Numbers 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.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Numbers 14:8-9. If the Lord delight in us — If by our rebellion and ingratitude we do not provoke God to leave and forsake us. They are bread for us — We shall destroy them as easily as we eat our bread. Their defence — Their conduct and courage, and especially God, who was pleased to afford them his protection, till their iniquities were full, is utterly departed from them, and hath given them up as a prey to us. The Lord is with us — By his special grace and almighty power, to save us from them and all our enemies. Only rebel not against the Lord — Nothing can ruin sinners but their own rebellion. If God leave them, it is because they drive him from them, and they die, because they will die.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

14:5-10 Moses and Aaron were astonished to see a people throw away their own mercies. Caleb and Joshua assured the people of the goodness of the land. They made nothing of the difficulties in the way of their gaining it. If men were convinced of the desirableness of the gains of religion, they would not stick at the services of it. Though the Canaanites dwell in walled cities, their defence was departed from them. The other spies took notice of their strength, but these of their wickedness. No people can be safe, when they have provoked God to leave them. Though Israel dwell in tents, they are fortified. While we have the presence of God with us, we need not fear the most powerful force against us. Sinners are ruined by their own rebellion. But those who, like Caleb and Joshua, faithfully expose themselves for God, are sure to be taken under his special protection, and shall be hid from the rage of men, either under heaven or in heaven.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Already Caleb had endeavored to still the people before Moses Numbers 13:30; already Moses himself (Deuteronomy 1:29 ff) had endeavored to recall the people to obedience. After the failure of these efforts Moses and Aaron cast themselves down in solemn prayer before God (compare Numbers 16:22); and the appearance of the glory of the Lord in the "tabernacle of the congregation" Numbers 14:10 was the immediate answer.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

8. a land flowing with milk and honey—a general expression, descriptive of a rich and fertile country. The two articles specified were among the principal products of the Holy Land.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

If by our rebellion and ingratitude we do not provoke God to loathe and forsake us.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

If the Lord delight in us,.... Continue to delight in them as he had, and as appears by what he had done for, them in Egypt, at the Red sea, and in the wilderness; see Deuteronomy 10:15,

then he will bring us into this land, and give it us, as he has promised:

a land which floweth with milk and honey; as the Lord himself hath described it, and as the unbelieving spies themselves had owned it; Numbers 13:27.

Geneva Study Bible

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.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 8. - If the Lord delight in us. An expression used by Moses himself (Deuteronomy 10:15). It did indeed place the whole matter in the only right light; all the doubt that could possibly exist was the doubt implied in that "if." Numbers 14:8

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

At this murmuring, which was growing into open rebellion, Moses and Aaron fell upon their faces before the whole of the assembled congregation, namely, to pour out their distress before the Lord, and move Him to interpose; that is to say, after they had made an unsuccessful attempt, as we may supply from Deuteronomy 1:29-31, to cheer up the people, by pointing them to the help they had thus far received from God. "In such distress, nothing remained but to pour out their desires before God; offering their prayer in public, however, and in the sight of all the people, in the hope of turning their minds" (Calvin). Joshua and Caleb, who had gone with the others to explore the land, also rent their clothes, as a sign of their deep distress at the rebellious attitude of the people (see at Leviticus 10:6), and tried to convince them of the goodness and glory of the land they had travelled through, and to incite them to trust in the Lord. "If Jehovah take pleasure in us,"; they said, "He will bring us into this land. Only rebel not ye against Jehovah, neither fear ye that people of the land; for they are our food;" i.e., we can and shall swallow them up, or easily destroy them (cf. Numbers 22:4; Numbers 24:8; Deuteronomy 7:16; Psalm 14:4). "Their shadow is departed from them, and Jehovah is with us: fear them not!" "Their shadow" is the shelter and protection of God (cf. Psalm 91; Psalm 121:5). The shadow, which defends from the burning heat of the sun, was a very natural figure in the sultry East, to describe defence from injury, a refuge from danger and destruction (Isaiah 30:2). The protection of God had departed from the Canaanites, because God had determined to destroy them when the measure of their iniquity was full (Genesis 15:16; cf. Exodus 34:24; Leviticus 18:25; Leviticus 20:23). But the excited people resolved to stone them, when Jehovah interposed with His judgment, and His glory appeared in the tabernacle to all the Israelites; that is to say, the majesty of God flashed out before the eyes of the people in a light which suddenly burst forth from the tabernacle (see at Exodus 16:10).