Numbers 14:14-16
14:14 then they will tell it to the inhabitants 1 of this land. They have heard that you, Lord, are among this people, that you, Lord, are seen face to face, 2 that your cloud stands over them, and that you go before them by day in a pillar of cloud and in a pillar of fire by night.
14:15 If you kill 3 this entire people at once, 4 then the nations that have heard of your fame will say,
14:16 ‘Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land that he swore to them, he killed them in the wilderness.’
1 tn The singular participle is to be taken here as a collective, representing all the inhabitants of the land.
2 tn “Face to face” is literally “eye to eye.” It only occurs elsewhere in Isa 52:8. This expresses the closest communication possible.
3 tn The verb is the Hiphil perfect of מוּת (mut), וְהֵמַתָּה (vÿhemattah). The vav (ו) consecutive makes this also a future time sequence verb, but again in a conditional clause.
4 tn Heb “as one man.”