Bible Strands
Numbers 14:12
I will strike them with a plague and destroy them—and I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they are.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God addresses Moses immediately after questioning how long the Israelites will treat Him with contempt and reject His signs.
The words — The Hebrew verb אַכֶּ֥נּוּ ('akkenû) literally means “I will strike it,” and the noun בַּדֶּ֖בֶר (baḏḇer) denotes “pestilence.”
The thread — This threat of plague and nation-making parallels the identical proposal in Exodus 32:10 and points forward to the 24,000 killed in the plague of Numbers 25:9.
Why it lands — The text states that corporate disobedience triggers immediate destruction while covenant faithfulness produces a greater nation. A reader must accept that collective destiny follows directly from either persistent unbelief or sustained trust.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.
Cross-references
- Exodus 32:10 Now leave Me alone, so that My anger may burn against them and consume them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”
- Numbers 16:46 Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer, place fire from the altar in it, and add incense. Go quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them, because wrath has come out from the LORD; the plague has begun.”
- Numbers 25:9 but those who died in the plague numbered 24,000.
- 2 Samuel 24:1 Again the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He stirred up David against them, saying, “Go and take a census of Israel and Judah.”
- Exodus 5:3 “The God of the Hebrews has met with us,” they answered. “Please let us go on a three-day journey into the wilderness to sacrifice to the LORD our God, or He may strike us with plagues or with the sword.”
- 2 Samuel 24:12 “Go and tell David that this is what the LORD says: ‘I am offering you three options. Choose one of them, and I will carry it out against you.’”