Gat them up, i.e. designed, or attempted, or prepared themselves to go up; for that they were not yet actually gone up, plainly appears from Numbers 14:42,44, and from Deuteronomy 1:41. Things designed or endeavoured in Scripture phrase are oft said to be done. See on Genesis 37:21,22 Exo 8:18.
Related Commentaries of Numbers 14:40
Numbers 14:40
40 And they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up into the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place which the LORD hath promised: for we have sinned.