Or HaChaim on Numbers 14:11/אור החיים על במדבר י״ד:י״א

1 ויאמר ה׳….עד אנה ינאצוני העם הזה, G'd said to Moses: "how long will this nation continue to spurn Me?" G'd's question was intended to forestall Moses praying on behalf of the people; it is similar to G'd having said הניחה לי, "let Me be," when G'd had told Moses about the golden calf (Exodus 32,10). The absence of the word לאמור in our verse is a hint that Moses should not speak.

2עד אנה ינאצוני…ועד אנה לא יאמינו בי, "how long will they spurn Me and not have faith in Me?" If the people spurned G'd, what is the point in complaining about their not having faith in Him? Perhaps the expression "spurn" refers to the spies, whereas the statement about the people lacking in faith refers to the people at large.

3Another interpretation understands that the words ינאצוני were directed at the people who did not only throw stones at Joshua and Caleb but even at the cloud which enveloped them, i.e. at G'd Himself (Sotah 35). Other Israelites were merely afraid of the Canaanites but did not engage in activities which gave vent to their frustration. G'd described this latter group of people as the ones who did not have faith in Him. Both categories of people qualified for the pestilence G'd was about to unleash at the Israelites. He used the word אכנו, "I will smite them," when describing how He would punish the ones guilty of spurning Him, whereas He used the term אורישנו, "I will destroy them," when addressing the ones who displayed acts indicating that they spurned the Lord. The latter punishment included forfeiting the world to come. The ten spies themselves suffered both penalties as we can see from verse 37. Sanhedrin 108 makes it clear that the ten spies have forfeited life in the hereafter.

4When the Torah speaks of G'd wanting to make a new nation out of Moses, a nation more powerful than the Israelites of that time, this meant that G'd would provide Moses with spiritual powers he had not possessed up until that moment. The word ממנו means that the new Jewish nation would emerge as a continuation, i.e. re-incarnation of the present Jewish people. Their souls would undergo a process of transmigration to be able to emerge as a spiritually stronger nation.

5These verses may also be understood as an attempt by G'd to present stronger arguments than the ones Moses had rejected at the time of the golden calf episode when G'd had once before proposed to make a new Jewish nation with Moses as their founder (compare Exodus 32,10). G'd reinforced the argument He had used to Moses at the time of the golden calf episode by pointing out that the people's behaviour had not improved in the interval. עד אנה, "how long is this supposed to go on?" They have spurned Me time and again so that there is no more any excuse to overlook their conduct. When G'd mentioned this He forestalled Moses who would have referred to G'd's image being denigrated if He allowed these people to be wiped out after all their misdemeanours. The Egyptians would not be able to say that G'd had already intended to wipe out this people at the time He took them out of Egypt. G'd also demolished the argument that these people had the merit of their forefathers going for them. No great king, especially someone such as G'd, could be expected to suffer such repeated spurning to which the Israelites had subjected G'd.

6Shabbat 89 has the patriarchs Abraham and Jacob saying to G'd who had told them: "your children have sinned," that the Israelites who had spurned Him should be wiped off the face of the earth in order that G'd's honour not be impugned. Even the patriarchs did not want someone to anger G'd. Regarding the argument used by Moses during the episode of the golden calf that "G'd had taken so much trouble to orchestrate the Exodus of the Jewish people," and that therefore a new Jewish people could not have evolved during so many hundreds of years in an iron crucible such as Egypt, G'd said that in the end all these trials had proved worthless. The people did not even have faith in G'd after all the miracles He had performed on their behalf. As far as keeping the oath to the patriarchs was concerned, G'd suggested that Moses would become the founding member of a new nation descended from the original patriarchs. There remained the problem of how could one be certain that a new Jewish nation based on Moses would be any better than the present one? G'd argued that if the souls of the new Jewish nation would be based on Moses, surely they would be greater than those of the present Jewish people. Such souls would be closer to the source of sanctity than the souls of the present Jewish people had been. Compare my commentary on Genesis 49,3 about Reuben's soul having been flawed. The very fact that the present Jewish people had spent so many years in the morally corrupt climate of Egypt was a strike against them which a nation based on Moses would not have to contend with.