Numbers 14:1 h.כל העדה ALL THE CONGREGATION — This refers to the Sanhedrin (Midrash Tanchuma, Sh'lach 12; cf. Rashi on Leviticus 4:13 and Note thereon).
Numbers 14:2 h.לו מתנו means WOULD THAT WE HAD DIED.
Numbers 14:4 h.נתנה ראש LET US MAKE A CAPTAIN — Understand this as the Targum does: Let us appoint a chief — i.e. let us set a king over us. But our Rabbis explain the word ראש to denote idol-worship (i.e. that they intended to turn to idolatry) (cf. Sanhedrin 107a).
Numbers 14:9 h.אל תמרדו [ONLY] REBEL NOT YE [AGAINST THE LORD], and consequently ואתם אל תיראו YOU WILL NOT HAVE TO FEAR [THE PEOPLE OF THE LAND].
h.כי לחמנו הם FOR THEY ARE BREAD FOR US — i.e. we shall consume them as bread.
h.סר צלם THEIR DEFENSE (lit., shade) IS DEPARTED [FROM THEM] — i.e. their shield and their strength is departed from them: the virtuous among them are dead; one of them was Job, who had protected them by his righteousness (Sotah 35a; cf. Bava Batra 15a). [Another explanation is: the shade (protection) of the Omnipresent is departed from them]. (Cf. Psalms 121:5).
Numbers 14:10 h.לרגום אתם [BUT ALL THE CONGREGATION BADE] TO OVERWHELM THEM WITH STONES — them viz., Joshua and Caleb.
h.וכבוד ה׳ AND THE GLORY OF THE LORD [APPEARED IN THE APPOINTED TENT] — i.e. the cloud descended there (Sotah 35a).
Numbers 14:11 h.עד אנה means HOW LONG (while אנה is used of place — “where”, עד אנה denotes time - "until when").
h.ינאצני means [HOW LONG] WILL THEY PROVOKE ME TO ANGER.
h.בכל האתות FOR ALL THE SIGNS — This means: On account of all the signs which I have done for them they ought to have believed that I possess the ability to fulfill My promise.
Numbers 14:12 h.ואורישנו is an expression for “driving out” (here, driving out from the world, destroying). — And if you ask what I will do regarding the oath I have sworn to the Patriarchs (viz., to give the Land to their children; cf. Exodus 6:3—4), then I reply:
h.ואעשה אתך לגוי גדול I WILL MAKE OF THEE A GREAT NATION — [whereby My oath will be fulfilled] since you are one of their descendants (cf. Midrash Tanchuma, Sh'lach 13).
Numbers 14:13 h.ושמעו מצרים WHEN THE EGYPTIANS SHALL HEAR IT — i.e. when they hear how you are killing them, [as stated in the previous verse].
h.כי העלית — The word כי here is used in the sense of אשר, “that”, and the meaning is: they have seen that Thou broughtest them forth in Thy great strength from their midst, and when they hear that Thou art killing them they will not say that it is because they have sinned against Thee, but they will say that against them Thou wast able to fight, but against the in habitants of the Land of Canaan, however, Thou wast unable to fight; and this is the meaning of —
Numbers 14:14 h.ואמרו אל יושב הארץ which is the same as על יושב הארץ THEY WILL SAY CONCERNING THE INHABITANTS OF THIS LAND — What will they say concerning them? That which is stated at the end of the paragraph, (v. 16):
h.'מבלתי יכולת ה “Because the Lord was unable etc. … [he hath slaughtered them in the wilderness]”. — The connection between that verse and what preceeds is as follows: Because they have heard that Thou, O Lord, dwellest in their midst and that Thou appearest to them face to face and all this is in an affectionate manner (i.e. all this is evidence of the affection in which Thou holdest them), and until now they had not realized that Your love for them had been withdrawn.
Numbers 14:15 h.והמתה את העם הזה כאיש אחד IF THOU PUTTEST TO DEATH ALL THIS PEOPLE AS ONE MAN — i.e. suddenly; then, because of this the nations who have heard the fame of Thee [will say as follows]:
Numbers 14:16 h.מבלתי יכלת וגו׳ BECAUSE THE LORD IS UNABLE etc., — “He is unable to bring them into the land on Canaan because the inhabitants of the land are strong and mighty; and besides, one king, Pharaoh, is not like thirty-one kings, who inhabit Canaan”. — This is what they will say concerning the inhabitants of this land (these kings): מבלתי יכלת because He had no power to bring them into the Land He hath slaughtered them (Midrash Tanchuma, Sh'lach 13).
h.יכלת is a noun form.
