“Yet he,
Being compassionate,
Forgave their iniquity.
He did not destroy them.
Often he restrained his anger.
He did not stir up all his wrath.
He remembered that they were but flesh.
They were a wind that passes
And does not come again.
How often they rebelled against him
In the wilderness.
They grieved him in the desert!
They tested God again and again.
They provoked the Holy One of Israel.”
Instead of destroying them all, the compassionate God forgave them. He restrained his anger as he remembered that they were only human. They were like the wind that passes away never to return. They continued to rebel in the wilderness as they grieved him in the desert. Thus the wilderness time lasted longer than they had expected. They continually tested and provoked the God of Israel.
Eugene Finnegan Bible Project 