Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Numbers 14:41

And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the LORD? but it shall not prosper.

The commandment of the Lord; either that command, Go not up, &c., which, though in this place mentioned after, yet may seem to have gone before their transgression, by comparing this place with Deu 1:42,43; or that command above, Num 14:25, Turn ye, and get ye into the wilderness, &c., which was a course directly contrary to that which they took.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the Lord?…. Which was to turn back into the wilderness, and go the way that leads to the Red sea, Nu 14:25; instead of which now they were for going forward into the land of Canaan, though averse to it just before:

but it shall not prosper; their attempt to enter into it.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

41. And Moses said, Wherefore do ye now transgress? He rejects this feigned penitence, whereby the sinner tries all sorts of shifts, (78) so as not to submit himself to God. “If thou wilt return, O Israel, return unto me,” saith the Lord by Jeremiah, (Jer 4:1.) The first thing, therefore, which we must consider is, what God requires of us; so that it may plainly appear that we truly submit ourselves to His power.

In order to restrain their temerity, Moses reminds them that they will seek in vain for success, when they depart from God’s command. And this is a very useful piece of instruction, that His grace will never be wanting to us, if we simply obey His word; but when, in contempt and neglect of His precepts, we are carried away by our own feelings, the event will never be prosperous. If any should object that the wretched people had no other remedy, I have already stated, that they ought to have been contented with this consolation, viz., that banishment from the land of Canaan was not disinheritance from the hope of eternal life. Nay, if they had humbled themselves before God, they might expect that their punishment would have been a profitable help to them. By their misdirected activity they double the evil. After having pointed out their danger, Moses again impresses upon them that God is not with them, because they had deserted Him: and that His blessing was withheld, because they had refused to follow Him at the proper time.

(78) “En laquelle les pecheurs tournent a l’entour du pot;” whereby sinners twist round the pot. — Fr.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

41. It shall not prosper R.V., “seeing it shall not prosper.” Before sin can ultimately prosper, the holy God must abdicate the throne of the universe. The wrong of rebellion and unbelief is not turned into right by attempting the exact opposite. It is still the same spirit. The obedience which is not of penitent faith is of self-confidence, and only another kind of unbelief and self-righteousness. “Israel’s determination to go up on the morrow, and so to retrieve the past, argued as great spiritual ignorance and unfitness as their former faintheartedness and rebellion at the report of the spies.” Edersheim.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments