Numbers 14:1
And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. Ver. 1. _And the people wept that night._] As being too light of belief: the lies of the spies they took for oracles.... [ Continue Reading ]
And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. Ver. 1. _And the people wept that night._] As being too light of belief: the lies of the spies they took for oracles.... [ Continue Reading ]
And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness! Ver. 2. _Would God that we had died._] Words of deep discontent, despair, and unthankluln... [ Continue Reading ]
And wherefore hath the LORD brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt? Ver. 3. _Were it not better for us to return into Egypt._] How could that be better? It is our wisest way, to crush the very... [ Continue Reading ]
And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt. Ver. 4. _Let us make a captain._] Thus they proceeded from bad to worse. Passions, like heavy bodies down steep hills, once in motion move themselves, and know no ground but the bottom. Whether this people did make t... [ Continue Reading ]
Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel. Ver. 5. _Before all the assembly._] What they said unto them see Deuteronomy 1:29,30. See also on Numbers 16:15 .... [ Continue Reading ]
And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, [which were] of them that searched the land, rent their clothes: Ver. 6. _Rent their clothes._] And wept, saith Sulpitius.... [ Continue Reading ]
Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they [are] bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the LORD [is] with us: fear them not. Ver. 9. _They are bread for us,_] q.d., We shall make but a breakfast of them. So that valiant Prince of Orange tol... [ Continue Reading ]
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. Ver. 10. _But all the congregation bade stone them._] This is _merces mundi,_ this is the fruit of _ochlocratie,_ that rule of rascality,... [ Continue Reading ]
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 I have shewed among them? Ver. 11. _Ere they believe me._] Unbelief is the root of rebellion and apostasy. Heb 3:12... [ Continue Reading ]
I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they. Ver. 12. _And I will make of thee a greater nation._] Here God offered Moses a private fortune, which he prudently refuseth, because God should be a loser by it. And surely, sa... [ Continue Reading ]
And Moses said unto the LORD, Then the Egyptians shall hear [it], (for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them;) Ver. 13. _Then the Egyptians shall hear it._] And they will soon make comedies out of the Church's tragedies.... [ Continue Reading ]
And they will tell [it] to the inhabitants of this land: [for] they have heard that thou LORD [art] among this people, that thou LORD art seen face to face, and [that] thy cloud standeth over them, and [that] thou goest before them, by day time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by nigh... [ Continue Reading ]
Now [if] thou shalt kill [all] this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, Ver. 15. _Kill all this people as one man._] As he can quickly do, with a turn of his hand, with a nod of his head, Psa 80:16 with a breath of his nostrils. Job 4:9 He can a... [ Continue Reading ]
And now, I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, Ver. 17. _Let the power of my Lord be great._] In multiplying pardons, Isa 55:8 in passing by the many and bony, or "mighty sins of" _a_ this people, such sins as none else could or would pardon: "For... [ Continue Reading ]
The LORD [is] longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing [the guilty], visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth [generation]. Ver. 18. _And by no means clearing the guilty._] This last letter in God's dre... [ Continue Reading ]
Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now. Ver. 19. _According to the greatness of thy mercy._] God's power pleaded, Num 14:17 and his mercy here are the Jachin and the Boaz whereon... [ Continue Reading ]
And the LORD said, I have pardoned according to thy word: Ver. 20. _I have pardoned them,_] viz., So as not utterly, and at once, to extirpate them. I will be "as a moth" unto them, and not as a devouring lion. Hosea 5:12 _; _ Hos 5:14... [ Continue Reading ]
But [as] truly [as] I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD. Ver. 21. _But as truly as I live._] This is an oath, as appears by comparing herewith Psalms 95:11. To blame therefore are they that use it so often. _ All the earth shall be filled._] I will make me a great name... [ Continue Reading ]
But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it. Ver. 24. _Because he had another spirit._] Let us go up and possess it, saith he. Num 13:30 As if it were no more than to go and... [ Continue Reading ]
Numbers 14:25 (Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley.) To morrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea. Ver. 25. _Now the Amalekites._] There was but a mountain between: so they were close by the Promised Land, and yet could not enter because of unb... [ Continue Reading ]
Say unto them, [As truly as] I live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: Ver. 28. _So will I do to you._] God took them at their words: so he may well do our desperate swearers, since the mercy they desire God to show is to damn them. This self-cursing seldom escape... [ Continue Reading ]
_Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me,_ Ver. 29. _Your carcasses shall fall._] _Cadaver a cadendo; _ πρωμα παρα το πιπτειν. Who knows whether God purpose not t... [ Continue Reading ]
After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, [even] forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, [even] forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise. Ver. 34. _My breach of promise,_] _i.e., _ Ye shall find to your cost, what it is to charge me with breach o... [ Continue Reading ]
And Moses told these sayings unto all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly. Ver. 39. _Mourned greatly._] God gave them somewhat to cry for.... [ Continue Reading ]
And they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up into the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we [be here], and will go up unto the place which the LORD hath promised: for we have sinned. Ver. 40. _We have sinned._] Here was confession of sin, without confusion for sin. So was that of Saul. 1Sa... [ Continue Reading ]
Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, [even] unto Hormah. Ver. 45. _And smote them._] To be out of God's precincts, is to be out of his protection.... [ Continue Reading ]