But Moses said to the LORD, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for you brought up this people in your might from among them,
13. Then the Egyptians shall hear it. Moses here, according to his custom, stands “in the breach” of the wall, as it is said in Psalm 106:23, to sustain and avert the anger of God, which else would burst forth, since through his intercession it came to pass that the fire was speedily extinguished, and the people were not consumed.
Here is, I. The righteous sentence which God gave against Israel for their murmuring and unbelief, which, though afterwards mitigated, showed what was the desert of their sin and the demand of injured justice, and what would have been done if Moses had not interposed.
Commenting on Numbers 14:11-19
And Moses said unto the Lord,.... In an abrupt manner, as the following words show, his mind being greatly disturbed and distressed by the above threatening: then the Egyptians shall hear it; that the Lord had smitten the Israelites with the pestilence; the Targum of Jonathan interprets it of the children of the Egyptians who were suffocated in the sea: for thou broughtest up this...