Numbers 14:25

_(NOW THE AMALEKITES AND THE CANAANITES DWELT IN THE VALLEY.) TO MORROW TURN YOU, AND GET YOU INTO THE WILDERNESS BY THE WAY OF THE RED SEA._ Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley - i:e., on the other side of the Idumean mountain at whose base they were then encamped. Those nomad tribes had at that time occupied it with a determination to oppose the further progress of the Hebrew people. Hence, the command to seek a safe and timely retreat into the desert, to escape the pursuit of those resolute enemies, to whom, with their wives and children, they would fall a helpless prey, because they had forfeited the presence and protection of God. The 25th verse, forming an important part of the narrative, should be freed from the parenthetical form which our English translators have given it, and the verb should be rendered in the present tense, 'dwell' х_ YOWSHEEB _ (H3427)...

25._Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites. _Some thus resolve these words; “Although the Amalekites dwell in the valley;” and others thus: “Since the Amalekites abide in the valleys to lay ambuscades.” Others think that their object is to inspire terror, lest the Israelites should remain too long in the enemy’s country, since they would be daily exposed to fresh attacks. I am, however, rather of opinion that they are spoken in reproach. For they had already arrived at the borders of the inhabited land, so that their enemies might be put to the rout at once: whereas God commands them to retire, and thus expels them from the land, which they had actually reached. Still I do not deny that He sets before them the necessity of the case, and thus enforces their obedience; as if He had said, that nothing now remained but to retreat, and again to throw themselves into the desert....

20-35 The Lord granted the prayer of Moses so far as not at once to destroy the congregation. But disbelief of the promise forbids the benefit. Those who despise the pleasant land shall be shut out of it. The promise of God should be fulfilled to their children. They wished to die in the wilderness; God made their sin their ruin, took them at their word, and their carcases fell in the wilderness. They were made to groan under the burden of their own sin, which was too heavy for them to bear. Ye shall know my breach of promise, both the causes of it, that it is procured by your sin, for God never leaves any till they first leave him; and the consequences of it, that will produce your ruin. But your little ones, now under twenty years old, which ye, in your unbelief, said should be a prey, them will I bring in. God will let them know that he can put a difference between the guilty and the...

Render: And now the Amalekites and the Canaanites are dwelling (or abiding) in the valley: wherefore turn you, etc. (that so ye be not smitten before them). The Amalekites were the nomad bands that roved through the open pastures of the plain Numbers 14:45 : the Canaanites, a term here taken in its wider sense, were the Amorites of the neighboring cities (compare Numbers 14:45 with Deuteronomy 1:44), who probably lived in league with the Amalekites. TOMORROW - Not necessarily the next day, but an idiom for “hereafter,” “henceforward” (compare the marginal reading in Exo

EXPOSITION THE REBELLION AT KADESH (continued) (Numbers 13:1, Numbers 14:1). NUMBERS 14:1 AND THE PEOPLE WEPT THAT NIGHT. As the spies repeated their dismal tidings, each to the leading men of his own tribe, and as the report was spread swiftly through the tents (cf. Deuteronomy 1:27) with ever-increasing exaggerations, the lamentation became universal. NUMBERS 14:2 Murmured against Moses

AND NOW THE AMALEKITES AND THE CANAANITES DWELT IN THE VALLEY,.... By the Canaanites are meant the Amorites, as Aben Ezra, which were a principal people of the land of Canaan, and which may be confirmed by Deuteronomy 1:19; this may seem contrary to what is said Numbers 13:29; where they are said to dwell in the mountain; but it may be reconciled by observing, that indeed their proper settled habitation was in the mountain; but now they went down from thence, and "sat" z in the valley, as it may be rendered, in ambush, there lying in wait for the children of Israel, as in Psalms 10:8; and so Aben Ezra interprets it of their sitting there, to lie in wait for them: and now, though these people had so sadly p

CHAPTER 14 The Rebellion of the People, Moses' Intercession and the Divine Sentence _ 1. The rebellion (Numbers 14:1)_ 2. The intercession of Moses (Numbers 14:11) 3. The divine sentence (Numbers 14:26) 4. The presumption of the people and the defeat (Numbers 14:40) The words of unbelief of the ten spies yielded an awful harvest among the people. The camp was transformed into a camp of despair, weeping and crying during the night. Outspoken rebellion against Moses and Aaron was heard on all sides. Worse than that took place; they accused Jehovah of deception. Such is unbelief. They

NUMBERS 14:11 (JE). YAHWEH'S THREAT _TO_ DISINHERIT THE PEOPLE, AND MOSES-' INTERCESSION FOR THEM. This section is derived from JE, as appears from the exemption of Caleb only (Numbers 14:24) from the sentence of exclusion from Canaan pronounced on the existing generation. Moses here shows the same self-effacement as in Exodus 32:11 f. [The plea that Yahweh should do nothing which would damage His reputation among the heathen emphasizes a motive for the Divine action which is specially prominent in Ezekiel. A. S. P.]. NUMBERS 14:14. THEY WILL TELL IT: literally, they will say; but what will be said is not re

NOW THE AMALEKITES— Instead of this awkward parenthesis, which strangely embarrasses the sense, the passage should be rendered as Houbigant and almost all the ancient versions render it, _But now, because the Amalekites and Canaanites dwell in the valley, turn you to-morrow, and get you,_ &c. _To-morrow_ here signifies _hereafter,_ or _at your next encampment;_ the same word is rendered _in time to come,_ Exodus 13:14. The Lord now orders the people not to attempt to face those enemies who lay in wait on the other side of the mountain, and whom they had before shewn themselves afraid to face; and, as their defence was now removed, he advises them, as their wisest measure, to return into that wilderness where they were destined to wander forty years, Numbers 14:23....

F. GENERAL PARDON; SENTENCE UPON THE PROVOKERS, vv. 20-38 TEXT Numbers 14:20. And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word: 21. But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. 22. Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; 23. Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it: 24. But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land where-into he went; and his seed shall possess it. 25. (Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley.) Tomorrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea. 26. And the Lord spake unto Mo