What Does Numbers 14:20 Mean?

(20) **I have pardoned according to thy word.—**The holiness and justice of the Lord required that punishment should overtake the transgressors, as it had been foretold in Exodus 32:34. Nevertheless the prayer of Moses was heard and answered, and the people were not wholly exterminated. (21, 22, 23) **But as truly as I live . . . —**The three verses may be rendered as follows:—*Nevertheless, as truly as I live, and all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, none of those men who have seen my glory and my signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and *(*who*)* tempted me these ten times, and hearkened not unto my voice, shall see the land which I sware unto their fathers, *&c. Some have explained the words *these ten times *by adding to the eight murmurings which are recorded—(1) at the Red Sea (Exodus 14:11-12); (2) at Marah (Exodus 15:23); (3) in the wilderness of Sin (Exodus 16:2); (4) at Rephidim (Exodus 17:1); (5) at Horeb (Exodus 32); (6) at Taberah (Numbers 11:1); (7) at the graves of lust (Numbers 11:4); and (8) at Kadesh (Numbers 14)—the transgressions of certain individuals—(1) in keeping the manna until the morning of the day after that on which it was gathered (Exodus 16:20); and (2) in going out to gather the manna on the seventh day, when none fell (Exodus 16:27). It is more probable, however, that the number *ten *is used here, as elsewhere (comp. Genesis 31:7), as denoting a full measure. The persons to whom the penalty applied are specified in Numbers 14:29 : viz., those who were included in the first census. The principal exceptions to the threat of exclusion from the land of promise are specified in Numbers 14:30-31 : viz., Joshua and Caleb, and the generation which had not reached twenty years of age at the exodus. The other exception, or exceptions, if such there were, belonged to the tribe of Levi, which was not included in the census which was first taken, nor represented by the spies. It has been inferred from the fact that Nadab and Abihu only went up into the mountain with Moses and Aaron, that Eleazar, who entered Canaan with Joshua (Joshua 14:1), was under twenty years of age at the exodus. It may be observed that it does not follow that the regulation respecting the age of the Levites at the time of entering upon their service applied also to the priests, and consequently Eleazar *may *have been under twenty years of age at the time of his consecration. (Comp. 2Chronicles 31:17.) There seems, however, to be no sufficient authority for such a supposition.