🔢WEB · Numbers 27:15
What does Numbers 27:15 mean?
"Moses spoke to Yahweh, saying,"
— Numbers 27:15 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
Yahweh said to Moses, “Go up into this mountain of Abarim, and see the land which I have given to the children of Israel.
When you have seen it, you also shall be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother was gathered;
because in the strife of the congregation, you rebelled against my word in the wilderness of Zin, to honor me as holy at the waters before their eyes.” (These are the waters of Meribah of Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.)
Moses spoke to Yahweh, saying,
“Let Yahweh, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation,
who may go out before them, and who may come in before them, and who may lead them out, and who may bring them in; that the congregation of Yahweh may not be as sheep which have no shepherd.”
Yahweh said to Moses, “Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him.
Explanation
Numbers 27:15 is a short narrative bridge: "Moses spoke to Yahweh, saying." On its own, it simply tells us that Moses is about to address God directly. The substance of what he says follows in the next two verses, so to understand this verse rightly we have to read it as the doorway into the passage that surrounds it.
The book of Numbers records the wilderness journey of Israel under Moses's leadership, written to instruct the generation preparing to enter the Promised Land after the previous generation had died in the wilderness due to unbelief. Just before this verse, in Numbers 27:12-14, God has told Moses that he will see the land from a distance but will not enter it, because of his disobedience at the waters of Meribah. Rather than protesting his own fate or falling into despair, Moses's very next act, recorded in verse 15, is to turn to the Lord in prayer. What he actually prays, in ver
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