Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Exodus 32:10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.
Numbers 16:46-49 And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a censer, and put fire therein from off the altar, and put on incense, and go quickly unto the congregation,…
Numbers 25:9 And those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand.
2 Samuel 24:1 And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah.
Exodus 5:3 And they said, The God of the Hebrews hath met with us: let us go, we pray thee, three days’ journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the…
2 Samuel 24:12-15 Go and say unto David, Thus saith the LORD, I offer thee three things; choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Numbers 14:11-19
Here is, I. The righteous sentence which God gave against Israel for their murmuring and unbelief, which, though afterwards mitigated, showed what was the desert of their sin and the demand of injured justice, and what would have been done if Moses had not interposed. When the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle we may suppose that Moses took it for a call to him immediately to come and attend there, as before the tabernacle was erected he went up to the mount in a similar case, Exo 32:30. Thus, while the people were studying to disgrace him, God publicly put honour upon him, as the man of his counsel. Now here we are told what God said to him there.
1. He showed him the great evil…
the Lord said, . . . I will smite them with the pestilence--not a final decree, but a threatening, suspended, as appeared from the issue, on the intercession of Moses and the repentance of Israel.
John Gill on Numbers 14:12
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, Numbers 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 b…
Numbers 14:10-38
10. But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel.
10. Tunc dixit tota multitudo, ut eos lapidibus obruerent: et gloria Jehovae apparuit in tabernaculo conventionis omnibus filiis Israel.
11. And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke. me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which! have showed among them?
11. Tunc dixit Jehova ad Mosen, Usquequo vilipendet me populus iste? et usquequo non credent mihi in cunctis signis quae feci in medio eorum?
12. I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, a…
The Church Fathers
The attitude [of one brother] was like that of Moses and indeed of God himself in that he did not in any way wish to be saved alone. Because he was spiritually bound to them by holy love in the Holy Spirit he did not want to enter into the kingdom of heaven itself if it meant that he would be separated from them. O sacred bond! O unutterable power! O soul of heavenly thoughts, or, rather, soul borne by God and greatly perfected in love of God and of neighbor!
Now the Lord said to Moses, "I will strike them with death and wipe them out. Then I will make the house of your father a nation, greater and mightier than they." This threat is not a sign of wrath but a prophecy. Another nation was to be taken over, that is, the people of the Gentiles, but not through Moses. Moses excused himself, for he knew that the great nation which was promised was not to be called through him but through Jesus Christ. Those people would not be called Mosaic but Christian.
Twelve observers were sent from the sons of Israel to examine the land which had been promised to them, and these, returning after forty days, reported diverse things. For ten of them cast the people into despair, so that they wished to reject Moses, choose another leader, and return to Egypt. But the other two brought good tidings and exhorted the people to remain in faith, saying: "If the Lord loves us, let him bring us into this land." But the people, driven headlong by the despair of unbelief, rushed forward to stone those who brought good tidings; the majesty of the Lord, however, protected them in the clouds. And the Lord says to Moses: "I will strike them with death and destroy them, and I will make you and the house of your father into a great nation, more numerous than this one." This great threat, then, comes from the Lord, not that the divine nature should be shown as passible and subject to the vice of anger, but that through these things both the love which Moses had toward the people, and the goodness of God, which is above all understanding, might be made known. For God is written to be angry and to threaten destruction upon the people, so that man may be taught how great a place he holds with God and how great a confidence, so that, even if there be some indignation in God, it is softened by human entreaties, and man is able to obtain so much from him that God even changes his own decrees. For the goodness which follows upon the anger both shows the confidence Moses had with God and teaches that the divine nature is a stranger to the vice of anger. At the same time the utterance contains a mystery to be fulfilled in the ages to come, through which God promises that, when this people is rejected, he will raise up another people. For he says: "I will strike them with death and destroy them, and I will make you and the house of your father into a great nation, far more than this one." This threat, therefore, is not anger but prophecy. For another nation was to be taken up, that is, this people of the nations, but not through Moses; for Moses excused himself. For he knew that that great nation which is promised was not to be called through Moses, but through Jesus Christ, and that the people was to be named not Mosaic but Christian.
Dictionary and topics
Caleb — A dog. (1.) One of the three sons of Hezron of the tribe of Judah. He is also called Chelubai (1 Chr. 2:9). His descendants are enumerated (18-20, 42-49). (2.) A “son of Hur, the firstborn of…
Caleb · Life of, miraculously saved — Life of, miraculously saved
Disobedience To God · General references — General references
Intercession · OF MAN WITH GOD — OF MAN WITH GOD
Trouble · .When the spies brought their adverse report — .When the spies brought their adverse report
Unselfishness · .Moses — .Moses
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Intercession of Moses. - Num 14:11, Num 14:12. Jehovah resented the conduct of the people as base contempt of His deity, and as utter mistrust of Him, notwithstanding all the signs which He had wrought in the midst of the nation; and declared that He would smite the rebellious people with pestilence, and destroy them, and make of Moses a greater and still mightier people. This was just what He had done before, when the rebellion took place at Sinai (Exo 32:10). But Moses, as a servant who was faithful over the whole house of God, and therefore sought not his own honour, but the honour of his God alone, stood in the breach on this occasion also (Psa 106:23), with a similar intercessory prayer…
God is patient, but he will not tolerate outright rebellion from his people (cp. Exod 32:7-10). The writer of Hebrews refers to this episode in his effort to strengthen the faith of Christians whose trust in the Good News was wavering (Heb 3:7-19; 12:3, 25; cp. Ps 95:8-11).
Rashi on Numbers 14:12
ואורישנו is an expression for “driving out” (here, driving out from the world, destroying). — And if you ask what I will do regarding the oath I have sworn to the Patriarchs (viz., to give the Land to their children; cf. Exodus 6:3—4), then I reply:
ואעשה אתך לגוי גדול I WILL MAKE OF THEE A GREAT NATION — [whereby My oath will be fulfilled] since you are one of their descendants (cf. Midrash Tanchuma, Sh'lach 13).
