And with whom was he offended forty years? Was it not with them that sinned, whose carcasses were overthrown in the desert?
John Chrysostom
But here he means not unbelief only, but also murmurings: "whose carcasses," he says, "fell in the wilderness."
"They proved Me," He says, "and saw My works forty years." Seest thou that it is not right to call God to account, but whether He defend our cause or not, to trust Him? For against those of old he now brings this charge, that "they tempted God." For he that will have proof either of His power, or of His providence, or of His tender care, does not yet believe, either that He is powerful or kind to man. This he hints also in writing to these Hebrews who probably already wished, in their trials, to obtain experience and positive evidence of His power and His providential care for them. Thou seest that in all cases the provocation and the angering arises from unbelief.
Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.