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!
Parallel translations
- WEB 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!
- 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!
- 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 15:24So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?”
- Num 16:41The next day the whole congregation of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron, saying, “You have killed the LORD’s people!”
- Exod 17:3But the people thirsted for water there, and they grumbled against Moses: “Why have you brought us out of Egypt—to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”
- Exod 16:2–3And there in the desert they all grumbled against Moses and Aaron.
- Jude 1:16These men are discontented grumblers, following after their own lusts; their mouths spew arrogance; they flatter others for their own advantage.
- Num 14:27–29“How long will this wicked congregation grumble against Me? I have heard the complaints that the Israelites are making against Me.
- Phil 2:14–15Do everything without complaining or arguing,
- 1 Cor 10:10And do not complain, as some of them did, and were killed by the destroying angel.
- Num 11:1Soon the people began to complain about their hardship in the hearing of the LORD, and when He heard them, His anger was kindled, and fire from the LORD blazed among them and consumed the outskirts of the camp.
- Deut 1:27You grumbled in your tents and said, “Because the LORD hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to be annihilated.
- Num 11:15If 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.”
- Jonah 4:3And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
- Jonah 4:8As 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.”
- Ps 106:24They despised the pleasant land; they did not believe His promise.
- Job 3:11Why did I not perish at birth; why did I not die as I came from the womb?
- Ps 106:45And He remembered His covenant with them, and relented by the abundance of His loving devotion.
- 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.”
- Job 7:15–16so that I would prefer strangling and death over my life in this body.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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
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.