cf. Exo 32:11-13, and Exo 34:6-7). The first he expressed in these words (Num 14:13.): “Not only have the Egyptians heard that Thou hast brought out this people from among them with Thy might; they have also told it to the inhabitants of this land. They (the Egyptians and the other nations) have heard that Thou, Jehovah, art in the midst of this people; that Thou, Jehovah, appearest eye to eye, and Thy cloud stands over them, and Thou goest before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Now, if Thou shouldst slay this people as one man, the nations which have heard the tidings of Thee would say, Because Jehovah was not able to bring this people into the land which He sware to them, He has slain them in the desert.” In that case God would be regarded by the heathen as powerless, and His honour would be impaired (cf. Deu 32:27; Jos 7:9). It was for the sake of His own honour that God, at a later time, did not allow the Israelites to perish in exile (cf. Isa 48:9, Isa 48:11; Isa 52:5; Eze 36:22-23). - ואמרוּ...ושׁמעוּ (Num 14:13, Num 14:14), et audierunt et dixerunt; ו - ו = et - et, both - and. The inhabitants of this land (Num 14:13) were not merely the Arabians, but, according to Exo 15:14., the tribes dwelling in and round Arabia, the Philistines, Edomites, Moabites, and Canaanites, to whom the tidings had been brought of the miracles of God in Egypt and at the Dead Sea. שׁמעוּ, in Num 14:14, can neither stand for שׁמעוּ כּי (dixerunt) se audivisse, nor for שׁמעוּ אשׁר, qui audierunt. They are neither of them grammatically admissible, as the relative pronoun cannot be readily omitted in prose; and neither of them would give a really suitable meaning. It is rather a rhetorical resumption of the שׁמעוּ in Num 14:13, and the subject of the verb is not only “the Egyptians,” but also “the inhabitants of this land” who held communication with the Egyptians, or “the nations” who had heard the report of Jehovah (Num 14:15), i.e., all that God had hitherto done for and among the Israelites in Egypt, and on the journey through the desert. “Eye to eye:” i.e., Thou hast appeared to them in the closest proximity. On the pillar of cloud and fire, see at Exo 13:21-22. “As one man,” equivalent to “with a stroke” (Jdg 6:16). - In Num 14:17, Num 14:18, Moses adduces a second argument, viz., the word in which God Himself had revealed His inmost being to him at Sinai (Exo 34:6-7). The words, “Let the power be great,” equivalent to “show Thyself great in power,” are not to be connected with what precedes, but with what follows; viz., “show Thyself mighty by verifying Thy word, 'Jehovah, long-suffering and great in mercy,' etc.; forgive, I beseech
