John Gill Commentary Numbers 16:14

"Moreover thou hast not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, nor given us inheritance of fields and vineyards: wilt thou put out the eyes of these men? we will not come up." — Numbers 16:14 (ASV)

Moreover, you have not brought us into a land that flows
with milk and honey
Meaning the land of Canaan; but this was no fault of Moses, he had told them to go up and possess it; but they refused, and chose to have spies first sent into it. They brought back an ill report, which the people listened to. This so provoked the Lord that he ordered them to turn back and threatened them with a consumption of them in the wilderness; or "certainly" ^F14 , verily you have not brought us though the Septuagint version renders it affirmatively, "you have brought us"; and the Vulgate Latin version, indeed you have brought, directly contrary to the text; unless it is to be understood ironically, as it is by some:

or given us inheritance of fields and vineyards ;
that is, in the land of Canaan, as were promised them. They suggest, had this been the case, they could have been content that he should have been their prince, and they would have submitted to his government; but having received no advantage from him, but a great deal of hurt and damage, they could not but consider him not only as a tyrant, but as an impostor and deceiver:

wilt thou put out the eyes of these men ?
or "dig" them out ^F15 ; either in a literal sense, will you be so cruel and merciless as to put out the eyes of these men, Korah and his company, and us for our opposition to your government? or though you should do so,
we will not come up ;
we are determined not to obey you, but to shake off the yoke, let our punishment be what it will;

or figuratively, do you take us for blind persons, whose eyes you have put out, and think to lead us at your pleasure? or do you cast a mist before the eyes of this whole congregation, that they are not able to see through your designs? are the people so bewitched by them, as not to see your deceits and impostures? pretending to bring them into a land flowing with milk and honey, which you are not able to do, and now say that you have a message from God to return again towards the Red sea, and talk of our posterity inheriting the land forty years hence; who is it that cannot see through all this? Aben Ezra thinks, by "these men" are meant the elders that were with Moses, whom he led as he pleased, and so blinded them with his delusions, as these pretended, so that they could not see through them.

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FOOTNOTES:

• F14: (la) "certe", Noldius, p. 97. No. 468. so Onkelos.
• F15: (rqnt) "effodies", Pagninus, Piscator; "vis effodere", Fagius; "fodies", Junius & Tremellius, Drusius.