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.
They rose up early in the morning. Notwithstanding the tidings that Moses communicated, and which diffused a general feeling of melancholy and grief throughout the camp, the impression was of very brief continuance. They rushed from one extreme of rashness and perversity to another, and the obstinacy of their rebellious spirit was evinced by their active preparations to ascend the hill, notwithstanding the divine warning they had received not to undertake that enterprise.
For we have sinned - i:e., sensible of our sin, we now repent of it, and are eager to do as Caleb and Joshua exhorted us; or, as some render it, though we have sinned, we trust God will yet give us the land of promise.