🔢WEB · Numbers 14:39
What does Numbers 14:39 mean?
"Moses told these words to all the children of Israel, and the people mourned greatly."
— Numbers 14:39 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
The men, whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to 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.
But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, remained alive of those men who went to spy out the land.
Moses told these words to all the children of Israel, and the people mourned greatly.
They rose up early in the morning, and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, “Behold, we are here, and will go up to the place which Yahweh has promised: for we have sinned.”
Moses said, “Why now do you disobey the commandment of Yahweh, since it shall not prosper?
Don’t go up, for Yahweh isn’t among you; that way you won’t be struck down before your enemies.
Explanation
Numbers 14:39 records a quiet but heavy moment: Moses relays to the entire Israelite community the words God has just spoken, and the people respond with deep mourning. In plain language, this is the immediate aftermath of a divine verdict. God has just declared that, because of Israel's unbelief and rebellion after hearing the spies' report about the Promised Land, this entire generation of adults would not enter Canaan but would instead die in the wilderness over the next forty years. Moses does not soften or hide this word—he simply tells the people what God has said, and their grief is described as great, not partial or halfhearted.
The context is essential to understanding the verse's weight. Moses, as Israel's leader and mediator with God, had just interceded on the nation's behalf after they threatened to stone him and Joshua for encouraging them to trust God and enter the land (Numbers 14:1-38). Ten of the twelve spies had given a fearful report, the people had despaired and even talked of returning to Egypt, and God's judgment followed: the unbelieving generation, twenty years old and up, would wander and die in the wilderness, while their children would eventually inherit the land. Numbers as a book was traditionally attributed to Moses, written to record Israel's journey from Sinai to the edge of Canaan,
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