Numbers 14

— have tempted me] To “tempt” God, in Scripture language, is to provoke Him by some presumptuous act to anger; as it were to try, whether He will punish or not; or in fewer words, to dare God. Jos. Mede. There is frequent mention in Scripture of men’s tempting God; that is, trying Him, as it were, whether He will do any thing for their sakes that is misbecoming His goodness, and wisdom, and faithfulness, or any other of his perfections. Thus the Israelites are said to have “tempted God” in the wilderness forty years together, and in that space more remarkably “ten times.” The meaning of which expressions is, that when God had promised Abraham to bring his seed into the land of Canaan, that people, by their great and repeated provocations of God, did often provoke Him to have destroyed them, and consequently to have failed of the promise, which He made to the fathers. Abp. Tillotson.

— To morrow turn you, &c.] Therefore do not go forward, as I formerly commanded you; lest you fall into their ambushes; but return whence you came. Bp. Kidder.

— To morrow] That is, hereafter; at your next removal. See the marginal reading at Exod. xiii. 14. Bp. Patrick.

— by the way of the Red sea.] By the way which leads to the Red sea, and so to Egypt, whither they desired to return. This command was so grievous, that it appears to have caused those fresh murmurings, which occasioned what follows. Bp. Patrick.

Numbers 14:3

3. — wherefore hath the Lord brought us &c.] Having vented their passion against God’s ministers, they most undutifully accuse Him, as if He had dealt deceitfully with them. Bp. Patrick.

Numbers 14:4

4. — Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.] Though they might in their rage speak of returning into Egypt, it is amazing that they should continue in this madness, and deliberate about it, and actually appoint them a captain, as Nehemiah saith they did, chap. ix. 17. For how could they get thither without food? which they could not expect God would send them from heaven, when they had forsaken Him. Or how could they hope to find their way, when His cloud, that directed them, was withdrawn? Or hope to resist such nations, as might oppose their progress, if they happened to take the right way? And after all, if they came into Egypt, what reception could they expect from a people, whose king, princes, and firstborn had lately perished on their account? Nothing can be said in answer to these things, but that outrageous discontent will not suffer men to consider any thing, but that which grieves them; and that foul ingratitude and for-

VOL. I. and the LORD is with us: fear them not.

Numbers 14:9

9. — they are bread for us.] We shall consume them with great ease, and feed upon their rich provisions. Bp. Hall.

— fear them not.] Caleb does not say, “Who am I, to strive with a multitude? What can Joshua and I do against ten rulers?” but he resolves to struggle against opposition, and will either draw friends to the truth, or enemies upon himself. True Christian fortitude teaches us, not to regard the number or quality of the opponents, but the equity of the cause; and fears not to stand alone, and challenge all comers; and if it could be opposed by as many worlds as men, it may be overborne, but it cannot be daunted. Whereas popularity carries weak minds, and teaches them the safety of erring with a multitude. Bp. Hall.

Numbers 14:10

10. — all the congregation bade stone them with stones.] Though Moses and Aaron entreat upon their faces, and Joshua and Caleb persuade and rend their garments, yet they prevail nothing. The obstinate multitude, grown more violent by opposition, is ready to return them stones for their prayers. Such have been ever the thanks of fidelity and truth: interrupted wickedness proves desperate, and, instead of yielding, seeks for revenge. Nothing is so hateful to a resolute sinner as good counsel: we are become enemies to the world, because we tell them the truth. Bp. Hall.

Y Moses prayeth to God, and obtaineth pardon. Before CHRIST 1490. which he aware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness.

Numbers 14:17

17. — let the power of my Lord be great.] Let the greatness of Thy power appear in pardoning and forbearing this people. Bp. Kidder.

Numbers 14:18

18. The Lord is longsuffering, &c.] In these words, though more largely, God proclaimed His name to Moses, when He shewed him His glory, Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7, adding, among other things, “by no means clearing the guilty.” These words, as interpreted in the note on Exodus, are a plain argument to move the Divine Goodness to pardon their sin. But the next words, “visiting the iniquity &c.” seem to be contrary to the intention of the petition: till it be considered, that they had not now committed idolatry, against which sin God, in these words, particularly declares His severity, and that Moses did not now plead for an absolute pardon, without any punishment; but that God would not utterly disinherit and destroy the whole nation. This threatening he hoped that God’s gracious nature would incline Him to revoke; notwithstanding which, He might “visit the sin of the fathers upon the children;” that is, punish them and their posterity a long time. So this latter part of the verse is to be interpreted, “in making desolate He will not make quite desolate, though He visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children.” Bp. Patrick. See the notes on Exod. xxxiv. 7; and Jer. xxx. 11.

Numbers 14:20

20. — I have pardoned according to thy word:] God granted his desire, not to destroy them utterly; though He did not wholly forgive their sin. Bp. Patrick.

