Numbers 32:15
Numbers 32:15 in Multiple Translations
For if you turn away from following Him, He will once again leave this people in the wilderness, and you will be the cause of their destruction.”
For if ye turn away from after him, he will yet again leave them in the wilderness; and ye shall destroy all this people.
For if ye turn away from after him, he will yet again leave them in the wilderness; and ye will destroy all this people.
For if you are turned away from him, he will send them wandering again in the waste land; and you will be the cause of the destruction of all this people.
If you give up following him, he will abandon these people in the desert once again, and their deaths will be your fault!”
For if ye turne away from following him, he will yet againe leaue the people in the wildernesse, and ye shall destroy all this folke.
when ye turn back from after Him, then He hath added yet to leave him in the wilderness, and ye have done corruptly to all this people.'
For if you turn away from after him, he will yet again leave them in the wilderness; and you will destroy all these people.”
For if ye turn away from after him, he will yet again leave them in the wilderness; and he will destroy all this people.
For if you will not follow him, he will leave the people in the wilderness, and you shall be the cause of the destruction of all.
If you stop trusting him, he will cause you and all your fellow Israelis to stay longer in the desert, and he will get rid of all of you!”
Berean Amplified Bible — Numbers 32:15
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Numbers 32:15 Interlinear (Deep Study)
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Hebrew Word Reference — Numbers 32:15
Study Notes — Numbers 32:15
Context — The Tribes East of the Jordan
15For if you turn away from following Him, He will once again leave this people in the wilderness, and you will be the cause of their destruction.”
16Then the Gadites and Reubenites approached Moses and said, “We want to build sheepfolds here for our livestock and cities for our little ones. 17But we will arm ourselves and be ready to go ahead of the Israelites until we have brought them into their place. Meanwhile, our little ones will remain in the fortified cities for protection from the inhabitants of the land.Cross References
| Reference | Text (BSB) | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 Corinthians 8:11–12 | So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. By sinning against your brothers in this way and wounding their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. |
| 2 | 2 Chronicles 15:2 | So he went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. The LORD is with you when you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you. |
| 3 | 2 Chronicles 7:19–22 | But if you turn away and forsake the statutes and commandments I have set before you, and if you go off to serve and worship other gods, then I will uproot Israel from the soil I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. I will make it an object of scorn and ridicule among all the peoples. And when this temple has become a heap of rubble, all who pass by it will be appalled and say, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’ And others will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the LORD, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—because of this, He has brought all this disaster upon them.’” |
| 4 | Deuteronomy 28:15–68 | If, however, you do not obey the LORD your God by carefully following all His commandments and statutes I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country. Your basket and kneading bowl will be cursed. The fruit of your womb will be cursed, as well as the produce of your land, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks. You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out. The LORD will send curses upon you, confusion and reproof in all to which you put your hand, until you are destroyed and quickly perish because of the wickedness you have committed in forsaking Him. The LORD will make the plague cling to you until He has exterminated you from the land that you are entering to possess. The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, and with blight and mildew; these will pursue you until you perish. The sky over your head will be bronze, and the earth beneath you iron. The LORD will turn the rain of your land into dust and powder; it will descend on you from the sky until you are destroyed. The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will march out against them in one direction but flee from them in seven. You will be an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. Your corpses will be food for all the birds of the air and beasts of the earth, with no one to scare them away. The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors and scabs and itch from which you cannot be cured. The LORD will afflict you with madness, blindness, and confusion of mind, and at noon you will grope about like a blind man in the darkness. You will not prosper in your ways. Day after day you will be oppressed and plundered, with no one to save you. You will be pledged in marriage to a woman, but another man will violate her. You will build a house but will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard but will not enjoy its fruit. Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat any of it. Your donkey will be taken away and not returned to you. Your flock will be given to your enemies, and no one will save you. Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation, while your eyes grow weary looking for them day after day, with no power in your hand. A people you do not know will eat the produce of your land and of all your toil. All your days you will be oppressed and crushed. You will be driven mad by the sights you see. The LORD will afflict you with painful, incurable boils on your knees and thighs, from the soles of your feet to the top of your head. The LORD will bring you and the king you appoint to a nation neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will worship other gods—gods of wood and stone. You will become an object of horror, scorn, and ridicule among all the nations to which the LORD will drive you. You will sow much seed in the field but harvest little, because the locusts will consume it. You will plant and cultivate vineyards, but will neither drink the wine nor gather the grapes, because worms will eat them. You will have olive trees throughout your territory but will never anoint yourself with oil, because the olives will drop off. You will father sons and daughters, but they will not remain yours, because they will go into captivity. Swarms of locusts will consume all your trees and the produce of your land. The foreigner living among you will rise higher and higher above you, while you sink down lower and lower. He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him. He will be the head, and you will be the tail. All these curses will come upon you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, since you did not obey the LORD your God and keep the commandments and statutes He gave you. These curses will be a sign and a wonder upon you and your descendants forever. Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and gladness of heart in all your abundance, you will serve your enemies the LORD will send against you in famine, thirst, nakedness, and destitution. He will place an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you. The LORD will bring a nation from afar, from the ends of the earth, to swoop down upon you like an eagle—a nation whose language you will not understand, a ruthless nation with no respect for the old and no pity for the young. They will eat the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain or new wine or oil, no calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks, until they have caused you to perish. They will besiege all the cities throughout your land, until the high and fortified walls in which you trust have fallen. They will besiege all your cities throughout the land that the LORD your God has given you. Then you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you. The most gentle and refined man among you will begrudge his brother, the wife he embraces, and the rest of his children who have survived, refusing to share with any of them the flesh of his children he will eat because he has nothing left in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you within all your gates. The most gentle and refined woman among you, so gentle and refined she would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground, will begrudge the husband she embraces and her son and daughter the afterbirth that comes from between her legs and the children she bears, because she will secretly eat them for lack of anything else in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you within your gates. If you are not careful to observe all the words of this law which are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name—the LORD your God— He will bring upon you and your descendants extraordinary disasters, severe and lasting plagues, and terrible and chronic sicknesses. He will afflict you again with all the diseases you dreaded in Egypt, and they will cling to you. The LORD will also bring upon you every sickness and plague not recorded in this Book of the Law, until you are destroyed. You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky will be left few in number, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God. Just as it pleased the LORD to make you prosper and multiply, so also it will please Him to annihilate you and destroy you. And you will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess. Then the LORD will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known. Among those nations you will find no repose, not even a resting place for the sole of your foot. There the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a despairing soul. So your life will hang in doubt before you, and you will be afraid night and day, never certain of survival. In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ and in the evening you will say, ‘If only it were morning!’—because of the dread in your hearts of the terrifying sights you will see. The LORD will return you to Egypt in ships by a route that I said you should never see again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.” |
| 5 | Romans 14:15 | If your brother is distressed by what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother, for whom Christ died. |
| 6 | Numbers 14:30–35 | Surely none of you will enter the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. But I will bring your children, whom you said would become plunder, into the land you have rejected—and they will enjoy it. As for you, however, your bodies will fall in this wilderness. Your children will be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness. In keeping with the forty days you spied out the land, you shall bear your guilt forty years—a year for each day—and you will experience My alienation. I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will surely do these things to this entire wicked congregation, which has conspired against Me. They will meet their end in the wilderness, and there they will die.” |
| 7 | Leviticus 26:14–18 | If, however, you fail to obey Me and to carry out all these commandments, and if you reject My statutes, despise My ordinances, and neglect to carry out all My commandments, and so break My covenant, then this is what I will do to you: I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting disease, and fever that will destroy your sight and drain your life. You will sow your seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it. And I will set My face against you, so that you will be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when no one pursues you. And if after all this you will not obey Me, I will proceed to punish you sevenfold for your sins. |
| 8 | Romans 14:20–21 | Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to let his eating be a stumbling block. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything to cause your brother to stumble. |
| 9 | Joshua 22:16–18 | “This is what the whole congregation of the LORD says: ‘What is this breach of faith you have committed today against the God of Israel by turning away from the LORD and building for yourselves an altar, that you might rebel against the LORD this day? Was not the sin of Peor enough for us, from which we have not cleansed ourselves to this day? It even brought a plague upon the congregation of the LORD. And now, would you turn away from the LORD? If you rebel today against the LORD, tomorrow He will be angry with the whole congregation of Israel. |
| 10 | Deuteronomy 30:17–19 | But if your heart turns away and you do not listen, but are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you today that you will surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life, so that you and your descendants may live, |
Numbers 32:15 Summary
[This verse is a warning that if we stop following God and trusting in Him, He will not be with us to guide and protect us, and we will face the consequences of our disobedience, just like in Numbers 14:33-34. It reminds us to always trust in God and follow His ways, as seen in Psalm 37:3-4, where it says to trust in the Lord and do good, and He will give us the desires of our hearts. By following God, we can avoid the wilderness experiences and find guidance and provision in our lives.]
