,

Nu 14:1; and of the endeavours of Joshua and Caleb to quiet the minds of the people with a good account of the land, and of the easy conquest of it, but to no purpose, Nu 14:6; and of the Lord's threatening to destroy the people with the pestilence, Nu 14:11; and of the intercession of Moses for them, which so far succeeded as to prevent their immediate destruction, Nu 14:13; nevertheless they are assured again and again, in the strongest terms, that none of them but Joshua and Caleb should enter into the land, but their carcasses should fall in the wilderness, even all the murmurers of twenty years old and upwards, Nu 14:21; and the ten men that brought the evil report of the good land died of a plague immediately, but the other two lived, Nu 14:36; and the body of the people that attempted to go up the mountain and enter the land were smitten and discomfited by their enemies, after they had with concern heard what the Lord threatened them with, Nu 14:39.



Ver. 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 14:2



Ver. 2. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses, and against Aaron,.... They being the instruments of bringing them out of Egypt, and conducting them hither:



and the whole congregation said unto them; some of them, the rest assenting to it by their cries and tears and gestures;



would God we had died in the land of Egypt; and then what they left behind they thought might have come into the hands of their children or relations; but now they concluded it would become a prey to the Canaanites:



or would God we had died in this wilderness; the wilderness of Paran, at Taberah, where many of them had been destroyed by fire, Nu 11:1, and now they wish they had perished with them.





Numbers 14:3



Ver. 3. Wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land,.... Unto the borders of it: their murmuring did not cease at Moses and Aaron, the instruments, but proceeded against God himself, who had done such wonderful things for them, not only in bringing them out of Egypt, but since they had been in the wilderness; and yet so ungrateful to complain of him and argue with him about favours bestowed on them, as if they were injuries done to them; and particularly as if God had no other intention in bringing them out of Egypt to the place where they were, but



to fall by the sword: the sword of the Canaanites, as the Targum of Jonathan adds:



that our wives and our children shall be a prey? to the same people; they supposed they should be killed, their wives abused, and their children made slaves of:



were it not better for us to return into Egypt? and so escape the hands of the inhabitants of Canaan, of whom they had terrible apprehensions from the report made of them.





Numbers 14:4



Ver. 4. And they said one to another, let us make a captain,.... An head over them instead of Moses, who they knew would never take the government and care of them, should they resolve to return to Egypt as they proposed, and besides were now so disaffected to him, that they might not care he should. Captains they had over their several tribes, but they chose to have one chief commander and general over them all; Nehemiah says they did appoint one; which they either actually did, or this proposal was interpreted as if really put in execution, they being so desirous of it, and bent upon it; wherefore their will is taken for the deed, and so understood; see Ne 9:17;



and let us return into Egypt: which was downright madness, as some interpreters have justly observed; they must not only expect to be deserted by Moses, through whose means so many miracles had been wrought for them, and who was so wise and faithful a governor of them; and by Aaron their priest, who offered their sacrifices, and prayed for them, and blessed them; and by such a valiant general as Joshua, who had fought for them against their enemies; but by the Lord himself, so that they could not expect the manna to be continued as food for them, nor the pillar of cloud and fire as a guide unto them, nor to be protected from their enemies, on the borders of whose countries they must pass; so that their destruction in the wilderness seemed inevitable; and if they could have surmounted these and other difficulties, what manner of reception could they expect to find in Egypt, on whose account all the firstborn of man and beast among them were slain, whom they had spoiled of their riches, and whose king and his army, and in it perhaps the, flower of the nation, were drowned in the Red sea, for their sakes? What therefore could they think of, if they had any sober thought at all, but utter ruin, should they return there again?





Numbers 14:5



Ver. 5. Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces,.... Through shame and confusion of face for them, at hearing so shocking a proposal made, and such wretched ingratitude expressed; they blushed at it, and were in the utmost distress on account of it, and therefore threw themselves into this posture; or it may be this was done either to beg of them that they would lay aside all thoughts of this kind, or to supplicate the divine Majesty that he would convince them of their sin and folly, and give them repentance for it and forgiveness of it; and this they did



before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel; to affect them the more with a sense of their sin and danger.





Numbers 14:6



Ver. 6. And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh,.... Rose up and interposed in this affair, looking upon themselves under a special obligation so to do, as they were capable of confronting the other spies, and contradicting what they had said:



[which were] of them that searched the land; they were two of that number, and were the more concerned to hear such a false account given, and distressed to observe the mutiny of the people, and therefore judged themselves in duty bound to do all they could to stop it:



rent their clothes; in token of sorrow for the sins of the people; and at their blasphemy and ingratitude against God, and in dread of his wrath and fury breaking forth upon them.





