Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Numbers 14:36
And the men, which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land,
36-38. those men that did bring upthe evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the LordTenof the spies struck dead on the spoteither by the pestilence orsome other judgment. This great and appalling mortality clearlybetokened the hand of the Lord.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And the men which Moses sent to search the land,…. Ten of them,
who returned; as they all did, who were sent to search it:
and made all the congregation to murmur against him; against, Moses that sent them; they murmured themselves, and made others murmur:
by bringing up a slander upon the land; that it ate up its inhabitants, and that the inhabitants of it were of such a stature, and so gigantic and strong, and dwelt in such walled cities, Nu 13:28, that there was no probability of subduing them, Nu 13:31.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Death of the Evil Spies. | B. C. 1490. |
36 And the men, which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land, 37 Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the LORD. 38 But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of the men that went to search the land, lived still. 39 And Moses told these sayings unto all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly. 40 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. 41 And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the LORD? but it shall not prosper. 42 Go not up, for the LORD is not among you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies. 43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and ye shall fall by the sword: because ye are turned away from the LORD, therefore the LORD will not be with you. 44 But they presumed to go up unto the hill top: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and Moses, departed not out of the camp. 45 Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, even unto Hormah.
Here is, I. The sudden death of the ten evil spies. While the sentence was passing upon the people, before it was published, they died of the plague before the Lord,Num 14:36; Num 14:37. Now,
1. God hereby showed his particular displeasure against those who sinned and made Israel to sin. (1.) They sinned themselves, in bringing up a slander upon the land of promise. Note, Those greatly provoke God who misrepresent religion, cast reproach upon it, and raise prejudices in men’s minds against it, or give occasion to those to do so who seek occasion. Those that represent the service of God as mean and despicable, melancholy and uncomfortable, hard and impracticable, needless and unprofitable, bring up an evil report upon the good land, pervert the right ways of the Lord, and in effect give him the lie. (2.) They made Israel to sin. They designedly made all the congregation murmur against God. Note, Ring-leaders in sin may expect to fall under particular marks of the wrath of God, who will severely reckon for the blood of souls, which is thus spilt.
2. God hereby showed what he could have done with the whole congregation, and gave an earnest of the execution of the sentence now passed upon them. He that thus cut off one of a tribe could have cut off their whole tribes suddenly, and would do it gradually. Note, The remarkable deaths of notorious sinners are earnests of the final perdition of ungodly men, 2Pe 2:5; 2Pe 2:6. Thus the wrath of God is revealed, that sinners may hear and fear.
II. The special preservation of Caleb and Joshua: They lived still, v. 38. It is probable that all the twelve spies stood together, for the eyes of all Israel were now upon them; and therefore it is taken notice of as very remarkable, and which could not but be affecting to the whole congregation, that when the ten evil spies fell down dead of the plague, a malignant infectious distemper, yet these two that stood among them lived, and were well. God hereby confirmed their testimony, and put those to confusion that spoke of stoning them. He likewise gave them an assurance of their continued preservation in the wilderness, when thousands should fall on their right hand and on their left, Ps. xci. 7. Death never misses his mark, nor takes any by oversight that were designed for life, though in the midst of those that were to die.
III. The publication of the sentence to all the people, v. 36. He told them all what the decree was which had gone forth concerning them, and which could not be reversed, that they must all die in the wilderness, and Canaan must be reserved for the next generation. It was a very great disappointment, we may well think, to Moses himself, who longed to be in Canaan, as well as to all the people; yet he acquiesced, but they wept and mourned greatly. The assurance which Moses had of God’s being glorified by this sentence gave him satisfaction, while the consciousness of their own guilt, and their having procured it to themselves, gave them the greatest vexation. They wept for nothing (v. 1), and now they have cause given them to weep; so justly are murmurers made mourners. If they had mourned for the sin when they were faithfully reproved for it (v. 9), the sentence would have been prevented; but now that they mourned for the judgment only their grief came too late, and did them no service; they found no place for repentance, though they sought it carefully with tears, Heb. xii. 17. Such mourning as this there is in hell, but the tears will not quench the flames, no, nor cool the tongue.
