Numbers 17:12

And the children of Israel spake unto Moses, saying, Behold, we die, we perish, we all perish.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(12, 13) And the children of Israel spake unto Moses . . . —The special manifestations of Divine power which the Israelites had witnessed excited within them salutary emotions of awe and of anxious apprehension, but do not seem to have awakened within them any corresponding sense of gratitude either for their deliverance from the plague, or for the privileges which they enjoyed by reason of the Divine presence amongst them. The true answer to their inquiry whether they were doomed utterly to perish is contained in the following chapter, in which the priesthood of Christ is typically set forth as bearing the iniquity of the sanctuary, and thus making reconciliation for the sins and securing the acceptance of the imperfect service of His people.

Benson Commentary

Numbers 17:12-13. Behold we die, we perish — Words of consternation, arising from the remembrance of these severe and repeated judgments, from the threatening of death upon any succeeding murmurings, and from the sense of their own guilt and weakness, which made them fear lest they should relapse into the same miscarriages, and thereby bring the vengeance of God upon themselves. Near — Nearer than he should do; an error which we may easily commit. Will God proceed with us according to his strict justice, till all the people be cut off?

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

17:8-13 While all the other rods remained as they were. Aaron's rod became a living branch. In some places there were buds, in others blossoms, in others fruit, at the same time; all this was miraculous. Thus Aaron was manifested to be under the special blessing of Heaven. Fruitfulness is the best evidence of a Divine call; and the plants of God's setting, and the boughs cut off them, will flourish. This rod was preserved, to take away the murmurings of the people, that they might not die. The design of God, in all his providences, and in the memorials of them, is to take away sin. Christ was manifested to take away sin. Christ is expressly called a rod out of the stem of Jesse: little prospect was there, according to human views, that he should ever flourish. But the dry rod revived and blossomed to the confusion of his adversaries. The people cry, Behold, we die, we perish, we all perish! This was the language of a repining people, quarrelling with the judgments of God, which by their own pride and obstinacy they brought upon themselves. It is very wicked to fret against God when we are in affliction, and in our distress thus to trespass yet more. If we die, if we perish, it is of ourselves, and the blame will be upon our own heads. When God judges, he will overcome, and will oblige the most obstinate gainsayers to confess their folly. And how great are our mercies, that we have a clearer and a better dispensation, established upon better promises!

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

A new section should begin with these verses. They are connected retrospectively with Numbers 16; and form the immediate introduction to Numbers 18. The people were terror-stricken by the fate of the company of Korah and by the plague. Presumption passed by reaction into despair. Was there any approach for them to the tabernacle of the Lord? Was there any escape from death, except by keeping aloof from His presence? The answers are supplied by the ordinances which testified that the God of judgment was still a God of grace and of love.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

12, 13. Behold, we die, we perish—an exclamation of fear, both from the remembrance of former judgments, and the apprehension of future relapses into murmuring.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Words of consternation arising, partly, from the remembrance of these severe and repeated judgments; partly, from the threatening of death upon ally succeeding murmurings; partly, from the sense of their own guilt and weakness, which made them fear lest they should relapse into the same miscarriages, and thereby bring the vengeance of God upon themselves.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the children of Israel spake unto Moses,.... The princes of the tribes, who had seen the miracle of the rod, and knew that it was laid up in the most holy place, and for what purpose, which gave them a sensible concern: these, and as many as were acquainted with it, addressed Moses upon it, as follows:

saying, behold, we die, we perish, we all perish; which being expressed without the copulative, and in different words, show that they were spoken quick and in haste, and discover the passion of mind and distress they were in, and the sense they had of their sin and danger, fearing they should all die and perish, as many had already; it has respect, as some think, to punishments past and future, so the Targum of Jonathan,"some of us have been consumed by flaming fire, and others of us have been swallowed up in the earth and are lost, and, lo, we are accounted as if all of us would perish.''

Geneva Study Bible

And the children of Israel spake unto Moses, saying, Behold, {f} we die, we perish, we all perish.

(f) The Chaldea text describes their complaining in this way; We die by the sword, the earth swallows us up, the pestilence consumes us.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

12. we expire, we perish, we all perish] This and the following verse form a transition to ch. 18, in which the Levites guard the Tent, lest any layman should perish by approaching it, as Korah and his company had attempted to do.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 12. - And the children of Israel spake unto Moses. It is a mistake to unite these verses specially with the following chapter, for they clearly belong to the story of Korah's rebellion, although not particularly connected with the miracle of the rod. These are the last wailings of the great storm which had raged against Moses and Aaron, which had roared so loudly and angrily at its height, which was now sobbing itself out in the petulant despair of defeated and disheartened men, cowed indeed, but not convinced, fearful to offend, yet not loving to obey. Numbers 17:12

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

This miracle awakened a salutary terror in all the people, so that they cried out to Moses in mortal anguish, "behold, we die, we perish, we all perish! Every one who comes near to the dwelling of Jehovah dies; are we all to die?" Even if this fear of death was no fruit of faith, it was fitted for all that to prevent any fresh outbreaks of rebellion on the part of the rejected generation.