Numbers 14:7



Ver. 7. And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel,.... To as many as could hear them, to the heads of them:



saying, the land which we passed through to search it, [is] an exceeding good land; they observe that they were of the number of the spies that were appointed and sent to search the land of Canaan, and they had searched it, and therefore could give an account of it from their own knowledge; and they had not only entered into it, or just looked at a part of it, but they had gone through it, and taken a general survey of it; and they could not but in truth and justice say of it, that it was a good land, delightful, healthful, and fruitful; yea, "very, very good" {q}, exceeding, exceeding good, superlatively good, good beyond expression; they were not able with words to set forth the goodness of it; this they reported, in opposition to the ill report the other spies had given of it.



{q} dam dam Urah hbwj "bona terra, valde valde", Montanus, Vatablus.





Numbers 14:8



Ver. 8. If the Lord delight in us,.... Continue to delight in them as he had, and as appears by what he had done for, them in Egypt, at the Red sea, and in the wilderness; see De 10:15;



then he will bring us into this land, and give it us, as he has promised,



a land which floweth with milk and honey; as the Lord himself hath described it, and as the unbelieving spies themselves had owned it;

Nu 13:27.





Numbers 14:9



Ver. 9. Only rebel not ye against the Lord,.... Nothing, it is suggested, could hinder them from the, possession of it but their rebellion against the Lord; which might provoke him to cut them off by his immediate hand, or to deliver them into the hands of their enemies; for rebellion is a dreadful sin, and highly provoking, 1Sa 15:23;



neither fear ye the people the land; on account of their number, strength, the walled cities they dwell in; they had nothing to fear from them, so be it they feared the Lord, and were not disobedient to him:



for they [are] bread for us; as easy to be cut to pieces, and to be devoured, consumed, and destroyed as thoroughly, as bread is when eaten; and their fields, vineyards, all they have without and within, even all their substance, will be a prey to us, and furnish out sufficient provision for us, on which we may pleasantly and plentifully live, as on bread: see Ps 14:4;



their defence is departed from them; they had no heart nor spirit left in them; no courage to defend themselves, and therefore the strength of their bodies and their walled towns would be of no avail unto them; see Jos 2:9; or "their shadow" {r}, which covered and protected them, the providence of God which was over them, and continued them in the land, and quiet possession of it, until the measure of their iniquity was filled up, and the time come for his people Israel to inhabit it; but now it was departed:



and the Lord [is] with us; as was evident by the cloud upon the tabernacle, and by the manna being spread around their camp every morning: the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan are,



"the Word of the Lord is for our help:''



fear them not; the Canaanites, notwithstanding the strength of their bodies, or of their cities, the Lord is mightier than they.



{r} Mlu "umbra eorum", Montanus, Tigurine version, Fagius, Vatablus; so Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.





Numbers 14:10



Ver. 10. But all the congregation bade stone them with stones,.... Namely, Joshua and Caleb, who had made such a faithful report of the good land, and had delivered such an animating and encouraging speech to the people. This is not to be understood of the body of the people, and of all the individuals thereof, for who then should they bid to stone Joshua and Caleb? unless the sense is, that they stirred up and animated one another to it; but rather it means the princes and heads of the congregation, who commanded the common people to rise up and stone them; for notwithstanding the affecting behaviour of Moses and Aaron, and the arguments of Joshua and Caleb, they still persisted in their mutiny and rebellion, until the Lord himself appeared as he did:



and the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation, before all the children of Israel; the Shechinah, or divine Majesty, which dwelt between the cherubim in the most holy place, came into the court of the tabernacle; for neither in the holy nor in the most holy place could the people see it, or the token of it: in De 31:15 it is said, "the pillar of cloud stood over the door of the tabernacle"; and Noldius {s} renders it here, "and the glory of the Lord appeared above the tabernacle of the congregation"; with which agree the Targum of Jonathan and the Vulgate Latin and Septuagint versions; and so Jarchi says, the cloud descended there, and from thence very probably some coruscations, or flashes of lightning came forth, which plainly showed the Lord was there; and this was done to terrify the people, and restrain them from their evil, purposes; and to encourage the servants of the Lord, who hereby might expect the divine protection.



{s} Concord. Ebr. Part. p. 164. No. 737.





