📖 Biblical Definition
The fourth book of the Bible. Numbers records the thirty-eight wilderness years between Sinai and the plains of Moab. The book is structured by two censuses (chapters 1 and 26) bracketing the unbelieving generation that died in the wilderness for refusing to enter Canaan after the bad report of the ten spies. Major events: the bronze serpent, Korah's rebellion, Balaam's donkey, the death of Aaron and Miriam, and Joshua's commissioning.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
NUMBERS, n.
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A scriptural proper name; the fourth book of the Bible.
📖 Key Scripture
Numbers 6:24 — "The Lord bless thee, and keep thee."
Numbers 14:34 — "After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities."
Numbers 21:8 — "Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live."
Numbers 23:19 — "God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Modern Christianity rarely teaches the wilderness generation; their bones are warning literature for us.
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1 Corinthians 10:11 says explicitly that the wilderness narratives were written for our admonition. The unbelieving generation that came out of Egypt did not enter Canaan because they did not believe the Lord could give them the land. Their bones are warning literature for the church. Modern Christianity rarely teaches the chapter; some sermons exit Egypt and skip directly to Canaan, ignoring the thirty-eight years between.
Read Numbers as warning. Hebrews 3-4 makes the same application: the wilderness generation fell because of unbelief; do not repeat their sin. Believe the Lord; enter the rest; do not collapse on the plains of Moab. The promised land belongs to faith, not to nostalgia for Egypt.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Hebrew/Greek roots below.
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H4057 — midbar — wilderness
H4557 — mispar — number
Usage
"Modern Christianity rarely teaches the wilderness generation; their bones are warning literature."
"Hebrews 3-4 says do not repeat their unbelief."
"The promised land belongs to faith, not to nostalgia for Egypt."