So they said to one another, “Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt.”
Parallel translations
- WEB They said to one another, “Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.”
- KJV And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.
- ESV And they said to one another, “Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”
- NKJV So they said to one another, “Let us select a leader and return to Egypt.”
- NASB So they said to one another, “Let’s appoint a leader and return to Egypt!”
- NLT Then they plotted among themselves, “Let’s choose a new leader and go back to Egypt!”
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The people plotted to appoint a new leader and return to Egypt. This was outright rebellion against God's appointed plan and leadership.
Overview
By proposing to replace Moses and head back to slavery, the congregation rejected both their God-given leader and the salvation He represented. Returning to Egypt meant undoing the Exodus and despising God's redeeming work. The rebellion reached its climax here, demanding decisive divine response.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Acts 7:39But our fathers refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.
- Neh 9:16–17But they and our fathers became arrogant and stiff-necked and did not obey Your commandments.
- Luke 17:32Remember Lot’s wife!
- Deut 17:16But the king must not acquire many horses for himself or send the people back to Egypt to acquire more horses, for the LORD has said, ‘You are never to go back that way again.’
- Heb 11:15If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.
- Deut 28:68The LORD will return you to Egypt in ships by a route that I said you should never see again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”
- Heb 10:38–39But My righteous one will live by faith; and if he shrinks back, I will take no pleasure in him.”
- 2 Pet 2:21–22It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it and then to turn away from the holy commandment passed on to them.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
In the wilderness Christ is the water from the rock, the bronze serpent lifted up that the dying might look and live (John 3:14), and the star and scepter that Balaam saw rising out of Jacob.
How Numbers 14:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.