Numbers 14:11



Ver. 11. And the Lord said unto Moses,.... Out of the cloud upon the tabernacle:



how long will this people provoke me? which suggests that they had often provoked him, and had done it long ago, and still continued to do so; and he had long bore their provocations; but it was not reasonable, nor could it be expected by Moses or any other, that he would bear them much longer,



and how long will it be ere they believe me; unbelief was a sin they had often and long been guilty of, and which greatly prevailed among them, and was the root of all their murmurings, mutiny, and rebellion; and what was highly provoking to the Lord, since they ought to have believed him, and that he was able to make good, and would make good his promises to them:



for all the signs which I have showed among them; the wonders and miracles he had wrought in Egypt, at the Red sea, and in the wilderness, and in their sight; on account of which they should have given credit to his word, and which were strong aggravations of their unbelief; and is the true reason why they entered not into the good land, Heb 3:18.





Numbers 14:12



Ver. 12. I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them,.... Deprive them of inhabiting the land; so as many as died of the pestilence were even all the spies who brought an evil report of the good land, Nu 14:37; with respect to the body of the people, this is to be considered not as a peremptory decree or a determined point; but is delivered partly by way of proposal to Moses, to draw out from him what he would say to it; and partly by way of threatening to the people, to bring them to a sense of their sin and repentance for it:



and will make of thee a greater nation, and mightier than they: this anticipates an objection that might be made, should the people of Israel be cut off by the plague, and so disinherited of the land of Canaan, what will become of the oath of God made to their fathers? to which the answer is, it would be fulfilled in making the posterity of Moses as great or a greater and more powerful nation than Israel now was, and by introducing them into the land of Canaan, who would be of the seed of the fathers of Israel, as Jarchi observes, as those people were; and this was said to prove Moses, and try his affection to the people of Israel; and give him an opportunity of showing his public and disinterested spirit.





Numbers 14:13



Ver. 13. And Moses said unto the Lord,.... In an abrupt manner, as the following words show, his mind being greatly disturbed and distressed by the above threatening,



then the Egyptians shall hear [it]; that the Lord had smitten the Israelites with the pestilence; the Targum of Jonathan interprets it of the children of the Egyptians who were suffocated in the sea:



for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them; they were once sojourners among them, and slaves unto them, and they were delivered from them by the mighty hand of the Lord upon the Egyptians, destroying their firstborn; and therefore when they shall hear that the Israelites were all destroyed at once by a pestilence in the wilderness, it will be a pleasure to them, as follows.





Numbers 14:14



Ver. 14. And they will tell [it] to the inhabitants of this land,.... The land of Canaan, between which and Egypt there was an intercourse, though not by the way of the wilderness, being neighbours, and their original ancestors brethren, as Mizraim and Canaan were; or "they will say" {t}, and that with joy, as the Targum of Jonathan adds; but what they would say does not appear so plain; either it was that the Israelites were killed in the wilderness, a tale they would tell with pleasure; but that the Canaanites would hear of doubtless before them, and not need their information, since the Israelites were upon their borders; or that the Lord had brought them out of Egypt indeed, but could carry them no further, could not introduce them into the land he had promised them; or rather they would say to them what follows, for the preposition "for" is not in the text, and may be omitted; and so the sense is, they will tell them,



they have heard that thou Lord [art] among this people; in the tabernacle that was in the midst of them, in the most holy place of it:



that thou Lord art seen face to face: as he was by Moses, who was at the head of them:



and [that] thy cloud standeth over them; and sheltered and protected them from the heat of the sun in the daytime, when it rested upon them in their encampment:



and [that] thou goest before them, by daytime in a pillar of a cloud,

and in a pillar of fire by night; in their journeys; they will tell of those favours thou hast shown Israel; and yet, after all, will observe that thou hast destroyed them, which will not redound to thine honour and glory.



{t} wrmay "et dicent", Pagninus, Montanus, Drusius, &c.





Numbers 14:15



Ver. 15. Now [if] thou shall kill [all] this people, as one man,.... Suddenly, and at once, as might be done by a pestilence; and as 185,000 were smitten at once, and as thought by the same disease, by the Angel of the Lord in the camp of the Assyrians, in later times,

2Ki 19:35;



then the nations which have heard the fame of thee; the Egyptians, Canaanites, and others, as Aben Ezra observes; who had heard the report of the wonderful things done by him for Israel, and of the great favours he had bestowed upon them, and so of his power, and goodness, and other perfections displayed therein, which made him appear to be preferable to all the gods of the Gentiles:



will speak, saying; as follows.





Numbers 14:16



Ver. 16. Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them,.... That though he brought them out of Egypt, he was not able to bring them through the wilderness into Canaan; and that though he had wrought many signs and wonders for them, he could work no more, his power failed him, he had exhausted all his might, and could not perform the promise and oath he had made:



therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness; because he could not fulfil his word, and so made short work of it, destroying them all together, which Moses suggests would greatly reflect dishonour on him; and in this he shows, that he was more concerned for the glory of God than for his own.





