Ver. 1. And the people wept that night.] As being too light of belief: the lies of the spies they took for oracles.
Ver. 2. Would God that we had died.] Words of deep discontent, despair, and unthanklulness.
Ver. 3. Were it not better for us to return into Egypt.] How could that be better? It is our wisest way, to crush the very first insurrections of unruly passions (do not great storms rise out of little gusts?); to smother the smoke thereof, which else will fume up into the head, and gather into so thick a cloud, as we shall soon lose the sight of ourselves, and what is best to be done.
Ver. 4. Let us make a captain.] Thus they proceeded from bad to worse. Passions, like heavy bodies down steep hills, once in motion move themselves, and know no ground but the bottom. Whether this people did make them such a captain, for such a purpose, is uncertain; but howsoever their very intention of doing it, is charged upon them, as if they had done it. (Nehemiah 9:16,17)
Ver. 5. Before all the assembly.] What they said unto them see Deuteronomy 1:29,30. See also on Numbers 16:15.
Ver. 6. Rent their clothes.] And wept, saith Sulpitius.
Ver. 9. They are bread for us,] q.d., We shall make but a breakfast of them. So that valiant Prince of Orange told his soldiers at the battle of Newport, when they had the sea on the one side, and the Spaniards on the other, that they must either eat up those Spaniards, or drink up that sea.
Ver. 10. But all the congregation bade stone them.] This is merces mundi, this is the fruit of ochlocratie, that rule of rascality, as one calls it.
Ver. 11. Ere they believe me.] Unbelief is the root of rebellion and apostasy. (Hebrews 3:12)
Ver. 12. And I will make of thee a greater nation.] Here God offered Moses a private fortune, which he prudently refuseth, because God should be a loser by it. And surely, saith a divine, as God was displeased with Balsam for going, though he bade him go: so the Lord would not have taken it so kindly of Moses if he had taken him upon the offer he made in a time of his heat, against his people.
Ver. 13. Then the Egyptians shall hear it.] And they will soon make comedies out of the Church’s tragedies.
Ver. 14. And they will tell it.] The proverb is, Oculus et fama non patiuntur iocos, A man’s eye and his good name can bear no jests. And he was no fool that said, Negligere quid de se quisque dicat, non solum arrogantis est, sed et dissolati, He shall pass for a proud fool that makes no matter what men say of him. God is most tender of his glory; and we must take heed how we cast any slur upon it; for we quarter arms, as it were, with God. Cicero.
Ver. 15. Kill all this people as one man.] As he can quickly do, with a turn of his hand, with a nod of his head, (Psalms 80:16) with a breath of his nostrils. (Job 4:9) He can as soon do it, as bid it be done, “whether it be done against a nation, or against a man only.” (Job 34:29)
Ver. 17. Let the power of my Lord be great.] In multiplying pardons, (Isaiah 55:8) in passing by the many and bony, or “mighty sins of” this people, such sins as none else could or would pardon: “For who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth such iniquity?” &c. (Micah 7:18) Hebricians have observed, that in the word jidgal here used in the original text, there is a great jod, which in numbering is ten, to show, that if the people should murmur ten times more against God than they had done, yet out of tender respect to his own great name, which would otherwise be basely blasphemed, he should pardon and spare them. [Hebrew Text Note] Amos 5:12. Heb., Bony sins, fortia peccata.
Ver. 18. And by no means clearing the guilty.] This last letter in God’s dreadful name ought much to be marked. God may pardon men’s sins, and yet lay it on their skin, to humble themselves, and to warn others. “Thou forgavest them, though thou tookest vengeance of their inventions.” (Psalms 99:8)
Ver. 19. According to the greatness of thy mercy.] God’s power pleaded, (Numbers 14:17) and his mercy here are the Jachin and the Boaz whereon faith resteth.
Ver. 20. I have pardoned them,] viz., So as not utterly, and at once, to extirpate them. I will be “as a moth” unto them, and not as a devouring lion. (Hosea 5:12,14)
Ver. 21. But as truly as I live.] This is an oath, as appears by comparing herewith Psalms 95:11. To blame therefore are they that use it so often. All the earth shall be filled.] I will make me a great name abroad; and even of those maidservants, the heathens, which thou hast spoken of, shall I be had in honour, as he said in another case. (2 Samuel 6:22)
Ver. 24. Because he had another spirit.] Let us go up and possess it, saith he. (Numbers 13:30) As if it were no more than to go and see and conquer. A free spirit is enkindled with that which quencheth others: as when a bowl runs downhill, every bounce quickens it, whereas if uphill, it would slug it. And hath followed me fully.] Heb., Hath fulfilled after me. A metaphor from a ship under sail, carried strongly with the wind, as fearing neither rocks nor sands. And his seed.] Personal goodness is profitable to posterity. Who would not serve such a Lord? Veni, Vidi, Vici. I came, I saw, I conquered! Implevit post me.
Ver. 25. Now the Amalekites.] There was but a mountain between: so they were close by the Promised Land, and yet could not enter because of unbelief. Thou art not far from God’s kingdom? the greater is thine unhappiness, that fallest from so high hopes. By the way of the Red Sea.] Since you have such a mind to it, you shall have enough of it. “The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways.” (Proverbs 14:14)
Ver. 28. So will I do to you.] God took them at their words: so he may well do our desperate swearers, since the mercy they desire God to show is to damn them. This self-cursing seldom escapeth God’s visible vengeance: witness those Jews of old, who cried, “His blood be on us,” &c., besides many others of late that might be instanced. Mr Perkins tells of certain English soldiers in King Edward VI’s time, who were cast upon the French shore by a storm, in which stress they went to prayer, that they might be delivered; but one soldier among the rest, instead of praying, cried out, Gallows take thy right, or claim thy due: when he came home he was hanged indeed. So was Sir Gervaise Ellowayes, Lieutenant of the Tower in King James’ time, whose usual word at his playing at cards and dice had been, as he sorrowfully confessed at the gallows, I would I might be hanged if it be not so or so. Looking glass for Malignants.
Ver. 29. Your carcasses shall fall.] Cadaver a cadendo; πρωμα παρα το πιπτειν. Who knows whether God purpose not to wear out this generation, that hath been defiled with the superstitions of the land we live in, that we may not see the good that he will bring upon this Church!
Ver. 34. My breach of promise,] i.e., Ye shall find to your cost, what it is to charge me with breach of promise, through unbelief.
Ver. 39. Mourned greatly.] God gave them somewhat to cry for.
Ver. 40. We have sinned.] Here was confession of sin, without confusion for sin. So was that of Saul. (1 Samuel 15:30)
Ver. 45. And smote them.] To be out of God’s precincts, is to be out of his protection.