Frequently Asked Questions
What does it mean to 'turn away from following Him' in Numbers 32:15?
This means to stop obeying and trusting in God, as seen in Deuteronomy 8:19, where it says if we forget the Lord our God and follow other gods, we will surely be destroyed.
Why would God leave the people in the wilderness again if they turn away from Him?
God would leave them in the wilderness because they would be choosing to reject His guidance and provision, just like their ancestors did in Numbers 14:33-34, where the whole generation that disobeyed God was made to wander in the wilderness.
What is the consequence of being the cause of the people's destruction, as mentioned in Numbers 32:15?
The consequence is severe, as seen in Ezekiel 33:8, where God says if a watchman warns the people of danger but they do not listen, their blood will be on the watchman's hands, emphasizing the importance of faithfulness and obedience to God.
How does this verse relate to our lives today?
This verse reminds us of the importance of following God and trusting in His guidance, just like Psalm 37:3-4 says to trust in the Lord and do good, and He will give us the desires of our hearts, emphasizing the need for obedience and faithfulness in our relationship with God.
Reflection Questions
- What are some ways I may be 'turning away from following Him' in my own life, and how can I realign my heart with God's will?
- How can I ensure that I am not contributing to the spiritual destruction of those around me, but instead, being a source of encouragement and guidance?
- What are some wilderness experiences in my life where I felt like God had left me, and how did I respond to those situations?
- In what ways can I demonstrate my commitment to following God, even when it's difficult or unpopular, and trust in His provision and guidance?
Gill's Exposition on Numbers 32:15
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Numbers 32:15
Matthew Poole's Commentary on Numbers 32:15
Whedon's Commentary on Numbers 32:15
Sermons on Numbers 32:15
| Sermon | Description | |
|---|---|---|
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Hebrews 12:14-17 by St. John Chrysostom | John Chrysostom emphasizes the importance of love, peace, and holiness in Christianity, quoting Jesus and Paul to highlight the significance of following peace with all men and pur |
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1 Corinthians 8:1 by St. John Chrysostom | John Chrysostom preaches about the importance of considering the impact of our actions on others, especially the weak in faith, emphasizing the need to prioritize love over knowled |
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Relations With Our Brethren by R.V. Court | In this sermon by R.V. Court, Paul addresses the Corinthian church members with 'knowledge' who understand their liberty in Christ but are causing stumbling blocks for weaker belie |
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The Cross in Practice by David Servant | David Servant preaches about the transformative power of the cross of Jesus Christ, emphasizing how understanding the significance of Jesus' death changes our lives completely. The |
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Audio Sermon: Seeking God by Hans R. Waldvogel | This sermon emphasizes the importance of seeking and finding God with our whole hearts, highlighting the transformative power of truly knowing God. It challenges listeners to not s |
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(The Word for Today) Isaiah 20:1 - Part 3 by Chuck Smith | In this sermon, Pastor Chuck Smith discusses the importance of standing up for righteousness in a fallen world. He introduces his new book, "Standing Up in a Fallen World," which i |
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Don't Take Away the Job From Jesus by Hans Peter Royer | In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of recognizing that God is the master and we are His servants. He highlights the tendency for us to try to make God follow our |