Numbers 14:17



Ver. 17. And now, I beseech thee, let the power of Lord be great,.... That is, appear to be great; the power of God is great, not only mighty, but almighty; it knows no bounds, nothing is impossible with him, he can do whatever he pleases, Ps 147:5; his power, and the greatness of it, had been seen in bringing the children of Israel out of Egypt, and through the Red sea, and in providing for them, protecting and defending them in the wilderness; and the request of Moses is, that it might appear greater and greater in bringing them into the land of promise; or else he means an exceeding great display of the grace and mercy of God in the forgiveness of the sins of the people; for as the power of God is seen in his forbearance and longsuffering with the wicked, Ro 9:22; much more in the forgiveness of the sins of men, there being more power and virtue in grace to pardon, than there is in sin to damn; and as it is an indication of strength in men, and of their power over themselves, when they can rule their own spirits, keep under their passions, and restrain their wrath, and show a forgiving temper, Pr 16:32; so it is an instance of the power of God to overcome his wrath and anger stirred up by the sins of men; and, notwithstanding their provocations, freely to forgive: pardon of sin is an act of power, as well as of grace and mercy, see Mt 9:6; and this sense agrees with what follows. The first letter in the word for "great" is larger than usual, that it might be taken notice of; and to signify the exceeding greatness of the power of God, Moses desired might be displayed in this case: and the letter numerically signifies ten, and has been thought to respect the ten times that Israel tempted the Lord, Nu 14:22; and to suggest, that though they had so done, yet the grace and mercy of God should ten times exceed the ingratitude of the people {u}:



according as thou hast spoken, saying; as in Ex 34:6; and is as follows.



{u} Baal Hatturim in loc. & Buxtorf. Tiberias, c. 14. p. 38.





Numbers 14:18



Ver. 18. The Lord [is] longsuffering,.... Towards all men, and especially towards his own people:



and of great mercy, being abundant in goodness, and keeping mercy for thousands:



forgiving iniquity and transgression, all sorts of sin:



and by no means clearing [the guilty], visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth [generation]; which may seem to make against the plea of Moses for mercy and forgiveness; but the reason of these words being expressed seems to be, because they go along with the others in the passage referred to, and are no contradiction to the forgiving mercy of God in a way of justice; nor did Moses request to have the guilty cleared from punishment altogether, but that God would show mercy, at least to such a degree as not to cut off the whole nation, and leave no posterity to inherit the land; which is supposed in visiting the sin of the fathers to the third or fourth generation.





Numbers 14:19



Ver. 19. Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people,

according unto the greatness of thy mercy,.... Intimating, that though the sin of this people was great, the mercy of God to pardon was greater; and therefore he entreats that God would deal with them, not according to the greatness of their sins, and the strictness of justice, but according to the greatness of his mercy, who would, and does, abundantly pardon;



and as thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt even until now; which shows both that these people had been continually sinning against the Lord, ever since they came out of Egypt, notwithstanding the great goodness of God unto them, and that he had as constantly pardoned; and therefore it was hoped and entreated that he would still continue to pardon them, he being the same he ever was, and whose mercy and goodness endure for ever: he had pardoned already sins of the like kind since their coming out of Egypt, as their murmurings for bread in the wilderness of Sin, Ex 16:1, and for water at Rephidim,

Ex 17:1, and even a greater sin than these, idolatry, or the worship of the calf, Ex 32:1.





Numbers 14:20



Ver. 20. And the Lord said, I have pardoned, according to thy word. So as not to kill them utterly as one man: which is an instance of his being plenteous in mercy, and ready to forgive; and of the virtue and efficacy of the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man, and of the great regard the Lord has to the prayers of a good man for others. The Jerusalem Targum is,



"and the Word of the Lord said, lo, I have remitted and forgiven according to thy word;''



which must be understood of Christ, the essential Word, and shows, according to the sense of the Targumist, that he has a power to forgive sin, and must be a divine Person, for none can forgive sin but God; see Mr 2:7.





Numbers 14:21



Ver. 21. But [as truly as] I live,.... Which is the form of an oath, as the Targum; the Lord swears by his life, or by himself, because he could swear by no greater:



all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord; this is not the thing sworn unto or confirmed, but that by which the oath is made and confirmed; and the sense is, that as sure as the earth "had been" filled with the glory of the Lord, as it may be rendered, as it had been with the fame of what he had done in Egypt, and at the Red sea; or as it "should be" filled with it in later times, especially in the kingdom of the Messiah in the latter day; see Isa 6:3; so sure the men that had provoked him should not see the land of Canaan.





