If this is how You are going to treat me, please kill me right now—if I have found favor in Your eyes—and let me not see my own wretchedness.”
Parallel translations
- WEB If you treat me this way, please kill me right now, if I have found favor in your sight; and don’t let me see my wretchedness.”
- KJV And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I have found favour in thy sight; and let me not see my wretchedness.
- NKJV If You treat me like this, please kill me here and now—if I have found favor in Your sight—and do not let me see my wretchedness!”
- NASB So if You are going to deal with me this way, please kill me now, if I have found favor in Your sight, and do not let me see my misery.”
- NLT If this is how you intend to treat me, just go ahead and kill me. Do me a favor and spare me this misery!”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
In anguish Moses asks God to take his life rather than face such misery. His despair shows the real cost of faithful service.
Overview
Moses would rather die than continue bearing the people alone. Like Elijah and Jonah, a faithful servant reaches the depths of discouragement. God does not rebuke him but answers with mercy and practical help, showing tender care for his exhausted servants.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Jonah 4:3And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
- 1 Kgs 19:4while he himself traveled on a day’s journey into the wilderness. He sat down under a broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”
- Jonah 4:8–9As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint and wished to die, saying, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
- Jer 20:18Why did I come out of the womb to see only trouble and sorrow, and to end my days in shame?
- Phil 1:20–24I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have complete boldness so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.
- Zeph 3:15The LORD has taken away your punishment; He has turned back your enemy. Israel’s King, the LORD, is among you; no longer will you fear any harm.
- Exod 32:32Yet now, if You would only forgive their sin.... But if not, please blot me out of the book that You have written.”
- Job 7:15so that I would prefer strangling and death over my life in this body.
- Job 6:8–10If only my request were granted and God would fulfill my hope:
- Jer 15:18Why is my pain unending, and my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? You have indeed become like a mirage to me—water that is not there.
- Job 3:20–22Why is light given to the miserable, and life to the bitter of soul,
- Jas 1:4Allow perseverance to finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
In the wilderness Christ is the water from the rock, the bronze serpent lifted up that the dying might look and live (John 3:14), and the star and scepter that Balaam saw rising out of Jacob.
How Numbers 11:15 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.