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Numbers 14:40
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38 aBut Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive, of the men who went to spy out the land.  

A Futile Invasion Attempt

39 Then Moses told these words to all the children of Israel, aand the people mourned greatly.  
40 And they rose early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, a“Here we are, and we will go up to the place which the Lord has promised, for we have sinned!”  
41 And Moses said, “Now why do you1 transgress the command of the Lord? For this will not succeed.  
42 aDo not go up, lest you be defeated by your enemies, for the Lord is not among you.  
43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you shall fall by the sword; abecause you have turned away from the Lord, the Lord will not be with you.”  
44 aBut they presumed to go up to the mountaintop. Nevertheless, neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed from the camp.  
45 Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who dwelt in that mountain came down and attacked them, and drove them back as far as aHormah. 
Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
<< Numbers 14:39   Numbers 14:41 >>


Numbers 14:40-45

they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up into the top of the mountain—Notwithstanding the tidings that Moses communicated and which diffused a general feeling of melancholy and grief throughout the camp, the impression was of very brief continuance. They rushed from one extreme of rashness and perversity to another, and the obstinacy of their rebellious spirit was evinced by their active preparations to ascend the hill, notwithstanding the divine warning they had received not to undertake that enterprise.

for we have sinned—that is, realizing our sin, we now repent of it, and are eager to do as Caleb and Joshua exhorted us—or, as some render it, though we have sinned, we trust God will yet give us the land of promise. The entreaties of their prudent and pious leader, who represented to them that their enemies, scaling the other side of the valley, would post themselves on the top of the hill before them, were disregarded. How strangely perverse the conduct of the Israelites, who, shortly before, were afraid that, though their Almighty King was with them, they could not get possession of the land; and yet now they act still more foolishly in supposing that, though God were not with them, they could expel the inhabitants by their unaided efforts. The consequences were such as might have been anticipated. The Amalekites and Canaanites, who had been lying in ambuscade expecting their movement, rushed down upon them from the heights and became the instruments of punishing their guilty rebellion.


 
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