(43) Are there before you.--Or, will be there before you. If the same persons are here spoken of as in Numbers 14:25, it will follow that they had left their temporary abode, and gone up into the hill country. It is possible however, that the reference is to different portions of the same nations.

14:40-45 Some of the Israelites were now earnest to go forward toward Canaan. But it came too late. If men would but be as earnest for heaven while their day of grace lasts, as they will be when it is over, how well would it be for them! That which has been duty in its season, when mistimed, may be turned into sin. Those who are out of the way of their duty, are not under God's protection, and go at their peril. God bade them go, and they would not; he forbade them, and they would go. Thus is the carnal mind enmity against God. They had distrusted God's strength; they now presume upon their own without his. And the expedition fails accordingly; now the sentence began to be executed, that their carcases should fall in the wilderness. That affair can never end well, which begins with sin. The way to obtain peace with our friends, and success against our enemies, is, to have God, as our Friend, and to keep in his love. Let us take warning from the fate of Israel, lest we perish after the same example of unbelief. Let us go forth, depending on God's mercy, power, promise, and truth; he will be with us, and bring our souls to everlasting rest.For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you,.... Having removed from the valley, Numbers 14:25; or else had detached a party to defend the pass on the top of the mountain, and where perhaps they designed to feign a retreat if they found it proper, and draw them into a combat in the valley:

and ye shall fall by the sword: by the sword of the Amalekites and Canaanites:

because ye are turned away from the Lord: from the word of the Lord, from hearkening to and obeying his command:

therefore the Lord will not be with you; the consequence of which must be bad for them.