Albert Barnes Commentary Numbers 14
Albert Barnes Commentary
Numbers 14
Albert Barnes Commentary
Numbers 14
"Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel." — Numbers 14:5 (ASV)
Already Caleb had endeavored to still the people before Moses (Numbers 13:30); already Moses himself (Deuteronomy 1:29 and following) had endeavored to recall the people to obedience. After the failure of these efforts Moses and Aaron cast themselves down in solemn prayer before God ; and the appearance of the glory of the Lord in the tabernacle of the congregation (Numbers 14:10) was the immediate answer.
"Only rebel not against Jehovah, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is removed from over them, and Jehovah is with us: fear them not." — Numbers 14:9 (ASV)
Their defense - literally, “their shadow,” that is, their shelter as from the scorching sun: an Oriental figure. Compare the marginal references.
"I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a nation greater and mightier than they." — Numbers 14:12 (ASV)
And disinherit them - By the proposed extinction of Israel the blessings of the covenant would revert to their original donor.
"And Moses said unto Jehovah, Then the Egyptians will hear it; for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them; and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that thou Jehovah art in the midst of this people; for thou Jehovah art seen face to face, and thy cloud standeth over them, and thou goest before them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night. Now if thou shalt kill this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, Because Jehovah was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness. And now, I pray thee, let the power of the Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying," — Numbers 14:13-17 (ASV)
The syntax of these verses is exceptionally broken. Just as Paul did when deeply moved, Moses also presses his arguments one upon another without pausing to ensure the grammatical precision of his expressions. He speaks here as if in immediate apprehension of an outbreak of God’s wrath, unless he could perhaps prevent it by rapidly presenting every plea to avert judgment and every form of intercession that he could call to mind at that very moment.
"but in very deed, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of Jehovah; because all those men that have seen my glory, and my signs, which I wrought in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tempted me these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that despised me see it:" — Numbers 14:21-23 (ASV)
Render: But as truly as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord; (Numbers 14:22) all those men...; (Numbers 14:23) shall not see....
These ten times—Ten is the number which signifies completeness . The sense is that the measure of their provocation was now full; the day of grace was at last over. However, some enumerate ten different occasions on which the people had tempted God since the Exodus.
(Psalms 90), which is entitled “a Prayer of Moses,” has been most appropriately regarded as a kind of dirge upon those sentenced so terribly by God to waste away in the wilderness.
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