# Numbers 14 📖: Israel Refuses to Enter [[📚 Explore the Bible Books]] [[-Numbers Overview]] | [[Numbers 13]] | [[Numbers 15]] > [!info] Table of Contents > [[#📜 Scripture Text (NET)]] > [[#📖 Verse-by-Verse Commentary]] > [[#🤔 Interesting Facts / Historical and Cultural Insights]] > [[#🧠 Chapter Summary]] > [[#✝️ Christ in This Chapter]] > [[#🔎 Key Principles / 🛟 Life Application]] > [[#💬 Discussion Questions]] > [[#✍️ Key Verses to Remember]] > [[#🔗 Related Passages/Cross Reference]] > [[#🙏 Devotional Reflection]] > [[#📂 Internal Notes]] ## 📜 Scripture Text (NET) (The NET Bible: New English Translation. Biblical Studies Press, 2005) ### The Israelites Respond in Unbelief [[#Verse 01.]] Then all the community raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night.  [[#Verse 02.]] And all the Israelites murmured against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had perished in this wilderness!  [[#Verse 03.]] Why has the Lord brought us into this land only to be killed by the sword, that our wives and our children should become plunder? Wouldn’t it be better for us to return to Egypt?” [[#Verse 04.]] So they said to one another, “Let’s appoint a leader and return to Egypt.” [[#Verse 05.]] Then Moses and Aaron fell down with their faces to the ground before the whole assembled community of the Israelites.  [[#Verse 06.]] And Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, two of those who had investigated the land, tore their garments. [[#Verse 07.]] They said to the whole community of the Israelites, “The land we passed through to investigate is an exceedingly good land. [[#Verse 08.]] If the Lord delights in us, then he will bring us into this land and give it to us—a land that is flowing with milk and honey.  [[#Verse 09.]] Only do not rebel against the Lord, and do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection has turned aside from them, but the Lord is with us. Do not fear them!” [[#Verse 10.]] However, the whole community threatened to stone them. But the glory of the Lord appeared to all the Israelites at the tent of meeting. ### The Punishment from God [[#Verse 11.]] The Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me, and how long will they not believe in me, in spite of the signs that I have done among them? [[#Verse 12.]] I will strike them with the pestilence, and I will disinherit them—I will make you into a nation that is greater and mightier than they!” [[#Verse 13.]] Moses said to the Lord, “When the Egyptians hear it—for you brought up this people by your power from among them—  [[#Verse 14.]] then they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you, Lord, are among this people, that you, Lord, are seen face to face, that your cloud stands over them, and that you go before them by day in a pillar of cloud and in a pillar of fire by night. [[#Verse 15.]] If you kill this entire people at once, then the nations that have heard of your fame will say,  [[#Verse 16.]] ‘Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land that he swore to them, he killed them in the wilderness.’  [[#Verse 17.]] So now, let the power of my Lord be great, just as you have said,  [[#Verse 18.]] ‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in loyal love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children until the third and fourth generations.’ [[#Verse 19.]] Please forgive the iniquity of this people according to your great loyal love, just as you have forgiven this people from Egypt even until now.” [[#Verse 20.]] Then the Lord said, “I have forgiven them as you asked.  [[#Verse 21.]] But truly, as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord.  [[#Verse 22.]] For all the people have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have tempted me now these ten times, and have not obeyed me—  [[#Verse 23.]] they will by no means see the land that I promised on oath to their fathers, nor will any of them who despised me see it—  [[#Verse 24.]] Only my servant Caleb, because he had a different spirit and has followed me fully—I will bring him into the land where he had gone, and his descendants will possess it.  [[#Verse 25.]] (Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites were living in the valleys.) Tomorrow, turn and journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.” [[#Verse 26.]] The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron:  [[#Verse 27.]] “How long must I bear with this evil congregation that murmurs against me? I have heard the complaints of the Israelites that they murmured against me.  [[#Verse 28.]] Say to them, ‘As I live, says the Lord, I will surely do to you just what you have spoken in my hearing.  [[#Verse 29.]] Your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness—all those of you who were numbered, according to your full number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me.  [[#Verse 30.]] You will by no means enter into the land where I swore to settle you. The only exceptions are Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.  [[#Verse 31.]] But I will bring in your little ones, whom you said would become victims of war, and they will enjoy the land that you have despised. [[#Verse 32.]] But as for you, your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness,  [[#Verse 33.]] and your children will wander in the wilderness forty years and suffer for your unfaithfulness, until your dead bodies lie finished in the wilderness.  [[#Verse 34.]] According to the number of the days you have investigated this land, forty days—one day for a year—you will suffer for your iniquities, forty years, and you will know what it means to thwart me.  [[#Verse 35.]] I, the Lord, have said, “I will surely do so to all this evil congregation that has gathered together against me. In this wilderness they will be finished, and there they will die!”’” [[#Verse 36.]] The men whom Moses sent to investigate the land, who returned and made the whole community murmur against him by producing an evil report about the land,  [[#Verse 37.]] those men who produced the evil report about the land, died by the plague before the Lord.  [[#Verse 38.]] But Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among the men who went to investigate the land, lived. [[#Verse 39.]] When Moses told these things to all the Israelites, the people mourned greatly. [[#Verse 40.]] And early in the morning they went up to the crest of the hill country, saying, “Here we are, and we will go up to the place that the Lord commanded, for we have sinned.”  [[#Verse 41.]] But Moses said, “Why are you now transgressing the commandment of the Lord? It will not succeed!  [[#Verse 42.]] Do not go up, for the Lord is not among you, and you will be defeated before your enemies.  [[#Verse 43.]] For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you will fall by the sword. Because you have turned away from the Lord, the Lord will not be with you.” [[#Verse 44.]] But they dared to go up to the crest of the hill, although neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed from the camp.  [[#Verse 45.]] So the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country swooped down and attacked them as far as Hormah. ## 📖 Verse-by-Verse Commentary ###### Overall. ###### Verse 01. ###### Verse 02. ###### Verse 03. ###### Verse 04. ###### Verse 05. ###### Verse 06. ###### Verse 07. ###### Verse 08. ###### Verse 09. ###### Verse 10. ###### Verse 11. ###### Verse 12. ###### Verse 13. ###### Verse 14. ###### Verse 15. ###### Verse 16. ###### Verse 17. ###### Verse 18. ###### Verse 19. ###### Verse 20. ###### Verse 21. ###### Verse 22. ###### Verse 23. ###### Verse 24. ###### Verse 25. ###### Verse 26. ###### Verse 27. ###### Verse 28. ###### Verse 29. ###### Verse 30. ###### Verse 31. ###### Verse 32. ###### Verse 33. ###### Verse 34. ###### Verse 35. ###### Verse 36. ###### Verse 37. ###### Verse 38. ###### Verse 39. ###### Verse 40. ###### Verse 41. ###### Verse 42. ##### Verse 43. ###### Verse 44. ## 🤔 Interesting Facts / Historical and Cultural Insights 1. Joshua and Caleb tore their clothes, a sign of deep grief (14:6). 2. Moses quotes God's own description of Himself from Exodus 34:6-7 in his prayer (14:18). 3. The Lord said, "I have forgiven them as you asked" (14:20), yet the consequences remained. 4. Israel would wander forty years, one year for each day the spies explored (14:34). 5. Everyone counted from twenty years old and up would die in the wilderness except Caleb and Joshua (14:29-30). 6. The children the people feared for were the ones God promised to bring in (14:31). 7. The ten spies who gave the bad report died by a plague (14:36-37). 8. The next day the people tried to go up without God and were defeated as far as Hormah (14:44-45). 9. The ark and Moses did not go with them into that battle (14:44). 10. Hebrews 3:16-19 uses this event to warn that unbelief kept Israel from entering God's rest. ## 🧠 Chapter Summary > [!note] 🌱 Still growing. This section is on its way. ## ✝️ Christ in This Chapter Christ is the greater Mediator who stands between God and sinners. Moses pleaded for the people on the basis of God's character (14:17-19), and Jesus always lives to intercede for us (Hebrews 7:25). ## 🔎 Key Principles / 🛟 Life Application > [!note] 🌱 Still growing. This section is on its way. ## 💬 Discussion Questions 1. The people wanted to choose a leader and go back to Egypt (14:4). Why is going back so tempting when following God gets hard? 2. Moses appealed to God's own character and reputation in prayer (14:13-19). What can we learn from how he prayed? 3. God said Caleb had a different spirit and followed Him fully (14:24). What does it look like to follow God fully today? ## ✍️ Key Verses to Remember - 📖 verses 8-9: If the Lord delights in us, He will bring us in, so do not fear. - 📖 verses 18-19: The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in loyal love, forgiving iniquity. - 📖 verse 24: Caleb has a different spirit and has followed the Lord fully. ## 🔗 Related Passages/Cross Reference - 🔗 [[Exodus 34#Verse 06.|Exodus 34:6-7]] - The Lord is compassionate and gracious. - 🔗 [[Psalm 95#Verse 08.|Psalm 95:8-11]] - Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah. - 🔗 [[Hebrews 03#Verse 16.|Hebrews 3:16-19]] - They could not enter because of unbelief. - 🔗 [[Hebrews 07#Verse 25.|Hebrews 7:25]] - Jesus always lives to intercede. - 🔗 [[1 Corinthians 10#Verse 05.|1 Corinthians 10:5]] - God was not pleased with most of them. ## 🙏 Devotional Reflection > [!note] 🌱 Still growing. This section is on its way. ## 📂 Internal Notes