Numbers 14:22



Ver. 22. Because all those men which have seen my glory,.... His glorious Majesty, or the emblem of it in the cloud, on the tabernacle, which had often appeared to them, and the glorious things done by him; the glory of his power, wisdom, goodness, faithfulness, and truth, displayed in bringing them out of Egypt, through the Red sea, and thus far in the wilderness, even to the borders of the land of Canaan; it should be rendered, not "because", but "that", for this is the thing sworn to, or the matter of the oath:



and my miracles which I did in Egypt; by the hand of Moses, both before them, when he was sent to them, as a proof of his divine mission, and before Pharaoh and all his court, Ex 7:10, inflicting plagues upon him and his people, Ex 7:20:



and in the wilderness; in raining manna from heaven about their tents,

Ex 16:14; sending them quails, Ex 16:13; and giving them water out of the rock, Ex 17:6:



and have tempted me now these ten times; which the Jews understand precisely and exactly of such a number, and which they reckon thus {w}; twice at the sea, Ex 14:11; twice concerning water,

Ex 15:23; twice about manna, Ex 16:2; twice about quails, Ex 16:12; once by the calf,

Ex 32:1; and once in the wilderness of Paran, Nu 14:1, which last and tenth was the present temptation: these are reckoned a little otherwise elsewhere {x}; but perhaps it may be better, with Aben Ezra, to interpret it of many times, a certain number being put for an uncertain, they having frequently tempted the Lord:



and have not hearkened to my voice; neither to his word of promise, nor to his word of command, and particularly his late order to go up and possess the land, De 1:21.



{w} T. Bab. Eracin, fol. 15. 1. Bartenora in Pirke Abot, c. 5. sect. 4. Jarchi in loc. {x} Maimon. in Pirke Abot, c. 5. sect. 4.





Numbers 14:23



Ver. 23. Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers,.... Not possess and enjoy the land of Canaan, which the Lord by an oath had promised their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give it to their seed; and now he swears that these men, who had so often tempted him, and been disobedient to him, should not inherit it; so the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem take it for an oath; see Heb 3:11;



neither shall any of them that provoked me see it; that provoked him by the ill report they had brought of the land, by their unbelief, by their murmurings, and mutiny.





Numbers 14:24



Ver. 24. But my servant Caleb,.... Who was one of the spies, and brought a good and true report of the land; and so in that, as well as in other things, approved himself to be a faithful servant of the Lord, and who had stilled the people at the beginning of their murmur, and with Joshua had attempted to quiet them afterwards; and though Joshua is not here mentioned, because, as some say, he had no children, and therefore it could not be said of him that his seed should possess the land, as is said of Caleb; or rather, because he was to be the general and commander of the people, who was to introduce them into the land of Canaan, and therefore there was no necessity of expressing him by name, yet he is afterwards mentioned, Nu 14:30;



because he had another spirit with him; different from that of the rest of the spies, excepting Joshua; a spirit of faith, and of the fear of the Lord, of might and courage, of truth and faithfulness; believing in the promise of God, which the spies distrusted, being persuaded the land might easily be conquered, which they feared; and bringing a true report of the land, the reverse of the ill and false one they brought. For this is to be understood not of the Holy Spirit of God, nor of his work upon the hearts of good men, which is different from the spirit of the world, though Caleb was possessed of that also:



and hath followed me fully; with full purpose of heart whithersoever he led him, or directed him, in every path of duty, and in the exercise of every grace; or "hath fulfilled after me" {y}; obeyed his word of command, fulfilled his mind and will, by going after him, and acting according to the rules and directions he gave him:



him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; the land of Canaan he went into to spy and search:



and his seed shall possess it; not the whole land, but Hebron, and the parts about it, where he particularly went, and which he and his posterity afterwards enjoyed, see Nu 13:22. The Targum of Onkelos is, "shall expel it"; the inhabitants of it; for the word signifies both to inherit and disinherit; and so Jarchi interprets it, shall disinherit the Anakim, and the people that are in it, that is, drive them out of it, as Caleb did, Jos 15:13.



{y} yrxa almyw "et implevit post me", Montanus, Tigurine version, Fagius, Drusius.





