Chapter 14:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 Leviticus Deuteronomy
Numbers 14
The murmuring of the people against Moses and Aaron, ver.
1-4. Their fruitless endeavour to still them, ver. 5-10. God's
threatening utterly to destroy them, ver. 11-12. The intercession of
Moses, ver. 13-19. The decree that all that generation should die
in the wilderness, ver. 20-35. The immediate death of the spies,
ver. 36-39. The ill success of those who would go up
notwithstanding, ver. 40-45.
Verse 2. Against Moses and Aaron - As the instruments and occasions
of their present calamity. That we had died in this wilderness - It
was not long before they had their desire, and did die in the
wilderness.
Verse 3. The Lord - From instruments they rise higher, and strike at God
the cause and author of their journey: by which we see the
prodigious growth and progress of sin when it is not resisted. A
prey - To the Canaanites whose land we were made to believe we
should possess.
Verse 4. A captain - Instead of Moses, one who will be more faithful to
our interest than he. Into Egypt - Stupendous madness! Whence
should they have protection against the hazards, and provision
against all the wants of the wilderness? Could they expect either
God's cloud to cover and guide them, or Manna from heaven to
feed them? Who could conduct them over the Red-sea? Or, if they
went another way, who should defend them against those nations
whose borders they were to pass? What entertainment could they
expect from the Egyptians, whom they had deserted and brought
to so much ruin?
Verse 5. Fell on their faces - As humble and earnest suppliants to God,
the only refuge to which Moses resorted in all such straits, and
who alone was able to govern this stiff-necked people. Before all
the assembly -That they might awake to apprehend their sin and
danger, when they saw Moses at his prayers, whom God never
failed to defend, even with the destruction of his enemies.
Verse 6. Rent their clothes - To testify their hearty grief for the peoples
blasphemy against God and sedition against Moses, and that
dreadful judgment which they easily foresaw this must bring upon
the congregation.
Verse 8. Delight in us - If by our rebellion and ingratitude we do not
provoke God to leave and forsake us.
Verse 9. Bread - We shall destroy them as easily as we eat our bread.
Their defense - Their conduct and courage, and especially God,
who was pleased to afford them his protection 'till their iniquities
were full, is utterly departed from them, and hath given them up
as a prey to us. With us - By his special grace and almighty
power, to save us from them and all our enemies. Only rebel not
against the Lord - Nothing can ruin sinners but their own
rebellion. If God leaves them, 'tis because they drive him from
them, and they die, because they will die.
Verse 10. Appeared - Now in the extremity of danger to rescue his
faithful servants, and to stop the rage of the people. In the
tabernacle - Upon or above the tabernacle, where the cloud
usually resided, in which the glory of God appeared now in a
more illustrious manner. When they reflected upon God, his glory
appeared not, to silence their blasphemies: but when they
threatened Caleb and Joshua, they touched the apple of his eye,
and his glory appeared immediately. They who faithfully expose
themselves for God, are sure of his special provision.
Verse 12. I will smite them - This was not an absolute determination, but
a commination, like that of Nineveh's destruction, with a
condition implied, except there be speedy repentance, or powerful
intercession.
Verse 16. Not able - His power was quite spent in bringing them out of
Egypt, and could not finish the work he had begun and had sworn
to do.
Verse 17. Be great - That is appear to be great, discover its greatness:
namely, the power of his grace and mercy, or the greatness of his
mercy, in pardoning this and their other sins: for to this the
following words manifestly restrain it, where the pardon of their
sins is the only instance of this power both described in God's
titles, ver. 18, and prayed for by Moses ver. 19, and granted by
God in answer to him, xiv, 20. Nor is it strange that the pardon of
sin, especially such great sins, is spoken of as an act of power in
God, because undoubtedly it is an act of omnipotent and infinite
goodness.
Verse 18. Visiting the iniquity - These words may seem to be
improperly mentioned, as being a powerful argument to move
God to destroy this wicked people, and not to pardon them. It may
be answered, that Moses useth these words together with the rest,
because he would not sever what God had put together. But the
truer answer seems to be, that these words are to be translated
otherwise, And in destroying he will not utterly destroy, though
he visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third
and fourth generation.
