Numbers 14:16

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹¹And the LORD said to Moses, "How long will this people treat Me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in Me, despite all the signs I have performed among them? ¹²I will strike them with a plague and destroy them-and I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they are." ¹³But Moses said to the LORD, "The Egyptians will hear of it, for by Your strength You brought this people from among them. ¹⁴And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have already heard that You, O LORD, are in the midst of this people, that You, O LORD, have been seen face to face, that Your cloud stands over them, and that You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. ¹⁵If You kill this people as one man, the nations who have heard of Your fame will say, ¹⁶'Because the LORD was unable to bring this people into the land He swore to give them, He has slaughtered them in the wilderness.'¹⁷So now I pray, may the power of the Lord be magnified, just as You have declared: ¹⁸'The LORD is slow to anger and abounding in loving devotion, forgiving wrongdoing and rebellion. But He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; He visits the iniquity of the fathers upon their children to the third and fourth generation.' ¹⁹Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people, in keeping with the greatness of Your loving devotion, just as You have forgiven them ever since they left Egypt."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Deuteronomy 9:28, Deuteronomy 32:26, Deuteronomy 32:27, Joshua 7:9

Reciprocal: Genesis 24:7 - which spake Exodus 13:5 - sware Psalms 115:2 - General Isaiah 48:11 - for how Jeremiah 14:9 - cannot Jeremiah 32:22 - which Ezekiel 36:20 - These Ezekiel 47:14 - lifted up mine hand Daniel 6:20 - able

Cross-References

Genesis 12:2
I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

Genesis 14:11
The four kings seized all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food, and they went on their way.

Genesis 14:12
They also carried off Abram's nephew Lot and his possessions, since he was living in Sodom.

Genesis 14:18
Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine-since he was priest of God Most High-

Genesis 14:19
and he blessed Abram and said: "Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth,

1 Samuel 30:8
and David inquired of the LORD: "Should I pursue these raiders? Will I overtake them?" "Pursue them," the LORD replied, "for you will surely overtake them and rescue the captives."

Isaiah 41:2
Who has aroused the one from the east and called him to his feet in righteousness? He hands nations over to him and subdues kings before him. He turns them to dust with his sword, to windblown chaff with his bow.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them,.... That though he brought them out of Egypt, he was not able to bring them through the wilderness into Canaan; and that though he had wrought many signs and wonders for them, he could work no more, his power failed him, he had exhausted all his might, and could not perform the promise and oath he had made:

therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness; because he could not fulfil his word, and so made short work of it, destroying them all together, which Moses suggests would greatly reflect dishonour on him; and in this he shows, that he was more concerned for the glory of God than for his own.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The syntax of these verses is singularly broken. As did Paul when deeply moved, so Moses presses his arguments one on the other without pausing to ascertain the grammatical finish of his expressions. He speaks here as if in momentary apprehension of an outbreak of God’s wrath, unless he could perhaps arrest it by crowding in every topic of deprecation and intercession that he could mention on the instant.