6 And Moses saith to the sons of Gad and to the sons of Reuben, 'Do your brethren go in to the battle, and ye—do ye sit here? 7 and why discourage ye the heart of the sons of Israel from passing over unto the land which Jehovah hath given to them? 8 'Thus did your fathers in my sending them from Kadesh-Barnea to see the land; 9 and they go up unto the valley of Eshcol, and see the land, and discourage the heart of the sons of Israel so as not to go in unto the land which Jehovah hath given to them; 10 and the anger of Jehovah burneth in that day, and He sweareth, saying, 11 They do not see—the men who are coming up out of Egypt from a son of twenty years and upward—the ground which I have sworn to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, for they have not been fully after Me; 12 save Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenezite, and Joshua son of Nun, for they have been fully after Jehovah; 13 and the anger of Jehovah burneth against Israel, and He causeth them to wander in the wilderness forty years, until the consumption of all the generation which is doing the evil thing in the eyes of Jehovah. 14 'And lo, ye have risen in the stead of your fathers, an increase of men—sinners, to add yet to the fury of the anger of Jehovah toward Israel; 15 when ye turn back from after Him, then He hath added yet to leave him in the wilderness, and ye have done corruptly to all this people.'
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Numbers 32:6-15
Commentary on Numbers 32:6-15
(Read Numbers 32:6-15)
The proposal showed disregard to the land of Canaan, distrust of the Lord's promise, and unwillingness to encounter the difficulties and dangers of conquering and driving out the inhabitants of that land. Moses is wroth with them. It will becomes any of God's Israel to sit down unconcerned about the difficult and perilous concerns of their brethren, whether public or personal. He reminds them of the fatal consequences of the unbelief and faint-heartedness of their fathers, when they were, as themselves, just ready to enter Canaan. If men considered as they ought what would be the end of sin, they would be afraid of the beginning of it.