Numbers 14:21

21. — all the earth shall be filled &c.] The whole earth shall take notice of My righteous judgments, which I will execute upon this people; and give Me the praise and glory of My justice. Bp. Hall. Although this people be not brought into the promised land, yet shall I be justified in My proceedings against them; and, by My mighty and righteous works, sufficiently provide for the honour of My name, among all the inhabitants of the earth which shall hear of these things. Bp. Kidder.

Numbers 14:22

22. Because all those men &c.] The destruction of the Israelites will not redound to the dishonour of God, because, 1st, They had been disobedient to Him, had tempted Him, and provoked Him. 2d, They were guilty of rebellion against God after the greatest mercies and proofs of God’s patience and providence; they had “seen His glory and His miracles.” 3d, God did not punish them for their first fault, but they had often tempted Him, which is here expressed by “ten times.”

Numbers 14:23

23. — neither shall any of them &c.] Rather, Even all that provoked Me, they shall not see it. Bp. Patrick. It is a fearful aggravation of sin, after great judgments and great deliverances, to return to sin, and especially to the same sins, again; because this can hardly be without our sinning against knowledge, and after we are convinced how evil and bitter the sin is, which we were guilty of, and have been so severely punished for before. This is an argument of a very perverse and incorrigible temper, and that which made the sin of the people of Israel so above measure sinful, that after so many signal deliverances, and so many terrible judgments, they fell into the same sin of murmuring ten times: murmuring against God the Author, and against Moses the glorious instrument, of their deliverance out of Egypt, which was one of the two great types of the Old Testament, both of temporal and spiritual oppression and tyranny. Abp. Tillotson. 24. But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him.] A spirit of courage and truth, which ten of the spies wanted. Bp. Kidder. Because he trusted in the power and promise of God, and was not at all afraid of the strength of the enemies. Bp. Patrick. Whilst ten of the spies vehemently dissuaded the Israelites from attempting to enter the country of Canaan, and averred that its inhabitants were far too mighty to be attacked by them with any hope of success; Caleb, The murmurers are deprived of entering into the land. Before CHRIST 1400. into he went; and his seed shall possess it.

Numbers 14:29

29. Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness;] God

bered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me,

Numbers 14:30

30. — concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein.] Not to make these particular men, but the seed of Abraham, inhabit it, as Grotius rightly observes. The land had been promised by oath, not to persons, but to the people; namely, to the posterity of those, unto whom God sware to give it, ver. 23. Now such a promise, as he observes, may be performed at any time; because it is not tied to certain persons. Bp. Patrick.

It is a very usual and a very intelligible way of speaking, common in all languages, to speak of nations in their national capacity; and to say, “we,” or “you,” not meaning it of the individuals now living, but of their ancestors or posterity. Dr. Waterland.

Numbers 14:33

33. — your children shall wander] In the Hebrew, shall feed or graze, as sheep in the deserts. Or rather, like the Arabian shepherds, who removed their tents from place to place, that they might find pasture for their flocks. Bp. Patrick.

— forty years.] Reckoning from their first coming out of Egypt. They came out of Egypt on the 15th day of the first month, and pitched their tents in Gilgal on the tenth day of the first month, of the 41st year after their departure from Egypt: so that their wanderings were just forty years, all but five days. Stackhouse.

— and bear your whoredoms.] That is, the punishment of them. Whilst God visits their present rebellion, He punishes them also for the rest of their iniquities, Deut. ix. 18. 24, especially for the greatest of them all, their idolatries, which He declared he would not forget to punish upon any new occasion, Exod. xxxii. 34. Bp. Patrick.

Y 2 The men who raised the evil report die by the plague. Before CHRIST 1490. Ps. 95. 10. Exch. 4. 6. Or, altering of my purpose.

Numbers 14:34

34.—ye shall know my breach of promise.] In the Hebrew, the words are, “ye shall know My breach.” The ancients understood them to mean God’s breaking in upon the Israelites, to take vengeance for their sins. Or, we may understand them of God’s breaking off from the people; that is, His departure from them, who had so shamefully departed from Him. Or, according to our translation, it signifies a revocation of the blessings promised to them. Bp. Patrick. Since you have thus shamefully broken your covenant with Me, ye shall know and feel that those promises, which I made to you upon your obedience, shall now be reversed. Bp. Hall.

It is not certain that the Hebrew word really signifies “breach.” It occurs but once more in the Bible, Job xxxiii. 10, in the plural number, and is rendered occasions, as much by conjecture, as in this place. According to the Greek version it may be translated, ye shall know My anger, or the fury of My wrath; agreeable to which is the version in two early translations of the Bible, ye shall feel My vengeance, and ye shall know My displeasure. This is as good a rendering, and as probable as any. Dr. Waterland.

Numbers 14:35

35.—I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, &c.] During this critical transaction, how different was the conduct of the Jewish leader from what human prudence would have dictated! According to such dictates, his course could have been no other than to soothe the multitude, till their extreme panick had time to subside; then gradually to revive their confidence by recalling to their view the miseries of that servitude from which they had

place which the LORD hath promised: for we have sinned.