Numbers 14:17 h.('יגדל נא כח ה — LET THE STRENGTH OF MY LORD BE GREAT — by fulfilling Your statement.)
h.כאשר דברת לאמר ACCORDING AS THOU HAST SPOKEN, SAYING — And what is the utterance which Thou hast spoken?
Numbers 14:18 h.ה' אֶרֶךְ אַפַּיִם “The Lord is long suffering” towards both the righteous and the wicked. When Moses ascended to Heaven to receive the Law he found the Holy One, blessed be He, engaged in writing: “The Lord is long-suffering”. He asked, “Surely only to the righteous?” The Holy One, blessed be He, answered him, “To the wicked also!” Whereupon Moses said: “The wicked — let them perish!” He (the Lord) replied to him: “I swear by your life that you shall eventually need this thing (the extension of My mercy also to the wicked)”. When the Israelites sinned at the incident of the Golden Calf and at that of the spies, Moses offered prayer before Him, with mention of God’s attribute of ארך אפים (of His being long suffering). The Holy One, blessed be He, then said to him: Did you not say, “Surely only to the righteous!?” Whereupon Moses replied, “But did You not tell me, ‘To the wicked also’?” Let then — Moses added — the strength of My Lord be great [even as Thou didst say] — by fulfilling Thy statement and not mine! (Sanhedrin 111a).
h.ונקה AND HE CLEARS those who repent,
h.לא ינקה BUT DOES NOT CLEAR those who do not repent (Yoma 86a; cf. Onkelos and Rashi on Exodus 34:7).
Numbers 14:20 h.כדברך [I HAVE FORGIVEN] ACCORDING TO THY WORD — i.e. because of what you have said, “Lest they say: ‘Because the Lord was unable, etc.’”.
Numbers 14:21 h.ואולם BUT, means, (I will not slay them), but this will I do unto them (what is mentioned in v. 22 ff.).
h.חי אני AS TRULY AS I LIVE — This is the formula of an oath: Just as it is true that I live and that all the earth is filled with My glory, so, indeed, will I fulfil regarding them My threat “that all the men who have seen etc.”. [אם יראו את הארץ — This verse is out of order: Its connection with what precedes it is as follows: As truly as I live, I swear that all the men who have seen My glory etc. shall not see the Land, “and yet My Glory shall fill the earth”, since My Name will not become profaned through this plague which I proposed to bring upon them by people stating: “Because the Lord is unable to bring them into the Land etc.” since I shall not then be killing them suddenly, as one man (v. 15), but during a prolonged period of forty years — little by little].
Numbers 14:22 h.וינסו— Take the passage as what it literally implies: AND THEY HAVE TESTED [ME].
h.זה עשר פעמים TEN TIMES — twice at the Red Sea, twice in the case of the “Manna”, twice in the case of the “quails” etc., as is to be found in the Treatise Arakhin 15a.
Numbers 14:23 h.אם יראו means THAT THEY SHALL NOT SEE.
h.לא יראוה THEY SHALL NOT SEE IT — i. e. they shall not see the land.
Numbers 14:24 h.רוח אחרת [BUT MY SERVANT CALEB, BECAUSE HE HAD] ANOTHER SPIRIT [WITH HIM] — The word “another’ suggests that he was filled with a twofold spirit — the one to which he gave utterance (lit., one in his mouth), and another which he concealed in his heart. To the spies he said, “I am with you in your counsel”, whilst in his heart he had the intention to tell the truth, and it was only on this account that he possessed the power to silence them (the people), as it is said, (Numbers 13:30) “And Caleb silenced [the people concerning Moses]” (cf. Rashi on that verse), for they thought that he would say the same as themselves (as the spies). It is this that is alluded to in the Book of Joshua (Joshua 14:7) where it states that Caleb said “And I brought him (Moses) word again as it was in my heart” — but not as it was in my mouth (i.e. not what I had said to the spies) (Midrash Tanchuma, Sh'lach 10).
h.וימלא אחרי AND HE HATH FOLLOWED ME FULLY (lit., he hath filled to go after Me) — i.e. he hath filled his heart with the intention to follow Me; — this is an elliptical sentence (the word “his heart” is omitted).
h.אשר בא שמה [HIM WILL I BRING UNTO THE LAND] WHEREUNTO HE WENT — Hebron shall be given to him (cf. Rashi on v. 22).
h.יורשנה — Understand this as the Targum does: “and his seed shall drive it (the population of the land) out” i. e. shall drive out the Anakim and the other people that are in it. — One should not give the rendering ירתינה, “they will possess it”, in the Targum except in place of the Hebrew יִירָשֶׁנָּה (in the Kal, whilst the Hiphil, as here, denotes to drive out).