Numbers 14:25



Ver. 25. And now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley,.... By the Canaanites are meant the Amorites, as Aben Ezra, which were a principal people of the land of Canaan, and which may be confirmed by De 1:19; this may seem contrary to what is said

Nu 13:29; where they are said to dwell in the mountain; but it may be reconciled by observing, that indeed their proper settled habitation was in the mountain; but now they went down from thence, and "sat" {z} in the valley, as it may be rendered, in ambush, there lying in wait for the children of Israel, as in Ps 10:8; and so Aben Ezra interprets it of their sitting there, to lie in wait for them: and now, though these people had so sadly provoked the Lord, yet such was his goodness to them, as to warn them of the design of their enemies, and of the danger by them, to provide for their safety, by giving them the following instruction:



tomorrow turn you; do not go forward, lest ye fall into their ambushment, but turn about, and go the contrary way; return in the way, or towards the parts from whence ye came: this they are bid to do tomorrow, but did not till some time after; for, contrary to the command of God, they went up the mount, where they were defeated by the Amalekites and Canaanites, after which they stayed in Kadesh some days, De 1:44;



and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea; or in the way towards it; and so they would be in the way to Egypt, where the people were desirous of returning again; but as they were always a rebellious and disobedient people, and acted contrary to God, so in this case; for when he bid them go back towards the Red sea again, then they were for going forward, and entering into the land of Canaan,

Nu 14:40; though when he bid them go up, and possess it, then they were for returning to Egypt, Nu 14:4.



{z} bvwy "sedet", Drusius, Piscator.





Numbers 14:26



Ver. 26. And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron,.... Before he had been only speaking to Moses, who had interceded with him to pardon the people, which he had granted; but at the same time assured him they should not enter into and possess the land of Canaan, and the same he repeats to him and Aaron together:



saying: as follows.





Numbers 14:27



Ver. 27. How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me?.... 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 Nu 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, Nu 14:2.





Numbers 14:28



Ver. 28. Say unto them, [as truly as] I live, saith the Lord,.... The form of an oath, as in Nu 14:21;



as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you; what they had wished for, and expressed in the hearing of the Lord, he threatens them should be their case.





Numbers 14:29



Ver. 29. Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness,.... They had wished they had died in it, Nu 14:2, and the Lord here declares they should, which is signified by the falling of their carcasses in it, or their bodies, which when dead fall to the ground, having no strength to support themselves:



and all that were numbered of you: but a few months before this time, when their number was 603,550, Nu 1:46;



according to your number from twenty years old and upward; which is observed, as Jarchi thinks, to except the Levites, for they were not numbered with the other tribes; and when they were numbered by themselves, their number was taken from a month old and upwards; wherefore it need not be wondered at, if we find that there were of them who did not fall in the wilderness, but entered into the land of Canaan, as it is certain Eleazar the priest, the son of Aaron, did,

Nu 34:17;



which have murmured against me; which shows, that not the spies only, who caused the people to murmur, but the people themselves who murmured, and had been numbered, from twenty years old and upward, are the evil congregation the Lord thus threatened with death.





Numbers 14:30



Ver. 30. Doubtless ye shall not come into the land,.... The land of Canaan; or "if ye shall come" {a}; that is, I swear ye shall not, so the Targum of Jonathan:



[concerning] which I sware to make you dwell therein; not them personally, but the people and nation of which they were, and to which they belonged, the seed and posterity of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to whom the oath was made:



save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun; who brought a good report of the land. Caleb is mentioned first, as Aben Ezra thinks, because he first appeased and quieted the people; but in

Nu 14:38 Joshua stands first, so that nothing is to be inferred from hence; these were the only two of the spies that went into the land of Canaan, Nu 13:4; and the only two of the Israelites that were numbered, from twenty years old and upwards, Nu 14:29; those of the tribe of Levi, not being in that account, must be remembered to be excepted also.



{a} wabt Mta Ma "si vos ingressi fueritis", Pagninus, Montanus.





Numbers 14:31



Ver. 31. But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey,.... To the Canaanites, Nu 14:3;



them will I bring in; into the land of Canaan, and so fulfil the promise made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for the unbelief of this congregation did not make the faith, or faithfulness of God, of none effect:



and they shall know the land which ye have despised; shall know what a good land it is by experience, and shall possess and enjoy it with approbation, delight, and pleasure, which they, believing the spies, rejected with, loathing and disdain.





Numbers 14:32



Ver. 32. But [as for] you, your carcasses,.... Which way of speaking seems to be used to distinguish them from their children;



they shall fall in this wilderness: which is repeated for the confirmation and certainty it, and an emphasis is laid on the words, this which are pronounced with an accent, to put them in mind of their wish, Nu 14:2.





Numbers 14:33



Ver. 33. And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years,.... Or "feed" {b}, as shepherds, who go from place to place, and seek fresh pasture for their sheep; it being the custom of a shepherd, as Aben Ezra observes, not to stand or rest in a place; and so like sheep grazing in a wilderness, where they have short commons, and wander about in search, of better. These forty years are to be reckoned from their coming out of Egypt, from whence they had now been come about a year and a half:



and bear your whoredoms; the punishment of their idolatries, which are frequently signified by this phrase, and particularly of the idolatry of the calf, which God threatened to punish whenever he visited for sin, Ex 32:34; and of other sins, as their murmurings, &c. for it was on account of them their children wandered so long in the wilderness, and were kept out of the possession of the land of Canaan:



until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness; everyone of them be consumed by death, save those before excepted, Nu 14:30.



