Numbers 14:1

CHAPTER XIV

The whole congregation weep at the account brought by the

spies, 1.

They murmur, 2, 3;

and propose to make themselves a captain, and go back to

Egypt, 4.

Moses and Aaron are greatly affected, 5.

Joshua and Caleb endeavour to appease and encourage the

people, 6-9.

The congregation are about to stone them, 10.

The glory of the Lord appears, and he is about to smite the

rebels with the pestilence, 11, 12.

Moses makes a long and pathetic intercession in their behalf,

13-19.

The Lord hears and forbears to punish, 20;

but purposes that not one of that generation shall enter into

the promised land save Joshua and Caleb, 21-24.

Moses is commanded to turn and get into the wilderness by way

of the Red Sea, 25.

The Lord repeats his purpose that none of that generation shall

enter into the promised land-that their carcasses shall fall in

the wilderness, and that their children alone, with Joshua and

Caleb, shall possess the land of the Canaanites, c., 26-32.

As many days as they have searched the land shall they wander

years in the desert, until they shall be utterly consumed, 33-35.

All the spies save Joshua and Caleb die by a plague, 36-38.

Moses declares God's purpose to the people, at which they are

greatly affected, 39.

They acknowledge their sin, and purpose to go up at once and

possess the land, 40.

Moses cautions them against resisting the purpose of God, 41-43.

They, notwithstanding, presume to go, but Moses and the ark

abide in the camp, 44.

The Amalekites and Canaanites come down from the mountains, and

defeat them, 45.

NOTES ON CHAP. XIV

Verse Numbers 14:1. Cried and - wept that night.] In almost every case this people gave deplorable evidence of the degraded state of their minds. With scarcely any mental firmness, and with almost no religion, they could bear no reverses, and were ever at their wit's end. They were headstrong, presumptuous, pusillanimous, indecisive, and fickle. And because they were such, therefore the power and wisdom of God appeared the more conspicuously in the whole of their history.