Bible Strands
Numbers 14:4
So they said to one another, “Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The Israelite congregation speaks to one another after Moses reports the Promised Land, proposing to install a new commander to flee back to Egypt.
The words — The Hebrew נִתְּנָה רֹאשׁ (ni.te.Nah rosh) literally means "let us appoint a head," paired with וְ/נָשׁוּבָה מִצְרָיְמָה (ve./na.Shu.vah mitz.Ra.ye.ma/h) for "and let us return to Egypt."
The thread — This rebellion aligns with Acts 7:39, where Stephen records the ancestors rejecting the deliverer and turning back to Egypt in their hearts, and matches Nehemiah 9:16’s account of their arrogant refusal to obey God’s commands.
Why it lands — The text explicitly records a collective decision to trade divine promise for Egyptian bondage, demanding a reader confront how fear directly generates proposals to replace God’s appointed leadership.
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
And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.
Cross-references
- Acts 7:39 But our fathers refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.
- Nehemiah 9:16 But they and our fathers became arrogant and stiff-necked and did not obey Your commandments.
- Deuteronomy 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.’
- Luke 17:32 Remember Lot’s wife!
- Deuteronomy 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.”
- Hebrews 11:15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.
- Hebrews 10:38 But My righteous one will live by faith; and if he shrinks back, I will take no pleasure in him.”
- 2 Peter 2:21 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.