Numbers 14:25 h.והעמלקי וגו׳ AND THE AMALEKITES [AND THE CANAANITES DWELL IN THE VALLEY] — This is not a mere statement that they dwell there; it is a warning: If you go there they will kill you, since I shall not be with you.
h.מחר פנו TOMORROW TURN YOU — i.e. turn backwards, וסעו לכם AND JOURNEY [INTO THE DESERT etc.].
Numbers 14:27 h.לעדה הרעה וגו׳ [HOW LONG SHALL I BEAR] WITH THIS EVIL CONGREGATION — This refers to the spies (not to the whole congregation); from here we learn that an עדה, “a congregation” is technically a gathering of at least ten persons (Megillah 23b).
h.אשר המה מלינים [THIS EVIL CONGREGATION] WHICH MAKE the Israelites MURMUR עלי AGAINST ME.
h.את תלנות בני ישראל אשר המה THE MURMURINGS OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL WHICH THEY, the spies, מלינים MAKE them MURMUR עלי, AGAINST ME, שמעתי I HAVE HEARD.
Numbers 14:28 h.חי אני AS TRULY AS I LIVE — This is a formula of taking an oath: If I do not do so, then — if this were at all possible to say of God — I do not live.
h.כאשר דברתם AS YE HAVE SPOKEN … [YOUR CARCASSES WILL FALL IN THE WILDERNESS] — because you made the request of Me: “Would that we had died in this wilderness” (Numbers 14:2).
Numbers 14:29 h.וכל פקדיכם לכל מספרכם AND ALL OF YOU THAT WERE NUMBERED IN ANY COUNTING OF YOU — i.e. all that are numbered of you in any census (מספר) in which you are numbered, as, for instance, on going to or coming back from war, or when giving the shekels: all who are numbered in all these censuses shall die, and these are, everyone מבן עשרים שנה וגו׳ FROM TWENTY YEARS OLD AND UPWARDS — The age is expressly mentioned to exclude the tribe of Levi because those who were numbered of them were not from twenty years old and upwards (but they were either numbered from one month old — cf. Numbers 3:40, or from thirty years old; Numbers 4:3) (Bava Batra 121b).
Numbers 14:32 h.ופגריכם אתם — Understand this as the Targum does: (“But your carcasses — those of you — they shall fall in this desert”). Because in the previous verse He said of the children that He would bring them into the Land, and it wishes to state now: “but you will die”, this idiom is appropriate here — to say the word אתם (in addition to the personal suffix in פגריכם, in order to stress the contrast).
Numbers 14:33 h.ארבעים שנה [AND YOUR CHILDREN SHALL WANDER IN THE DESERT] FORTY YEARS — None of them was to die younger than 60 years old (Bava Batra 121b). For this reason a period of forty years was decreed for their wanderings in order that those who were at that time 20 years old (and only those from twenty years old and upwards came under this decree; cf. v. 29) should reach the age of sixty (the average age of man; cf. Moed Katan 28a and Tosefta Yoma 4:10. s. v. ומיתה). The first year that they were in the wilderness was included in the forty although it preceded the sending forth of the spies (which took place in the second year), because from the moment they made the Golden Calf this decree entered the mind of God, but He waited for them (postponed their punishment) until their measure of sin should be full. This is the meaning of what is stated, (Exodus 32:34) “And in the day when I shall visit — viz., at the incident of the spies — I shall visit their sin (that of the Golden Calf) upon them”. And, here, indeed, it states, (v. 34) “ye shall bear your iniquities” (in the plural) suggesting two sins; that of the Calf and that of the murmuring. — In the calculation it (Scripture) regards in the years of their lives a part of the year (of the sixtieth year) as the whole of it, and as soon as they entered their sixtieth year those who were now twenty years old died (Tanchuma 4:4:13).
h.ונשאו את זנותיכם AND SHALL BEAR YOUR WHOREDOMS — Understand this as the Targum does: and they shall bear your guilt (cf. Targum on ונשא את עונה, Numbers 30:16, and Rashi on that verse).
