🔢WEB · Numbers 14:43
What does Numbers 14:43 mean?
"For there the Amalekite and the Canaanite are before you, and you will fall by the sword, because you turned back from following Yahweh, therefore Yahweh will not be with you.”"
— Numbers 14:43 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
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.
For there the Amalekite and the Canaanite are before you, and you will fall by the sword, because you turned back from following Yahweh, therefore Yahweh will not be with you.”
But they presumed to go up to the top of the mountain. Nevertheless, the ark of Yahweh’s covenant and Moses didn’t depart out of the camp.
Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites who lived in that mountain, and struck them and beat them down, even to Hormah.
Explanation
Numbers 14:43 comes at a critical turning point in Israel's wilderness journey. In plain language, Moses is warning the people that if they go up into the land now, they will be defeated in battle by the Amalekites and Canaanites, and the reason for this coming defeat is that God himself will not go with them. Their military failure would not be a matter of poor strategy or bad luck — it would be the direct result of God's absence, which in turn was the direct result of their own disobedience.
The context is essential to understanding the verse. Twelve spies had been sent into Canaan, and ten of them returned with a report that discouraged the people from entering the land, exaggerating the strength of its inhabitants. The people responded in unbelief, weeping, rebelling against Moses and Aaron, and even talking about choosing a new leader to take them back to Egypt. God responded with judgment: that entire generation of adults would die in
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