IV. The foolish fruitless attempts of some of the Israelites to enter Canaan, notwithstanding the sentence.
1. They were now eager to go forward towards Canaan, v. 40. They were up early, mustered all their force, got together in a body, and begged of Moses to lead them on against the enemy, and now there is no more talk among them of making a captain to return into Egypt. They confess their fault: We have sinned; they profess reformation: Lo, we be here, and will go up. They now desire the land which they had despised, and put a confidence in the promise which they had distrusted. Thus when God judges he will overcome, and, first or last, will convince sinners of the evil of all their ungodly deeds, and hard speeches, and force them to recall their own words. But, though God was glorified by this recantation of theirs, they were not benefited by it, because it came too late. The decree had gone forth, the consumption was determined; they did not seek the Lord while he might be found, and now he would not be found. O, if men would but be as earnest for heaven while their day of grace lasts as they will be when it is over, would be as solicitous to provide themselves with oil while the bridegroom tarries as they will be when the bridegroom comes, how well were it for them!
2. Moses utterly disallows their motion, and forbids the expedition they were meditating: Go not up, v. 41-43. (1.) He gives them warning of the sin; it is transgressing the commandment of the Lord, who had expressly ordered them, when they did move, to move back towards the Red Sea. Note, That which has been duty, in its season, when it comes to be mistimed may be turned into sin. It is true the command he refers to was in the nature of a punishment, but he that has not obeyed the law is obliged to submit to the penalty, for the Lord is our Judge as well as Lawgiver. (2.) He gives them this warning of the danger: “It shall not prosper, never expect it.” Note, It is folly to promise ourselves success in that which we undertake contrary to the mind of God. “The Canaanites are before you to attack you, and the Lord is not among you to protect you and fight for you, and therefore look to yourselves that you be not smitten before your enemies.” Those that are out of the way of their duty are from under God’s protection, and go at their peril. It is dangerous going where we cannot expect God should go along with us. Nay, he plainly foresees and foretels their defeat: You shall fall by the sword of the Amalekites and Canaanites (who were to have fallen by their sword); Because you are turned away from the Lord, from following the guidance of his precept and promise, therefore the Lord will not be with you. Note, God will certainly leave those that leave him; and those that are left of him lie exposed to all misery.
3. They venture notwithstanding. Never was people so perverse and so desperately resolved in every thing to walk contrary to God. God bade them go, and they would not; he forbade them, and they would. Thus is the carnal mind enmity to God: They presumed to go up unto the hill-top, v. 44. Here, (1.) They struggled against the sentence of divine justice, and would press on in defiance of it. (2.) They slighted the tokens of God’s presence, for they would go though they left Moses and the ark of the covenant behind them. They had distrusted God’s strength, and now they presume upon their own without his.
4. The expedition speeds accordingly, v. 45. The enemy had posted themselves upon the top of the hill, to make good that pass against the invaders, and, being informed by their scouts of their approach, sallied out upon them, and defeated them, and it is probable that many of the Israelites were killed. Now the sentence began to be executed that their carcases should fall in the wilderness. Note, That affair can never end well that begins with sin. The way to obtain peace with our friends, and success against our enemies, is to make God our friend, and keep ourselves in his love. The Jews, like these their ancestors, when they had rejected Christ’s righteousness, attempted to establish their own, and it sped as this.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Verses 36-39:
The “slander,” dibbah, “evil report,” of the ten spies (Nu 13:3-16) caused the people to murmur against Moses and to rebel against the leadership of Jehovah. These ten died from an unnamed plague. The language implies this was a sudden, dramatic death which occurred on that very day. This illustrates the inexorable “law of the harvest,” Ga 6:7, 8, which guarantees that one sows as he reaps
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
36. And the men, which Moses sent to search the land. I do not at all approve of the view which some take, that this is recorded by anticipation; for there is no question but that Moses recounts the special punishment which was inflicted by God upon the perfidious spies. He had previously treated of the general punishment of the whole people; when he now relates that the ten men were smitten by the plague, he intimates that God would begin with them, so as to manifest by this conspicuous and notable example how grossly He was offended by their very disgraceful contempt of His grace. Their sudden and unnatural death was, therefore, a kind of presage to all the others of the punishment which awaited them. For in the first place, the expression, “the plague,” is emphatic, as much as to say that they should not die in the ordinary course of nature. Again, by “the sight of God,” (73) he means something else than as if he had said, “before God;” for God was not merely a beholder of their destruction, but in a strange and unusual manner He executed His awful judgment, as if He had publicly ascended the tribunal. And this appeared more clearly by His prolonging the life of Caleb and Joshua, who were the only survivors of that generation until the end of the time prescribed. It is true, indeed, that the verbs (74) are in the past tense; but, since there is an evident πρόληψις, I have not hesitated to change the tense, which is a sufficiently common idiom of the language; and thus the connection of the address is better preserved.
