Numbers 14:11

The Punishment from God

14:11 The Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people despise 1  me, and how long will they not believe 2  in me, in spite of the signs that I have done among them?

Numbers 14:21

14:21 But truly, as I live, 3  all the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord.

Numbers 14:23

14:23 they will by no means 4  see the land that I swore to their fathers, nor will any of them who despised me see it.

Numbers 14:29

14:29 Your dead bodies 5  will fall in this wilderness – all those of you who were numbered, according to your full number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me.

1 tn The verb נָאַץ (na’ats) means “to condemn, spurn” (BDB 610 s.v.). Coats suggests that in some contexts the word means actual rejection or renunciation (Rebellion in the Wilderness, 146, 7). This would include the idea of distaste.

2 tn The verb “to believe” (root אָמַן, ’aman) has the basic idea of support, dependability for the root. The Hiphil has a declarative sense, namely, to consider something reliable or dependable and to act on it. The people did not trust what the Lord said.

3 sn This is the oath formula, but in the Pentateuch it occurs here and in v. 28.

4 tn The word אִם (’im) indicates a negative oath formula: “if” means “they will not.” It is elliptical. In a human oath one would be saying: “The Lord do to me if they see…,” meaning “they will by no means see.” Here God is swearing that they will not see the land.

5 tn Or “your corpses” (also in vv. 32, 33).