{b} Myer wyhy "erunt pascentes", Pagninus, Montanus, Drusius, Junius & Tremellius; "pascent", Tigurine version, Piscator.





Numbers 14:34



Ver. 34. After the number of days in which ye searched the land,

[even] forty days,.... For so long they were searching it,

Nu 13:25;



each day for a year; reckoning each day for a year, forty days for forty years, as in Eze 4:6;



shall ye bear your iniquities, [even] forty years: which number is given, being a round one, otherwise it was but thirty eight years and a half ere they were all cut off, and their children entered the land:



and ye shall know my breach of promise; God never makes any breach of promise; his covenant he will not break, nor alter what is gone out of his lips; men break their promises, and transgress the covenant they have made with him, but he never breaks his, Ps 89:34; this should rather be rendered only, "ye shall know my breach"; experience a breach made upon them by him, upon their persons and families by consuming them in the wilderness: the Targum of Jonathan is,



"and ye shall know what ye have murmured against me;''



this same word is used in the plural in Job 33:10, and is by the Targum rendered "murmurings" or "complaints"; and so the sense is, ye shall know by sad experience the evil of complaining and murmuring against me. The Vulgate Latin version is,



"ye shall know my vengeance;''



and so the Septuagint,



"ye shall know the fury of my anger''



which give the sense, though not a literal version of the words.





Numbers 14:35



Ver. 35. I the Lord have said,.... Determined, resolved on doing what I have declared, and again repeat it; the decree is absolute and peremptory, and will never be revoked:



I will surely do it to all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me; against his ministers, Moses the chief magistrate, and Aaron the high priest; and this is interpreted gathering, conspiring, and rebelling against the Lord himself, on account of which they might be truly called an evil congregation, and therefore it was a determined point with him to destroy them:



in this wilderness they shall be consumed; by wasting diseases:



and there they shall die; as they wished they might, Nu 14:22; with respect to which this was so often repeated, Ex 16:3; and which the Jews interpret not only of a corporeal death, but of an eternal one; for they say {c}



"the generation of the wilderness (of those that died there) have no part in the world to come, nor shall stand in judgment, as it is said, "in this wilderness", &c. Nu 14:35.''



{c} Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 11. sect. 3.





Numbers 14:36



Ver. 36. And the men which Moses sent to search the land,.... Ten of them,



who returned; as they all did, who were sent to search it:



and made all the congregation to murmur against him; against, Moses that sent them; they murmured themselves, and made others murmur:



by bringing up a slander upon the land; that it ate up its inhabitants, and that the inhabitants of it were of such a stature, and so gigantic and strong, and dwelt in such walled cities, Nu 13:28, that there was no probability of subduing them, Nu 13:31.





Numbers 14:37



Ver. 37. Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land,.... They, and they only at this time:



died by the plague before the Lord; either by the pestilence immediately sent upon them by the Lord, or by a flash of lightning from him, or in some other way; however, by the immediate hand of God, and in his presence, being in the tabernacle of the congregation,

Nu 14:10; though the Jews differently relate the manner of their death; some say worms came out of their navels, and up to their jaws, and ate them and their tongues; and others that they came out of their tongues, and entered their navels, which they take to be a just retaliation for sinning with their tongues: and the time of their death they differ about; some say, as the Targum of Jonathan, that it was upon the seventh, and others that it was on the seventeenth of Elul or August they died {d}.



{d} Schulchan Aruch, par. 1. c. 580. sect. 2. Shalshalet Hakabala, fol. 7. 2.





Numbers 14:38



Ver. 38. But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh,.... Here Joshua is set first, as Caleb is in Nu 14:30; which shows that they were equal in dignity, and therefore are indifferently put, sometimes the one first, and sometimes the other:



[which were] of the men that went to search the land; were two of the spies, and were for the tribes of Judah and Ephraim, Nu 13:6,



lived [still]; were not stricken with death, when the other spies were; though perhaps upon the very spot, and in the same place, and among them, when they were struck dead; but these remained alive, and continued many years after, and entered the good land, and possessed it.





