Num 14:11-25 reads as follows:
And the LORD said to Moses, "How long will this people spurn Me, and how long will they have no faith in Me despite all the signs that I have performed in their midst? I will strike them with pestilence and disown them, and I will make of you a nation far more numerous than they!" But Moses said to the Lord, "When the Egyptians, from whose midst You brought up this people in Your might, hear the news, they will tell it to the inhabitants of that land. Now they have heard that You, O Lord are in the midst of this people; that You, O Lord, appear in plain sight when Your cloud rests over them and when You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. If then You slay this people to a man, the nations who have heard Your fame will say, 'It must be because the Lord was powerless to bring that people into the land He had promised them on oath that He slaughtered them in the wilderness.' Therefore, I pray, let my Lord's forbearance be great, as You have declared, saying, 'The LORD! slow to anger and abounding in kindness; forgiving iniquity and transgression; yet not remitting all punishment, but visiting the iniquity of fathers upon children, upon the third and fourth generations.' Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people according to Your great kindness, as You have forgiven this people ever since Egypt." And the Lord said, "I pardon, as you have asked. Nevertheless, as I live and as the Lord's Presence fills the whole world, none of the men who have seen My Presence and the signs that I have performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, and who have tried Me these many times and have disobeyed Me, shall see the land that I promised on oath to their fathers; none of those who spurn Me shall see it. But My servant Caleb, because he was imbued with a different spirit and remained loyal to Me -- him will I bring into the land that he entered, and his offspring shall hold it as a possession. Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites occupy the valleys. Start out, then, tomorrow and march into the wilderness by way of the Sea of Reeds." (1985 JPS Tanakh)
As with Exo 32-34, God changes his mind and becomes propitious to Israel as a result of Moses’ intercession, something that is strong evidence, not just of the personal nature of God, but also the “Open future” (as readers know, I am an Open Theist).
Baruch Levine offered the following note on this pericope in his Anchor Bible Commentary on Num 1-20:
The Attributes of God and the Intercession of Moses
(Num 14:11-25)
Y. Muffs (1978 [“Reflections on Prophetic Prayer in the Bible (Hebrew) eretz-Israel 14:48-84]) has clarified the subject of the prophetic role as it is expressed in biblical literature, showing how complex and subtle this role was understood to be. There has been a tendency to interpret the Israelite prophets are primarily the bearers of God’s word to Israel and to other nations. The emphasis ignores, to a considerable extent, the effectiveness of prophet as an intercessor on behalf of a distressed and threatened people.
Muffs explains that “the hand of YHWH” (yad YHWH),” the symbol of God’s dominance over the prophet, must be understood in tandem with prophetic prayer and supplication, the expressions of the individuality of the prophet and his conscience, one might say. In Muff’s view biblical literature conceives of the God of Israel as a deity who, if truth be said, favors individuals for the prophetic assignment who are not “yes men.” He chooses persons who dare to challenge him. Note that Abraham is called a prophet in Gen 20:7, even though he was not sent to bear a message to a people. In part, Abraham’s relation to God seems to have been that of an advocate, negotiating with God over Sodom and Gomorrah, for instance.
In Num 13 and 14 we observe a significant development in Moses’ role as an intercessor on behalf of his people, Israel. This role was first portrayed in Exodus 32 and 34, as well as briefly in Numbers 11-12. In literary terms, it seems reasonable to regard Numbers 13-14 as having been based to a considerable extent on Exodus 32 and 34. We have in Num 14:11-25 the reuse of themes first conveyed in the context of the Sinai theophany, and reapplied, as it were, to the situation at Kadesh.
Israel’s sin of worshipping the golden calf, committed at the very time that Moses was atop Sinai receiving God’s covenantal gift to his people, generated the need for intercession when God threatened to annihilate Israel. The same role comes to the fore after Israel balks at the challenge of the conquest of Canaan, when Israelite forces were positioned to penetrate Canaan from the south.
The nexus of Exodus 32 and 34, on the one hand, and Numbers 13-14, on the other, reveals the fullness of God’s plan for Israel. At Mount Sinai the God of Israel informed his people of its proper way of life in its land. The centrality of the land is expressed in Moses’ appeal to God not to renege on his promise of granting the land to his people (Exod 32:13-14). The orientation toward the Promised Land is again conveyed in Exod 34:10-26, pursuant to God’s forgiveness in response to Moses’ entreaty. There Israel is admonished concerning proper worship once it defeats the Canaanites and settles Canaan with God’s assistance.
The same dynamics informs Num 14:11-25, albeit with some differences. Moses taunts God about what the Egyptians will conclude from the premature extinction of Israel in the wilderness, thus resonating the theme of the promise of the land. Keeping more to the role of Moses himself, we note that both in Exod 32:10 and 32, and in Num 14:12, God is said to have offered Moses the leadership of another people, only to have Moses flatly refuse such an opportunity. As a prophetic leader, Moses is fiercely loyal to Israel, and his major effort is aimed at persuading God to forgive his sinful people and to bring his plan for them to fruition. In both Exodus and Numbers, the liturgical invocation of God’s attributes of compassion serves to announce divine forgiveness.
The version of the attributes is abbreviated in Num 14:18, as compared with the version found in Exod 34:6-7, and it is also introduced in a different way. In Exodus, God’s compassion allows for a second transmission of the covenantal tablets, whereas in Numbers it signals God’s forbearance, his kôaḥ (Num 14:17). God will not cancel his program with respect to the land, only delay it, thereby preventing the current leadership and probably the entire people from entering the land.
Muffs calls attention to the deferral of punishment that is basic to the statement of divine attributes and is voiced in the Decalogue in association with the prohibition of pagan worship (Exod 20:5-6; Deut 5:9-10). This emphasis makes it quite clear, by the way, that Exodus 34 is the source of Num 14:11-25, where the context shifts from the issue of pagan worship to that of the lack of faith in God’s promise and his power to accomplish the conquest of Canaan.
Exod 32:34 also implies that deferral of punishment and its visitation on the second, third, or fourth generation was at times perceived as a merciful act. God’s kindness lasts a thousand generations, whereas deferral of punishment has a statute of limitation, we might say. If God can be persuaded to extend his grace beyond the fourth generation. Israel will not be punished for ancient sins! The conception is in tension with another biblical viewpoint, which regards delayed punishment as unjust, as punishment of the innocent by substitution.
It would be ironic if unjust cruelty were to be cited as evidence of God’s covenant love (ḥesed). We cannot, therefore, interpret the delaying of punishment stated in the pronouncement of the attributes as an injustice, and must regard deferral as essentially an act of divine kindness. It allowed the conquest of Canaan to proceed, albeit with some delay. This interpretation is suggested by Exod 32:34: “But for now, go lead the people to the place that I have specified to you. Behold, my divine messenger shall go ahead of you. But, on the day of my punitive visitation, I shall hold them accountable for their sin.” We note that similar notions inform Amos 3:14 and Jer 27:2 and 32:5, where exile is the punishment of reference.
In summary, um 14:11-25 reuse the themes of Exodus 32 and 34 in composing the Kadesh historiography, as these themes bear on the enterprise of conquest and settlement, so as to explain how it was that the fulfillment of God’s promise took so long. (Baruch Levine, Numbers 1-20 [AB 4; New York: Doubleday, 1993], 379-81)
For more on biblical texts that teach contingent foreknowledge, not exhaustive foreknowledge, see: