All the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “We wish that we had died in the land of Egypt, or that we had died in this wilderness!
Parallel translations
- KJV And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness!
- BSB All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this wilderness!
- NKJV And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness!
- NASB And all the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron; and the entire congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or even if we had died in this wilderness!
- NLT Their voices rose in a great chorus of protest against Moses and Aaron. “If only we had died in Egypt, or even here in the wilderness!” they complained.
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
The people murmured against Moses and Aaron, wishing they had died in Egypt or the wilderness. Their complaint was ultimately a rejection of God Himself.
Overview
Grumbling against their leaders, the Israelites preferred death in slavery to trusting God for the land. Their words despised the very deliverance God had accomplished at the Exodus. Such murmuring exposes a heart that values comfort and safety over faith in God's good purposes.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 18
- Exod 15:24The people murmured against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?”
- Num 16:41But on the next day all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, “You have killed Yahweh’s people!”
- Exod 17:3The people were thirsty for water there; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us, our children, and our livestock with thirst?”
- Exod 16:2–3The whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron in the wilderness;
- Jude 1:16These are murmurers and complainers, walking after their lusts (and their mouth speaks proud things), showing respect of persons to gain advantage.
- Num 14:27–29“How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, that murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me.
- Phil 2:14–15Do all things without murmurings and disputes,
- 1 Cor 10:10Don’t grumble, as some of them also grumbled, and perished by the destroyer.
- Num 11:1The people were complaining in the ears of Yahweh. When Yahweh heard it, his anger burned; and Yahweh’s fire burned among them, and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp.
- Deut 1:27You murmured in your tents, and said, “Because Yahweh hated us, he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.
- Num 11:15If 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.”
- Jonah 4:3Therefore now, Yahweh, take, I beg you, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.”
- Jonah 4:8When the sun arose, God prepared a sultry east wind; and the sun beat on Jonah’s head, so that he fainted, and requested for himself that he might die, and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
- Ps 106:24Yes, they despised the pleasant land. They didn’t believe his word,
- Job 3:11“Why didn’t I die from the womb? Why didn’t I give up the spirit when my mother bore me?
- Ps 106:45He remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.
- 1 Kgs 19:4But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree. Then he requested for himself that he might die, and said, “It is enough. Now, O Yahweh, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.”
- Job 7:15–16so that my soul chooses strangling, death rather than my bones.
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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 14:2 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
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