Numbers 14:4
2 All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this wilderness!
3 Why is the LORD bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and children will become plunder. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?”
So they said to one another, “Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt.”
5 Then Moses and Aaron fell facedown before the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel.
6 Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes
Here the Bible tells a story about someone else. Ask yourself what it can say to us today. Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.
Compare
- BSB
- So they said to one another, “Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt.”
- KJV
- And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.
- WEB
- They said to one another, “Let’s choose a leader, and let’s return into Egypt.”
- ASV
- And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.
- DARBY
- And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return to Egypt.
- BLB
- And they said a man to his brother, “Let us set a leader and return to Egypt.”
- ÅB
- Og de sa til hverandre: La oss velge oss en høvding og vende tilbake til Egypt!
- OTB
- Og de sa til hverandre: “La oss utnevne en leder og dra tilbake til Egypt.”
- B1930
- Og de sa til hverandre: La oss velge oss en høvding og vende tilbake til Egypten!
Study notes (Tyndale)
Original text and word study
Cross references
Acts 7:39
But our fathers refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.
Read in contextNehemiah 9:16–17
But they and our fathers became arrogant and stiff-necked and did not obey Your commandments.
Read in contextLuke 17:32
Remember Lot’s wife!
Read in contextDeuteronomy 17:16
But the king must not acquire many horses for himself or send the people back to Egypt to acquire more horses, for the LORD has said, ‘You are never to go back that way again.’
Read in contextDeuteronomy 28:68
The LORD will return you to Egypt in ships by a route that I said you should never see again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”
Read in contextHebrews 11:15
If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.
Read in context2 Peter 2:21–22
It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it and then to turn away from the holy commandment passed on to them.
Read in contextHebrews 10:38–39
But My righteous one will live by faith; and if he shrinks back, I will take no pleasure in him.”
Read in context