Numbers 14:12 (WEB)

Passage

I will strike them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”

Nearby Context

Numbers 14:10 But all the congregation threatened to stone them with stones. Yahweh’s glory appeared in the Tent of Meeting to all the children of Israel.

Numbers 14:11 Yahweh said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? and how long will they not believe in me, for all the signs which I have worked among them?

Numbers 14:12 I will strike them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”

Numbers 14:13 Moses said to Yahweh, “Then the Egyptians will hear it; for you brought up this people in your might from among them.

Numbers 14:14 They will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you Yahweh are among this people; for you Yahweh are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them, and you go before them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "strike", "pestilence", "disinherit", "make", "nation", "greater", "mightier", and "than". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "strike" and "pestilence", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 11's "Yahweh said to Moses How long will..." into verse 13's "Moses said to Yahweh Then the Egyptians...", so "strike" and "pestilence" belong inside that flow. In Numbers context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "strike" and "pestilence" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.