(73) It will be seen that C.’s own translation is, “coram Deo;” but the V. renders the words, “in conspectu Domini.”
(74) A.V. concludes the denunciation of the Almighty at Num 14:35. C. continues it to the end of Num 14:38; and hence arose the necessity for changing the tenses. Vatablus and the Geneva version agree with C.; Dathe with A.V.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
THE FATE OF THE SPIES, Num 14:36-39.
After the general sentence of the nation a particular condemnation must be passed upon the cowardly ten spies, who are specially culpable, inasmuch as they afforded the occasion of the national sin. At the same time the faithful two are commended and rewarded.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
36. Made all to murmur While the people, as free agents, were culpable for their free act, of which their own unbelief was the cause, yet the spies who made the unfavourable report were guilty, not so much because they furnished the occasion for the unbelief to manifest itself in action, but because they contributed to that unbelief. He who undermines his fellow’s faith in God, by his words, his writings, or his influence, assumes a tremendous responsibility.
A slander “Evil report,” R.V. This consisted chiefly in the declaration that the land was unconquerable. See Num 13:32, note.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Aftermath ( Num 14:36-45 ).
A number of things followed on Yahweh’s words.
a The men who brought the evil report died, while Joshua and Caleb lived (Num 14:36-38).
b Moses told the children of Israel of what Yahweh had said and they mourned greatly (Num 14:39)
b The people declared that they would go forward after all but Moses told them not to go up. Yahweh would not be among them (Num 14:40-43).
a Those who listened to the evil report yet still went forward were smitten down and driven out of the land (Num 14:41-45).
Num 14:36
‘And the men, whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned, and made all the congregation murmur against him, by bringing up an evil report against the land, even those men who brought up an evil report of the land, died by the plague before Yahweh.’
The first sign of the fulfilment of Yahweh’s punishment was immediately seen in that, apart from Joshua and Caleb, all the chieftains who had gone as scouts into Canaan and had misled and misdirected the people died through a plague. Their guilt was clearly described. They had made all the congregation murmur against Him, and they had brought a falsified report (repeated twice for emphasis). Thus they had borne false witness of Yahweh.
Num 14:38
‘But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, remained alive of those men who went to spy out the land.’
Of the spies only Joshua and Caleb escaped the plague. They alone of all the spies remained alive.
Num 14:39
‘And Moses told these words to all the children of Israel, and the people mourned greatly.’
Then Moses told the children of Israel all that Yahweh had said. And they had meanwhile had had time to have second thoughts. They did not want to go back into that dreadful wilderness. Certainly on thinking about it they did not want to return to Egypt. Thus when they heard Moses’ words they regretted their folly. But it was too late. They had revealed that they were in no fit state to invade the land.
Num 14:40
‘And they rose up early in the morning, and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, “Lo, we are here, and will go up to the place which Yahweh has promised, for we have sinned.” ’
However, they rose up early in the morning and mustered their forces and gathered on the top of a rise from which they could go forward into Canaan in order to demonstrate their readiness to go forward into the place which Yahweh had promised. They admitted that they had sinned. But now, they said, they were ready to make amends. They would go forward. But it was too late. They had capped all their previous disobedience with this greatest disobedience of all. They could no longer be trusted. This day might be another day, but they were still the same old people. Yahweh now recognised, as they should have, that they were not in any state to begin an extensive campaign of warfare. The truth was that they would simply fall at the next fence.
“And went up to the top of the mountain.” This could simply indicate a nearby rise where they assembled on the side of the camp leading to Canaan. But compare verse 44. The use there may suggest that this phrase here means that they did it in thought and expressed willingness. In their minds they were expressing their willingness to go into the hill country and fight. When someone makes a firm final decision to do something difficult about which they have been demurring, we can say of them, ‘that moment it was as good as done’. That may have been the idea here. Or we may simply translate ‘towards the top of the hill country’ signifying that they made the first move in order to finally get there.
Num 14:41
‘And Moses said, “Why now do you transgress the commandment of Yahweh, seeing it will not prosper?” ’
But instead of welcoming their change of heart, Moses questioned their behaviour. Why did they still reveal their rebellious hearts by disobeying Yahweh? Why did they seek to go against His commandment? Why did they not accept His decision? He had said that they must not go. To go would therefore be to disobey Him. Had they not yet learned their lesson?
Num 14:42
“ Do not go up, for Yahweh is not among you, that you be not smitten down before your enemies.”
So he commanded them not to go up. For he warned them that if they did Yahweh would not be among them. They had forfeited His presence. If they did go forward they would be smitten down by their enemies.
Num 14:43
“ For there the Amalekite and the Canaanite are in front of you, and you will fall by the sword. Because you are turned back from following Yahweh, therefore Yahweh will not be with you.”
Did they not recognise that the same Amalekites and Canaanites of whom their chieftains had expressed their fears were still there? If they went against them they would fall by the sword, because Yahweh would not fight for them. And the reason why He would not was because they had so devastatingly and firmly turned back from following Him.
Num 14:44
‘But they presumed to go up to the top of the mountain. Nevertheless the ark of the covenant of Yahweh and Moses, did not leave the camp.’
However they determined that they would go. They did not want to go back into the wilderness. Presumptiously they marched forward under other leaders. But the Ark of the covenant of Yahweh and Moses did not leave the camp. They went on their own. There would be no divine assistance this time.
At this point we can only feel sorry for the people. They did not want the past and they had lost their future. They felt that this was the only way that they could go. They just could not take their families back into the wilderness. Even if it meant going alone they would face up to the enemy and seek to establish a position in Canaan. But they were no match for peoples who probably spent half their time fighting. They went without the incentive of the Ark. They went without Joshua their usual general. They went out of desperation rather than in confidence. They went without faith in Yahweh. And it told.
Num 14:45
‘Then the Amalekite came down, and the Canaanite who dwelt in that mountain, and smote them and beat them down, even to Hormah.’
There could be only one result. The Amalekites and the Canaanites swept down from the hill country and smote them, driving them back even as far as Hormah. Hormah means ‘devoted to destruction’. In this case the name was certainly symbolic. They were beaten back to be devoted to destruction. It was a name often applied to mounds resulting from devastation.
But why did Yahweh not accept their repentance and go forward with them? The answer is because God knows men’s hearts. He recognised that whatever the short term for these men, to attempt the invasion would be fatal. They did not have sufficient faith either in Him or in themselves. And their failure had proved it. Enough time would have to pass until a new generation had been developed which had sufficient faith in Yahweh.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
There must have been somewhat very striking and awful in the sudden death of these men. And the more so, as it was a specimen of what GOD had said of the death of all that congregation. Indeed the remarkable cases of divine judgments, which in every age have been shown in the sudden destruction of sinners, is declared by an apostle to be an example, like the destruction by the flood, and the fire in Sodom and Gomorrah, of what will be the final end of the ungodly. 2Pe 2:5-6 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
men. Hebrew pi. of ‘ish or ‘enosh. App-14. These ten men died by a special plague at the time. Compare 1Ch 13:10. 2Sa 6:7.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Num 13:31-33
Reciprocal: Num 13:32 – brought Num 20:3 – when Luk 19:27 – General