If you turn away from him like this and he abandons them again in the wilderness, you will be responsible for destroying this entire nation!”
Parallel translations
- WEB For if you turn away from after him, he will yet again leave them in the wilderness; and you will destroy all these people.”
- KJV For if ye turn away from after him, he will yet again leave them in the wilderness; and ye shall destroy all this people.
- BSB For if you turn away from following Him, He will once again leave this people in the wilderness, and you will be the cause of their destruction.”
- NKJV For if you turn away from following Him, He will once again leave them in the wilderness, and you will destroy all these people.”
- NASB For if you turn away from following Him, He will once more leave them in the wilderness, and you will destroy all these people.”
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
Moses warns that if they turn away, God will again abandon Israel in the wilderness, and they will be the cause of the nation's ruin. Their choice carries weight for everyone.
Overview
Moses presses the danger to its conclusion: turning back from following God would bring renewed abandonment and destroy the whole people. The verse underscores how covenant faithfulness is corporate, not merely individual. It anticipates the gospel truth that perseverance matters and that the leaders and members of God's people bear responsibility for one another's steadfastness.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- 2 Chr 15:2and he went out to meet Asa, and said to him, “Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin! Yahweh is with you, while you are with him; and if you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will forsake you.
- 1 Cor 8:11–12And through your knowledge, he who is weak perishes, the brother for whose sake Christ died.
- Deut 28:15–68But it shall come to pass, if you will not listen to Yahweh your God’s voice, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come on you, and overtake you.
- Deut 30:17–19But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them;
- Josh 22:16–18“Thus says the whole congregation of Yahweh, ‘What trespass is this that you have committed against the God of Israel, to turn away today from following Yahweh, in that you have built yourselves an altar, to rebel today against Yahweh?
- 2 Chr 7:19–22But if you turn away, and forsake my statutes and my commandments which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods, and worship them;
- Rom 14:15Yet if because of food your brother is grieved, you walk no longer in love. Don’t destroy with your food him for whom Christ died.
- Lev 26:14–18“‘But if you will not listen to me, and will not do all these commandments;
- Num 14:30–35surely you shall not come into the land, concerning which I swore that I would make you dwell therein, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.
- Matt 18:7“Woe to the world because of occasions of stumbling! For it must be that the occasions come, but woe to that person through whom the occasion comes!
- Rom 14:20–21Don’t overthrow God’s work for food’s sake. All things indeed are clean, however it is evil for that man who creates a stumbling block by eating.
- Jer 38:23They will bring out all your wives and your children to the Chaldeans. You won’t escape out of their hand, but will be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon. You will cause this city to be burned with fire.’”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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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 32:15 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.