Numbers 14:39



Ver. 39. And Moses told these sayings unto all the children of Israel,.... 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 14:40



Ver. 40. And they rose up early in the morning,.... The next morning after they had heard the bad news of their consumption in the wilderness; not being able, perhaps, to sleep that night with the thoughts of it, and being now in a great haste to go up and possess the land of Canaan, as they were before to return to Egypt:



and gat them up into the top of the mountain; which was the way the spies went into the land of Canaan, Nu 13:17; this they did not actually ascend, as appears from Nu 14:44; but they determined upon it, and got themselves ready for it:



saying, lo, we [be here]; this they said either to one another, animating each other to engage in the enterprise; or to Moses and Joshua, signifying that they were ready to go up and possess the land, if they would put themselves at the head of them, and take the command and direction of them;



and will go up unto the place which the Lord hath promised: the land of Canaan:



for we have sinned; in not going up to possess it, when they were bid to go, and in listening to the spies that brought an ill report of it, and by murmuring against Moses and Aaron, and the Lord himself, and proposing to make them a captain and return to Egypt, Nu 14:2: but this acknowledgment and repentance were not very sincere, by what follows.





Numbers 14:41



Ver. 41. And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the Lord?.... Which was to turn back into the wilderness, and go the way that leads to the Red sea, Nu 14:25; instead of which now they were for going forward into the land of Canaan, though averse to it just before:



but it shall not prosper; their attempt to enter into it.





Numbers 14:42



Ver. 42. Go not up, for the Lord [is] not among you,.... And therefore could not expect success, for victory is of the Lord; the Targum of Jonathan adds,



"the ark, and the tabernacle, and the cloud of glory move not,''



which were a plain indication that the Lord would not go with them, and therefore could not hope to prevail over their enemies and enter the land, but on the contrary might expect to be defeated by them, as follows:



that ye be not smitten before your enemies; of which they would be in great danger should they attempt to go up the hill, and the Lord not with them.





Numbers 14:43



Ver. 43. For the Amalekites and the Canaanites [are] there before you,.... Having removed from the valley, Nu 14:25; or else had detached a party to defend the pass on the top of the mountain, and where perhaps they designed to feign a retreat if they found it proper, and draw them into a combat in the valley:



and ye shall fall by the sword: by the sword of the Amalekites and Canaanites:



because ye are turned away from the Lord: from the word of the Lord, from hearkening to and obeying his command:



therefore the Lord will not be with you; the consequence of which must be bad for them.





Numbers 14:44



Ver. 44. But they presumed to go up unto the hill top,.... In a bold, audacious, and presumptuous manner; they attempted to go up to the top of the hill, notwithstanding the remonstrances of Moses against it, and the danger they would be exposed unto; but withdrawing themselves from God and his ministers, and lifted up in themselves, and confident of their own strength, ventured on this rash enterprise: the Vulgate Latin version is, "being darkened they went up": either having their understandings darkened, and being given up to a judicial blindness and hardness of heart; or else they went up in the morning while it was dark, before daylight; which latter sense is favoured by the Targum of Jonathan,



"and they girded (or armed) themselves in the dark, before the morning light;''



and the former by an ancient exposition, called Tanchuma, mentioned by Jarchi,



"they went obscure (as it were in the dark) because without leave:''



nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and Moses, departed not out of the camp; the cloud not being taken up, but abiding on the tabernacle, which was the signal for resting, both for the ark, and for the camp, the Kohathites did not move with the ark: the Jews {e} have a notion, that there were two arks which went with Israel in the wilderness, one in which the law was put, and another in which the broken pieces of the tables were left; that in which the law was, was placed in the tabernacle of the congregation, and of this it is written, "the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and Moses, departed not", &c. but that in which the broken pieces of the tables were, went in and out with them: but this does not clearly appear; and it is highly probable no ark went with them at this time; nor did Moses, the leader and commander of the people, stir from the camp of the Levites; wherefore it was a bold and hazardous undertaking the other camps engaged in without God going with them, and their general before them, or Joshua his minister; for if one did not go, the same may be concluded of the other.



{e} T. Hieros. Sotah, fol. 22. 2.





Numbers 14:45



Ver. 45. Then the Amalekites came down,.... The hill; met the Israelites as they ascended: and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill; the same with the Amorites, one of the seven nations of Canaan,

Nu 13:29;



and smote them; with the sword, having the advantage of them in coming down the hill upon them:



and discomfited them even unto Hormah; the name of a place, so called from what happened there; as Jarchi says; either from this destruction of the Israelites at this time by these their enemies, or from the destruction of the Canaanites by Israel, Nu 21:4; and so here has its name by anticipation; or it may be from both these events, and seems to be confirmed by a third of the like kind, having been in former times called Zephath, Jud 1:17; see Jos 15:30; though some take it to be an appellative here, and not the proper name of a place, and render it even unto destruction, as the Targum of Jonathan, denoting the very great destruction and havoc that were made among them: how many were destroyed is not certain; the judgment threatened them of God soon began to take place, that their carcasses should fall in that wilderness.

 

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