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Good Stuff Drunk With Blood:
God's Killings in the Bible
-Numbers
14:1-10
14:1 And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.
14:2 And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness!
After hearing the spies report, the people wept all night, and said, [1]
We wish to God that we had died in Egypt or in the wilderness!
14:3 And wherefore hath the LORD brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt?
Why did God bring us into this land, where we will die by the sword and our children will be preyed upon?Wouldn't it be better for us to return to Egypt?
14:4 And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.
Let's choose a captain and return to Egypt?
14:5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.
Moses and Aaron fell on their faces in front of all of the Israelites.
14:6 And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes:
14:7 And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land.
14:8 If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.
14:9 Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not.
And Joshua and Caleb rent their clothes and said, [2]
The land is exeedingly good.
If God delights in us, he will give us the land, flowing with milk and honey.
Don't rebel against God.
God is with us. Don't fear the people of the land.
14:10 But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel.
The people wanted to stone Joshua and Caleb (and Moses and Aaron?) with stones.
But then the glory of the Lord appeared in front of all the people.
14:11 And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them?
God said to Moses,
How long will these people provoke me?
How long will it be until they believe me?
14:12 I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.
I will kill them all with a pestilence, and make some new people, stronger than them. [3]
14:13 And Moses said unto the LORD, Then the Egyptians shall hear it, (for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them;)
14:14 And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: for they have heard that thou LORD art among this people, that thou LORD art seen face to face, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou goest before them, by day time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night.
14:15 Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying,
14:16 Because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness.
14:17 And now, I beseech thee, let the power of my LORD be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying,
Moses said to God [4],
If you kill them, the Egyptians will hear about it, and they'll tell eveyone, and then everyone will say,
He wasn't able to bring his people into the promised land, so he killed them in the wilderness.
14:18 The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.
14:19 Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.
You are longsuffering, merciful, and forgiving, punishing children for what their fathers did three and four generations before they existed. [5]
Pardon the people according to your mercy.
14:20 And the LORD said, I have pardoned according to thy word:
14:21 But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.
God said,
Okay, I've pardoned them, as you've asked.All the earth will be filled with my glory.
14:22 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;
14:23 Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:
But all those men who have seen my glory, and my miracles, and yet have tempted me ten times, and haven't obeyed me, they shall not see the promised land.
14:24 But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.
14:25 (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.
Except for Caleb.
14:26 And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,
14:27 How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me.
God said to Moses and Aaron,
How long will I put up with this evil congregation?I have heard the murmurings that they murmur against me.
14:28 Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you:
Say to them,As you have spoken in my ears, so I will do to you.
14:29 Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward which have murmured against me.
All of you who are twenty years old and older will die in the wilderness for murmuring against me. [6]
14:30 Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.
Not one of you will survive, except for Caleb and Joshua.
14:31 But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised.
I'll let your children into the land which you have despised.
14:32 But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness.
But as for you, your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness.
14:33 And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.
Your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years.
They will bear your whoredoms, while your bodies decay in the wilderness.
14:34 After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.
As the spies searched the land for forty days, so your children will wander in the wilderness for forty years -- a year for each day, they shall bear your iniquities. That will teach you -- and them.
14:35 I the LORD have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.
I will surely do all this to this evil congregation. They will die and rot in the wilderness.
14:36-45
14:36 And the men, which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land,
14:37 Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the LORD.
God sent a plague to kill the ten honest scouts. [7]
14:38 But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of the men that went to search the land, lived still.
But God didn't kill Joshua and Caleb.
14:39 And Moses told these sayings unto all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly.
14:40 And they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up into the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place which the LORD hath promised: for we have sinned.
The Israelites mourned the deaths of the scouts that God killed.
14:41 And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the LORD? but it shall not prosper.
14:42 Go not up, for the LORD is not among you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies.
You will be killed by your enemies because you disobeyed God's commandment.
14:43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and ye shall fall by the sword: because ye are turned away from the LORD, therefore the LORD will not be with you.
The Amalekites and Canaanites will kill you with the sword, because you turned away from God, so God will not be with you.
14:44 But they presumed to go up unto the hill top: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and Moses, departed not out of the camp.
14:45 Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, even unto Hormah.
The people went up to the hilltop, without Moses or the ark of the covenant.
And the Amalekites and Canaanites smote them there. [8]
When the people heard the spies' reports (see last chapter), they believed the giant story and were a bit discouraged.
(They wept all night and wished they'd have died in Egypt.)
So they decided to elect a new leader and go back to Egypt.
God tells Moses that he is going to kill all of the Israelites -- every last whining one of the them, and then make a whole bunch of brand new Israelites.
But Moses talks God out of it (like he did in Ex 32:11-12), saying that the Egyptians will hear about it and will say that he wasn't able to lead the Israelites to Israel, so he killed them all instead.
How would that look to the neighbors?
How is punishing children for the sins of their great-great grandfathers merciful?
So Moses talked God out of killing everyone.
Instead, he'll just make sure that no one over 20 years old (except for his favorite, Caleb) survives the trip to Israel. Their "carcases shall fall in the wilderness." (Cf. Dt 2:14-15)
And that would have been the end of the story, except that God was still pissed off about those ten scouts, even though they were just doing their jobs.
("To spy out the land of Canaan ... And see the land, what it is, and the people that dwelleth therein, whether they be strong or weak, few or many." Num 13.17-18)
So he killed them in a plague.
Shoot! Should this be included in Drunk With Blood?
This is a strange ending to the story. The Amalekites and Canaanites smote the Israelites on the hilltop. How many? All of them?
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