Discovery BoxNumbers 14:27 
Context14:27 “How long must I bear 1 with this evil congregation 2 that murmurs against me? I have heard the complaints of the Israelites that they murmured against me.
Numbers 14:36
Context14:36 The men whom Moses sent to investigate the land, who returned and made the whole community murmur against him by producing 3 an evil report about the land,
1 tn The figure is aposiopesis, or sudden silence. The main verb is deleted from the line, “how long…this evil community.” The intensity of the emotion is the reason for the ellipsis.
2 sn It is worth mentioning in passing that this is one of the Rabbinic proof texts for having at least ten men to form a congregation and have prayer. If God called ten men (the bad spies) a “congregation,” then a congregation must have ten men. But here the word “community/congregation” refers in this context to the people of Israel as a whole, not just to the ten spies.
3 tn The verb is the Hiphil infinitive construct with a lamed (ל) preposition from the root יָצָא (yatsa’, “to bring out”). The use of the infinitive here is epexegetical, that is, explaining how they caused the people to murmur.