Verse 20. I have pardoned - So far as not utterly to destroy them.
Verse 21. With the glory of the Lord - With the report of the glorious
and righteous acts of God in punishing this rebellious people.
Verse 22. My glory - That is, my glorious appearances in the cloud, and
in the tabernacle. Ten times - That is, many times. A certain
number for an uncertain.
Verse 24. Caleb - Josh. is not named, because he was not now among
the people, but a constant attendant upon Moses, nor was he to be
reckoned as one of them, any more than Moses and Aaron were,
because he was to be their chief commander. He had another spirit
- Was a man of another temper, faithful and courageous, not acted
by that evil spirit of cowardice, unbelief, disobedience, which
ruled in his brethren but by the spirit of God. Fully - Universally
and constantly, through difficulties and dangers, which made his
partners halt. Whereinto he went - In general, Canaan, and
particularly Hebron, and the adjacent parts, Josh. xiv, 9.
Verse 25. In the valley - Beyond the mountain, at the foot whereof they
now were, ver. 40. And this clause is added, either
1. As an aggravation of Israel's misery and punishment, that being
now ready to enter and take possession of the land, they are forced
to go back into the wilderness or
2. As an argument to oblige them more willingly to obey the
following command of returning into the wilderness, because their
enemies were very near them, and severed from them only by that
Idumean mountain, and, if they did not speedily depart, their
enemies would fall upon them, and so the evil which before they
causelessly feared would come upon them; they, their wives and
their children, would become a prey to the Amalekites and
Canaanites, because God would not assist nor defend them. By
the way of the Red-sea - That leadeth to the Red-sea, and to
Egypt, the place whither you desire to return.
Verse 28. As ye have spoken - When you wickedly wished you might
die in the wilderness.
Verse 30. You - Your nation; for God did not swear to do so to these
particular persons.
Verse 32. Your carcases - See with what contempt they are spoken of,
now they had by their sin made themselves vile! The mighty men
of valour were but carcases, now the Spirit of the Lord was
departed from them! It was very probably upon this occasion, that
Moses wrote the ninetieth psalm.
Verse 33. Forty years - So long as to make up the time of your dwelling
in the wilderness forty years; one whole year and part of another
were past before this sin or judgment. Your whoredoms - The
punishment of your whoredoms, of your apostacy from, and
perfidiousness against your Lord, who was your husband, and had
married you to himself.
Verse 34. Each day for a year - So there should have been forty years to
come, but God was pleased mercifully to accept of the time past
as a part of that time. Ye shall know my breach of promise - That
as you have first broken the covenant between you and me, by
breaking the conditions of it, so I will make it void on my part, by
denying you the blessings promised in that covenant. So you shall
see, that the breach of promise wherewith you charged me, lies at
your door, and was forced from me by your perfidiousness.
Verse 37. By the plague - Either by the pestilence, or by some other
sudden and extraordinary judgment, sent from the cloud in which
God dwelt, and from whence he spake to Moses, and wherein his
glory at this time appeared before all the people, ver. 10, who
therefore were all, and these spies among the rest, before the
Lord.
Verse 38. But Joshua and Caleb lived still - Death never misses his
mark, nor takes any by oversight who are designed for life, tho' in
the midst of those that are to die.
Verse 39. And the people mourned greatly - But it was now too late.
There was now no place for repentance. Such mourning as this
there is in hell; but the tears will not quench the flames.
Verse 40. Gat them up - Designed or prepared themselves to go up.
Verse 45. The Canaanites - Largely so called, but strictly the Amorites.
Hormah - A place so called afterwards, ver. 3, from the slaughter
or destruction of the lsraelites at this time.
Chapter 14:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 Leviticus Deuteronomy
This version of Wesley's Notes on the Bible is a derivative of an electronic version, Copyright 1997, by Sulu D. Kelley. All rights reserved. Used by permission. It may not be modified or used commercially without permission of Wesleyan Heritage Publishing and Sulu Kelley. A special thanks to Mr. Kelley and Wesleyan Heritage Publishing for permission to create and post this version of Wesley's Notes on the Bible.
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