Numbers 14:34 h.את תנואתי [AND YE SHALL KNOW] את תנואתי — You shall know (realise) that you have removed your heart from following after Me. תנואה is an expression for “removing”, similar to (Numbers 30:6) “for her father hath removed her (הניא) from her vow” (cf. Rashi on that verse, where he quotes this phrase).
Numbers 14:36 h.וישבו וילינו עליו [AND THE MEN WHOM MOSES SENT TO SEARCH THE LAND] RETURNED AND MADE THE WHOLE CONGREGATION MURMUR AGAINST HIM — This meant: “the men whom Moses sent and who, when they returned (וישבו) from searching the Land, made the whole congregation murmur against him by making them utter an evil report, — those men died. Wherever the phrase הוציא דבה occurs it denotes instructing to speak — that people teach their way of speaking to a person that he may speak it (cf. Rashi on 23:31). Similar is, (Song 7:10) “causing the lips of those who are asleep to speak." (דובב) There may be one (a דבה, “an utterance”) for good, or there may be one for evil: and it is for this reason that it states here, “[even those men] that made the people utter evil speech about the Land”, because, as I have stated, there is a דבה which may be termed good.
h.דבה is parlerie in O. F.; (Engl = utterance).
Numbers 14:37 h.במגפה לפני ה׳ [EVEN THOSE MEN DIED …] BY THE PLAGUE BEFORE THE LORD — by that death which was fitting for them — measure for measure. They had sinned with their tongue, therefore their tongue grew long extending right down to their navels, and worms came from their tongue and entered their navels. This is the reason why it states, they died by “the” plague, and not בְּמַגֵּפָה by “a” plague; this, too, is the meaning of the words “before the Lord” (they died by the plague which was before the Lord) — by that plague which was fitting for them according to the methods of the Holy One, blessed be He, Who metes out “measure for measure” (Sotah 35a).
Numbers 14:38 h.ויהושע וכלב... חיו וגו׳ AND JOSHUA AND CALEB LIVED [FROM THOSE MEN] etc. — What is the force of חיו מן האנשים ההם (does it not state later on, Numbers 26:65, ‘‘And there was not left a man of them save Caleb the son of Yephuneh and Joshua the son of Nun)"? But the phrase teaches that they received the portion of the spies in the Land and thus remained alive, so to speak, in their stead (i.e. the text does not intend to state that they alone of all those men remained alive, but that they lived “from” the other men, i.e. from their portion in the Land) (Bava Batra 118b).
Numbers 14:40 h.אל ראש ההר [AND THEY … WENT UP] INTO THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN — that is the route that leads up to the Land of Israel.
h.הננו ועלינו אל המקום LO, WE ARE HERE, AND WILL GO UP INTO THE PLACE, viz., to the Land of Israel,
h.אשר אמר ה׳ WHICH THE LORD HATH PROMISED to give us; thither will we go up, (and we will not return to Egypt).
h.כי חטאנו FOR WE HAVE SINNED in that we said, (v. 3) “were it not better for us to return to Egypt?”
Numbers 14:41 h.והיא לא תצלח AND IT SHALL NOT PROSPER — What you are about to do will not be successful.
Numbers 14:43 h.כי על כן שבתם — means: for (כי) this will come upon you, because (על כן) ye have turned away etc. (cf. Rashi on Genesis 18:5 and Numbers 10:31).
Numbers 14:44 h.ויעפלו is an expression for “strength” (doing a thing by insolent force). Similar is, (Habakkuk 2:4) “Behold it is insolent (עפלה)”, engres in O. F., an expression for insolent force. Similar also is, (Micah 4:8), “stronghold (עפל) of the daughter of Zion”; (Jes. 32:14) “the forts (עפל) and towers”. The Midrash Tanchuma 4:4:19, however, explains it (ויעפלו) to be of the same meaning as אופל, darkness, i.e. they went in darkness — without permission.
Numbers 14:45 h.ויכתום AND COMPLETELY DISCOMFITED THEM — This word is the same in meaning as (Deuteronomy 9:21) “and I pounded it (ואכות) and ground it very thin”. The text implies: blow upon blow.
h.ער החרמה EVEN UNTO HORMAH — The place was so called (חרמה doom, destruction) on account of what happened there